German passport holders currently get 30 days visa-free entry, valid until 31 Dec 2026 (extended to 2027?). Rules vary widely by nationality – check your own eligibility with the Visa Checker, then fill in the free arrival card – we explain every field. Every fact here is dated and sourced, tracked monthly.
Every photograph on these pages is ours and dated. More cities are in progress.
Beijing · 39.9° N
China's capital for most of the last seven centuries: a palace of 1420 at the centre, a straight line of gates and halls running through it, lanes of grey courtyard houses around it — and the Great Wall an hour to the north.
In October: 9 to 19 °C · Weather by month →
Photos: 2026, September 2025, September 2019
Shanghai · 31.2° N
China's biggest city, on the Huangpu River: the 1920s banks of the Bund facing the towers of Lujiazui, a Ming-dynasty garden in the old town, the former French Concession — and a metro you can ride with a foreign credit card.
In October: 18 to 24 °C · Weather by month →
Photos: September 2018, September 2025, August 2026
Shaanxi · 34.3° N
Chang'an, the capital of the Qin, Han and Tang emperors and the eastern end of the Silk Road: the Terracotta Army an hour to the east, a Ming city wall you can cycle round, a pagoda from 652 — and a whole district rebuilt in Tang style since 2000.
In October: 12 to 21 °C · Weather by month →
Photos: June 2024, September 2021
Guangdong · 23.1° N
Canton, for centuries the one port where China traded with the West: a clan academy carved from the steps to the roof ridge, a sandbank of colonial villas, breakfast as a ritual — and a 600 m tower over the Pearl River.
In October: 21 to 30 °C · Weather by month →
Photos: April 2023, January 2018
Guangdong · 22.5° N
A fishing-and-farming county across the river from Hong Kong in 1979, a city of about 18 million today: a cruise liner beached in Shekou, a 599 m tower, the world's biggest electronics market — and, between the towers, the villages that were here first.
In October: 23 to 30 °C · Weather by month →
Photos: April 2023, January 2018
Hunan · 29.1° N
Three thousand sandstone pillars in the clouds — the “Avatar mountains” of Wulingyuan — a cable car from the city centre to a hole through a mountain, and the Tujia country of north-west Hunan.
In October: 16 to 24 °C · Weather by month →
Photos: April 2019
Chongqing · 29.6° N
A city of 32 million on the hills where the Jialing flows into the Yangtze, China's capital in the war against Japan, with an administrative area the size of Austria: eleven-storey Hongyadong lit gold on its cliff, a monorail through a block of flats, hot pot — and almost no flat ground.
In October: 17 to 23 °C · Weather by month →
Photos: April 2024, May 2019
Sichuan · 30.7° N
The capital of Sichuan, a city of 21 million on a plain watered for 2,000 years by the same irrigation system: giant pandas, the Three Kingdoms shrine of Zhuge Liang, tea houses with bamboo chairs, Sichuan pepper — and an unhurried pace the rest of China teases it for.
In October: 15 to 22 °C · Weather by month →
Photos: April 2019
Guangdong · 22.3° N
The city on the border with Macau, at the mouth of the Pearl River: a fishing coast that became one of China's first Special Economic Zones in 1980, with palm-lined seafront, a granite fisher girl, a full-size copy of an imperial palace — and the busiest land border crossing in the world.
In October: 24 to 30 °C · Weather by month →
Photos: March 2023
Fujian · 26.7° N
The home town of CATL, the world’s biggest maker of electric-car batteries — and of white tea, a granite mountain by the sea and the bamboo-pole mudflats of Xiapu, on the coast of north-east Fujian.
Photos: April 2023
Jiangsu · 32.0° N
The “Southern Capital” on the lower Yangtze, a city of 9.3 million that was China's capital under the early Ming and again under the Republic: the Ming city wall, Sun Yat-sen's mausoleum on Purple Mountain, the lantern-lit Qinhuai river at Fuzimiao — and avenues of plane trees.
In October: 15 to 23 °C · Weather by month →
Photos: March 2023, September 2026
Hubei · 30.6° N
Three old towns where the Han River meets the Yangtze — Wuchang, Hankou and Hanyang — joined since 1927 into one city of some 13.7 million in the middle of China: the first bridge over the Yangtze, the Yellow Crane Tower, the treaty-port streets of Hankou, the uprising that ended the empire in 1911 — and hot dry noodles for breakfast.
In October: 14 to 24 °C · Weather by month →
Photos: March 2021, March 2023, September 2026
Yunnan · 25.0° N
The “City of Eternal Spring”: Yunnan's capital, 1,890 m up on the shore of Lake Dianchi, with mild days all year — 17 °C in January, 25 °C in July. Gateway to Dali, Lijiang, Xishuangbanna and, by train, Laos; and an hour from the Stone Forest, a World Heritage maze of limestone pinnacles.
In October: 13 to 22 °C · Weather by month →
Photos: April 2019
Zhejiang · 30.3° N
Zhejiang's capital, 170 km south-west of Shanghai, built along West Lake: a World Heritage lake of causeways, pagodas and temples in the hills, walkable in a day. Capital of the Southern Song in the 12th and 13th centuries, the end of the Grand Canal, home of Longjing tea, and today the city of Alibaba and the 2023 Asian Games.
In October: 16 to 24 °C · Weather by month →
Photos: January 2018, April and November 2023
Heilongjiang · 45.8° N
China's coldest big city, built by a Russian railway — Orthodox domes, cobblestones, and a river that freezes hard enough to walk on.
In October: 1 to 12 °C · Weather by month →
Photos: May 2026 (city), December 2025 (Ice and Snow World)
Shandong · 36.1° N
A port on the Yellow Sea with a red-roofed old town the Germans built between 1898 and 1914, a brewery from 1903, hills you can climb for the view, and a coastline you can walk all day.
In October: 14 to 20 °C · Weather by month →
Photos: November 2025 – July 2026
Liaoning · 41.8° N
The Qing dynasty's capital before Beijing: a palace, two imperial tombs, a warlord's mansion, a Korean quarter — and the railway hub of China's Northeast.
In October: 4 to 17 °C · Weather by month →
Photos: mostly May 2026
Phase 2 on now, until 27 October
Which product is in which phase and hall, the buyer badge, and the metro exit for each hall.
Starts in 23 days
The four-day timetable, every stand and ticket price, and a map of the Guia Circuit street circuit.
Starts in 31 days
Which hall opens on which day, cars and trucks, the hall plan, and China’s four big motor shows on a map.
Starts in 41 days
Next ticket sale on 2 November, only in the Damai app: the three zones, every price, which ticket fits.
Starts in 43 days
The season’s top eight in all five events: session times in your time zone, ticket prices, the metro to the arena.
A few minutes, no sign-up, no time limit. Every answer is explained – a playful way to get ready for the trip.
5 or 10 of 35 questions · about 3 minutes
What you see
Question 1, on the photo: What is this dish called?
Tap one, then read why.
33 provinces · map, multiple choice or learning mode
What you see
Where is Sichuan?
Three ways to play, your choice.
In China you often order and pay on your own phone, with no menu in English. Our guides walk you through it step by step, on our own photographs.
Cafés · snack kiosks · bakeries
Find the code, scan it with Alipay or WeChat, order and pay on your phone, and collect when your number is called – walked through at a real cookie and coffee kiosk.
Practise it →
Canteens · fast food · food courts
The food stands in front of you: take a tray, pick plates or point at the pans, pay at the till and find a seat – walked through at a real canteen in Nanjing, where lunch for two cost ¥40.
Practise it →
Restaurants · waiters · menus
Say how many you are, point at the real dishes by the door, tick a Chinese menu, ask for rice, pay without a tip – played through at a real restaurant in Qingdao, where lunch cost ¥89.
Practise it →
High-speed trains · 12306
Scan the code on your seat with WeChat, choose the station that cooks for you, pick KFC or beef noodles, enter your seat number and pay – played through on our screenshots of the 12306 mini program.
Practise it →
What a dish is, what is in it, how spicy it is and how to order it – in-depth guides to the dishes everyone knows, and single dishes on cards you can use at the table. With allergens and the Chinese to show the staff.
饺子jiǎo zi
Half-moon wheat dumplings, boiled and dipped in vinegar: everyday food all over China and the New Year dish of the north. What’s inside, how to order them by the liang, and how families wrap them.
Read and try it →
火锅huǒ guō
A pot of simmering broth in the middle of the table and raw ingredients you cook yourself. Which broth to order if you don’t eat spicy food, how long everything takes, and how to mix your sauce.
Read and try it →
炒饭chǎo fàn
Pale gold, salted, no soy sauce: what Chinese menus mean by 炒饭. Yangzhou fried rice vs egg fried rice, how to order it, and why it comes at the end of the meal.
Read and try it →
炒面chǎo miàn
Not the takeout version: in China 炒面 is a way of cooking, and the noodles change with the shop – thick in Shanghai, hand-pulled at a lamian shop. Chow mein vs lo mein, and how to read a noodle menu.
Read and try it →
馄饨hún tun
Pork or shrimp in a thin wrapper, in broth – and a different name in every region: big and small 馄饨 in Shanghai, shrimp 云吞 in Guangdong, chilli-oil 抄手 in Sichuan. How the bowl in China differs from takeout wonton soup.
Read and try it →
Each page is a set of cards you use at the table: tick what you need, tap the Chinese to show it full-screen to the staff.
Partly edited with AI咕咾肉gū lǎo ròu
¥40–60 · Contains wheat / gluten, egg
Partly edited with AI蜜汁叉烧mì zhī chā shāo
¥40–70 · Contains wheat / gluten, soy
Partly edited with AI番茄蛋汤fān qié dàn tāng
¥10–20 · Contains egg, sesame
Partly edited with AI小笼包xiǎo lóng bāo
¥20–40 · Contains wheat / gluten, soy
Partly edited with AI麻婆豆腐má pó dòu fu
¥15–30 · Contains wheat / gluten, soy
Partly edited with AI番茄炒蛋fān qié chǎo dàn
¥18–30 · Contains egg
Partly edited with AI青椒炒茄子qīng jiāo chǎo qié zi
¥15–25 · Contains wheat / gluten, soy
Partly edited with AI皮蛋瘦肉粥pí dàn shòu ròu zhōu
¥10–20 · Contains egg
Check whether visa-free or transit-free entry to China is possible for over 68 countries.
Open →
Build a route on the map and calculate costs by city, season, and travel style.
Open →
A base list plus extra points based on your travel profile and a clickable city map for location-specific tips.
Open →
Every scheduled nonstop flight, with flight number, aircraft type, flight time and weekly frequency – checked monthly.
Chinese airlines' European networks: Air China·China Eastern·China Southern·Hainan Airlines
Visa-free entry still applies for
65 days
Valid until 2026-12-31 · last verified 2026-09-17
| Topic | Status | Last verified |
|---|---|---|
Visa-free entry30 days visa-free for German citizens, extended until 31 Dec 2026 – for business, tourism, visiting relatives, exchanges and transit. | Currently stable | 2026-09-17 · Source |
Digital arrival cardSince 20 Nov 2025, fillable in advance online or via QR-code scan; a paper form on arrival is still possible too. | Currently stable | 2026-10-02 · Source |
Direct flightsNonstop connections from Germany, Austria and Switzerland remain available – Frankfurt–Shanghai is the most frequent, while Zurich–Beijing was dropped and Frankfurt–Shenzhen was cut sharply in 2026. | Currently stable | 2026-09-17 · Source |
More topics (Alipay, WeChat Pay, VPN situation, direct flights) are in preparation and will follow once verified data is available.
Four common stumbling blocks we don't have verified answers to yet.
Payment
Domestic debit cards generally don't work at all, and even with Visa/Mastercard the passport NFC verification sometimes fails.
Mobile
Some apps, ticket purchases, and reservations require a Chinese phone number – we show practical alternatives.
Connectivity
Whether a VPN currently works reliably differs from city to city and changes over time – there's no blanket answer.
Transport
Trip.com doesn't always show all the quota – when it pays off to check the official 12306 system directly.
Our four promises
Every statement carries a verification date.
If a page shows no date at the top, we haven't checked it — and we say so.
We don't sell trips — and we say openly how we make money.
No package tours, no guided trips, no partnerships with tour operators.How we're funded →
What we're not sure about is marked as uncertain.
Where sources contradict each other, we write that down instead of smoothing it over.
Every photograph is our own, and dated.
Taken on our own trips, with the month on the page. Photos retouched with AI are labelled on the image.
