Is China Safe? An Honest Guide to Scams, Streets and Staying Out of Trouble

Published 2026-10-18 · 71Asia Tours

The short answer

China is the safest country I travel in regularly. Violent crime against visitors is rare, and I have never met a traveller who was mugged here. What I have met is the small stuff: a stranger who wants to buy you tea, a driver quoting a flat fare instead of switching on the meter, a "student" who would love to practise English in a gallery selling expensive paintings.

So: yes, safe, and still worth paying attention. The risks are not the ones your friends at home are imagining.

What everyday safety looks like

Cameras are everywhere, police boxes sit on most corners, and convenience stores stay open all night, so someone is nearly always awake. Stations screen bags, hotels register every guest. Lost things come back more often than you would expect: I have had a wallet handed in at a station in Xi'an and a phone returned by a shop assistant in Chengdu.

The flip side: people carry their phones loosely, so snatching happens in dense crowds. Wear a cross-body bag in front, not a backpack behind.

The scams that still work on foreigners

The tea ceremony invitation

The classic, still running around Wangfujing and Sanlitun. Two well-dressed students strike up a conversation, suggest a tea tasting, and lead you to a teahouse where the bill lands between 600 and 2,000 yuan. Locals do not recruit foreigners for tea. Decline at the first sentence; if you are seated already, ask for a price list and call 110 if they pressure you.

The art student

Somebody's teacher has an exhibition, it closes tomorrow, would you come and give an opinion? You end up among mediocre paintings with a price list and a pitch that gets less polite by the minute. Common near 798, on the Bund, and around Xi'an's main squares.

Taxis with no meter

At airport and station exits, someone will ask "taxi?" before you reach the official rank. Ignore them, use the queue, or book DiDi through Alipay. In a legitimate cab the meter runs before you pull away. If the driver says it is broken, get out.

"The site is closed today"

Rickshaw drivers near the Forbidden City and at Great Wall car parks have used this line for thirty years. The attraction is open. What is closed is their interest in your ticket: they earn commission delivering you to a jade workshop. Check the hours yourself.

Paper tickets from touts

Major sites sell real-name tickets through official WeChat mini programs or passport scan at the gate. A man waving printed tickets outside has nothing you can use. This matters at the Forbidden City, the Terracotta Army and Zhangjiajie, which sell out on peak days.

Where your money is exposed

Not in the street, mostly. Card skimming at standalone ATMs is the one to watch: withdraw inside a bank branch and cover the keypad. In busy markets, count your change before walking away. When someone shows you a payment confirmation on their phone, wait until your own app says the money arrived. Keep two cards apart and 300 to 500 yuan in cash.

The real risk is traffic

Electric scooters are silent, fast, and often ride against the flow. Right turns on red are normal. Crossing is a skill: use footbridges, cross with the crowd, look twice even on a one-way street. In Hong Kong and Macao traffic keeps left, so your mainland instinct will point you the wrong way for a day.

Water, food, and the two-day stomach

Tap water is not drinking water. Hotels provide bottles or a kettle, and boiling is what everyone does. Ice in hotels and mid-range restaurants is fine; at a roadside stall, judge the queue, not the menu. A place turning over two hundred bowls an hour beats an empty one. Pack oral rehydration salts: they turn a miserable night into a manageable one.

If something goes wrong

Police is 110, ambulance 120, fire 119. English-speaking operators are not guaranteed, so keep your hotel address written in Chinese and hand the phone to a passer-by.

For a lost passport: report it at the nearest police station, collect the loss certificate, go to your embassy for an emergency travel document, then to the exit-entry administration for an exit permit. Budget two to three working days. Insurance will ask for the police report, so get one even if nothing was stolen.

City notes worth knowing

• Beijing: the hustle concentrates around Wangfujing and Qianmen. One street back, it disappears.
• Xi'an: the Muslim Quarter is pushy but not dangerous. Ignore street offers of a "private Terracotta Army tour".
• Chengdu: calm, and the teahouses are relaxed. The irritant is overpriced "panda tours" in hotel lobbies.
• Chongqing: steep and easy to get lost at night. Alcohol plus staircases is worse than any criminal here.
• Shanghai: the Bund is pickpocket territory in holidays, and Nanjing Road has the usual touts.
• Tibet: the risk is altitude, not crime. Permits and guides limit everything except your own lungs.
• Zhangjiajie: paths are safe but weather turns fast. Fog, wet stone and a phone in your hand are the hazard.
• Hong Kong: very safe, little tolerance for disorder. Bags get opened in ferry and MTR crowds.
• Macao: casino floors attract loan sharks and "friendly" card players. Decline all of it.
• Taipei: relaxed and walkable. Respect the scooters, especially when you trust a green man too much.

Women travelling alone

Street harassment is less common than in most European capitals, and attention tends to be staring rather than following. At night, use DiDi rather than unmarked cars and stay somewhere with a 24-hour desk.

What I tell friends before they fly

Learn to say no in Chinese, keep your bag in front of you, refuse unsolicited invitations from strangers who speak good English, and treat the road as the one place where you cannot afford to be relaxed. Most people who get into trouble here were not unlucky. They were polite at the wrong moment.

Written by the team at 71Asia Tours, a China-based tour operator with licensed Spanish- and English-speaking guides. Browse all tours · About us · Our guides · Reviews · FAQ