观察笔记：学生预算下如何在中国旅行

Getting around

China's high-speed rail network is the best way to travel and is genuinely inexpensive by European standards: Nanjing to Shanghai is about CNY 40 and 25 minutes, Beijing to Shanghai about CNY 550 and 4.5 hours. Second class is comfortable; student discounts apply on some routes.

Overnight sleeper trains are cheaper than domestic flights and often more convenient for long distances, with hard sleeper being the standard student option. Domestic flights on the major low-cost carriers are frequently cheaper than rail for very long trips.

Bookings and apps

Train tickets can be booked through the official 12306 app or Trip.com, which has an English interface. Hotels require your passport and, in some cities, evidence of the ability to register your stay — an international student who wants to stay somewhere that does not accept foreign guests will be refused, so check in advance.

Alipay and WeChat Pay cover almost everything, and DiDi (the ride-hailing app) works across the country, including with an English interface.

Where students actually go

The destinations that dominate student accounts are Xi'an for history, Chengdu for pandas and food, Guilin and Yangshuo for landscape, Zhangjiajie for mountains, Yunnan (Kunming, Lijiang, Dali) for climate and culture, Hong Kong, China and Macao, China for weekends from Guangdong, and the Harbin ice festival in winter.

Public holidays — particularly the National Day week in October and Spring Festival — are the worst times to travel, with trains and hotels booked out and prices at their highest. Semester terms are the best time: cheap, uncrowded and easy to book.