Internet checklist before you fly to China

Why the order matters

Almost everything on this list can only be done from outside China. That is the whole point of doing it now rather than in the taxi from the airport.

The pattern that catches people is circular: the tool you would use to fix the problem is itself blocked. You cannot download a VPN because VPN sites are unreachable. You cannot reset a password because the reset email is in Gmail. You cannot look up the address because Google Maps will not load. Each one is easy to solve at home and genuinely difficult once you have landed.

1. VPN — install, sign in, and actually connect once

The most common mistake is installing the app and stopping there. Install it, sign in, press connect, and confirm a blocked site loads. That last step is what tells you the account works, rather than finding out at 1am in a hotel.

On iPhone there is an extra wrinkle: VPN apps are not listed in the Chinese App Store, so you need an Apple ID registered in another region — Hong Kong or the US both work. It is free and it does not affect your iCloud. Doing this after arriving is possible but unpleasant.

If you are already in China and reading this without a VPN, some download mirrors still work, and support can send a direct link. It is a worse position to be in than doing it beforehand, but not a hopeless one.

2. Set a password on anything using "Sign in with Google"

Google sign-in is blocked, which means any account you access via "Sign in with Google" is effectively locked — your airline, your hotel booking, sometimes your bank's app. The account itself is fine; you just have no way in.

Go through the accounts that matter for the trip and give each one a real password now. This takes ten minutes and prevents the single most annoying category of problem.

3. Payments — Alipay or WeChat Pay, set up at home

China is close to cashless, and many places genuinely cannot take a foreign card. Both Alipay and WeChat Pay now accept foreign Visa and Mastercard, and both involve identity verification steps that are much easier on a normal internet connection.

Do this before you fly even if you are not sure you will need it. Adding a card is the part that fails, and it fails in a way that requires access to your bank's app or SMS — exactly the things that get awkward once you are there.

4. Maps

Google Maps does not work, and its data for China is poor even where it loads. Apple Maps works reasonably well. Amap and Baidu Maps are what locals use and are far more accurate, though largely in Chinese.

Download an offline map of the cities you are visiting before you leave. It costs nothing and covers you when everything else fails.

5. Connectivity — roaming, eSIM or a local SIM

There are three options and they behave very differently.

• —International roaming on your home SIM: everything works normally, because your traffic is routed home before it reaches the internet. Simplest option, and the most expensive.
• —A travel eSIM: often routes internationally too, so blocked sites may work without a VPN. Read the fine print — some are simply reselling a Chinese network, in which case they are filtered like any local connection.
• —A local Chinese SIM: cheapest and fastest, and fully filtered. Fine, but you need the VPN working.

Do not rely on an eSIM's marketing claim about which services it can reach. Some manage it, some do not, and finding out which after you arrive is the wrong time. A VPN works on all three.

6. WeChat

Install it and get your account verified before you go. Some new accounts require an existing user to vouch for them, which is easy to arrange with a friend at home and awkward to arrange from a hotel lobby.

You will use it for more than messaging: paying, scanning menus, receiving your driver's messages, and being contacted by anyone local.

The five-minute version

• —VPN installed, signed in, and tested on a blocked site
• —Real passwords set on anything you normally open with Google sign-in
• —Alipay or WeChat Pay with a working card
• —Offline maps downloaded
• —WeChat installed and verified
• —Decided how you are getting data: roaming, eSIM or local SIM