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The Hitchhiking is not really know for everybody, so the famous ''Thumb'' gesture used in most countries to indicate you want a lift is not fully understood in China, and although it will still work, will probably wont be very effective. For Chinese this gesture Is more readily understood as meaning "good" or "OK" so drivers will probably not think of stopping. The most common signal to ask a vehicle to stop is to outstretch your arm and gently wave the hand up and down, but this isn't the most recommended way to hitchhike. Also, taxis are really common in the country. If you hitchhike without a sign, you will probably have a lot of taxi stopping by to take you. What I would recommand is to have a sign 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 toilet. By writing it, there is no misunderstanding. You can also write the name of the place where you want to go under it.
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 />
你要去那里？ 你要去哪里？ "ni yao qu nali?" (you/ go to / where) means "Where are you going?"<br />
→Language: some fixes and expansions. characters should always be simplified! 谢 vs 謝
== How-to ==
__TOC__
As in many countries, on major roads try to hitchhike from a service station, toll area or some other place where traffic has to stop or slow. Standing on the hard shoulder or the motorway works fine as well though.
== Language ==
English in rural or even urban areas are rarely used. Get yourself 1. a phrasebook, 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'': Hitchhikeliterally "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 />
公路 ''gong-lu'': literally public roads, which means either highway or national road<br />
高速公路 ''gao su gong lu'': means expressway (expway) <br />
国道 ''guo-dao'' : national road<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 ===
我要去..."wo yao qu ...." ( I/want/go to) means "I need/want to go to . . ."<br />
在这里停就行 "zai zheli ting jiu xing" (at/here/stop/okay) means "please stop here"<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 ==
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.''
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.
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. Maps.me may have wrong distances( for e.g. chengdu/kunming). There is a free map programm from chinese google(baidoo), its only in chinese, but helpful.
=== Links ===
