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|BW = CN|hitch = {{Good}}<rating country='cn' />

{{IsIn|Eastern Asia}}'''China''' is the most populated country in the world and tourism is blooming booming with its rapidly expanding economy, but hitchhiking is only practiced practised sporadically . If you follow the advice in this page you will most likely have a wonderful time hitchhiking in China.Although it's not really common, more and donmore people understand the concept of hitchhiking (if you use the word da-bian-che). Because of it't expect English can solve your problemss size, among other factors, it's hard so talk about China with general info. Despite relatively low crime rate compared to many western countrieshitchhiking in the west of the country, as in Tibet, local people tend is different than in the east. hitchhiking in rural areas is different than on highways. the difficulty also varies. Generally speaking it's possible to believe that picking a stranger on categorize it like this: the more developed the road is unsafe especially on , the less chance people will ask you for money, the highway faster you will get and local Chinese more likely you should stop drivers by sign or by talking with them while they are stationary. the more rural the roads are the more hand waving you will have to do and more explaining beforehand that you do not pay for the trip. also feel hesitated to get aboard , on strangersrural roads it' carss easier to find camping spots.

''Thumb'' gesture Safety is perceived as "good" and taken an issue as traffic regulation is practised half-heartedly. Expect people to honk rather than brake, to drive while holding a greetingphone, Chinese drivers will probably "thumb" drive on the hard shoulder, overtake in unsafe places, and more. Buckle up if you back and say "Hello" without thinking of stoppingcan. The most common signal for hitching Some travellers report that the driving in China is to outstretch your arm way safer than in Russia and gently wave itneighbouring countries. Drivers will try to drop you at a bus or train stationChinese usually don't exceed the speed limit much (130km/hr on expressways).

Traffic regulation is practiced half== How-heartedly. Expect people to honk==__TOC__Hitchhiking is not really know for everybody, drive while holding so the famous ''Thumb'' gesture used in most countries to indicate you want a phonelift is not fully understood in China, overtaking while going uphilland although it will still work, will probably wont be very effective. For Chinese this gesture Is more readily understood as meaning "good" or combinations "OK" so drivers will probably not think of thesestopping. Buckle up if you can. But when talking about 1.3 billion people, you can expect The most common signal to ask a big difference from one vehicle to stop is to another. Some hitchhikers reported that outstretch your arm and gently wave the driving style in China is a way safer than in Russia hand up and neighboring countries. Chinese usually dondown, but this isn't exceed speed limit much and they do buckle upthe most recommended way to hitchhike.

==How-to==Western concept of hitchhikingAlso, as expectedtaxis are really common in the country. If you hitchhike without a sign, doesn't exist in Chinayou will probably have a lot of taxi stopping by to take you. When many drivers feel unsafe What I would recommand is to pick up have a strangersign with writing 搭便车 (Dabianche - Hitchhiking) on it. The translation litteraly mean "free-ride", so you will not have any problem with money. Also, this will save you from some awkward situations if your chinese accent is bad : When you pronounce it slightly differently, "Hitchhiking" become "eating shit" which can be understood as an insult or the fact that you are looking for the willing one toilet. By writing it, there is likely a driver no misunderstanding. You can also write the name of commercial vehicles (especially small vans) and they expect a chargethe place where you want to go under it.

Even if you successfully As in many countries, on major roads try to hitchhikefrom a service station, it is painfully toll area or some other place where traffic has to stop or slow and generally won't . Standing on the hard shoulder or the motorway works fine as well though.To get you to your destinationthe toll area/service station use a map, if it's more than 100kmGPS or Google map to show you where the road begins. Hitchhiking being an unusual phenomenonthere is also a Chinese website the shows the actual toll stations. On arrival to the road, use the bus and rail system is efficient outstretched arm and relatively cheap for travelling a long wayhand wave described above.

To increase your successThe first alternative is to use the "sign system", preferably in Chinese not Pinyin (the Romanist script) showing where you want to go. Both hand and sign approaches is used locals in some areas (eg Guangzhou). When you are standing by the roadside, having a sign indication where you are going can be very useful. If you don't speak Chinese, try a sign can also help avoid misunderstandings as many people will not know what hitchhiking is and won't understand what you are doing. a sign is the most common way to hitchhike on the highways of China, but because the concept of Hitchhiking is not well known in China, it means that only people going to this actual place will stop you for a gas stationride, traffic stop and car parks never people who go on the road to this place. Some might suggest you write a destination that is closer than to where cars stop or any places you are actually going - perhaps a sign with a city 500 km away is better than one that cars tend is 1000 km away. This is complex though. If you have a sign for the closer city, a driver who is going to the further city may pick you up and leave you at the closer one, not understanding your futile attempts to slow downinform them that you want the further city. Avoid doing it at nights because many That's why another good way to hitchhike on Chinese high-ways is to talk with drivers feel unsafe to pick you.

Second is appearanceThe "talking" system generally means getting to a place where the drivers are stationary (gas stations, toll stations etc. Stinky ) and hairy foreigners ask them where are they going or hand them with sunglasses and ripped jeans look scary to some local people. Dress decently, better wear glasses, have a shave (good-student look)small letter indicating what are you doing. Howevermost people will politely tell the truth about their destination and if this is in your direction, Chinese tend show in simple sentences and hand questers that you want to join the ride. saying "thank you" in advance can also be tolerate of all weird foreigners because they think they are. Just don't avoid looking like a hippie or beggarhelp.

It The hitchhiker's appearance is also unwise important: dressing fairly smartly and having a clean appearance will help you greatly. Students in China tend to say your final destination if it dress more conservatively and males usually have short hair. It is far away because drivers may assume that you want them a good idea not to take wear sunglasses as they are not as commonly worn and might make you to there. Pick the nearest major waypoint and say "往 X 方向" (Wang X fangxiang) (In the direction of X")look sinister.

==Regions ==There are It is important to note that on highways most drivers will not expect to be paid for a ride, even though they probably big differences between do not understand the concept of hitchhiking. However, you will find that some drivers, particularly on side roads, will ask for payment before you get in. This is no problem as you can make your decision whether or not to get in. However, some drivers may ask for payment once you have reached your destination. If in doubt, try to signal that you do not want to pay before you get in the different regions vehicle. Generally speaking, you will find in Chinathat most people who pick you up are extremely generous, occasionally overly so.:''please add more info On highways many drivers will let you off their car only if they are sure you know where you've hitched are going and is in many parts of China''good situation.

* [[File:Flag of Hong KongAt any case you need to bring a map with you, either download from the net buy one at the first opportunity.svg|30px|border]] [[Hong Kong]] Special AdmThe Gao su gong lu network is very complex, and you may get lost very quickly, or end up stuck in a city for a day. Region of China* [[File:Flag of MacauYou should have a map in Chinese, so that other people can understand where you are going.svg|30px|border]] [[Macao]] Special AdmYou may be able to pick up some Chinese characters and understand the names. Region of China* [[File:Flag of TibetHowever if you are struggling, consider getting a Pinyin for yourself as well, if you can find one (they are not very common).svg|30px|border]] [[Tibet]] Special AdmMaps can easily be found in service stations, supermarkets and book stores, city maps cost around 10Y while road atlas costs around 30Y (2012) - if you find a Pinyin one expect it to cost much more - only foreigners would buy them. Region of China* [[:Category:Sichuan|Sichuan]]* [[:Category:Yunnan|Yunnan]]

I hitchhiked around several villages The first character of a vehicle's number plate is in Chinese and indicates the western Gobi, using Erenhot as home province and then there is a baseroman letter indicating the city in the province (A is always the capital). Truck drivers do not expect tips--at least, they did not when I offered money to them. HoweverIf you are in Anhui and see a 川 (chuan, private drivers will often request inordinate amounts of money standing for short distancesSichuan) with an A and some numbers, so itthat's best from Chengdu. If one is heading in the direction of home you can use it as a criteria to ask "Doh Shao Chian?", which means "how much?" before getting inselect a car to stop.

Chinese is If you want to sleep while on the majority languageroad, especially in the citiesyou will have no problem pitching a tent. People will usually not bother you. As However do make sure your belongings are not on show and therefore do not pitch a Mongolian speaker who only knew tent directly on the road (which is also a few words bit dangerous). You will find there is plenty of Chinesetraffic at night also. You can try to pick a slow and comfortable truck, people were surprised you might only make 400 km in 8 hours but if that's at menight and avoids an accommodation cost, but pretty accommodating--outside who cares? The lack of cities, there is usually malice (at an individual level at least one person in !) of the room who speaks MongolianChinese makes most of China easy to hitchhike day and night without fear. There is little fear of being attacked or robbed though of course such activities exist everywhere, and as always girls should take extra care.

You should know thatThere are Service areas on highways, if you leave the citiesit have gas station, big public toilets, the police WILL detain you here at least onceshops, and you should make according time allowancescoffeshops. In such a case, do not panic--they Drivers usually will actually be very helpful and friendly when they realize drop you're not a criminaloff there. They will take you It is very convenient to the station, ask sleep there. Sometimes you questions, and when satisfied, release even can take shower if some of shop sellers offer you. Have your visa ready, and expect to be asked "What are you doing here?". The whole process takes between one and three hours. Be prepared for this situation, as it happened to me three times (sellers live in service areas in as many days. Consequently, anyone considering hitchhiking here MUST be able to speak enough Mongolian or Chinese to get through this situation.dormitory)

[[File:Hitching-luoping-china.jpg|thumb|300px|right|Hitching out of [[Luoping]], [[Yunnan]]]]

“Highway” doesn't mean The expressways are often new and fast (100-130 km/h), where as the second level roads may be really bad and a fatal error, where there are a lot less cars and other rules for hitchhiking. Stick to highways if you want to travel fast.Most of the entrance to the highways from the same as cities in occidental countries but express ways China, have a toll. Using the "talking system", go there and talk straight to the drivers, pointing at the letter or map. be earnest. Say something like: "Nihao! Qing wen, ni qu nali? Wo qu zheli, ni ne? Ni qu zheli ma?" (Hello! Excuse me, where are great for you going long distances? I go here, and you? Do you go here?), etc. As of 2007 Keep saying "Oh hao hao, xiexie a lot of expressways !" (Oh good good, thanks, ah!)Like mentioned above, Chinese people will typically tell you the truth about where are still under constructionthey going, and once they do so, if you ask them to go with them and most traffic consists of trucks that they have free space, they will hardly say "no", either because they are just too naive or because they don't go too fastwant to lose face. When  At the tolls, if you talk to the booth workers and the guards and tell them where are you cangoing and what is your purpose, try they will often offer you to hitch ask the drivers for you as they keep passing with normal their cars. There are quite a few cops on through the booths to pay the expresswayfee, but sometimes they will not know who to ask and will try to ask only specific cars, and so it doesn't seem is recommended to be a problem also continue relaying on yourself.Sometimes some guard may look like they frown at you or even come to walk along you and ask you some questions. most of the time smiling and showing themthe cards or letters with the information on you will satisfy them to let you continue ask drivers for a lift.

Cops help When no tolls around, go to the rest areas where you rather than being can talk to people easily, or look for a problemjiayou zhan, they even a gas station. Without a big sign, I never got picked up there with the passing cars (of most don't stop buses for you for free); with the sign, it took from a few minutes to seconds.

English in rural or even urban areas are rarely used. Get yourself 1. a phrasebook (beforehand) , easier to acquire when you're outside of China, were not easy to find in bookstores in China, and 2. a pocket dictionary, which generally available in China for 10 RMB in 2007. Baidoo, the chinese google, has a free translator, also for pictures. Here are some helpful phrases:  Chinese language use lots of tons. So if you don't speak chinese at all, it's probably better to write it (in character) because chinese people will not understand you. Also, the differents province have different accent (and sometimes differents dialect), which make it more difficult.

If you go to big city, most people know pinyin. But if you go to rural area, people only know character and can't read any pinyin. ===Basic Vocab===搭便车 ''da bian-che'': HitchhhikeHitchhike literally "free-ride". That's probably what you want to write on a big card board, although it's a rare word in Chinese and many people do not know what it means. <br />

国道 ''guo-dadao'' : national road<br />謝謝 谢谢 ''Xie xie'' : Thank you<br />这裡 这里 ''zhe-li'': Here<br />那里/哪里 ''Na-li'' : There / Where?(only different in tone)<br />服务区/服务站 "Fu-wu-qu/Fu-wu-zhan": Service Area<br />收费站 “shou-fei-zhan” Tollgate<br />

===Conversations===

你要去那里？ 你要去哪里？ "ni yao qu nali?" (you/ go to / where) means "Where are you going?"<br />

Chinese, like many Asian languages, is a tonal language which means a change in a pitch will drive to different meanings. Without basic training, most westerners will find it hard to pronounce Chinese well at an decipherable understandable level. If you plan to learn a bit, Pleco is a must-have dictionary app. But if you just print the Chinese characters out and show them to the driver, things will work pretty smooth. Hong Kong and Macao use traditional, more complicated characters, but they can read either way for the most part.

Police will usually not care about you and will more likely try to be helpful than make trouble. However, this can also mean taking you away from the motorway to a bus or train station.Sometimes (closer to official areas like Beijing and Shanghai) the police will insist you will go away to some other place, but if you insist they will most of the time let you stand with your sign/continue to ask drivers around.It also happens when a police officer will treat you like a privileged person, will take photos with you and will stop cars for you or even get you on the bus for free.You may also get free food and assistance with signwriting. nobody will say anything but this is an awkward experience when everybody around you pay lot's of money for the drive and you sit there after the police officer stopped the bus for you.Usually when dealing with the police in China, it is best to just smile and be naive but firm with your goal, and be independent about it. you are doing fine, not disturbing and in love with China. == Personal experiences == ''August 2017: Hitchhiked from Kashgar to HongKong. through: Urumqi, Kumul, Xining, Chengdu, Kunming, Nanning, Guangzhou. Spent most of the time in Xinjiang and Tibetian Areas. No mayor problems. I figured out that having a drawn map with me, with the main roads and cities on it (written in chinese) and a small letter explaining in chinese would help the most. However, in the tibetian areas I figured out that many people cannot read chinese, hence it makes sense to write the map in tibetian and chinese. Sometimes people would ask for money in advance, in tibetian areas seem to be some shared taxis also.Further I was once picked by the police in Amdo Tibet, they told me, I am not allowed to be there... Hence, in the next city I had to register, make a lot of selfies, they brought me to a hotel where I had to stay and they told me I have to take a bus the next day. the next day I hitchhiked further without problems ;)Tip: having an offline translator is the most useful thing for china! I travelled many parts of the world without speaking common languages with the people living there and always found a way of communication. But in China, it was even hard for me to explain the map where I want to go and where they want to go... sign/body language works so different to mine there... Still - awesome peopel and experience!''  ''In the South the police was unaware, or friendly but very confused, to [[User:Guaka|Guaka]] and [[User:Amylin|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 1/2 hours to find a translator and be left alone at a highway entrance again.''  ''[[User:Fijau|Fijau]] hitchhiked through Xinjiang, Gansu, Shaanxi, Henan without being bothered by police. In Xinjiang police even helped him to get a ride. Problems 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.''  ''[[User:peraht|peraht]] somehow always gets helped by police. Especially when it's getting dark or at night it's sometimes very useful to rely on them. Not only next to pay tolls but also on service areas (there are almost always some police officers). Sometimes they will give you something to eat, take pictures with you, the usual stuff. In Jiangxi or Anhui they caught her a ride, took pictures of her and the driver's passports, which was for safety reasons and actually OK, but also of other visas she had in her passport. Probably only out of curiousity and to test their apparently new camera.''  ''[[User:lukeyboy95|lukeyboy95]] had a fantastic time hitchhiking in March 2013. Not without its dramas, but no adventure is. I kept to the Western fringe, avoiding most cities. I had a sign that read de-bien-che, in characters, and this was mildly understood by some. Roads are excellent, fast and new, and distances can be very large. I beat my record, at 1200km in one day in the North West region. Big cities are a total horror, try and get trains out where possible. Have your little list of phrases ready to point at, it isnt rude. The Chinese are spirited people, and connecting with them wasnt a problem. If they look like taxi drivers, or a little hard up, reiterate that you cant pay money for the ride. One thing of note was that at the border with Krygyzstan, the immigration police wouldn't let me past unless I was in a taxi. A little overnight protest outside their spanking new offices brough results, and the next day they put me in a pick-up. An interesting border, and be careful with this. In general I found the police enormously helpful, kind and well meaning. On two times, they put paid for a train for me, drove me out to the highway, even gave me money and invited me into their homes. China holds many adventures for the the hitchhiker! '' Hitchhikernick - was there in October 2016 for 2 weeks and Jan 2017 for 10 days. Hitched all of the eastern half of China with ease. At many highway tolls the staff would help me get a ride, only one had an issue, but luckily a driver pulled up when the staff were warning me they were going to call police. Police did help me on a few occasions as well. Waiting time was about 10 minutes in most cases, though there were odd occasions where I had to wait a while. Visited most of impressive National Parks in this time frame and Huashan 3 times to get a good photo of the famous plank walk. Camped out discreetly and publicly very easily as everything is orderly and compacted into the cities with open spaces inbetween, totally opposite to india. Border crossings were straight forward but crossed both from Vietnam and into Mongolia by transport. Hardly ever got asked for money and managed to communicate with apple maps and sign language/images/gestures. Even managed to hitch out of Beijing twice without difficulty.

[[File:Amylin-luoping-china-1.jpg|thumb|250px|right|[[User:Amylin|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.

Note: Be aware of Chinese maps - sometimes they are developed for the (often quickly changing) future! They show highways which are not yet existing, or they having wrong distances between cities. Its always good to have two or three maps (the province maps as well) and then search for the truth in the middle.

* [http://www.yourworldyourhome.com/hitchhiking-china/ Eric's tips on Hitchhiking China.] * [http://www.muhranoff.travel.ru/chinA/chinmain_en.htm Hitching in China], a Russian Website with tons of information. Some of them it available in English.

   {{IsIn|Eastern Asia}}[[Category:China| ]]