The first of recommendations to visit China what we want to give you is about the visa processing to China. The first thing we recommend is that you enter the official processing website and take a look //www.visaforchina.org/MAD_ES/
From here you have two options, the first is to process it personally in the Madrid Office (today and as much as we have searched for the information, we do not know if it can be processed in Barcelona personally) or by postal mail, which is the option which we have chosen, despite being somewhat more expensive.
Once you have read the application process, you can go to "Quick access"and from there enter the application form.
You can fill in and save each page (there are 4 in total) and they will provide you with an application number, in case they want to finish filling in later.
We have requested the "single entry" visa, since we will enter China through Beijing and leave through Hong Kong. Remember that if your itinerary includes Hong Kong, but you return to China to continue the trip, you have to request the double entry visa.
Once complete you just have to print it and attach it in an envelope just to:
- Passport with 6 months validity and 2 empty pages
- Photocopy of the passport data page
- Passport photo format
- Visa application
- Air tickets, hotel reservations ... etc
- Sheet with passport return data
All this in an envelope and sent by Seur (or another carrier) to
Chinese Visa Application Service Center in Madrid
C / Agustín de Foxá, 29, 4th floor
28036 Madrid
Phone: 0034-913145918
Fax: 0034-917321959
Email: [email protected]
In case you want to go personally the schedules are:
Monday to Friday (Closed on official holidays and weekends)
Application delivery: 9: 00-15: 00
Payment and visa collection: 9: 00-16: 00
The price of an envelope per Seur is 12 euros and once they receive all the documentation in Madrid and manage it, they send you an email providing you with the total amount (visa + fees + service + return transport) that are more or less about 115 euros per person and you must pay by credit card or bank transfer.
The visa expires after 3 months, so it is recommended apply for a visa to China about a month or a month and a half before the trip, since the procedures by mail usually take about 10-15 days. If it is face-to-face, the term is shortened to about 5 or 6 working days.
Once they receive the documentation they will call you if they have any questions, they called us to confirm the address of our jobs and in a week they sent us an email with the total amount and the account number where to make the visa transfer more the transport to send it back home.
The Total Chinese Visa price has been 242.20 euros:
218.20 euros for 2 visas + management + Seur transport back
24 euros (Seur ida)
* Before managing anything, we recommend that you read the official pages carefully as this type of procedure may vary over time.
** The advice we give is based on our case, in which we needed a tourist visa for only entry to China.
If you want to have internet in China a good option is to buy one Holafly SIM card, with which you will have internet from the moment you land, several Gb of data, keeping your WhatsApp number, support service in Spanish and most importantly, VPN included so you do not have any problems when connecting to any application or search engine.
You can buy your Holafly prepaid SIM card here with a 5% discount for being our reader.
If there is something important in any trip, it is to make it safe. For that nothing better than doing it with good travel insurance.
We always travel insured with Mondo, with whom we carry a totally adequate insurance to the needs that we will have on the trip.
The hiring process is very easy and intuitive and also, just for being a reader of Street Travelers, you have a 5% discount.
Remember that in order not to pay commissions and always have the current change we recommend you use the N26 card to pay and the Bnext and Revolut cards to get money at the ATMs. They are the ones we use, They are free and will save you a lot.
You can find more information in this article about the best cards to travel without commissions.
Another of the steps you must do in a Trip to china, if you want to travel by night train comfortably and ensure a soft bunk, especially in high season, it is to book your tickets in advance (today it can be done up to 30 days in advance).
This management, if you want to do it from here, must be processed by an agency. We have opted for China DIY Travel, a couple of Australians who live in China and have not only managed all the tickets we needed, but they have helped us to polish the initial itinerary we had of the trip to China for free in 25 days saving us a couple of internal flights and a couple of long-distance train journeys, adjusting the routes that we had initially planned.
And not only that. We had a problem with an internal flight and they took care of talking with the airline to manage everything.
And best of all, that now, after the trip, is when we give it the value that it really has, is that along with the electronic tickets, they send you in a word the phrases in English, with the translation in Chinese, so you can show them to the transport with which you go to the station / airport. Type: "Please, we need you to take us to the north station of Xi'an."
This is not only useful for transport, which you will see that even carrying a map, most of the time they do not understand you, but also to know exactly from which station your train leaves, since in most cities there is not only one and on the ticket it is not easy to identify which one it is.
For us it has been the best option for book trains in China.
On this trip we have done a couple of tours with an agency, due to the lack of time we had to be able to do them for free, apart from the comfort that this has meant, avoiding having to "deal" with the Chinese language.
The first one was done with The China Guide and it was the Trekking between Jinshanling and Simatai in the Great Wall of China, a unique experience that we recommend you do if you want to know one of the most authentic parts of the Big Wall and the best, one of the least visited areas.
We did the second tour thanks to Datong Tours with which we could visit the Hanging Monastery and Yungang Caves in Datong on the same day, something quite uncomfortable to do for free, since the locations are one in the opposite direction to the other and in a day it is very complicated to square the schedules of public transports to be able to do it.
Trekking between Jinshanling and Simatai
Keep in mind that the transportation in China It is super punctual, especially in the departure time. Although there is traffic, buses meet the schedules, something that seems a lie when you often spend 1 hour in a traffic jam. The trains exactly the same and from our experience, in the two internal flights we have taken, these have also left and arrived on time.
Follow the list of 50 things to see and do in Beijing and the list of 50 things to see and do in Hong Kong.
The difference in prices between the taxis that you take on the street with a meter and the "private" cars that give you a fixed price, either on the street or those that call from the hotel with a fixed price, is abysmal.
Whenever you can take taxis in the street with a meter, they are usually 40% cheaper than those that give you fixed prices.
Although it may seem easy take a taxi in China, either by prices or by quantity, keep in mind that the amount of people who demand them also increases, so you have to be a little alive when stopping them. Look whenever there is enough space where you are located to stop. If you are in one general road it will be impossible for him to do it, look for a corner, intersection or bend where he can do it. See also if there is a store next door that is also waiting for a taxi. If there is, your chances will be reduced to a minimum, therefore, you better change places.
If you can have written the place you want to go in Chinese, if it is a hotel and you have the phone number better than better (sometimes they call to ask how to access), with this you already have enough points earned. And after this, raise your hand as if your life were in itAnd when someone stops, put on your best smile and show him the paper. If he says no, you don't have to insist. Get out of the car and try again 😉 Taxis are quite cheap so it is often worth moving in this way.
China, contrary to what it may seem to be, is an easy country to travel in what perhaps in other countries would be difficult and yet, in the most common things, such as taking a taxi, eating or asking what time a bus leaves , the complication becomes excessive. You have to go prepared to try enjoyof the process of being understood.
However, we had read that it was very difficult to move and travel by public transport. That topic is not exactly like that. Once you know on the bus / train that you have to ride, it only takes a bit of logic to find the platforms (the numbers appear on the screens ...) and many people help you with the task if you ask, teaching the written ticket in Chinese. This is not difficult at all.
Carry all directions pointed in chinese It makes things a lot easier. Hotels, places to visit, buses ... etc, even if it seems a lie if you do not take it you can have a bad time so that they understand you if you ask someone's address or if you want to take a taxi, bus or train.
Language: Most people use mobile phones as a translator. In shops, restaurants ... so today it is easier to communicate than a few years ago. We carried out the applications "Me no speak", "Easy Dict" and an English-Chinese dictionary, which took us out of more trouble.
One of the recommendations to visit China more importantly, if you want to connect to the internet with total freedom, stop by hiring a VPN. You can find out how we did it and much more information in this article How to connect to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram in China.
The Chinese should be the people who least know the meaning of a tail. Say goodbye a thousandth of a second and you'll have 1000 Chinese in front. Yes, yes, no kidding. But do not confuse yourself from being left behind, confuse yourself in a matter of putting strength in front of the person in front of you so as not to leave a hole through which no one else can sneak in again.
You can find the example in what happened to us in Zhanjiajie Park.
Depending on the time you travel, don't forget the sunscreen. For example, on the Li River cruise, there is no deck on the boat and if you want to see the landscape in the area above the boat, you are in full sun during the 4 hours of the tour.
Li River Cruise
Other things we advise you to take or buy there are clinex, hand wipes and paper from W.C. Even for hotels. At least our experience has been that in the accommodations that we have been, of more or less quality, in all, the rolls of toilet paper they put are very small, and only leave one, so it is very uncomfortable to have to be calling for bring more. This in hotels, in public bathrooms you can already consider them non-existent.
Restaurants in China
If you are coffee growers think that in China it is not usual to drink coffee, so in the few places where you find it the average price is about 30RMB per cup, or what is the same about 4.50 euros. In all the accommodations you will find a kettle, although without coffee or tea sachets, so carrying a packet of instant coffee sachets in the suitcase can save you from monkey of caffeine
We had signed up to do it and in the end we forgot it !! You can't imagine what we remember from the soluble coffee bags; (
Book the best rated tours and excursions in Spanish from Beijing by travelers:
- Excursion to the Great Wall of China
- Beijing's Top 3 in one day
- Beijing contrasts
- Temple of Heaven and Summer Palace
- Acrobatic show at the Chaoyang Theater
- More excursions and tours here
Book the best rated tours and excursions in Spanish from Beijing by travelers: Surely you have read and heard hundreds of times, but we will tell you again. Everything they tell you that "no spicy", confirm it will be"very spicy", so remind him 10 times if necessary to ensure that the dish will remain spicy, but less.
Eating in the Pearl Market area in Beijing
Contrary to what you may think, in China, although the city you are in is the most tourist in the world, this does not mean that it is focused on Western tourism, so you will not find cafes, cakes or western food
And even, in most cases, there will be no letter in English. I eat a lot of letter with photos, even if they are "An example"of what the dish can really be, so you must be prepared not to always eat what you really want.
In these cases, the application that we mentioned before "Me no speak", which works offline and where you can teach with drawings and the translation in English and Chinese basic words and phrases for many types of situations, also suited us very well: I want a bottle of water, is this meat chicken? please don't be spicy ...
