China/HK anyone been?

Affable

Where is safe? I would love to go to the Wudang mountains, nothern China, Shanghai maybe. Honh Kong too but myabe winter is best cos it's so hot right? Where would you recommend seeing and staying and doing things at?

youcrazyjesus!

China is very easy to get around. You can go from one end of the country to another in a very comfortable sleeper cabin. I would recommend Yunnan province in the SW.

Black Swan

Affable wrote: »

Where is safe? I would love to go to the Wudang mountains, nothern China, Shanghai maybe. Honh Kong too but myabe winter is best cos it's so hot right? Where would you recommend seeing and staying and doing things at?

Visited Hong Kong with my Da when he was giving a conference talk there after the Brits left and the PRC took control. There are good parts of the city, and areas you should avoid at night. For example, I was surprised to find high rise buildings in a part of the city that did not have exteriors, with the plumbing and wiring exposed to the outside. We were there late fall and the temperature was pleasant, but I hear that July can be quite humid and hot (29C), and that January draws cold winds (0.0C) from the interior of China. Shopping in Harbour City mall is awesome!

Affable

Blue_Lagoon wrote: »

Visited Hong Kong with my Da when he was giving a conference talk there after the Brits left and the PRC took control. There are good parts of the city, and areas you should avoid at night. For example, I was surprised to find high rise buildings in a part of the city that did not have exteriors, with the plumbing and wiring exposed to the outside. We were there late fall and the temperature was pleasant, but I hear that July can be quite humid and hot (29C), and that January draws cold winds (0.0C) from the interior of China. Shopping in Harbour City mall is awesome!

Is it mostly English speaking?

Black Swan

Affable wrote: »

Is it mostly English speaking?

Although the native language is Cantonese, it was a British Crown Colony for 99 years up until 1999, so yes, no problem getting about with only English.

Davidth88

Been to China and Hong Kong quite a few times.

Both are very safe , in Hong Kong you will see a policeman virtually on every street corner.

One tip , if you are visiting somewhere by taxi , ask the hotel to write the destination down in Chinese , no taxi drivers ( or at least none I found ) speak / understand English at all, and they won't understand even a basic name of say a hotel. For that reason I would also have your hotel's card ( in Chinese ) in your pocket too.

The driving out there is totally and utterly MAD , if you are in a taxi/bas or whatever close your eyes

Enjoy , I love going to China , its a great place.

MrMatisse

From my experience of mainland china very few people speak english. Only young people are even likely to speak english and the further inland you go the less likely even that becomes.

Shanghai is very nice, a really modern city with an infrastructure which puts dublin to shame. I felt very safe there. There is also a high speed rail link to Hangzhou from Shanghai, which is a really beautiful place. A lot of Chinese seem to go on Holiday there but very few foreigners.

Im off to HK in July and have been told it will be roasting. Apparantly there is a nutter going around at the moment throwing bottles of acid into crowds but im sure he/she will be found soon enough.

Davidth88

I would second Hangzhou.

I have been there 4 times , wonderful city.

Is there a high speed rail link ? There was a maglev link planned , and a maglev from Pudong to Shanghai. I always took the bus from Pudong to Hangzhou.

I love China , but can't get on with the food ... too many bones !

LCD

Shanghai in particular is nothing special, you could be in any Eastern city. Beijing is much nicer, plus Great Wall of China is relatively close by. HK is like a 24 hour shopping center, worth seeing but not amazing.

MrMatisse

Davidth88 wrote: »

I would second Hangzhou.

I have been there 4 times , wonderful city.

Is there a high speed rail link ? There was a maglev link planned , and a maglev from Pudong to Shanghai. I always took the bus from Pudong to Hangzhou.

I love China , but can't get on with the food ... too many bones !

The Maglev has been built and is up and running, super fast and good value.

Davidth88

WHAT.... the Maglev has been built between Shanghai and Hangzou ?


Thats incredible, it was only planned when I was last in Hangzhou about 2 years ago.


I know the Maglev is working between Pudong and Shanghai , but thats only 19km

spurious

Get out of the cities as much as you can.

MrMatisse

Davidth88 wrote: »

WHAT.... the Maglev has been built between Shanghai and Hangzou ?


Thats incredible, it was only planned when I was last in Hangzhou about 2 years ago.


I know the Maglev is working between Pudong and Shanghai , but thats only 19km

Yep, still have kept the ticket from it in my passport. Those boys dont muck about.

Supercell

I was in HK in March. its really clean and full of ex pats, most people there speak some English as a result. Its a fantastic place but will be hot as hell at this time of year. Highly recommend a trip on the cable car up to the "big Buddah" statue, really amazing ride. Ocean Park is pretty cool too.

Another consideration is that its now the rainy season so southern China and HK will be wet, they even get cyclones there from time to time.

In mainland China, especially the south, dont expect anyone to speak English at all. Some of the younger kids might know a few words as they learn it in school, but a few words is all you can expect, older people forget about it!

YunNan province is supposed to be beautiful, and as its pretty high up won't be so hot at this time of year - I'm going there in August.

There is a fast clean train from HK to Guangzhou which is the capital of Guangdong province. The city is very badly polluted, much worse than Beijing in my experience, but the Cantonese food there is to die for, its utterly fantastic and if you like to try new things its worth a trip for just that reason.
Though again it wil be wet and hot as hell there at this time of year. The Asian games are in Guangzhou next year so there isa big cleanup operation going on in the city but its a mammoth task.

Wherever you go you'll have a fantastic adventure, China is like no other place.

otron

Would recommend Xi'an, which was the original capital and it much more authentic feeling. This is where the Teracotta Warriors are.

We found Beijing to be a bit too artificial - after having a giant paint job for the Olympics. The 'great' wall was like it's own Las Veagas mock up (the touristy bit we saw anyway),

My big recommendation would be Yangshuo - stunning Karst fields, nice little town and people that actually speak english(!!). If you've seen that advert on TV at the moment (I think it's for HSBC bank) where the fisherman on a river uses a kingfisher to pull out the fish - this is near Yangsuo (actually taking the boat from Guilin to Yangshou is the best way to see it).

In terms of Hong Kong, this is like diet China ... or China zero - so far removed as to be a different place. Still interesting though - since it's much more accessable in terms of language, food and everything else it could be a decent introduction to the country, or a welcome, easy finish.