Middle Kingdom Confidential

I still remember the first time I set foot in China, standing on a windswept Tiananmen Square in the winter of 2000, convinced my nose would fall off. Local tourists stared at me as if I'd just landed from another planet. I returned to Beijing many times after that, exploring every possible access point to the Great Wall, yet my heart has always belonged to Shanghai, more cosmopolitan, more insouciant, less ideological.

Travelling through China back then wasn't always straightforward. Twenty-five years later, it's another world. Ultra-clean megacities with broad leafy boulevards, futuristic airports, and a population that seems to move through it all with effortless precision, guided, of course, by one indispensable tool: the smartphone.

As you'll quickly discover, China operates within its own digital ecosystem: WeChat is the local WhatsApp, Didi replaces Uber, and without them you'll barely function. Instead of relying on an eSIM from abroad, which limits access, ask your hotel Concierge to arrange a local Chinese number. Even regular taxis are now high-tech Chinese limousines from brands you've probably never heard of, whisper-quiet and brimming with LED screens and touchscreen everything.