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'''China''' is the most populated country in the world. Hitchhiking is not common at all and hardly anyone speaks English. People seem to understand the ''thumb'' though. Still, often your drivers will try to drop you at a bus or train station though. Your best bet is to signify that you want to get out as soon as they are leaving the highway.
People's driving style is not too safe. Expect people to honk, drive while holding a phone, overtaking while going uphill, or combinations of these. Buckle up if you can. But still, driving style is much safer than in Russia and neighbour countries. Chinese don't exceed speed limit much and they DO ''do'' buckle up, unlike Russians . :)
==Cities==
[[Image:Hitching-luoping-china.jpg|thumb|300px|right|Hitching out of [[Luoping]], [[Yunnan]]]]
* [[Beijing]]
* [[Shanghai]]
* [[Xi'an]]
''gong-lu'' means highway, national road<br />''gao se gong lu'' means expressway (expway) (not 100 % sure)<br />Cops help you rather than being a problem, they even stop buses for you for free ==Language==
Hardly anyone speaks English. Get yourself a phrasebook (beforehand) and a pocket dictionary (18 yuan in China).
==Police==
[[Image:Hitchhikers with Chinese police man.jpg|thumb|250px|left]]
In the South the police was unaware, or friendly but very confused, to [[User:Guaka|Guaka]] and [[amylin]]. Most of the time the police didn't do anything while walking along the highway or trying to hitch. Once, at the highway entry of [[Kaili]] in [[Guizhou]], they started talking, found someone who spoke English, and brought the hitchers to a bus station, where the police paid for a bus ticket! Another time the highway police was very confused again, and it took 2,5 hours to find a translator and be left alone at a highway entrance again.
[[User:Fijau|Fijau]] hh'ed hitchhiked through Xinjiang, Gansu, Shaanxi, Henan without being bothered by police. In Xinjiang police even helped him to get a ride. Poblems started to occur in Zhejiang (Eastern China, near Shanghai). Several times police didn't let him onto the expressway through the toll gate and took him off the expressway while passing by.
==Maps==
[[Image:Amylin-luoping-china-1.jpg|thumb|250px|right|[[amylin]] in the [[Yunnan]] province of [[China]].]]
There are not so many online or offline maps in English. ''Do'' buy a map though, even if it's in Chinese, maps of provinces are cheap (10 yuan) and very useful, you can point to it and people might sometimes understand what you mean. You ''can'' buy a map of China with names in English and Chinese, but because of the scale it's not very useful while hitching.
This is also goes while hitching, on a highway, sometimes a sign might be indicated for a big city, but if you pursuit this, you can find yourself on a dirt road in no time.
Very good is the '''Tourist Atlas of China'''. It is in English and Chinese, a small book with all the provinces. But it's hard to find though, [[User:Worldhitch|Worldhitch]] got it in [[Beijing]] at one of the biggest bookstores. The province maps in Chinese are pretty good, if you have the tourist atlas, you also have the bigger cities in English as a reference point, and hitch on the small roads with the province map.
==Provinces==
* [[:Category:Guangdong|Guangdong]], [[:Category:Guangxi|Guangxi]], [[:Category:Guizhou|Guizhou]]
* [[:Category:Sichuan|Sichuan]]
* [[:Category:Yunnan|Yunnan]]
==Links==
* [http://www.couchsurfing.com/group_read.html?gid=1190&post=181589 Some very useful info in CS group thread.]
* [http://www.muhranoff.travel.ru/chinA/chinmain_en.htm Hitching in China], a Russian Website with tons of information. Some of them available in English.
* [http://maps.jobschina.org Website with photocopies of maps of all provinces and some cities as well.]
__NOTOC__ [[Category:China| ]] [[Categoryde:AsiaChina]]
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