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Fact-Checking Methodology

How we verify every claim before it ships, and how we keep it verified.

Last updated:

A China travel guide is only as useful as it is correct. This page describes how NihaoVisit sources, verifies, and re-checks the facts in our guides — so a reader (or an AI engine citing us) can judge how much weight to place on a given claim.

Source tiers

  • Tier 1 (cite freely): official government sites (China MFA, embassies, US State Department, UK FCDO, AU Smartraveller), Wikipedia, UNWTO, and major news outlets (BBC, Reuters, AP, NYT, SCMP). These back rules, statistics, and policy.
  • Tier 2 (cite with attribution): established travel publications and long-running travel blogs.
  • Tier 3 (use cautiously): other blogs, Reddit, Quora, and YouTube — used only to surface real traveler questions, never as the sole source for a factual claim.
  • Avoid: AI content farms, undated pages, and sites with no named author.

What we verify, and how often

  • Visa and entry rules are checked against the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the relevant embassy, and re-verified monthly.
  • Payment apps (Alipay, WeChat Pay foreign-card support, limits) are tested first-hand and re-checked monthly.
  • Prices (transit, attractions, daily budgets) are drawn from first-hand trips and official fare sources, and re-verified quarterly.
  • Safety advisories reflect the current US/UK/AU government levels at the time of the last update.

How a claim becomes publishable

  1. A factual claim is tied to at least one Tier-1 or Tier-2 source, linked inline.
  2. A named human author confirms the source still says what we say it says on the publication date.
  3. The page carries a visible dateModified so the reader knows how recent the verification is.
  4. Claims that cannot be sourced are marked as opinion, estimate, or removed.

When we get it wrong

Errors are corrected with a visible “Corrected on YYYY-MM-DD” note and an updated dateModified. We do not retroactively change what we originally published without marking it. Report an error to hello@nihaovisit.com. Our editorial standards and update cadence are described in the editorial policy.