About Ethan & LandingIn
Born and raised in Shanghai. Building the guide I wish existed when I watched foreign colleagues struggle to settle here.
Why LandingIn Exists
I'm Ethan, born and raised in Shanghai. For years, working at companies with foreign colleagues, I kept watching the same scenes:
- →A new hire from Germany sat at a police station for three hours because nobody had told him about the 24-hour registration rule.
- →An American colleague couldn't pay at a restaurant because WeChat Pay kept rejecting her foreign card — and there was no easy way for her to fix it on the spot.
- →A friend's parents flew in from France, made it out of Pudong fine, then got hopelessly lost trying to find their hotel — the street signs and cab driver instructions made no sense to them at 11 PM.
Every foreigner landing in China hits dozens of these small frictions. None of them are hard — but nobody explains them clearly, in a language you understand, at the moment you actually need to know.
LandingIn is my attempt to fix that. Bilingual from day one. Tools you can use, not articles to skim. Local knowledge, not translated brochures.
What I Commit To
Accuracy. I live in Shanghai. I re-verify policies and prices regularly. When something changes, this site changes too.
Bilingual by default. Every tool has Chinese you can copy-paste or show to a taxi driver. No translation apps needed.
No dark patterns. No email gates, no signup walls, no ads. Free means free.
Get in Touch
Found a mistake, have a question, or want to share your own arrival story? Reach out anywhere:
Last updated: April 2026