The China Option: A Guide for Millennials by Sophia Erickson (Travelers’ Tales)
After a two-month stay in Shenzhen where I wallowed in ignorance, I stopped reading travel guides to China. They’re useless for the sort of traveler that I am, the kind that stays in one place for as long as possible and tries to learn as much as they can during their extended visit. If it weren’t for the covid lockdown and a dearth of things to read, I probably never would have picked up Sophia Erickson’s guide on “How to Work, Play, & Find Success in China”. And that would have been a crying shame, as is the fact that her book wasn’t published until 2018, a year after my Shenzhen interlude.
Although the target audience for Erickson’s book is easily fifty years younger than I, intended for recent college graduates who might want to take a job in China, I began to take notes by the time I reached the 55th page. At least two-thirds of the information she provides is valuable for travelers as well as for potential expatriates. If you aren’t planning to stay in high-end hotels that are branded with names like Hyatt or Hilton, if you aren’t planning to hire a guide, a car, and a driver, you really need this book.
Ordinary guidebooks will advise readers to get a VPN for their time in China. Erickson gives a list of the ones she considers most useful, as well as what they will cost, with the added caveat that this list is one that constantly changes. It does however provide a launching pad for an informed search.
Easily as crucial as a VPN is Baidu Maps. Although it’s only available in Chinese, if an address is entered in its search field, arrows appear to show the direction in which the place lies. Since Google Maps is useless in China, this app is essential. So is Pieco, an app that offers a free dictionary and translation service. And WeChat is a lifesaver, “ a sort of hybrid of WhatsApp and Facebook” that’s a social necessity in China.
Erickson tells how and where to buy a Chinese sim card, how to open a Chinese bank account, and why life will be much easier if you have one. She explains why a Western credit card will often be useless, and gives careful instructions on how to set up AliPay and WeChat Wallet, which are needed in the multitude of places that only accept payment via QR codes. She even tells how to buy Bitcoin and why you might want to.
Some features of daily living in China are ones that travelers also need to know: the dangers of drinking fake alcohol (yes, you can go blind--or die), which hospitals are preferable in case of an accident, and the eight cities that “regularly meet” WHO’s air pollution standards. (Sorry, neither Beijing nor Shanghai make the cut.)
Although this isn’t a travel guide, even expats leave town once in a while. Erickson gives detailed information on train travel, from which kind of train to choose to how to buy a ticket, how to travel by bus, and the plusses and minuses of group travel. She tells how to get a three-month Provisional Driver’s License (no test necessary other than one for eyesight), and the essential permits for travel in Tibet--not to worry--the mandatory travel guide will take care of this, as well as finding the required private car and driver. She also gives a list of “reputable travel agencies” who will organize your Tibet trip.
Now all that’s needed is the ability to travel in China again. Here’s where being a millennial has its advantages. They’ll probably live to see that day. For us septuagenarians, all we can do is cross our fingers and try to remain optimistic that we’ll be able to take advantage of Erickson’s advice. Speed that day.~Janet Brown