The Women’s World Cup is proving to be a big success here in China and the bandwagon is rolling following the host nation’s dramatic late winner against Denmark on Sunday.

The stadiums are modern and well designed. The Hangzhou Dragon Stadium for example can host football and athletics events with good views – something that was said to be impossible a few years ago.

One criticism would be that it is difficult to find the stadiums, which is also true for the Grand Prix circuit in Shanghai. I found myself at a bus station in Hangzhou on the opposite side of the city to the stadium. Fortunately taxis are cheap but none of the drivers speak English so make sure you have the destination written in Chinese and ideally learn Pinyin pronunciation before you come. China is great for traveling but it’s not Europe and experience is necessary if traveling independently. Organised tours are available which give the feel of independent travel but have a guide who understands the country and speaks the language.

'The authorities in Beijing are working hard to make the visitors feel welcome in next year’s Olympic Games'

The authorities in Beijing are working hard to make the visitors feel welcome in next year’s Olympic Games. There will be many English-speaking guides and the taxi drivers will speak English. You can’t guarantee the traffic of course so get a good map, ideally before you go and prepare for the journey to the venue carefully.

There is something I like about going to a Chinese restaurant before a football match. Perhaps it’s because there is more crowd noise in the restaurant than the stadium. I did this both in Hangzhou and Shanghai. In Shanghai there were two matches and enough time to enjoy a simple Chinese meal between them. In Hangzhou there was an excellent, but incredibly cheap, restaurant directly opposite the venue. There is plenty to do in and around the stadiums so the advice is to arrive early and soak up the atmosphere, enjoying some of the local produce in the process.

Japan received an ungentlemanly reception from the crowd who were nearly all rooting for Germany. Japan didn’t let this upset them and were applauded off at the end by the local fans. Germany came out of the traps and looked for an early goal, giving them a chance to settle quickly and impose their authority on the game. There were a series of promising moves the final pass was lacking causing the attack to break down. This has been a common failing of all of the matches I have seen in this competition. There was a problem on the left side as the very right-footed Behringer couldn’t convert promising field position into goal scoring chances. The substitute, Bajramaj, looked lively but kept getting caught offside.