Naozhou Island

Local hotels

Rooms from ¥100 per night

Airbnb

Various houses across the island

Etiquette

• Greeting: Handshake and a nod; use surnames with a title; avoid: Hugs and cheek kisses
• Face: Disagree privately and indirectly; avoid: Correcting or embarrassing someone in front of others
• Gifts: Give with two hands; expect the gift to be refused once or twice and opened later; avoid: Clocks, umbrellas, white flowers, sets of four
• Business cards: Present and receive with both hands, read it, keep it on the table; avoid: Writing on it or pocketing it at once
• Queues and crowds: Hold your ground politely in scrums at buses and lifts; avoid: Taking pushing personally
• Temples: Walk clockwise around Tibetan stupas and prayer wheels; remove hats; avoid: Touching statues or photographing where signs forbid
• Politics: Listen; follow your host's lead; avoid: Raising Tibet, Taiwan, Xinjiang, 1989 or the party leadership
• Numbers and colour: Red and 8 are lucky; red envelopes carry money gifts; avoid: Writing names in red; the number 4

Scams (China page)

• Tea-house and art-student invitations: Friendly English-speaking students or couples suggest tea, a gallery or a bar; the bill runs to thousands of yuan. Decline and pick your own café.
• Unlicensed airport taxis: Walk past people offering rides; use the official taxi queue, Airport Express or DiDi.
• Fake Great Wall tours: Cheap tours stop at jade and tea factories for commission; book with your hotel or a reviewed operator and ask which section and stops.
• Rickshaw or pedicab price switch: Agree the total price per vehicle, not per person or per kilometre, and write it down.
• Counterfeit notes and change tricks: Check ¥100 notes; paying by QR avoids it.
• Paid lookalike visa and arrival-card sites: Use cova.mfa.gov.cn and en.nia.gov.cn only.