China Ground Rules: Tipping, Toilets, Tap Water & What Surprises Westerners

The questions every first-time Western visitor asks, answered bluntly.

• Tipping: no. Not in restaurants, taxis, or hotels. It's not customary and can cause genuine confusion. Tour guides on multi-day private tours are the one modern exception where it's appreciated (not expected).
• Haggling belongs in markets and antique streets, not in shops with price tags.

• Don't drink tap water anywhere in China. Boiled/bottled only — locals live the same way, which is why every train, hotel, and airport dispenses free hot water and your room has a kettle.
• Street food from busy stalls with high turnover is generally safe and is the point of being here; go where the queue is.
• Restaurant tea and ice at proper restaurants: fine.

Public toilets are plentiful (metro stations, malls, attractions) and mostly clean in cities — but often squat-style, and toilet paper frequently isn't provided (or dispenses at the entrance, sometimes via face-scan machine). Carry a pocket pack of tissue at all times; used paper often goes in the bin, not the bowl, where plumbing is old. Malls and hotel lobbies are the reliable Western-toilet fallback.

• Personal space is smaller and queues can be more contact-heavy; a firm friendly stance is normal, not conflict.
• Staring at foreigners in less-visited regions is curiosity; a smile or nǐ hǎo usually converts it into a conversation or a photo request. You may politely decline photos.
• Loudness ≠ anger; meals are meant to be lively.
• Smoking is banned indoors in principle; enforcement varies in small-town restaurants.

• Carry your passport — required for hotels, trains, many attractions, and random checks in border regions (Xinjiang, Tibet).
• Drones are regulated: real-name registration required, and no-fly zones blanket city centers, borders, and many scenic areas (enforced by geofencing). Research before packing one.
• Photography: avoid military installations, border posts, and airport security areas. At monasteries, never photograph interiors or monks without asking.
• Politics and sensitive history are conversations to receive, not initiate, with strangers.

Violent crime against tourists is genuinely rare; solo female travelers routinely rate China among the safest destinations they've visited. Actual risks: traffic (scooters ride sidewalks silently — look both ways on every surface), pickpocketing in crowded markets at a normal-city level, and tea-house/art-student scams around tourist landmarks in Beijing and Shanghai (any stranger steering you to a specific venue is the tell).

Emergency numbers: 110 police · 120 ambulance · 119 fire. Major cities have English-capable operators.