Anyone been there and can offer tips? Going with my wife and 7 year old kid this coming summer and couldn't be more excited. Love to know any tips for eating vegan (none of us eat meat) and cool commie things to see and do, here is a first draft of the itinerary so far:
Land in Hong Kong and spend a week there
Train to Guilin, spend 2 full days there (4 days total counting travel days)
Train to Changsha (home of Chairman Mao), again 2 full days, 4 total with travel days
Train Hangzhou, 4 full days here, 6 total with travel days
Train to Shanghai, 5 full days, 7 total
Train Beijing, 5 full days, 7 total leaving early morning last day
I live in China (Hangzhou, actually). Just to add to what people have already said. WeChat now accepts international credit/debit cards and it works fairly reliably now (my girlfriend recently visited and she was able to use both WeChat and AliPay), but I think AliPay is probably more reliable. I'm fairly confident they both would work in Guilin/Changsha, but bring cash just in case.
I tried to get wechat but it wont let me sign up without someone who already has an account (from mainland China too I think?) scanning me in or something. Was able to get Alipay up and running though.
Huh, that's so strange lol. I guess AliPay will probably be all you need. Since you're going to Shanghai, I actually really enjoyed the propaganda museum.