Getting online
...and making payments
Most internet establishments, easily found in backstreets of all neighbourhoods, are not permitted to allow foreigners to use their internet services (they require Chinese ID cards to be submitted for usage).
If you’re without a working China smartphone, then best to use hotel wifi and services or head down to any local cafe and hop onto their wifi over a nice cup of Chinese tea or a latte.
Using the Internet
Baidu is the main Chinese search engine, more so as Google -and for that matter almost every website of interest and necessity- is blocked in China. However, Bing is an accessible search engine which can be used freely. Many people sign up for a VPN which is a software add-on to your phone or laptop and can access blocked websites while in China and elsewhere with these restrictions. You can easily find these online with a simple search but bear in mind they are illegal to use in China.
You’ll notice that most Chinese based email addresses contain the .cn postfix to denote it’s Chinese registration. On actual desktops, many computers will have an English or Chinese language option, which is usually found on the bottom ‘Windows’ toolbar as well as keyboard character typeset.
Note: Chinese cannot be limited to 26, or anywhere near 26, letters on the alphabet and thus a keyboard! There’s thousands of character combinations so words are offered as a list as you type using pinyin (the romanised version of Chinese words and sounds) if using Chinese characters and you then select the character to build up your sentence.
Social Media
If you connect with colleagues you may be given their ‘QQ’ number – this is the Chinese equivalent of Facebook messenger and is a useful workplace (mostly) live chat system. However, almost all communication is done via Wechat (the Chinese Whatsapp) which has a desktop version, handy for downloads/uploads and PC file transfers. Wechat is there for payments, sharing images, searching stores and even booking flights! We have more to come on this huge topic!
NOTE: You will need to get your bank card linked to Wechat in order to use it for ordering taxis, making any payments and even transfering money to a friend. This can be tricky. You may need to try get this set up before visiting China or once here, ask a Chinese friend to help you immediately so you can start using it right away. To not have Wechat is to be totally clueless in China.
WeCom is the workplace version of Wechat. It’s important to know that while it’s free to get Wechat, you need to link it to a Chinese bank account to start paying or sending money via Wechat. Dingtalk is also a common workplace system that aids communication and work-related activities.
Alternatively, Alipay (the Chinese PayPay) can make online payments also at almost very shop or outlet and is also very useful to download. Alipay is usually easier to link to a Western bank card than Wechat, by the way.
