China is one of the most rewarding places I know to travel as a gay person — huge, modern, layered, and far friendlier on the ground than the headlines suggest. But it runs on its own digital rails, and the things that make a trip smooth are almost all things you set up at home. Get the prep right and the rest is easy. Leave it to the airport Wi-Fi and you'll spend your first night frustrated. Here's exactly what to pack, grouped so you can tick it off.
1. Phone & connectivity (do this first)
This is the part people get wrong. Many of the apps you rely on every day — including the gay ones — don't work on the local network, and it is genuinely hard to set up a working VPN once you're already inside the country. App stores and download pages for VPNs are often unreachable from within China, so you want everything installed and tested before you board.
- Install a reputable VPN and actually test it at home — connect, load a blocked site, confirm it works. Have a second one as backup. More on this in our guide to using Grindr and a VPN in China.
- Download your gay dating apps before you arrive — both Western apps and the China-based ones travellers use locally.
- Buy and set up a travel eSIM before you fly. Some roaming and eSIM routes also handle data differently from a local SIM, which can be a quiet bonus.
- Note down key numbers, addresses and your hotel details offline, in case an app won't load when you need it.
One honest caveat: no VPN is guaranteed, and performance varies by city, network and day. Treat connectivity as something to plan around, not something to assume.
2. Payments
China is close to cashless, and a lot of daily life — taxis, metros, tiny restaurants, vending machines — runs through a phone. The good news is that foreign cards now link to the big two apps much more easily than they used to.
- Install Alipay and/or WeChat Pay and link a foreign card before or right after you arrive. Walk through it in our China payment guide.
- Carry a small amount of cash as a backstop, plus one physical card.
- Bring your passport — it's needed when you check in to hotels, which are required to register foreign guests, and occasionally for SIM or payment verification.
3. Health & medication
None of this is medical advice — talk to your own clinician — but a few sensible habits make a big difference.
- Bring enough of any personal medication for the whole trip plus a buffer, in original packaging, with a copy of the prescription and ideally a short doctor's note explaining what it's for.
- If you take PrEP, bring your own supply from home — don't plan to source it locally. Carry the prescription, check the rules for what you're bringing, and confirm before you travel. We cover this in HIV and PrEP travel to China.
- A basic kit: pain relief, anti-diarrhoea tablets, rehydration sachets, plasters, hand sanitiser, any allergy meds, and condoms/lube (easy to buy locally too, but nice to have day one).
- Check whether any medication you take is restricted, and never carry anything for someone else.
4. Power & tech
China uses 220V. Sockets commonly take the flat three-pin (Type I) and two-pin (Type A) plugs, so a universal adapter covers you everywhere.
- Universal travel adapter — ideally two, one for the bedside and one for the bag.
- A decent power bank. You'll lean on your phone constantly — maps, payments, translation, apps — and a flat battery in a cashless country is a real problem. Keep it in carry-on per airline rules.
- Charging cables, a multi-port charger, and headphones.
5. Clothing
China is vast and the weather swings hard by region and season, so pack for where and when you're going — check our notes on the best time to visit before you finalise the bag.
- Layers for the day, comfortable shoes (you'll walk a lot), and weather cover for the season.
- One smart-casual outfit for nights out — the bars and clubs in the bigger cities can be stylish, and it's fun to look the part.
- If you're hitting saunas or gyms, pack accordingly; flip-flops and a small towel earn their place.
6. The discreet side & your documents
China is generally safe day to day, and most travellers move around without any trouble. How visible you choose to be is personal, and it shifts with context — a cosmopolitan club versus a small town, a private room versus a shared space. A little discretion is simply good travel sense, not fear.
- Think about app privacy: a discreet profile photo, app lock or hidden-app settings, and a quick way to switch screens if you'd rather not show what's open.
- Keep meeting plans sensible — meet new people somewhere public first, tell a friend where you are, and trust your gut.
- There's no need to hide who you are; just read the room, as you would anywhere.
And the paperwork that keeps it all running:
- Passport with the correct valid visa or eligible entry, plus a couple of photocopies kept separately and a photo on your phone.
- Travel insurance details, including anything health-related.
- Hotel bookings and addresses saved offline (and screenshot in Chinese characters — handy for taxi drivers).
- Prescriptions and your doctor's note, emergency contacts, and a spare passport photo or two.
Do the digital prep before you fly and China opens right up. The rest is just packing.
