Going mobile: A bike rental service in China offers mobile booking and payment through QR code technology. (JP/Benni Yusriza)

Whether it is strolling around the Summer Palace in Beijing, marveling at the collection of more-than-2,000-year-old terracotta sculptures in Xi’an, savoring a halal delicacy in Muslim Street or experiencing nightlife in Shanghai, the experience of traveling in China is not always on par with the country’s amazing digital progress.

A few years back, many people believed that traveling to China was not for the faint-hearted. It took enormous determination and courage, because visitors had to deal with challenges of culture and language.

One important tip for tourists traveling to China was to always remember to bring their hotel card bearing the hotel’s name in Chinese characters to ensure they would be able to return to base safe and sound.

Now we don’t need to do that anymore, because we can turn to various language apps to help us find our way back to the hotel.

Technology, on the one hand, is indeed a blessing for foreign tourists in China, as its assistance makes life easier, especially for first-time visitors.

Tourists can book admission tickets to tourist spots and get transportation services with just a few clicks.

Visitors don’t have to worry too much about carrying lots of cash around, because mobile payments are ubiquitous.

Even a candy stall in the Muslim street in Xi’an displays a QR code that people can scan to pay via a mobile payment platform.

The comfort of traveling brought about by technology is expected to boost China’s tourism industry. The Chinese government plans to promote the use of information technology to facilitate the growth of the tourism industry by 2020.

Under the vision, all tourist areas classified as 4A sites or above will feature free WiFi, audio guides and online reservations. The 4A rating is the second-highest in a five-level assessment system. 5A-rated sites include the Great Wall in Beijing and the Museum of the Terracotta Army in Xi’an.

The plan, announced earlier this year, is to increase China’s annual investment in the tourism sector to 2 trillion yuan (US$300 billion) by 2020, up from 1.3 trillion yuan in 2016, according to Xinhua News Agency.

However, not everyone is happy about being fully dependent on technology in China, where the digital ecosystem is subject to the government’s strict censorship policy.

Google is blocked and so are social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and recently authorities banned the hugely popular WhatsApp chatting service, making it difficult for people to make contact with others when they are in China.

Visitors usually have two options to stay connected while in China: Either they download a virtual private network (VPN) app to get around the barriers or download the software for the local platforms.

For example, China has Baidu instead of Google and Weibo for social media.

Social media addict Rio Ardhillah says it is killing him not to have access to his Instagram and YouTube accounts from China. The 22-year-old Indonesian YouTube celebrity did download a VPN app but still failed get access his social media accounts from China.

“It is not cool to be [disconnected] like this,” he said, adding that he did not want to try the local platforms, as he was not familiar with them.

Indeed, using local platforms can be tricky. Almost all transactions in China are carried out online via local mobile payment apps. For foreign tourists, using those unfamiliar systems is a steep learning curve.

It is also a security issue for those who feel uncomfortable about giving away their credit card credentials to unknown parties in a foreign country.

One infrastructure facility for travelers is a bicycle-sharing system that allows people to explore different places by bike.

At a cost of $0.14 per hour and a deposit fee of $43, the system allows users to pick up a bike and leave it anywhere.

But as the Post experienced, it is not easy to get the bikes unlocked, because doing so requires a smartphone app connected to an online payment system that seems to be designed for locals only. Repeated attempts to access the service proved to be in vain.

In addition to technological challenges, a major problem China must tackle to achieve the 2020 target is preparing the locals’ mentality to create a comfortable and friendly environment for tourists.

Local people cutting the line instead of waiting their turn was a very common sight during
the seven-day trip organized by The Jakarta Post and Tenggara Strategics. Showing no sign of guilt, some locals just moved ahead, leaving behind people who are waiting patiently at train stations, museum entrances or lavatories.

Another challenge for travelers are China’s dirty bathrooms. Indonesian photographer Diera Bachir, 32, likened going to the bathroom to entering a warzone.

“I would just hold it until I find clean toilets,” was her strategy to deal with the issue.

The country’s remarkable technological progress, perhaps, would yield greater benefits to China if it were accompanied by a campaign to improve people’s manners in public places.

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