China

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Revision as of 06:40, 16 May 2008 by 65.81.7.213 (talk)
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Flag of China China
Information
Language: Mandarin
Capital: Beijing
Population: 1,321,851,888
Currency: Yuan (¥)
Hitchability: Good.png (good) (good)
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China is the most populated country in the world. Hitchhiking is not common at all and hardly anyone speaks English. People seem to understand the thumb though. That said, the most common signal for hitching in China is to extend your arm out straight with your hand flat and then to drop your hand down slowly.

Often your drivers will try to drop you at a bus or train station though. Your best bet is to signify that you want to get out as soon as they are leaving the highway.

People's driving style is not too safe. Expect people to honk, drive while holding a phone, overtaking while going uphill, or combinations of these. Buckle up if you can. But still, driving style is much safer than in Russia and neighbouring countries. Chinese don't exceed speed limit much and they do buckle up, unlike Russians. :)

Hitching is treated as a very different concept from that of the Western concept. First, its rarely free. Many car owners in rural areas supplement their income by picking up hitchhikers. In the rural area's, its sometimes the only way to get around. Until recently, there were few private cars, and even today, most of the rural population lacks a vehicle. Thus, they hitch to get around for short distances. However, around cities and between cities of great distances, hitching is not advised. Not that it is dangerous, but it is painfully slow and generally won't get you to your destination, if its more than 100km. Plus, the bus and rail system is efficient and relatively cheap.

In summation, hitching is not the safest optin, but its not really more dangerous than anything else in China. It involves a different hand gesture than the thumbs out, and its best if hitching is confined to rural areas for short distances. If you really want to go hitching to experience the people, try and get outside the city and pick a random location that has nothing touristy. That'll fill you up on the real China quick.

Cities

Hitching out of Luoping, Yunnan

Expressways

“Highway” doesn't mean the same as in occidental countries but express ways are great for going long distances. As of 2007 a lot of expressways are still under construction, and most traffic consists of trucks that don't go too fast. When you can, try to hitch with normal cars. There are quite a few cops on the expressway, but it doesn't seem to be a problem to walk along them.

Cops help you rather than being a problem, they even stop buses for you for free

Language

Hardly anyone speaks English. Get yourself a phrasebook (beforehand) and a pocket dictionary (18 yuan in China).

Police

In the South the police was unaware, or friendly but very confused, to Guaka and 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 2,5 hours to find a translator and be left alone at a highway entrance again. Fijau hitchhiked through Xinjiang, Gansu, Shaanxi, Henan without being bothered by police. In Xinjiang police even helped him to get a ride. Poblems 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.

Maps

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.

Sometimes the indication used for roads aren't very accurate, so you might be thinking you'll be on a nice highway for a while, when it suddenly becomes a 1 lane road going through villages. This is also goes while hitching, on a highway, sometimes a sign might be indicated for a big city, but if you pursuit this, you can find yourself on a dirt road in no time.

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, 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.

Provinces

Links