First-time customer to the Greater Bay Area? Here are 8 journey ideas

Travelling throughout China’s Greater Bay Area (GBA) might be an extremely rewarding expertise, not the least due to the area’s wealthy tradition and wealth of points of interest. With 11 cities to its identify, together with Macao, Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, the GBA is a sprawling metropolis that homes all the pieces from casinos and historic temples to skyscrapers and pure wonders, catering to guests of all ages and backgrounds. 

Admittedly, embarking on a visit to the GBA can have its challenges for first-time guests who could also be unfamiliar with the realm, language and tradition – however this may be mitigated if you happen to put together upfront and know what to anticipate. 

[See more: Here’s how to get to some of the Greater Bay Area cities from Macao]

To allow you to out, we’ve compiled a listing of our prime ideas when travelling to the GBA for the primary time. Keep studying to search out out how one can make your journey to the area a easy and memorable one. 

1. Ensure you’ve WeChat Pay or Alipay arrange

Although money remains to be readily utilized in Macao and Hong Kong, the identical can’t be mentioned for the 9 mainland GBA cities, the place the digital fee platforms WeChat Pay and Alipay reign supreme. 

Even although bodily cash remains to be authorized tender within the mainland, you’ll shortly discover it to be a legal responsibility, as some companies and taxis might not have sufficient money readily available to provide the right change. Even avenue hawkers will proffer a laminated QR code so that you can scan with regards to making fee.

[See more: Six apps you need to survive in mainland China]

Many mainland eating places additionally desire diners to order and pay on-line by scanning a QR code. Ride-hailing providers comparable to Didi, shared bicycles and shared energy banks can solely be paid for digitally. 

Thankfully, Alipay and WeChat Pay are comparatively simple to arrange for non-Chinese residents, with out requiring a Chinese cellphone quantity. Their fee methods will also be linked to your worldwide credit score or debit playing cards.

For extra data on methods to arrange these apps, click on right here for Alipay and right here for WeChat Pay. 

2. Allow your self a while

All this speak of the GBA’s wonderful connectivity, high-speed rail providers and “one hour living circles” may tempt you into attempting to cowl an excessive amount of in a day. Resist the temptation to do a whistlestop tour. Instead, decelerate, spend an evening or two someplace and savour your chosen GBA locations.

[See more: Here’s how to claim your tourist tax refund in China]

The 11 cities that comprise the GBA are every distinct, with a variety of points of interest and landmarks which can be troublesome to jam right into a one-day itinerary. Even the GBA’s smallest metropolis, Macao, would exhaust the customer attempting to cowl lots of the metropolis’s fundamental spots in a single day. Doing so could be inconceivable in a sprawling metropolis like Shenzhen or Guangzhou.

3. Use the high-speed rail when travelling between mainland GBA cities

When travelling between Macao and Hong Kong, the ferry or bus are each good transport choices. Sailing takes round 1 hour, whereas a bus journey through the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge will final for roughly 40 minutes. 

For travelling between mainland GBA cities, excessive pace trains are advisable, as they’re quick, clear and handy. A excessive pace rail journey from Zhuhai to Guangzhou, for example, takes solely about 1 hour, costing simply 70 yuan. Similarly, a quick practice journey from Guangzhou to Shenzhen takes as little as 31 minutes and is priced at an inexpensive 75 yuan.

[See more: Here’s how to rent a share bike in China]

High-speed rail tickets might be bought at a station’s ticketing cubicles and machines, the official Railway12306 app or website, in addition to by way of third-party platforms comparable to Trip.com. 

4. Consider visiting the islands and lesser-known cities within the GBA

All too usually when individuals consider the GBA, they will solely identify the primary cities  – Macao, Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Zhuhai. This does a disservice to the area’s different equally vibrant cities, together with Zhongshan, Jiangmen, Dongguan, Zhaoqing, Foshan and Huizhou. 

Zhongshan, for example, was the hometown of Dr. Sun Yat Sen, the revolutionary who was instrumental in ending greater than 2,000 years of imperial rule in China in 1911. In honour of the trailblazer, town options varied monuments and points of interest bearing his varied namesakes, together with the Museum of the Former Residence of Dr. Sun Yat Sen, Sunwen West Road Pedestrian Street and Dr. Sun Yat Sen’s Memorial Hall. 

Meanwhile, Foshan is a must-visit for kung fu followers on account of its reference to famend martial artists comparable to Ip Man, Wong Fei-hung and Bruce Lee. 

Similarly, the opposite lesser-known GBA cities function a mixture of up to date, historic and pure points of interest comparable to Licha Ancient Village in Zhaoqing, Songshan Lake in Dongguan, Shuidong Street in Huizhou, and the UNESCO World heritage dialou towers in Jiangmen. 

[See more: Here’s a guide to the ‘other’ Greater Bay Area cities]

For extra data, click on right here for our information on the ignored cities within the GBA. 

The islands across the GBA cities are additionally value a go to, as they provide travellers a pleasant change of tempo from the hustle and bustle of city life. If you’re in Zhuhai, think about Wailingding Island, Wanshan Island or Dong’ao Island. 

Hong Kong additionally has loads of outlying islands, together with hidden gems comparable to Peng Chau, Tap Mun and Po Toi. 

Those who discover themselves in inland Guangzhou also needs to think about making the journey to the historically-important Shamian Island. 

5. Transport fee strategies between Macao, Hong Kong and the remainder of the GBA are usually not all the time interchangeable

The customary transport good playing cards issued in Macao, Hong Kong and the mainland GBA cities are usually not all-in-one transit playing cards that enable for journey throughout all cities within the area. For occasion, a Macao Pass transport card can’t be used instead of Hong Kong’s Octopus card and vice versa. 

Having mentioned that, there are particular transport playing cards that enable for fee throughout not solely throughout the GBA, but in addition throughout most main cities in mainland China. These embody the MacauPass-ChinaT-Union mCard and the Octopus-China T-Union Card. 

[See more: You can now use your MPass-China T-Union mCard on Hong Kong’s subway system]

Digital fee choices are considerably simpler, with Alipay recognised as a type of public transport fee throughout the GBA. 

6. Prioritise utilizing public transport as an alternative of taxis when in Macao

If you’re searching for an environment friendly and handy mode of transport inside a GBA metropolis, taxis and on-line trip hailing providers like Didi are typically an excellent possibility. The exception to that is Macao, the place there’s a scarcity of taxis. More usually than not, you’ll end up both queuing for a while on the taxi stands or fruitlessly attempting to hail a car on the streets. 

While there’s a radio taxi app and hotline, these providers are removed from good, with the shortage of English-speaking drivers and taxi scarcity hampering their usability for overseas guests. 

[See more: These are the best tips for getting a taxi in Macao]

To make issues worse, Macao taxi drivers have earned a foul fame for his or her reckless driving and poor customer support. Those considering of utilizing Uber, Didi or different such on-line ridehailing providers may also overlook about it, because the native authorities has outlawed them on the idea that these “unlicensed” vehicles are “not appropriate to effectively compensate for the lack of available taxis in Macao.” 

You may need to just accept the inevitable and both board a bus, make use of free on line casino shuttles or trip the LRT practice system.

7. Purchase a GBA SIM card for multi-city journeys

Those planning to journey between the SARs and mainland GBA cities ought to think about buying a GBA pay as you go SIM card, as they give you loads of cellular knowledge for an reasonably priced value. Another benefit is these playing cards mean you can entry Google, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube in mainland China with out having to resort to a VPN. 

[See more: Here’s how to use a Hong Kong SIM card in Macao]

These are quite a lot of SIM playing cards that match completely different wants, with China Mobile’s Hong Kong Tourist SIM good for these staying for a brief time frame, and China Telecom’s GBA Prepaid Data SIM good for these searching for flexibility. These playing cards might be bought on-line or in Macao and Hong Kong. For extra particulars, click on right here.

8. Don’t count on anybody to talk English once you’re exterior touristy areas

Spoken English proficiency within the GBA can range significantly relying on the context and the particular person you’re speaking to. Younger Chinese and professionals working within the tourism, resort and enterprise sectors are prone to communicate English to various levels of fluency. Having mentioned that, the language will not be ubiquitous all through the area, because the dominant languages stay both Mandarin in mainland China and Cantonese in Macao and Hong Kong. 

[See more: The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao bridge hits the 100-million crossing milestone]

Of course, there are many translation apps comparable to Google Translate, Baidu Translate and DeepL that will help you overcome the language barrier. Keep in thoughts {that a} VPN is required if you’re utilizing Google providers within the mainland. 

Even if you happen to don’t communicate Mandarin or Cantonese, studying among the basic phrases can go a good distance with regards to breaking the ice.