r/chinaexplorer

Hi everyone!

I’m a Chinese university student, and some of my friends are studying tourism and international communication. We love traveling and learning about different cultures.

Recently, we noticed that many foreigners are interested in visiting China, but planning a trip can be confusing:

Which cities should you visit?

How should you plan your route?

How do you use transportation in China?

What places are actually worth visiting?

How can you experience the local side of China instead of only tourist attractions?

So we want to help!

If you are planning to visit China (or just interested in China travel), feel free to comment:

Where are you from?

When are you planning to visit China?

What kind of experience do you like? (food, history, nature, culture, photography, nightlife, etc.)

We can share some local suggestions and help you create a better itinerary.

No advertising, just hoping to help more people understand the real China and have a better travel experience. 😊

I met a really interesting man in People’s Park in Chengdu the other day. His name is Tray Lee.
At first, he just looked like an ordinary Chinese man sitting in the park. Then I started talking to him and found out that he has been doing this since he was about 20 — 37 years of meeting, talking to and helping foreign travelers in Chengdu and Sichuan.
The funny thing is, he has never been abroad himself.
He told me he has always wanted to travel overseas. He recently got his passport and hopes to travel after he retires.
His English, however, is excellent. His spoken English is extremely fluent and natural, which I assume comes from spending decades talking to foreign travelers face-to-face.
His way of finding clients is also incredibly old-school.
When he doesn’t have a client, he goes to People’s Park and talks to foreign visitors. He carries several notebooks with greetings and information in different languages. If he meets someone from a less common country, he will look through his notebooks and try to greet them in their own language.
I spent almost a whole day sitting next to him and watching him interact with people.
He seemed surprisingly good at figuring out where people were from and immediately finding something interesting to talk about.
For an Australian, he might ask:
“Have you eaten kangaroo?”
With someone from Spain, he might bring up something related to Spain that makes them curious enough to ask, “What?”
He doesn’t just walk up and say, “I’m a tour guide. Do you need a tour?” He seems to know how to get people interested in talking first.
And once you talk to him about Chengdu, you realize how much he knows.
He can explain People’s Park almost down to individual trees and plants. He knows the stories behind different parts of the park and can talk for hours about Sichuan opera, Chengdu teahouse culture, Sanxingdui, local life and Sichuan history.
He doesn’t really like calling himself a conventional tour guide. He prefers something closer to a traveling interpreter or cultural interpreter — someone who helps foreign travelers understand Chengdu rather than simply taking them from one attraction to another.
He also has a strong opinion about modern tourism. He doesn’t like the way tourism has become so focused on rushing from one famous attraction to another. He misses what he calls more of a “people-to-people” way of traveling — meeting real people, talking to them and learning about their lives and culture.
At one point, he told me something that stuck with me:
“People should pay people, not capital.”
I’m still thinking about what exactly he meant by that, but I think he was talking about the difference between spending money directly on real people and local experiences versus giving most of the value to large companies and capital.
Then I found something that made the whole story even more interesting.
After meeting him, I searched “Tray Lee Chengdu” online.
I found a Tripadvisor post from a foreign traveler who had met him in People’s Park about 18 years ago. The story was surprisingly similar to mine: they had met him by chance and ended up exploring Chengdu and Sichuan with him.
And then Tray showed me an old travel book called *Frommer’s China: The 50 Most Memorable Trips*, published in 1998. His name is in the book.
1998 — even before Google came along as the way we know it today.
That was probably the strangest part for me.
I had just met this man sitting in People’s Park, doing exactly what he had apparently been doing for decades — and then I found his name in a travel book from almost 30 years ago.
It felt like stumbling into a small piece of living history.
There is something about his way of doing things that I find increasingly rare today — a kind of old-fashioned craftsmanship.
No fancy equipment, no sophisticated online business. Just notebooks, excellent English, decades of knowledge, and the habit of talking to whoever happens to walk by.
For decades, he has kept coming back to the same park and doing essentially the same thing: meeting strangers from all over the world, talking to them, learning about them, and showing them his Chengdu.
One small detail also made me laugh. He was wearing a hat that said “此生必驾318” — roughly, “You have to drive Route 318 at least once in your life.” Route 318 is one of the most famous scenic roads in China, and I often see it compared to America’s Route 66.
The funny part? Tray doesn’t even drive.
One other thing I found quite amusing is that, despite spending almost his entire adult life talking to foreigners, he doesn’t really use the internet or access foreign websites himself. He’s not particularly comfortable with technology, so in a way, he has spent decades connecting with the outside world almost entirely through face-to-face conversations.
Honestly, I found that incredibly impressive. There is something almost timeless about someone spending so many years doing one thing, in essentially the same place, and becoming exceptionally good at it.
A 57-year-old man who has never been abroad, doesn’t really use the foreign internet, but has spent 37 years talking to people from all over the world.
I just wanted to share this little experience because I found the whole thing genuinely fascinating.
Has anyone else met a local like this while traveling in China?

How do people get hotels/apartment in China to receive shopping delivered to their hotels before arriving in China? I’m travelling to guangzhou and would like to shop on taobao, how do I do this ? Any tips

I’m looking at staying in an apartment or hotel.

I want to travel to China in the last two weeks of December until January. I want to visit Peking, Chongquing, Shanghai, Shenzen and some natural parks along the way (e.g. Avatar mountains). I read that Peking will be quite cold. Does anyone have experience for the places and can tell me if this trip will be worth it at this time of year of if I should reschedule for another season? Thank you!

I just saw this for you of China and it looks so unreal. Is it actually how it looks? I’m excited if so, cause I am planning to go there.

Hi, everbody! Me and my fiancee are planning our honeymoon in November and we decided to visit china! So we made 20day itinerary and I would like to hear your opinion, is it possible to visit all these places in 20 days or not:
Shanghai-> Hangzhou-> Wangxian Valley Town-> Beijing-> Zhangjiajie-> Furong Town-> Chongqing-> Chengdu-> Shenzhen-> Guangzhou

Hope tourists or locals from china, that has proper experience, will reach out to my post! Thank you so much!

Hi I’m in Beijing right now with my family and we were meant to go to Mutianyu Great Wall today but the entire great wall is closed due to rain indefinitely. Tomorrow is our last chance to see it and we have a train to Xi’an tomorrow evening as well. Has anyone had similar issues? What’s our best chance of seeing it tomorrow? Is Badaling more likely to be open tomorrow?

Will I be ok? Survived cancer and want to visit the beautiful landscapes of China on my 50th birthday in September, I’ve got 7-8 days, I know it’s kind of late now to be starting off planning, it’s been at the back of my mind and because I’m going it alone.. I’ve been putting it off. I’m of Chinese descent but do not speak or write. Should I opt for private tours, any tips on that (getting tours on ground vs a full tour package from my country). Anything that could help my scattered brain make a plan..
thank you!!

My partner and I have recently booked flights to Beijing for April 18 2027. We are planning to travel China for 3 weeks. We have become aware that the Labour Day public holiday is an extremely busy time in China. We want to try and avoid these big crowds as much as possible while still making the most of our time. Our ideal route would be Beijing > Xi’an > Chengdu > Chongqing > Zhangjiaje > Shanghai however we want to make sure we are in a quiet base for the May Day period. Would you have any recommendations about our route or where to go for the Labour Day public holiday period?

Any tips, recommendations or anything else about a 3 week trip to China for first timers would be so appreciated 🙃

Will I be ok? Survived cancer and want to visit the beautiful landscapes of China on my 50th birthday in September, I’ve got 7-8 days, I know it’s kind of late now to be starting off planning, it’s been at the back of my mind and because I’m going it alone.. I’ve been putting it off. I’m of Chinese descent but do not speak or write. Should I opt for private tours, any tips on that (getting tours on ground vs a full tour package from my country). Anything that could help my scattered brain make a plan..
thank you!!

Hi, me and my friend are going to Xi'an, and I have some trouble deciding what the best and most unforgettable rout will be. We have 2 nights and 2 full days (we arrive around 5 pm to the airport and the train after our second night is around 3 pm, so adds up to two days for sighseeing).

Day 1: we plan on leaving our baggages in hotel and going to the Tang everbright city

Day 2: here it is hard to decide, and I need advice of someone who can tell me what attraction would you reccomend more. Of course we plan on seeing Terracota Warriors and Huaqing Palace, but after that some guided trips also have the option to go and see: Song of Everlasting Sorrow or "Legend of the Camel Bell" show. Our other option is Royal Banquet but I've seen that a few other cities we are going to visit also have those. Or maybe there is some better attraction for the evening that we could check out?

Day 3: The train is at 3pm. From our hotel we have around 45 minutes by public transport. We want to rent out electric bikes and drive around the Xi'an City Wall, also wander around Xi'an and try some local street food. I want to add something there too as I feel that we have too little things planned out till around 1pm. Also we plan on leaving the luggage in hotel or luggage locker of course.

This plan is not finished and it needs some changes for sure, but as I said earlier, my main focus for now is to decide the evening attraction for the second day and maybe add some smaller ones for the third.

I will be greatful for any advice, as it will be my first China trip :))