About NotesFromChina
China Travel, Without the Confusion
Why NotesFromChina?
China is vast, ancient, modern, chaotic, and beautiful — often all at once. For overseas travelers, it can feel overwhelming. Language barriers, cultural differences, and the sheer scale of it all make planning a trip daunting.
That's where NotesFromChina comes in. We share honest, practical travel stories and guides written from real experience — not glossy brochure material, but what it's actually like to hike the Great Wall, order street food in Chengdu, or navigate a Beijing subway at rush hour.
What You'll Find Here
- Detailed itineraries — from 3-day city breaks to 2-week adventures
- Food guides — what to eat, where to find it, and how to order
- Cultural insights — understanding customs, etiquette, and history
- Practical tips — visas, transport, payment apps, SIM cards
- Honest reviews — attractions worth the hype (and ones to skip)
Our Philosophy
Travel should be authentic, accessible, and memorable. We believe:
- Honest recommendations beat sponsored content
- Local experiences beat tourist traps
- Good preparation makes for better adventures
- The best stories come from getting a little lost
Who Writes
Lin
Chinese traveler who has spent years crisscrossing the country by train, bus, and the occasional donkey cart. Writes first-person travel stories from villages, minority regions, and places the guidebooks forgot — the kind where things go wrong, people are unexpected, and the best moments aren't in any guidebook.
Brennan
American, 30, splits his time between the US and China. Not a blogger, not a guide — just someone who has spent enough time on the ground to know which payment app the noodle stall actually accepts, why your hotel's heating doesn't work in January, and what to say to a DiDi driver who can't find you. Writes about the stuff English-language guides never mention because they were written by people who don't live here.
Flora
British, 23, fresh out of university on a gap year. Planning her first trip to China, which means she has watched too many YouTube videos, read too many outdated forum threads, and is roughly 40% excitement and 60% low-grade panic about payments, SIM cards, and subway navigation. Writes for everyone who has ever stared at a Chinese app screen and wondered if they were about to delete something important.
Mercier
French, from Lyon, former restaurant kitchen hand turned freelance writer. Has come to China four times, each trip built around a single cuisine. Once spent 27 hours on a train to Lanzhou just to watch a man pull noodles. Does not write about restaurants. Writes about dough elasticity, fermentation timing, the calluses on a dumpling master's hands, and what happens in a Chinese kitchen at 4am.
About the Publisher
NotesFromChina is published by Haibo Mo, a China-based independent publisher and long-time observer of how overseas travelers experience the country. He built this site to close the gap between what guidebooks say and what actually happens on the ground.
Contact: hello@notesfromchina.com
Ready to explore?