As an Android phone user, basically most of the native apps do not function. No Gmail, Lens, and even the YT music (default music player) struggles with offline music playing cuz even though the items are stored on the phone, for whatever reason, it wants to run something online between every title so I have to toggle airplane mode for it to advance, slightly annoying when it's - 15°. Localisation actually hasn't a gripe of mine at all, as signalisation is bi-lingual, as are the automatic ticket distributer at metros. But stuff at train stations..... Isn't. Kinda of important there.

I knew about the Google services restrictions beforehand so all my important mails were reserved to Hotmail, but was surprised how I couldn't get my VPN to function at most hotels. But I don't want to turn this into a VPN discussion as there is a separate thread for that.

On the plus side, finding food to eat is not hard even if we Europeans eat later than the locals, and the food is generally quite cheap, if not necessarily healthy in the north. I told my relatives I couldn't afford a holiday in Taiwan anymore given how expensive things are there, but on the mainland, prices for basic commodités have remained acceptable for us Europeans, who have lost a lot of purchasing power the last couple years.....

The only Google app I really care about is Google, and I've never been unable to access it in China. There are good Chinese apps for everything else.

Tim Apple would tell you to get an iPhone

That's a tough one; pretty much get kicked out of most places at ~ 9pm.

In France, most non-chain restaurants open for dinner at 19h00, and most show up closer to 20h. That's because there's the apéro beforehand. So for me to eat lunch 13-14h and 20-21h is standard. l'Espagne, Portugal, Italie, and even la Belgique are not too far off.

When I'm hungry late at night, I can always find something to eat, even in Nanning, but the later it gets, the fewer choices there are (e.g. a lot of mall restaurants stop taking orders at 930). Anyone who likes street food, random Chinese delivery (e.g. kungpao chicken type stuff that can be okayish), bars that serve food, pizza, KFC, DQ, McD, or convenience stores can get by just fine. Also, most of the grocery stores and import shops I order from are open until 11 or 12.

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Lucky!

I have a new KFC close nearby where I live in Beijing that just opened. That closes at 10pm, and is the last thing to serve food in a ~15 mile radius.

When you peruse eleme at 2300 or 2330, what sorts of options do you see?

Just get a foreign roaming SIM card or eSIM and that's no problem anymore. Or try to connect to your home network abroad by IPsec and not by one of the major commercial VPN companies.

No idea. Never tried. Doubt anyone would deliver at that time. Will check next week, and report back.

There's already another thread which I also posted about mobile phone strategies.

My phone does not support eSIM, it's not one of the major brands (Samsung, Apple, Huawei, etc....). I also wanted a local phone number (+86) because as predicted, I have made use of it making phone calls within the mainland.

If I wanted an "easy" tourism experience, there's two places called Hong Kong and Taiwan that have all of the western conveniences while retaining chinese characteristics.

I visited the snow sculptures today on Sun Island near Harbin......again with the QR code => chinese only Weixin website to buy tickets. :mad: There are definitely international visitors coming here for these world renowned events, but at least make it accessible !

I think it's safe to say that 99% of us have no issues accessing Google services (Huawei devices sort of excepted); the main issue is the utility of the services themselves in China. For example, the following thread is coming up on its 5th birthday and maps has continued to become less and less useful since 2019:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/chin...it-urgent.html

How would you access Gmail, voice, and Drive without a VPN then ?

Been a rough couple days for me, so I thought I'd share this to lighten the mood :

They've come a long way in improving the subtitles, but some things still make me chuckle : and highlights what I've been saying about English only going halfway ; note none of the instructions are in English.
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...0fa401a8d9.jpg
Electrifying invention.

I wouldn't.