China - General

Money
Bargaining is the norm for everything except tours and most often accommodation but you can try. You should always ask if there's a discount , you may be suprised when people just say yes and give you a lower price.
China has a standard exchange rate which is set by the government so you never have to shop around for a better deal to change money. Banks and hotels have the same rate. We generally withdrew from China Bank ATM's which have a daily withdrawal limit of 2000 yuan. There were Citibank ATMs in Beijing and Shanghai which has a higher withdrawal limit and lower charges for our Citibank card.
We always paid everything in cash and didn't change any money other than left over Hong Kong Dollars. Any notes bigger than 50 yuan are always checked and tatty notes won't be accepted. Sometimes people will refuse money if they don't have change so it's best to have small denominations.
We did not find people trying to short change us or rip is off.
Tipping is not really expected in mainland China.

Transport
We mainly travelled long distance by train in China. They have an efficient system to everywhere other than Tibet (which is being worked on). You can look up the train numbers and times in English at Chinese Railways which is useful but don't look at the prices. China has an old system that you can only purchase your ticket from the originating train station and only 4-5 days in advance. Try to find the Foreigner ticket office (although this doesn't mean the person can speak anything but Chinese!). Sometimes it's worth paying the extra for your guesthouse to arrange it but check your tickets carefully as sometimes they'll book two people in separate carriages. We travelled hard sleeper for all trains and requested the top bunk which is cheaper and means you can sleep when you want. It was basic but clean until people started spitting on the floor which is not great when you're on a middle bunk and can hear the guy above you building up a big on to drop to the floor past your head! Bedding was provided and you were given a card in place of your ticket which was collected before you disembarked.

There is a direct international train from Beijing to Kowloon in Hong Kong and back which takes only 24 hours. You do your passport checks before boarding and it's a good quality train and hassle free.

As usual for all train travel, www.seat61.com has great info.

We flew from Xi'an to Shanghai and bought the ticket through a travel agent at our hostel. They were able to call up the airline and find out the discounted prices for the nest few days. You may find the next day is a 20% discount, the next 40% and after that 15% so it's worth doing this in advance so you have a few days to work with. Air travel in China is changing rapidly so new budget airlines are opening up.

We did one bus ride from Yangshuo to Chengdu which was a nightmare. 26 hours on an upright seat (which was sold to us as being like an airline seat). TV playing in Chinese all the time. Other people we know have taken comfortable buses along the East Coast for cheaper than the train.

Safety
We found China to be a very safe country to travel in. We had no problems walking at night. We were careful always keeping our passports and bank cards on us in a money belt and our other valuables locked in our day packs.

Communication
Internet Cafe's were fairly common other than Shanghai. Many hostels had their own computers. All places had fast broadband connections. However, censorship is a major factor whilest being online in China. Many websites are blocked, with only a cannot connect message. BBC News is blocked but BBC Weather is available. Our website www.julianwood.com is also blocked. Don't know why. Many other sites which you would think would be fine are also blocked. Very frustrating.

International telephone calls are best done with a phone card which can be bought at many places. 50 yuan lasted about 25 minutes to a UK landline.

China Post was reliable when we used it from Yangshuo. You need to be aware of the options before you start posting. Surface mail is cheapest but takes 2-3 months followed by a combination called SAL (Surface and Airmail) then Airmail. Specify you want the cheapest (Surface) beforehand otherwise they will process it as Airmail. You have to have all items available for inspection at the post office and then box them there. You need to fill in a form listing everything you are going to send. We made the mistake of posting items to a few separate addresses which added dramatically to the cost. We would suggest boxing it all up and sending it to one person at home who can distribute it and it will be much cheaper.