china cities free and easy

[andrew_g]

hi all, i'm thinking of planning a trip in china along several major cities long distance by train, the intended itinerary is something like this singapore - shanghai - wuhan - chong qing - cheng du - singapore

i've some questions as such:
1) visa - is it needed and how long within china can it be on tourist visa, how much if applying single trip visa
2) buying train tickets on ctrip (hsr and dong che) has anyone done so before? how do one collect the tickets? can foreigners buy. has any one bought the tickets (hsr/dong che) directly in china? any conditions?
3) hotels in the various cities i.e guess for that ctrip would do?
4) mobile phone, can i purchase a pre-paid sim card say in shanghai and use / top-up within china? any particular constraints? compatible with local phones?
5) payment, can local credit card be used within china? what about bank of china cards etc, apparently they seem to have interbank (union pay) facility within china would that be cheaper, easier?

 

[beanstalk6]

1. Yes if you exceed 15 days
2. use your passport and local credit card; exchange for your ticket at the station counter using your passport and the booking receipt. In China, you will have to buy tickets at the counter instead of the machine, using your passport. cash transactions.
3. ctrip can do.
4. yes, you can top-up anywhere. no issue over your Singapore phone
5. see other threads here. Visa/Master is not widely accepted. Cirrus withdrawals can also be hard to find.

 

[jywy2005]

It would be good to open BOC or ICBC dual currency debit card in Singapore. Park some Yuan in this account and you can withdraw cash there at the atm over in China.

 

[andrew_g]

thanks !

 

[ahyeo]

Everything also can pay with wechat wallet if u can set it up. I use it to pay for almost everything there including train tickets at the ticketing office counter

 

[focus1974]

Everything also can pay with wechat wallet if u can set it up. I use it to pay for almost everything there including train tickets at the ticketing office counter

How to setup wechat wallet?
read from other threads , singapore bank account cannot link for payment in China.