Well, I am living in Suzhou. I have traveled to 46 cities in China. Always been a solo wandering soul. I can confirm that your assumption is quite true. I mean life in China without learning Chinese would be very challenging. If you are in a big city, like Shanghai or Beijing, you may still be able to manage well. But if you travelling alone in small cities or countryside, it’s just next to impossible. Some issues are discussed in my blog-posts:
- Living in Suzhou, Jiangsu, China
I do speak Chinese now, not fluently though. But I have faced a lot of difficult situations while traveling solo in China, I will list some of the practical issues here:
- How will you buy a mobile SIM card?
- How about VPN?
- How will you manage life without Facebook, Google, etc. in China?
- How you will you book trains? How to pay the ticket fee? How to collect train tickets? How about cancellation and refunds in case you change your travel plans?
- How you will book bus? Flights?
- How you will you book hotels in China? I case you don’t know, not every hotel allows foreigners to stay. The issue is, you may be able to book the hotel online, but when you reach the hotel for actual check-in, the receptionist would tell you, in Mandarin, that foreigners not allowed. This has happened to me so many times. What will you do in such cases? How will you find a new hotel on such moments? I often booked new hotels, on my phone, while standing on the roadside.
- How will you find hospital, get appointment to see doctor, and buy proper medicines? The doctor usually don’t speak very good English.
- Online shopping in China? Do you know how to use Taobao, Jingdong, etc.?
- Since Google maps doesn’t work in China, how you will navigate in China? Can you use Baidu? Do you know driving in China is on the right side of the road?
- How you will make friends with the locals? Or find a Chinese girlfriend? Do you use wechat? Facebook has issues in China (more in my book Online Dating in China).
- Although cash is generally accepted, it would be nice if you can use Alipay or Wechat pay to make payments. But they require you to have a Chinese bank card. Do you have a bank account in China?
- How you will order food in restaurant? What kind of dishes?
You’d better buy a phrase book and brush up Mandarin.
In case you have long-term plans for China, like I had, you better start learning Chinese ASAP.
Btw, Didi (Chinese equivalent of Uber) has English version as well. It’s really a nice App to order taxi. Give a shot!
Cheers!