About ChinaUnlocked
Built by travelers who learned China's quirks the hard way — so you don't have to.
Our Story
ChinaUnlocked was born from a simple, frustrating experience: arriving in China and realizing that nothing works the way you expect. Your credit card? Useless at 90% of merchants. Google Maps? Blocked. Booking a train ticket? Good luck navigating a Chinese-only website. Even buying a bottle of water from a street vendor required a mobile payment app you didn't have.
We spent our first trip fumbling through WeChat Pay setup in a Shanghai hotel lobby, getting lost because Google Maps doesn't work in China, and paying triple the local price for everything because we couldn't use the apps locals use daily. It was the trip of a lifetime — but it could have been so much smoother.
That's why we built ChinaUnlocked. We took everything we learned the hard way — the payment setup, the VPN configuration, the essential apps, the city-specific tips — and packaged it into clear, step-by-step guides that actually work for foreign travelers. No assumptions about having a Chinese bank account. No instructions that only make sense if you read Chinese. Just practical, tested advice for people like us.
What We Do
City Guides
Detailed, continuously updated digital guides for 30+ Chinese cities. Every guide includes attractions, food, transport, hotels, and local tips written specifically for foreign visitors.
Setup Guides
Step-by-step instructions for WeChat Pay, Alipay, VPN, eSIM, and essential apps. We test every setup process ourselves to make sure it works for foreigners with non-Chinese credit cards.
Emergency Help
Emergency numbers, embassy contacts for 15+ countries, essential phrases in Chinese with pronunciation, and offline phrase cards you can download before your trip.
Our Promise
Content That Actually Helps
Every tip, every restaurant recommendation, every transport hack comes from real experience. We don't copy-paste from other travel sites. If we haven't tested it ourselves or verified it with locals, it doesn't go in our guides.
30-Day Money-Back Guarantee
If our guide doesn't help you, you get your money back. Period. No hoops to jump through, no awkward questions. Just email us and we'll process your refund within 5-10 business days.
Quarterly Updates
China changes fast — new subway lines open, restaurants close, visa rules shift. We update our guides every quarter to keep information current. When you buy a guide, you get lifetime access to all future updates.
Join 2,400+ Travelers
From 68 countries who've used ChinaUnlocked to travel China with confidence. Will you be next?