One of the challenges we can encounter when traveling is the language. And if on top of that the alphabet used in our destination has nothing in common with ours, we could think that planning to travel on our own is crazy. But this is not the case and I am going to give you a series of tips based on our experience in China.

The first advice is to organize before leaving, via web, as much as possible. We bought from home internal flights, long-distance train tickets, entrance to a show and we reserved a driver to take us to the point of the Great Wall we wanted to visit.

Another important point is getting to the stations with enough time in advance. The online confirmation is not valid for travel. It is necessary to exchange it in a window for the ticket and to carry out this procedure the passport is essential.

It is always highly recommended in China to carry the passport with you . It is usually mandatory to show it even for the sale of tickets to access  to tourist sites such as the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven, etc.

And now that we have exchanged our tickets, it is time to go to the platform to get on the train. For those who believe that it will be difficult to know where to go, we will tell you that both the numbers of the trains and the platforms are marked in Arabic numbers, the ones we use in the western world, both on the schedule boards and in the platforms.

The big city stations in China have a size comparable to many airports in average European cities but they are very well signaled and organized. Just with the numbers we will be able to guide ourselves.

If we want to move by subway, the suburban network in large cities is very modern and ready to accommodate travelers who do not understand Chinese. All the stations that I used in different cities had security screens on the platforms to avoid accidents, air conditioning and many of them projected advertising on the walls of the tunnel, visible from the train when it approaches the station slowing down.

Here is an image of the purchase process in the ticket machine at the stations, as you can see it is easier than you thought.

Another tip can be useful with taxi drivers or if we need information on the street: a simple card with the names of the places we want to visit in English and Chinese and with a drawing that can serve as a backup in case of doubt. These cards saved as an image on the mobile can take us out of more than one hurry and make our lives easier.