A survival guide for foreigners

How to adapt to China.

A website that might help with your daily life problems in China.

Browse the free guides → Stuck? Ask a local → Find a language partner → Sick right now? →
The Lujiazui skyline seen from the Bund, Shanghai
The Bund, Shanghai. Photo by Martin.
The Bund, Shanghai. Photo by Martin.
Martin in Shanghai
WHOWho creates this website

Hi, I'm Martin.

Read the full story & what this is for →
STARTWhere to go

Five doors. Pick one.

Everything here is free. The only thing that costs money is asking me about your own situation, behind door number four.

01

Daily life guides

Landing, payments, taxis, trains, takeout, paperwork, the seven things you need working in your first week, checked against 2026 rules.

Read the guides →
02

Seeing a doctor

A 30-second "how bad is it" check, plus the full step-by-step hospital guide as a free PDF, triage, booking, the counters, insurance.

Open healthcare →
03

The answer wall

Real reader questions, answered in the open and anonymised, so you can see exactly how I work before trusting me with yours.

Read the wall →
04¥99

Ask about your case

A lease you can't read, a card that won't bind, a hospital visit tomorrow. Send the actual situation and get walked through it in the chat, step by step with screenshots, in 48 hours or your money back.

Ask a local →
05New

The heads-up board

One concrete thing each person wishes they'd known sooner. Read theirs, pin yours.

Open the board →
FAQFair questions

Fair questions.

Is any of this paid?
Only one thing: a private consultation about your own situation (¥99, on the Answers page). Every guide, the triage, and the full hospital PDF are free and stay free.
Can't I just ask an AI all this for free?
Mostly yes, which is why the guides are free. What a search can't give you is someone in-country, current, and accountable to you: an answer checked against how things work this month, for your exact case, from a person with a real name who refunds you if he's late. That's the only thing sold here.
How do the paid answers work?
It's a direct WeChat consultation for ¥99: a private, back-and-forth conversation about your specific situation. Add me (ID martinzhong26), send your situation, and transfer ¥99 in the chat. I accept only when I'm taking your case, and an unaccepted transfer auto-returns within 24 hours, which is built into WeChat, not just my promise. We then work through it in the chat, step by step with screenshots, and a full answer lands within 48 hours of me accepting, or I refund every yuan. Full details on the Answers page.
What can't you help with?
Emergencies, call 120, not me. Medical diagnosis, I'll tell you which department to book and what to say, never what illness you have. Visas and legal status, use the immigration hotline 12367 or your international office. More on the Answers page.
IDEASHelp shape this

What should exist here next?

A guide that's missing, a service you wish you had, an event or meetup you'd come to, tell me. This is anonymous: no name, no contact, just the idea.

Be kind ♡ A real person reads every one.

I can't reply to these (there's nothing to reply to, no contact collected), but I read all of them, and they genuinely steer what I build next. If you want an actual answer, use the Ask page instead.