Tips (as in money) on the China trip

[LynnetteeSpaghetti]

Hey ABD gurus - I need an answer to the tipping question for our guides. In your experience in China recently, did you tip both guides in US dollars? Did you have the ability to tip them via epayments?
I didn’t want to bring too much currency into the country in USD if I don’t need to. I can get China currency when I arrive but not sure if the guides will want that. Anyway I’m hoping to get a recent traveler to tell me how it went for them as to topping in usd vs China yuan

 

[sayhello]

Honestly, the answer could depend on the individual Adventure Guide, how long they plan to be in China (if not Chinese), etc.

Not recent, but when I went in 2017, none of the "cash apps" or epayment apps were allowed in China. I believe that's still true. They are *very* strict about what apps they allow their people to use for pretty much everything. I'm 99.9% sure Venmo, Zelle, Apple Pay, etc, aren't allowed there, and PayPal is very restricted. From what I've read, most in China use Alipay and WeChat Pay. I don't know if you can get those apps in the US. So this affected tipping our Chinese Adventure Guide.

I paid our American Guide using PayPal, and got Chinese Yuan for our Chinese Guide at an ATM near the last hotel.

Honestly, the best idea in my experience is to wait until you get there, and ask the Adventure Guides how they prefer to be tipped. The whole process has been made ridiculously complex and awkward. I still don't understand why ABD does it this way.

Sayhello

 

[LynnetteeSpaghetti]

I got the Alipay app now so I can use that if there is a local guide.
Thank you!

 

[sayhello]

I got the Alipay app now so I can use that if there is a local guide.
Thank you!

Oh, yay! Glad that helped! I believe one of the Adventure Guides on this trip is always Chinese.

Sayhello