Alicia: We’ve been to China twice now. Even though about a billion people live there, it’s one of the quietest countries we’ve visited. The locals are incredibly welcoming and helpful —everyone wanted to make sure we weren’t lost.
Still, it can be tough to get around or find information. We couldn’t access Gmail or any Google services, even with a VPN or a SIM card from outside the country.
Nathan: Apple Maps works, but only when you’re in the country. We ended up buying a Lonely Planet guide, which was pretty outdated. We’d take the coordinates from the book and plug them into Apple Maps, but sometimes, it didn’t work.
It’s also difficult to find recent or accurate information about restaurants, transportation, or even visa requirements in the country — things are constantly changing.
Multiple times, we tried to go to a restaurant that either wasn’t where it was listed, wasn’t open during the posted hours, or had permanently closed.
Alicia: On one of our trips, we got “stuck” in the country for about 24 hours because of a visa issue. We had to cancel our original flights and take a new route home. We estimate it cost us around $3,000, not including the money we lost on our original flights.
Nathan: It took us about 54 hours on six separate flights to leave the country. We were just trying to find the most affordable — though definitely the most inconvenient — way home.
