The Middle Kingdom — East Asian Economic & Tech Superpower
VPN use is technically illegal for unauthorized providers, but many expats use VPNs daily. Enforcement against foreign users is rare but connections can be unstable during political events. Download and set up your VPN before arriving.
Yes. All foreigners must register accommodation with local PSB within 24 hours. Hotels do this automatically. Private stays require a police station visit with your host, passports, and lease.
No. Working on L/M visa is illegal — fines ¥5,000–20,000, detention, deportation, 5–10 year entry ban. Includes teaching English and freelancing. You must obtain a Z visa and work permit.
It depends on residency. If you spend fewer than 183 days in China, you are a non-resident and pay IIT only on China-source income. If you are a resident but have not yet completed six consecutive 183-day years, foreign-source income is taxed only to the extent it is paid or borne by a China entity — offshore income from an overseas employer is not taxed. Only from your seventh consecutive 183-day year does China tax your worldwide income, and even that can be reset by leaving China for more than 30 consecutive days, or by spending fewer than 183 days, in a single year.
You can only take one per tax year, and the choice is locked once made. Most higher-earning expats choose the benefits-in-kind (BIK) because housing rent and children's school fees are deductible on actual reasonable cost — often far more than the capped special deductions (rent is tiered: RMB 800–1,500/month by city). Lower housing/education costs may make the special deductions simpler. Note the BIK regime is only guaranteed through 31 December 2027.
Resident taxpayers file an annual reconciliation of comprehensive income between 1 March and 30 June of the following year, most easily via the official Individual Income Tax app (个人所得税 App) or the web portal. You reconcile the year's tax against what your employer withheld monthly, then either receive a refund or pay any shortfall. Filing is not required if your annual comprehensive income is ≤ RMB 120,000, or the extra tax owed is ≤ RMB 400 — but you should still file to reclaim any over-withholding.
Yes. National law requires legally employed foreigners to join the five social insurances (pension, medical, unemployment, work-injury, maternity). A long-standing informal exemption in Shanghai was closed by a December 2024 revision, so contributions now apply nationwide. If you are from one of the 11 countries with a totalization agreement in force (e.g. Germany, Japan, South Korea, Canada), you can apply for a certificate of coverage to be exempted from pension and unemployment contributions.
Yes. If you are present no more than 90 days (183 days for residents of treaty countries) in a calendar year and your pay comes from an overseas employer not borne by a China permanent establishment, your China-source employment income can be exempt. Relief is not automatic — you must notify your employer in advance and provide a home-country certificate of tax residence. Residents taxed on worldwide income can also claim a foreign tax credit for income tax paid abroad.
In tier-1 cities, yes. International hospitals (United Family, Parkway) have English-speaking doctors. Some public Tier 3 hospitals have international departments. In smaller cities, bring a translator.
No. Always drink bottled water (¥2–5) or use a purifier. Restaurants serve boiled water (开水) which is safe.
Improving but developing. International hospitals offer English counseling. Online therapy platforms growing. Beijing and Shanghai have the most English-language therapy options.
Yes — this is the single biggest change of recent years. Alipay opened direct foreign-card binding in 2023 and WeChat Pay followed in July 2024. You verify your identity with a passport scan plus facial recognition, add a Visa or Mastercard (WeChat also takes JCB, Discover, Amex), and pay by QR everywhere. No Chinese bank account is needed. Transactions under ¥200 are fee-free; above that a 3% fee applies, and per-transaction and monthly caps exist (WeChat: ¥6,000 single, ¥50,000 monthly). For higher limits and zero fees, open a Chinese bank account once you have a residence permit.
It's a grey area. Only government-licensed VPNs are strictly legal, and the commercial VPNs foreigners use are unlicensed. Enforcement historically targets providers and large-scale operators, not individual foreign residents browsing personally, and prosecution of ordinary personal users is very rare — but it isn't formally sanctioned and rules can tighten, especially around sensitive political dates when even paid VPNs become unreliable. Install and test your VPN before you arrive, keep a backup provider, and never rely on it for anything mission-critical.
All Google services (Search, Gmail, Maps, Drive, YouTube, Play Store), Meta apps (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger), X, Reddit, Telegram, and most Western news sites are blocked. To stay reachable, most foreigners rely on WeChat as their primary messenger (locals will only use WeChat), plus a VPN for WhatsApp/Instagram/email. Tell family and friends to install WeChat before you leave — it's the one channel guaranteed to work inside China without a VPN.
No. DiDi has a full English interface; Meituan and Ele.me offer translation modes and work smoothly as mini-programs inside WeChat/Alipay with built-in translation; Alipay has an English 'Tourist' hub. Pleco's camera OCR translates any menu, sign, or bill offline. You can live comfortably with zero Chinese, though learning to recognize a handful of characters (input your address, read 电费/水费 on bills) makes everything smoother.
Deliveries come by courier (快递) — SF Express, JD Logistics, ZTO and others — and are often dropped into smart pickup stations (菜鸟驿站 Cainiao, 丰巢 Fengchao) where you collect them with an SMS/app code. Write your address largest-to-smallest: Province → City → District → Street/number → Compound/building/unit → recipient name, with the 6-digit postal code and, crucially, a Chinese mobile number — riders phone or message on arrival. Save the address once in Taobao/Meituan and it auto-fills future orders.