Travelling to China can be daunting, even for the well-seasoned traveller. The following are some tips I picked up on my years living and travelling in China. 

Culturally, China is very different from most Western societies. In terms of every day life, you'll probably see spitting. If you look foreign, some people may try to tip you off. On the other side of the spectrum, some will stare and want selfies with you. Whatever it is, try not to take anything personally - it will just ruin your trip. 

Check when the National Holidays are

I could not recommend doing this more. As a 'Communist' country, all Chinese nationals (and most foreigners) have National Holidays off, and it equates to travel hell. These are not one day Bank Holidays (although they exist too), but week-long periods of holiday where China's entire population is off work. Expect crowds EVERYWHERE in and around China, hiked accommodation prices, sold out train fares and huge delays. A simple Google search for the year you are travelling plus Chinese National Holidays will save you a lot of huge headaches - trust me. The ones to really avoid are Chinese New Year and the Mid-Autumn Festival / October holiday.

Learn basic Mandarin

If you are planning to travel in / around rural China, some basic Mandarin will go a long way. ChinesePod is a fantastic resource for learning on the go, but the best thing is to practice with a native speaker. Particularly when travelling in rural China, I found most people didn't speak English, and my Mandarin was enormously helpful.

Download a Dictionary

If learning Mandarin is not an option, still download a dictionary (some ideas below). I'd additionally suggest translating some basic phrases that you can customise for various places. Ie. Can you tell me which bus / train goes to ____? How much does a ticket for one person cost? Do you know where I can find ____? Etc. 

If you don't eat certain things, it might be useful to note down a few food phrases as well.

Pleco is particularly useful for travellers. The dictionary is free, but you can pay for the optical character recognition function. This lets you point your camera at characters, and it will decipher them for you, which is extremely handy for eating. You might get some hilarious results along the way, but it'll enable you to safely skip that congealed pig's blood starter.

LineDict is a good dictionary for finding useful phrases (and practising Chinese, it shows pinyin and tones as well as characters).

MDBG is great for translating standalone characters from Chinese to English, but not the other way around. 

Both LineDict and MDBG allow you to draw characters into the dictionary. After you have the character, LineDict will even tell you what order you should draw it in. 

Consider Hostels

Throughout travels I found hostels had the best travel advice, not to mention friendly English speakers. Even if you're not staying there, it may be worth popping in for a coffee and some food to chat and get a better feel of the city. I found hotels always had premium prices for average trips (especially out of city) or didn't cater to non-locals. If travelling on a budget, I found most hostels had really nice shared and private facilities. 

Hostels are relatively new to China, so not all places have them (especially smaller, more remote towns). Agoda is similar to an Expedia for hotels, but I greatly suggest cross-referencing hotels with TripAdvisor or another review site if possible. Often the descriptions (and especially the pictures) on Agoda were a little too good to be true.

If I went to a quiet town where I coudn't book anything in advance, I'd ensure I travelled in the morning, and then scout out  accommodation upon arrival. This is where some level of Mandarin comes in really useful.

Expect Culture Shock

Especially outside Beijing and Shanghai, norms can be very different to those in the West. Spitting and staring are not unusual. In a lot of places, smoking is still permitted indoors. Restaurants can be extremely loud and their clientele boisterous. As in many places where you're not a local, some people may try to take advantage and rip you off. If you are concerned, try not to be in situations where you have to pay for something are not surrounded by people. I found most locals just wanted to help, so if you seem in distress, there's a good chance someone will come to help. 

Try not to get peeved or take things personally, you'll just end up having a worse trip. 

Prepare Adequately for Flying

Most Chinese airports I have been to are comical by European standards. Try to eat before arriving - most airports are extremely overpriced (more so than usual) and have a very odd selection. You will almost always find Haagendasz ice cream, instant noodles and packaged snacks like peanuts and duck tongue, but depending on where you are you may find little else. Always board a plane with a snack and a bottle of water in case you are delayed. Don't expect compensation if you are.

Chinese Airlines

In terms of airlines, China has a pretty big selection. China Southern, Air China, Shanghai Airlines, Hainan Airlines, Sichuan Airlines to name a few. I'd use a flight comparison tool like ITA Matrix before booking, as there are too many to compare manually. If you speak Mandarin, check if the prices are the same in both the English and Chinese versions of the website.

The Chinese budget airlines the last time I was there were Juneyao and Spring Airlines. Juneyao is now part of Star Alliance - perhaps it has improved since I was there? Neither are horrible, but Spring Airlines is notorious for delays and occasional misbehaving passengers. It's never not gotten me where I needed to go, but if you need to be punctual, it might pay to go with another airline.

I've flown Europe to China with both China Eastern and China Southern, who are both part of SkyTeam. Both flights were fine. 

And now, a collection of my favourite places.