Hà Trạch

Understand

Many people in Heze have never seen a foreigner. The local dialect is more widely spoken than standard Mandarin. Native Chinese speakers typically have no trouble with the dialect, as it is similar to the Beijing dialect, but it can prove challenging for non-native Chinese speakers.

Get in

Heze has a long distance bus station and a train station.

Get around

It is possible to get around the city by bus, but they shut down on major holidays such as during the Chinese New Year. Cab rides are very inexpensive: about ¥10 will get you most places in town. If you are going to one of the surrounding villages, cab rides are often around ¥150. It is also possible to get around much of the city by walking.

See

There are some nice paths and bridges along the river. Heze is famous for its peony blossoms.

Eat

Dumplings are one of the specialties of northeast China, and are common in Heze. Heze also has a surprising number of Sichuan restaurants.

Drink

Heze Melon Juice (菏泽瓜汁): Heze is renowned for its melon production, and you can find freshly squeezed melon juices such as watermelon juice and cantaloupe juice.

Connect

Emergency numbers: 110 - Police, 119 - Fire, 120 - First aid, 122 - Traffic accidents

Heze's area code for landlines is 0530, adding a "0530" at the beginning if calling from outside of the city. For international calls add +86, the country code for China.

Heze has many Internet cafés .Most of the bars that cater to the expatriate community and many of the foreign-based fast food chains — Starbucks, KFC, McDonald's and likely others — offer free WiFi. Many hotels also provide free WiFi service. The Great Firewall of China blocks popular web services including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google, and Yahoo. Some of the websites that are partially blocked include Wikipedia, BlogSpot, WordPress, and Tumblr. To overcome these restrictions, travelers use VPN services that unblock these favorite websites. VPNs also help travelers to access Public Wi-Fi Hotspots securely.