How to make your life easier in China

Some handy tips and experiences from a student in Beijing 

1. Get your student card as early as possible

Even if it means annoying the university, keep pushing them to give you your student card as soon as possible, because at most universities you can use this card in the school shops, canteens and also in the library, so it’ll make your life a lot easier if you had this sooner rather than later. I didn’t receive mine a few years ago until I’d already been in China for a month, the amount of I.O.Us I had was unbelievable! All joking aside you can always just use your friend’s card and give them the physical money, but it’s just handy to have your own, you can grab lunch or dinner really quickly instead of waiting at a local restaurant.

2. Get your subway card early and keep an eye on the credit!

Quite often I found myself trying to get onto the subway and being blocked by the gate due to not enough credit on my card, turning around and seeing at least 30 people in the queue at the ticket office and wanting to cry. So make sure that you top up your card at night, avoid rush hour, or try the smaller stations or exit booths, as less people will be wanting to top up their card there! And if you’re on a bus and don’t have enough, then you’ll have to pay with notes or coins, and if you don’t have any then you can’t get on!

3. Set up a Chinese Bank account at a foreign friendly area.

Even though you’ll be finding yourself waiting in a longer queue to be served, setting up a bank account at a foreign friendly branch is ideal because you won’t have any of that awkward pointing and looking at each other blankly trying to work out what the other person said. You can also ask them to set up everything for you, for example Bank of China allows you to have mobile banking, online banking and also physical banking, you don’t have to pay for the extra so just ask for it all!

4. Get a Chinese SIM card as soon as possible

Ask one of your friends, or go to a store that happily accepts foreigners, like unicom (for example the airport) and get a Chinese simcard, because you’ll find that in lots of areas like shopping malls or restaurants, the software to enable wifi will often ask for your mobile phone, and quite often it only works for Chinese numbers, you can also link this number to your Chinese bank account to set up other accounts like wechat pay, alipay, and even accounts on taobao, it’s so important that you do this to avoid a big hole in your bank!

Find even more tips on our Beginner's Guide !