scratch me

Travel guides and videos from Ireland

First time in China?
Scratch here first.

Step by step guides for the things nobody explains before you fly: the arrival card, Alipay, visa-free rules, trains and metros. Filmed on the trip, written down so you can follow along at the airport.

Start with the China guidesSubscribe on YouTube
Newest guideChina arrival card on a PC, step by step

Upload your passport, let the form fill itself, save the QR. Read it

Start here

China first-timer guides

Each guide is the video plus the full written steps, so you can read it without sound. Facts checked against official pages, with the date we checked them.

Rules change, so every guide is dated
Cover of the China arrival card guide for PC, number 14 with a passport and an entry stampGUIDE 14
VIDEO + STEPS3 MIN

China arrival card online, step by step on a computer

Upload your passport, let it fill the form, save the QR. Every screen shown.

Read the guide
 Cover of the China arrival card guide for Alipay on a phoneGUIDE 14
VIDEO + STEPS3 MIN

China arrival card in Alipay on your phone

The same card through the Alipay mini program, for people who do it on the way.

Read the guide
 Cover of the 13 things before China guide, with the 200 yuan fee cardGUIDE 13
VIDEO + CHECKLIST6 MIN

First time in China: 13 things to set up before you fly

Visa-free list, arrival card, Alipay and WeChat, cards, cash, trains, maps, packing.

Read the guide

From the road

Shanghai, mostly at night

What we filmed, turned into the practical answers: how to get there, when to go, what it costs.

All videos
The Bund in Shanghai at night, gold lit buildingsGuideThe Bund at night: how to get there Nanjing Road neon shop frontsGuideNanjing Road: when the neon is on Shanghai skyline from the Huangpu river at nightGuideRiver cruise: which pier, which ticket Shanghai at night as one roll of filmPhoto setOne roll of film Shanghai Circus World stage with aerial silksGuideERA show: tickets and how to get there Shanghai Circus photo dump coverPhoto setCircus photo dump

Next trip

December: Chengdu, Chongqing, Xi'an

Pandas, hotpot, a metro that runs through a building, and the Terracotta Army. The guides from this trip land here first, then the videos.

CORK- - -LONDON- - -CHENGDU- - -CHONGQING- - -XI'AN
Natali in her studio, smiling at the camera
Natali, somewhere with a camera

About

A maker from Ireland who travels with a camera and a lot of curiosity

I make things for a living and film the trips in between. The scratch card is the idea: a place stays hidden until you scratch it, then it is all there. These pages are the parts I wish someone had written down for me.

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