Nǐ hǎo (你好)
nee HOW
Hello
Greeting anyone, at any time of day
Travel guide
Learn China before you go
The Great Wall, the Forbidden City, pandas and dumplings, in a land that has been writing its own history for more than 3,000 years.
CapitalBeijing
CurrencyRenminbi, counted in Chinese yuan (¥)
Official languageStandard Chinese (Mandarin, called Putonghua), set by a law of 2000 as the national common language and written in simplified characters; the constitution itself names no official language
Drives on theRight
Calling code+86
Time zoneOne for the whole country: Beijing Time, UTC+8
10 phrases to learn
In Mandarin Chinese (Standard Chinese). Capital letters show the stressed part. Tap the heart to practise a phrase later.
Nín hǎo (您好)
neen HOW
Hello (polite)
Greeting an older person, a customer or someone you do not know
Xièxie (谢谢)
SHYEH-shyeh
Thank you
Thanking anyone, from a waiter to a taxi driver
Bú kèqi (不客气)
boo KUH-chee
You're welcome
Answering when someone thanks you
Duìbuqǐ (对不起)
DWAY-boo-chee
I'm sorry
Apologising, for example when you bump into someone
Méi guānxi (没关系)
may GWAHN-shee
It doesn't matter, no problem
Answering an apology, or telling someone not to worry
Qǐng wèn (请问)
ching WUN
Excuse me, may I ask
Before asking a stranger a question or for directions
Zàijiàn (再见)
dzai-JYEN
Goodbye
Leaving a shop, a restaurant or a friend
Duōshao qián? (多少钱?)
DWAW-shaow CHYEN
How much is it?
Asking the price at a market or shop
Tài guì le (太贵了)
tie GWAY luh
That's too expensive
Bargaining, with a smile, at a market stall
At the table
- Never stand your chopsticks upright in a bowl of rice: it looks like the incense sticks placed for the dead at funerals. Lay them across your bowl or on the chopstick rest.
- Dishes are shared from the middle of the table, often on a turning glass tray. Take a little at a time, and use the serving spoon or the longer serving chopsticks if there are any.
- At a formal dinner, drinks are usually taken together during toasts, often started by the host. 'Gānbēi' means 'dry glass', and the host usually serves himself or herself last.
- When someone refills your tea, you can thank them without interrupting the conversation by tapping the table twice with two bent fingers.
- Friends and family often argue over who pays the bill, because paying shows generosity. As a guest, offer to pay, and accept graciously if your host insists.
- Wait until the older people or the host start eating before you begin, and turn the glass tray slowly, never while someone is taking food from it.
Local tips
Check the visa rules for your passport
As of 2026, citizens of about 50 countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and most of Europe, can visit mainland China for up to 30 days without a visa under a policy that runs until the end of 2026. Many others, including US citizens, can stay up to 10 days without a visa if they are travelling on to a third country. Rules change often, so check with the Chinese embassy before you book.
Set up mobile payments before you go
Almost everyone in China pays with a phone app, Alipay or WeChat Pay, and both now accept foreign bank cards. Set one up at home and test it, but carry some cash in yuan as well, because foreign cards are not accepted everywhere.
Expect some websites not to work
Many foreign services, including Google, Facebook, YouTube and X, cannot be reached from mainland China. Download offline maps and a translation app before you travel, and tell family at home how they can reach you.
Always carry your passport
You need your passport to check into hotels, to board trains and even to enter some museums and stations. Book train tickets on the official China Railway 12306 site or app, which has an English version, and use the same passport you booked with.
Avoid the big holiday weeks
Travel is very crowded around the Chinese New Year, in January or February, and during Golden Week, the first week of October, when trains, planes and famous sights fill up weeks in advance. Plan around these dates if you can.
Drink boiled or bottled water
Do not drink water straight from the tap. Hotels provide a kettle or bottled water, and many stations and trains have hot water dispensers. Choose freshly cooked, hot food at stalls.
Know the emergency numbers
The official emergency numbers are 110 for police, 120 for an ambulance and 119 for the fire service. Carry your hotel's name and address written in Chinese to show taxi drivers or anyone helping you.
Dishes to try
- Peking duck (北京烤鸭 (Běijīng kǎoyā)): A whole duck roasted until the skin is thin and crisp, carved at the table. You wrap slices of skin and meat in thin pancakes with sweet bean sauce, spring onion and cucumber. It was a dish of the imperial court and is now served at state banquets.
- Jiaozi (boiled dumplings) (饺子 (jiǎozi)): Half-moon dumplings of thin wheat dough, filled with minced pork and cabbage or other fillings, then boiled, steamed or pan-fried. In the north, families make them together on New Year's Eve, because their shape looks like the old gold and silver ingots used as money.
- Xiaolongbao (soup dumplings) (小笼包 (xiǎolóngbāo)): Small steamed dumplings with a thin, pleated top, filled with pork and a hot, savoury soup. The Shanghai style comes from Nanxiang, once a village near Shanghai. The soup starts as a solid jelly of meat stock, which melts when the dumplings are steamed.
- Dim sum (点心 (diǎnxīn)): Small portions served in bamboo steamers or on little plates with tea, for breakfast or lunch: shrimp dumplings (har gow), open pork dumplings (siu mai), barbecued pork buns and rice noodle rolls. Going out for dim sum with tea is called yum cha, 'drinking tea', in Cantonese.
- Mapo tofu (麻婆豆腐 (mápó dòufu)): Soft tofu in a red, spicy sauce with minced beef or pork, fermented broad bean and chilli paste and Sichuan pepper, which makes the lips tingle. It comes from a small restaurant in Chengdu in the 1800s; the name means 'pockmarked old woman's tofu', after the cook, Mrs Chen.
- Kung Pao chicken (宫保鸡丁 (gōngbǎo jīdīng)): Stir-fried cubes of chicken with peanuts, dried red chillies and Sichuan pepper in a sauce that is spicy, a little sweet and a little sour. It is said to be named after Ding Baozhen, a governor of Sichuan in the 1800s, whose title was Gongbao, 'palace guardian'.
- Hot pot (火锅 (huǒguō)): A pot of simmering broth in the middle of the table, into which everyone dips thin slices of raw meat, fish balls, tofu, mushrooms and vegetables to cook them. The Chongqing style has a fiery broth full of chillies and Sichuan pepper; Beijing's version uses a clear broth for thin slices of lamb.
- Char siu (barbecued pork) (叉烧 (chāshāo)): Strips of pork marinated in honey, soy sauce and five-spice and roasted until sticky and red at the edges. It hangs in the windows of Cantonese roast meat shops and is served sliced over rice or baked into buns.
Cities to see
- Beijing (capital): The Forbidden City, The Temple of Heaven, Peking duck.
- Shanghai: The Bund, The Pudong skyline, Xiaolongbao soup dumplings.
- Xi'an: The Terracotta Army, The Ming city wall, The Muslim Quarter food street.
- Chengdu: Giant pandas, Mapo tofu and Sichuan pepper, Teahouses in People's Park.
- Chongqing: Spicy hot pot, Yangtze river cruises, A monorail that runs through a building.
- Guangzhou: Dim sum and yum cha, The Canton Fair, The Canton Tower.