Trip to China

[nurtsi]

I'm gonna do a small trip to China in the near future. It's going to include at least Shanghai, Beijing, and Hong Kong. Also some countryside stuff in between (the real China?). If anyone has any tips on what to do/see, lemme know. I already found a motel called Yotel QQ 

[Trippy]

I'm gonna do a small trip to China in the near future. It's going to include at least Shanghai, Beijing, and Hong Kong. Also some countryside stuff in between (the real China?). If anyone has any tips on what to do/see, lemme know. I already found a motel called Yotel QQ 

If you want to see "touristy" stuff and can stand the pollution spend the most time in Beijing, with a day trip to the Great Wall from there. There's hardly anything of that sort in Shanghai and Hong Kong. If you can squeeze it in, take an overnight trip (like from Beijing) to Xian and see the Terracotta Warriors.

DO NOT DRINK THE TAP WATER even in fancy places.

[Strazos]

Peruse the State Dept's website, or your country's equivalent if you are not from the US.

Also, if you are from the US, let State know what your plans are over there, to make things easier if something happens while you're there.



If you're not going for a few months, I could come back and give you real info once I get through my Consular training and such.

[Bandit]

I spent about a year on a study/travel term in China.  The advisory to not drink tap water is a good one, but you will most likely get a bug at some point.  You can never trust where the bottled water comes from either.  Usually your best bet is to use the boiled water provided outside your hotel room everyday (for tea).  Don't automatically expect your hotel to have hot water available for showers either....always makes things interesting.

Some memorable tours I went on, a bit different from the typical tourism..

-  Boat expeditions up the Yangtze River (lots of different options for length/time)
-  Buddhist island of Putoshan (beautiful), boats leave from Ningbo
-  Clubbing in Shanghai, you will find why they claim to be one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world
-  Hangzhou/Suzhou are beautful cities just south of Shanghai - where I went to school and spent most of my time, kind of like resort cities
-  Macao is worth the trip from Hong Kong, take the hydro-foil (much quicker).  Macao is probably the only point in my visit where I didn't feel 100% safe - as it is pretty much Triad  run. It is now out of Portuguese control.  I would avoid the Casinos on Macao for that reason.
-  Most of the best adventures came from drinking with locals (domestic beer SO much cheaper) and going out to eat with them later

Food should really never be an issue if you have western cravings, as there is always a KFC nearby - as strange as that sounds.  Breakfast was always the meal I found the toughest to eat, as rice and water (konji - sp?) with pickles and peanuts is tough to put down.  Street vendors with fresh fruit is usually the best way to go.

Cabs are always interesting.  Don't assume they can read a map or read at all.  The biggest mistake people try to do is show pinyin writing to people, even if they can read, they DO NOT read pinyin (translation to alphabet)....they read chinese characters.  You wouldn't believe how many people forget that point.  If a cab driver takes you to the wrong place, don't try to talk it out....it's cheap enough to pay him and take another cab.

Don't overbook temple visits, as most temples are pretty much the same.

You shouldn't have trouble finding english-speakers especially in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Beijing....usually best to tell them your Canadian regardless of where your from.

Always unsettling to give your passport up at some hotels, but never had an issue.  Be prepared to fill out passport forms constantly.

[NiX]

(konji - sp?)

Congee.

....usually best to tell them your Canadian regardless of where your from.

Buy a sticky Canadian flag patch and slap it on something and if you really want to hammer it home grab a Tim Horton's travel mug online and carry it around. That makes you unmistakeably Canadian.

[Broughden]

DO NOT DRINK THE TAP WATER even in fancy places.

http://www.rei.com/product/761906

[nurtsi]

Any experience on the trains? Are they safe/scary? I was thinking of using trains for longer trips.

[NiX]

Using Anime/Hentai as a reference point for all asian culture, I believe you're obligated to fondle large breasted women on the train. Unless you have big breasts yourself, then you should be ready for a world of pain.

[Bandit]

I never had issues with the train.  They are crowded, but not India type crowding.  As for food on the train, beware, just stick to pre-packaged noodles.  The noodles are just like Mr. Noodles, except with about 8 different unknown packets to add in.  My buddy ordered chicken on the train once, and when he opened the container there were 2 chicken feet sitting in there - claws and all.

Booking a train can sometimes be a nightmare, but workable in Shanghai/Beijing - just make sure to book round tickets so you don't have to go through an exercise in frustration booking from a "smaller" centre.

just a tip on souvenirs - you will most likely be amazed at your first stop for souvenirs, but you will soon realize that the exact same souvenirs will be all over the place - probably for much cheaper.  They mass produce those "treasures" like it is going out of style.  Never buy from a gift shop, always pick up off the street.  If you don't know anything about Jade and how to evaluate it then don't buy any of it.

[Oban]

Any experience on the trains? Are they safe/scary? I was thinking of using trains for longer trips.

There are many different classes of train travel in China, so keep that in mind.  The best trains are usually reserved for the Beijing-Shanghai route, and the amenities on board can easily rival trains in Germany and France.  

If you want safe, go with, at a minimum, soft seating or a deluxe sleeper.  

Here is a great site with more information.  http://www.seat61.com/China.htm

I have to say though, if you are looking to travel long distances in China you will be amazed at how cheap internal air fares are.  All the airlines are State owned, so the prices are kept quite low.

If I knew you better I would offer to buy you some drinks in Shanghai next week.  

Enjoy your trip!

(Oh, almost forgot, stay the fuck away from Saunas and Barber shops in Shanghai and Beijing this month, they are all being repeatedly raided before the big celebration.)

[Mosesandstick]

If you want to see the 'real' China be prepared to go way, way, out of the way. Getting to a truly rural area is tough.

Make sure you have your destination written in characters. If it looks like a bunch of indecipherable lines, that's good. That's what people can read, not pinyin.

If you're unsure about water, just drink tea. It's what the Chinese do all day.

It'll probably help if you tell us what you're interested in. History? Architecture? Culture? Food?

Learn a few words. Depending on where you will go there will probably either be a lot of English speakers or none. Prepare to lose all concept of personal space.

[Trippy]

Make sure you have your destination written in characters. If it looks like a bunch of indecipherable lines, that's good. That's what people can read, not pinyin.

It also helps to know the closest cross street and give that information as well to the driver if you are taking a taxi on the mainland. Taxi drivers don't necessarily know their city well. Even in Shanghai the taxi drivers I rode with didn't know where a major hotel was (the Ritz Carlton on Nanjing Xi Lu for those that know the city) even though it was on the main upscale "shopping road" in the city (with one exception, he even took the proper shortcut to get there) so I always gave out the cross street too when giving addresses.

[Tale]

I arrived in China by train from Poland in September 1997, after cycling from London to Warsaw and selling my bike. I had the Lonely Planet guides to Russia and China.

I had learned to read cyrillic to survive in Russia, Siberia and Mongolia, but when I got off the train in Beijing at 3:20pm on a weekday with no accommodation booked and looked at the street signs, I discovered I was fucked. There was no chance of reading anything and the only way to navigate was look at features of buildings.

Like any seasoned traveller, I put on my pack and walked confidently out of the station and up the street. Nobody bothered me. Walked until I saw a hotel and checked in (four stars). Ran a bubble bath and lay in it watching CNN and reading the Lonely Planet guide.

After a week in Beijing and a cheaper hotel, I scrawled Chinese characters for "one-way ticket, first class, Guilin" and spent a night and a day in a carriage full of Communist Party officials returning from a conference, most of whom resented my presence on their train. Got a local bus to Yangshuo, a famous village among the karst mountains on the Li River, and stayed there for two weeks, eating in local places, buying art and cruising the river. Arranged a bus/boat ticket to Hong Kong with a travel agent in Yangshuo, and my trip ended with a standby flight from Hong Kong to Sydney when I got sick.

Recommendations:
* Take the advice above about scrawling down Chinese characters when you need precise communication (take a good guidebook/phrasebook - I recommend Lonely Planet guides, you can also pick chapters). The communication barrier is significant because you are in the world's most populous nation, surrounded by over a billion people to whom English and our alphabet are something exotic used in smaller countries.
* Be respectful. Mandarin is a beautiful, old language. The cultures in China are deep and rich. The cities are modern, but China at heart is old. It deserves respect, and expects respect. Most people are nice, even though their habits may be quite different from yours, but like everywhere beware of the nasty few.
* Going to Yangshuo and surrounding region was a good way to see something rural and beautiful. Yangshuo itself is a traveller's mecca - used to be a little village with a few backpacker hostels, but nowadays it's got hotels and stuff. It's easy to get out of there and go along the river to REAL villages and ride a rental bicycle back to town.

[Trippy]

It's easier now for foreigners who know a Latin alphabet language to get around cause all the major signage has both Chinese characters (hanzi) and the Pinyin Romanization. Even if you can't pronounce the pinyin or understand what it means it still makes pattern recognization far far easier.

Hong Kong is even easier cause all the major signage uses both hanzi and English (thanks to the British).

[NowhereMan]

Hong Kong is an amazing place but remarkably expensive, especially if you're hitting it after Beijing and Shanghai. I can tell you if you're travelling by train a hard sleeper isn't horrible but you'd probably do well to follow the advice given earlier and go for a soft sleeper. Of course it depends how much you care about basic creature comforts vs. cost saving, hard sleepers are probably on the level of a basic youth hostel. Wish I could offer you more advice and I really should considering I've been there before but didn't really do any of the travel arrangements myself. In Beijing I'd advise trying to get to some of the older parts that are still around, they're a bit more of a tourist attraction/disney land thing now (I've heard) but still interesting I think. Definitely get a day trip to the Great Wall when in Beijing and as has been said don't overdo Temples. Unless you're really into Buddhist stuff they're pretty samey. The markets in Beijing are probably worth hitting up, the silk market and the pearl market are both good spots, though no longer fun outdoor markets they're both indoors and somewhat more tightly regulated than they used to be. Still you've got the opportunity to buy some cheap, shittily pirated PS3 games there