Most surfers who come to the PerfectSwell® wave pool at Riyue Bay have never been to China, and the questions we get before a trip are rarely about the waves. They are about the phone. Will WhatsApp work? Do I need cash? Can I pay with my card? Is Google Maps going to get me to the coffee? The honest answer is that China runs on a different set of apps from the rest of the world, and once you have the right three or four installed the country is one of the easiest places on earth to travel. Everything below takes about twenty minutes to set up at home, and none of it is needed for the parts we handle — your sessions, your room and your airport transfer are confirmed before you land, so the tips here are for the rest days, the markets and the cafés.
Paying in China: the two apps, cash and cards
Mainland China is close to cashless, and the two apps that replaced cash are Alipay and WeChat Pay. Every shop, restaurant, taxi and market stall has a QR code at the counter; you scan it, type the amount, and the vendor’s phone chimes. For years this was closed to visitors, because both apps needed a Chinese bank account. That is no longer true: international visitors can link a foreign Visa, Mastercard or other major card inside either app and pay exactly as locals do.
Set it up before you fly. Download Alipay (the simpler one for visitors) or WeChat, add your card, and complete the passport verification when the app asks — it takes a few minutes and is easier to do on your home Wi-Fi than in an arrivals hall. Then make one small test payment at the airport, a coffee or a bottle of water, so you know it works before you need it. Foreign cards carry spending limits and a small fee on larger amounts, and both change from time to time, so read the current terms inside the app rather than trusting a blog post, including this one.
Cash still matters, just less than you would think. The renminbi is legal tender everywhere and a stall at the morning market or a roadside fruit stand will always take it, though they may struggle to change a 100-yuan note. Bring a little, or draw some from an ATM at one of the big banks, which accept foreign cards. Foreign bank cards at the point of sale are a different story: larger hotels, the duty-free mall and international-brand shops generally take them, small vendors almost never do. The practical rule is Alipay first, cash second, your card for the duty-free run.
And remember what you have already paid for. Your package, wave pool sessions and transfers are settled online before you travel, so the money question on the ground is only ever about lunch, a coffee, a taxi on a rest day and whatever you buy at the market.
Staying connected: roaming, eSIMs, Wi-Fi and the apps that are blocked
This is the one that catches people out. On a Chinese mobile network or on hotel Wi-Fi, Google, Gmail, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube are blocked. Your phone will connect, the Wi-Fi will look fine, and those apps will simply spin. The fix is easier than most guides make it sound, and it comes in two flavours.
Roam. Keep your phone on your home carrier’s international roaming plan, or install a travel eSIM that covers China before you leave. Roaming data is routed through a network outside China, which means WhatsApp, Google, Instagram and your email all work exactly as they do at home, with no VPN and no set-up. For a one- or two-week surf trip this is what we recommend to almost everyone, and it is why the surfers in the pool are posting to Instagram from the deck. Buy the eSIM at home and switch it on when you land; do not leave it until the airport, because the download will be slow or blocked once you are on a local network.
Or use a VPN on Wi-Fi. If you would rather live on the hotel Wi-Fi, a VPN app restores the blocked services. Install and test it before you fly — VPN apps cannot be downloaded from inside China — and have a second one as a backup, because they do not all work all the time. A local Chinese SIM is cheap and fast but gives you the blocked-app problem in full, so it only makes sense with a VPN alongside.
Whichever you choose, install WeChat. It is the messaging app the whole country runs on, it works on every network, and it is how the pool, the café and half of Hainan will want to talk to you. We are on both WhatsApp (+8613893402173) and WeChat, and the booking page asks which you prefer — if you add us on WeChat before you fly, you have a line that works the moment you land, whatever your data is doing.
Getting around: what needs an app and what does not
The journey that matters — airport to the pool — needs nothing. Fly into Haikou (HAK), where the direct flights from Sydney and Melbourne land, or Sanya (SYX), and an English-speaking driver meets you in arrivals with a private van. Every route is in our flights and transfers guide, and the transfer is included in every package: no taxi queue, no app, no address to show anyone. The 30-day visa-free entry covers most of our guests, and we confirm your eligibility when you book.
The apps are for rest days. DiDi, China’s ride-hailing app, has a full English interface and also lives as a mini-app inside Alipay, so you can order a car to Xinglong for coffee, to a beach down the coast or to the golf course and pay from the same wallet. For the map, Apple Maps works in China and is the easiest option for iPhone users; Amap is the local standard and has an English mode; Google Maps is unreliable here even on roaming, so do not plan around it. Hainan’s east-coast high-speed rail also stops at Wanning, which makes a day trip to Sanya or Haikou — and the biggest duty-free mall in the world — a comfortable train ride rather than a drive. Ask us and we will help you sort the tickets. Our rest-day guide has the full list of where to point the car.
Language, plugs, time and the small things
Language. English is spoken at the pool and the resort, and the surf community at Riyue Bay is international, so you will not be stuck. Beyond the gate, less so — and that is where a translation app earns its place. Download the offline Chinese pack in Apple Translate or Google Translate before you fly, and use the camera mode on menus; WeChat also translates messages with a long press. A phrase and a smile go a long way in a small café, and the food guide gives you the dishes to point at.
Power. China runs on 220 volts, and sockets take the flat two-pin plug and the angled three-pin plug — the same three-pin used in Australia and New Zealand, so an Australian plug usually fits straight in. Everyone else needs an adapter; most hotel rooms also have USB ports, and a small power bank is worth carrying for a day of filming your waves.
Time. All of China is on one time zone, UTC+8, with no daylight saving. That is the same clock as Singapore, Hong Kong and Perth, two hours behind Sydney in the southern winter and seven or eight hours ahead of London depending on the season, which makes the early wave pool sessions a comfortable morning call for anyone flying in from Australia.
Tipping is not customary and nobody expects it. Water: drink bottled, which is everywhere and cheap. Sun: the pool sits at nineteen degrees north, so reef-safe sunscreen and a rash vest are not optional; the on-site surf shop stocks both if you forget. Pharmacies are common and well stocked, but bring anything you take regularly with a copy of the prescription.
The pre-flight checklist
Do these at home, in this order, and the trip takes care of itself.
Twenty minutes before you fly
Ready to go?
Browse the trip packages, keep reading the journal, or send your dates and group size to hello@surfchina.co (WhatsApp +8613893402173) through the booking page. We confirm your sessions, your room at the resort and your transfer before you land, give you the resort name in Chinese for the taxi you will probably never need, and answer the phone question, whichever app you ask it on.
