China survival guide for business travellers

Sarah O'Meara offers tips for negotiating the world's second-largest economy More and more business travellers are finding themselves headed for China. Language barriers aside, the country, which slowly ended decades of isolation to become an open-market economy in the late 1970s, has very different ways of doing things compared with the West – and even the rest of Asia. Big cities such as Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen and Guangzhou are more cosmopolitan but, even there, English seldom works beyond hotels, and something as simple as booking a train ticket can be strenuous. In recent years, the focus of China’s economic attention has moved away from the big coastal metropolises towards fast-growing inland cities such as Wuhan, Chengdu and Hefei. These rapidly expanding second- and third-tier hotspots are China’s secret weapon and, by 2020, experts predict they will be home to almost half of the country’s middle class. Even if you have been to China many times and grown comfortable with the bigger cities, chances are you may soon find yourself in, say, Maanshan, Yantai or Zhengzhou, exploring new opportunities. Getting to these cities might not be a problem, as China plans to have 230 airports by 2015, meaning that about 80 per cent of the population will be within 100km of one. Existing airports keep expanding, with a dozen new regular international flights having been introduced to secondary cities by the world’s biggest airlines in the past two years. The high-speed rail network – the most extensive on the planet with more than 10,000km of track in service – also continues to expand. The challenge is to get around once you’re in town. Local governments have installed metros in 25 cities, which is obviously good news for visitors – but none of that means much if you can’t find your way out of the airport. Here’s a helpful guide to figuring out  the basics when you’re out and about. UP IN THE AIR China’s airports are among the busiest in Asia. But quantity hasn’t yet led to mass quality. Expect your flights to be delayed (either in the airport or on the tarmac) or cancelled, on a fairly regular basis. You can ensure minimal complications by using a travel agent. They will let you know about any cancellations and rearrange your travel for no extra charge. While it’s easy to book flights online in China, it’s difficult to rearrange them if things go wrong. However, Flight Centre has an office in Shanghai and it’s extremely reliable. If you are caught out by delays or cancellations at the airport, expect the counter staff to get you on the next plane without bureaucratic fuss. You’ll often be issued with a piece of paper with a flight number and sent to the gate, no questions asked. All airports in China are also easy to navigate and have signs in English. Avoid the taxi touts at airports. Official ranks are easy to find and are usually the only places where drivers know where you want to go. Unofficial taxis are illegal, can cost up to four times more than their legal counterparts and are no more efficient. It’s also worth noting that internal journeys in China require a passport, including those taken on inter-city trains. All of the major mainland Chinese air carriers belong to airline alliances, with four of them members of Skyteam (China Southern, China Eastern, China Airlines and Xiamen Airlines). Flag carrier Air China, and the up-and-coming Shenzhen Airlines, are part of Star Alliance. If you belong to an affiliated airline’s loyalty scheme, you are afforded more privileges at major airports in China and are likely to be given more support in making alternative arrangements if something goes wrong. Skyteam also offers a “Go Greater China” package (skyteam.biz/en/travel-offers/go-china) that helps travellers to draw up their own itineraries with a choice of 110 destinations in mainland China, Taiwan, Macau and Hong Kong. While travellers in China still tend to book through agents, most Chinese airlines do offer online booking options. In fact, the country’s only low-cost carrier, Spring Airlines, sells all of its tickets through its official multilingual website (china-sss.com/en), although you do have to sign up as a member first. Worst-case scenario, you can quickly book a cheap ticket (a one-way flight from Shanghai to Singapore with Spring Airlines, for example, can cost less than US$100) and get out of town. ON THE GROUND Most hotels in China have internet access, but not all have wifi, so it’s a good idea to make sure you have a computer that can connect via an ethernet cable. When you’re out and about, it’s much easier to access the web. Phone and data contracts are incredibly good value in China, so if your company doesn’t provide you with a wifi dongle, head to a China Unicom store and buy a local SIM card. Most of its outlets in the larger cities have English-speaking staff. On the health front, be aware that air quality is getting worse in China. If you have any respiratory problems, or are keen to know more about the air that you breathe, check out the China Air Pollution Index app (available for Apple iOS and Android) before you arrive. This app gives real-time measurements of the air quality in cities across China based on data released by the US Embassy in Beijing, the US Consulate in Shanghai and the People’s Republic of China Ministry of Environmental Protection. Another great app to get you on your feet is China Menu (iOS only). For travellers in more remote parts of the country, not being able to communicate your culinary desires at the end of a long day can be frustrating. This app has 250 popular dishes accompanied by pictures and characters that you can use to decipher a menu or show to the staff. Make sure you’ve got the Explore Metro guides (iOS and Android) downloaded if you’re heading to Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Hong Kong or Shenzhen. These offer underground maps with location services, so you can find the closest stops and get directions (although you’ll need wifi or a 3G connection). In general, China is a safe place to visit; the major cities are certainly safer than many Western ones. But every city in the world has people looking to take advantage of foreigners. Overall, you’re more like to fall victim to a scam than be mugged on the street. Whether it’s someone leading you to an exorbitantly priced tea ceremony, pretending you’ve run them over to extort 1,000 yuan (£95), or playing a confidence trick that involves you giving them your cash, it’s worth reminding yourself that you’re an easy target. And finally – Western-style toilets (rather than squat toilets) are still relatively rare, particularly outside big cities. It is also common for public conveniences to be out of paper, so make sure you take tissues wherever you go. Luckily, international-branded hotels have mushroomed all over China, even in second- and third-tier cities, so if you are particular, find one of these safe havens when nature calls. ON THE MOVE Getting around China is pretty easy and certainly no more difficult to navigate than anywhere else when you don’t speak the language. The most important signs (streets, train stations, toilets, shops) are written in English, and more often than not, the people you are visiting will send someone to escort you wherever you need to go. With persistence and confidence, it’s definitely possible to make yourself understood in Mandarin on your first trip. If someone doesn’t understand your phrase-book demands, try repeating yourself a few times, focusing on pronouncing the tones correctly. Before you travel anywhere you haven’t been before, remember to “star and save” every place you’re likely to need in Google Maps, from stations and airports to hotels and institutions. Both Android and iOS phones offer a facility that enables you to download (or cache) offline maps of where you’re going that include these stars. This is particularly useful for showing taxi drivers where you need to go. From then on, you’ll be able to find yourself on the map and share that information with others when lost. If you’re looking for help in a major Chinese city, a good bet is to approach a person in their early twenties, as there’s a strong chance they will have been through the university system and can speak some English. Most taxi drivers don’t speak any English, so it’s best to arm yourself with business cards of the places you are heading to. A major hotel is never a big issue, but if you are going to somewhere more obscure, have a map either on your phone or printed out. Alternatively, you can communicate by using street names and hand signals. Write down the nearest major crossroads to where you’re going. (House numbers are rarely useful.) Then say the name of each road, adding lu (pronounced “loo”), meaning road, while crossing your forearms. This indicates you want to go to the crossroad of those streets. The driver will usually repeat this, which you will confirm with “Hao de! Hao de!” (pronounced “how da”, meaning “Yes. Yes.”) This should work every time. Still, it’s good to have a map as backup. Follow the course of the journey on your smartphone to be sure you’re heading in the right direction. When you get to your destination, you can then tell the driver by saying “Dao le! Dao le!”, which means “arrived”. If you prefer public transport, getting around Shanghai and Beijing, and other large cities such as Wuhan and Guangzhou, is almost as easy as by taxi. Most journeys in Shanghai cost about 4 yuan (less than 50p). For a deposit of 30 yuan (£2.80), you can get a metro card (jiao tong ka) that can be recharged for use on all transport, including taxis. Trains are fast becoming the best way of getting between major cities. They are much more reliable than planes as they are rarely late. A good example is the high-speed service between Shanghai and Beijing, which takes five hours (the flight time is two hours but you have to factor in getting to the airport, going through security, and so on). Unfortunately, trains are more difficult to organise from outside the country. The best resource for timetables is the China Train Guide (chinatrainguide.com), or you can ask your hotel concierge. There are two ways to book – at train-travel kiosks before you travel or from the station. Give yourself an hour for the latter. While it should only take 20 to 30 minutes, queues can be long. At the station, find a window with a rolling display above it with the phrase “Pass to travel” or “Passport pick-up ticket” scrolling past in English and Chinese. Show the person at the window your passport, and your booking reference (a nine-digit number preceded by an “E”) if you have reserved in advance. There are several seat classes to choose from. Be aware that “business class” usually indicates the top-level ticket. Then comes first and second class. Prices for bullet trains are highly competitive with air travel. For example, a second class seat from Shanghai to Beijing costs 553 yuan (£53). It’s 933 yuan (£89) for a first class seat and 1,748 yuan (£167) for business. On board, you can expect to have access to a power socket in business and first class. Small snacks are provided in higher classes, and usually there is also a dining car. Seats are relatively spacious throughout, but train etiquette is mixed. Earplugs are probably a good idea. GETTING CONNECTED While it’s true that the internet in China is not as open as it is elsewhere, neither is it completely cut off, and you shouldn’t have too much difficulty accessing your email and other services. Some sites, including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, are blocked. But it is possible to access these using a Virtual Private Network (VPN). There are many such services available, and many Chinese people themselves use these. A popular multi-platform VPN service is PandaPow, which costs US$9 per month and can be accessed across all mobile devices. Some of the bigger international hotels have their own VPNs, in which case you don’t have to do anything as the internet will already be fed through the Great Firewall of China (usually via Hong Kong). Other services, such as Gmail and other Google websites, are slow, rather than cut off completely. If you’re having trouble with these, either use a VPN or choose the “non-secure” option within these services (so that they’re accessed via an http rather than https protocol) to improve your connectivity. Free wifi is becoming the norm in many public spaces, everywhere from coffee shops to airports, and staff can help you to type the access codes into your phone if you can’t follow the Mandarin instructions. LANGUAGE BARRIERS Modern business travellers regularly wonder how they would have coped in China before the invention of smartphones. The answer is that they would have learnt more Mandarin. But in any event, technology is your friend. Before you start browsing app stores, spend half an hour learning how to pronounce Pinyin – the standard system of Romanised spelling for transliterating Chinese. Your ability to pronounce city names such as Xi’an and Chongqing properly will not only make your life easier but also show respect to local business partners. In addition, there are many apps that can translate Chinese characters on the fly, from either the phone’s camera or photos taken with the phone. Apps that include an optical-character recognition feature include Pleco, Google Translate, China Goggles, CamDictionary, Word Lens, Lost in China and Baidu Translate. These vary in quality and versatility, and it’s worth browsing to see which best fits your needs. One of the most well-known all-singing, all-dancing versions is Pleco (iOS and Android). In addition to the optical-character reader, the app has a full English-Mandarin dictionary with audio pronunciation, and can be used offline. Alternatively, the free Google Translate app (iOS and Android) has many of the features of Pleco and translates sentences and paragraphs more accurately, but requires an internet connection. There are lots of phrase book apps around too: a good one is LearnChinese by Codegent (iOS and Android).