China Life & Culture
Understand, experience, and live in China — practical know-how and the culture behind it.
🛂 Visas & Immigration (7)
💳 Money & Payments (4)
🏥 Health (11)
- Booking a hospital appointment in China (挂号)
- Buying Over-the-Counter Medicine in China: Pharmacies, Apps & Useful Phrases
- Emergency numbers in China
- Health check-ups (体检): cheap, fast, thorough
- Health insurance in China: what actually covers you
- Hospitals in China for foreigners: finding an English-speaking doctor and how a visit works
- Is tap water safe to drink in China?
- Mental health support
- Seeing a dentist or optician in China: English-speaking clinics, prices and same-day glasses
- TCM, massage & tuina: how to try it
- Vaccinations & prescription medicine
🚇 Transport (6)
- Can foreigners drive in China?
- China high-speed train tickets: booking with a passport
- DiDi in China: using the ride-hailing app as a foreigner
- Getting from the airport in China: metro, taxi or DiDi
- Shared bikes in China: unlocking Meituan and HelloBike
- Using the metro in China: QR codes, fares and passes
📶 Connectivity & Apps (5)
🗣️ Language (3)
🍜 Food & Dining (6)
- Eating vegetarian & Jain in China
- Finding halal food in China
- Food allergies in China: how to say what you cannot eat
- Food delivery in China: ordering on Meituan and Ele.me
- Grocery shopping in China: wet markets, supermarkets and 30-minute delivery
- Ordering at a Chinese restaurant: menus, phrases and paying
🔑 Housing & Renting (5)
🏠 Daily Life (11)
- About NihaoLife
- Bargaining in China: where it works and how to do it
- Bars, beer and nightlife
- China's public holidays: when not to travel (黄金周)
- Giving your address in China: showing a driver where to go
- Online shopping on Taobao and JD
- Pick up a hobby: horse riding, folk music, ethnic dance and more
- Receiving packages (快递)
- Sourcing & wholesale: Yiwu, Guangzhou & the Canton Fair
- Tipping in China
- Your first week in China: the survival guide
📘 General (1)
🏮 Culture & Etiquette (18)
- Business etiquette and meetings
- Chopstick taboos to avoid
- Dining etiquette: how a Chinese meal works
- Dragon Boat Festival (端午节)
- Face (面子): the key to Chinese social life
- Gift-giving etiquette
- Guanxi (关系): relationships that get things done
- How to book China attraction tickets with a passport
- KTV: karaoke as a social ritual
- Lucky and unlucky numbers
- Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节)
- Names and how to address people
- Red packets (红包): money as a gift
- Spring Festival (春节): the biggest holiday
- Tea culture and the finger-tap thank-you
- Toasting and baijiu: surviving the banquet
- Where to experience Hanfu
- Who pays the bill (请客)