Travelling to Beijing, good or bad idea?

c50

hi guys,

myself and a friend of mine are intending on travelling to Beijing mid-september after an odd notion we both got thinking it'd be an awesome idea. theres a few things about it i'm questioning and looking for guidance on.

theres 2 with a possibility of a third looking at going. we're both 18 but we've both got money saved up from working. it seems to be a lot of money but compared to a sun holiday and boozing the whole time itd probably only work out at a few 100 euro more expensive in the end. so first question being, for 2/3 18 year olds whos only experience of travelling solo to berlin last year, does it seem like a bit much, language/culture change etc.? we're almost definitely going but somebody with experience there seem to think otherwise? how hard are the likes of collection from airport to hotel to organize and is it expensive generally?

we went into trailfinders in cork today who worked it out at about 1200 pp for flights, hotel, travel to and from airport and 2 days of the 7 overall with a tour guide for great wall and the other for tour of the city. is it better to pay for the likes of trailfinders and have it all done with? skyscanner is working out for flights under 700 per person with ethihad from dublin but might be hassle to have to arrive and get the linking cab etc.

I've been told a visa takes about 3 weeks to clear there so decisions have to be taken rather quickly. Last question being is there ever any problems for visas to china and what sort of price are they?

any help appreiated even if its just a few questions answered as i'm aware its rather long winded. thanks in advance

killbillvol2

Someone is giving you bad advice.

Firstly, a visa takes 4 days. Only problem is you have to apply in person at the consulate in Dublin (well you can send someone with the application but you can't do it by post). It's €40. Link

Trailfinders price is very high. Book the flights separately. Getting from the airport to central Beijing is easy. You could use the metro if your hostel is near a metro stop or else take the metro to somewhere close and get a taxi. Just have the hostel name in Chinese on your phone and you'll be fine. Beijing taxi drivers are pretty honest and will use the meter.

After you get to your hostel, let them organise any tours you want. It'll be a lot cheaper and it's a good way to meet other travellers. Forget about hotels. Chinese hostels are excellent and will organise anything you need. You'll also meet other travellers more easily. There will be plenty of young Chinese there who'll help you out with any language issues. They're also great value. Hostelworld has a good selection.

Getting around Beijing is easy and the metro is very cheap. The big sights are very easy to get to individually so you don't need a tour.

Go for it - China is a great country and Beijing is a fascinating city.

whomitconcerns

i went there on my own a few years ago...flights with air france, taxi from airport, just print off address of place you are staying (in chinese of course) and show to taxi driver. After that metro is in english and chinese so is easy, and you can get tours fairly handy if you want but forbidden city you dont need one. For great wall you should get one alright as well as any "jade factories" or pagodas. Nice place for one off trip

Shanghai is where its at though!

steveLFC24

I would agree with everything that killbill has said. Book everything separately, it will work out cheaper. I have found that farecompare.com always shows the cheapest possible flight. Hotels are relatively cheap, a comfortable 3 star hotel will cost no more than 50euro a night, in most cases even less. I haven't stayed in hostels in Beijing so I can't comment on what they're like. The hotel I stayed in was called the 161 hotel, and was only 30euro a night. It was a lovely hotel and in a good location.

Tours are very easy to organise yourself, and probably cheaper. Central Beijing is full of places offering tours for all kinds of places. Like KillBill said, the visa takes nowhere near 3 weeks. You can actually get it the next day (rush service) if you need to, although that's about 20 euro extra. Bare in mind you need to have your flight and hotel details with you when you you apply for the visa. The visa application place is on the merrion road.

I've been to other parts and China and Beijing (and Shanghai) are the easiest to get around...both in terms of transport and the amount of people who speak English. I've been to other smaller cities where finding someone who speaks English can be quite a task. China is also probably the safest place I've ever been, or at least that's the impression I got when I was there. So that is another thing to take into consideration. On a final note, the people are very friendly and will be more than willing to help you with any problems you have. Just don't be expecting any sun, I didn't see a hint of it when I was there. Just grey and very very warm :pac:

whomitconcerns

and dont accept any invites to Tea ceremonies or student art shows on the street (especially if its the last day of either :P)! Only an issue in Beijing in my experience

killbillvol2

+1 on safety. The only place I've been that's safer is Japan.

As for hostels, you'll get a very good one for a lot less than a hotel. With the added advantage of shared information. Actually, a few young Irish lads would he a big hit with Chinese girls so they'd be mad to hole up in a hotel. Unfortunately I'm way past that stage now

patrickmooney

It's very safe. I walked and took the metro everywhere. Expect no-one to speak English, very little "open" internet and folk will take pictures as you will stand out. I loved it there.

c50

all of yere advice has been very helpful guys. We will be doing it one way or another at this stage, just the two of us. it seems more likely we'll go with trailfinders for handiness sake because neither of us have much experience travelling but i had though of printing of names in chinese etc. we didnt know what to expect hotel wise i.e is a three star hotel like a slum in comparison to a 3 star here, thats why we felt comfortable with radisson blu being an internationally set standard.

trailfinders are very pushy when it comes to getting the money and when asked if we could hold off for the last part and pay roughly 75% we were pretty much told no. i know ye say it'd be cheaper but to be honest it doesnt look by much. flights on skyscanner- €700. Didnt properly check hotel prices but it looks like €50 for something similar per person a night.

with trailfinders theyre at €1121 w/o insurance (approx 65) and visa's (theyre asking €73 and wondering if worth paying the €33 for handiness sake or not?)

thats flights, hotel, tour of city, tour to great wall, pickup and dropoff. i think we will probably go with them any they do seem relaxed about being able to press the dates forward a bit for us.

thanks a million for all the help. it seems like a great country for safety except the one thing mentioned! One last thing, Visas- is the €33 for zero hassle worthwhile or in reality is there pretty much no hassle?

steveLFC24

c50 wrote: »

all of yere advice has been very helpful guys. We will be doing it one way or another at this stage, just the two of us. it seems more likely we'll go with trailfinders for handiness sake because neither of us have much experience travelling but i had though of printing of names in chinese etc. we didnt know what to expect hotel wise i.e is a three star hotel like a slum in comparison to a 3 star here, thats why we felt comfortable with radisson blu being an internationally set standard.

trailfinders are very pushy when it comes to getting the money and when asked if we could hold off for the last part and pay roughly 75% we were pretty much told no. i know ye say it'd be cheaper but to be honest it doesnt look by much. flights on skyscanner- €700. Didnt properly check hotel prices but it looks like €50 for something similar per person a night.

with trailfinders theyre at €1121 w/o insurance (approx 65) and visa's (theyre asking €73 and wondering if worth paying the €33 for handiness sake or not?)

thats flights, hotel, tour of city, tour to great wall, pickup and dropoff. i think we will probably go with them any they do seem relaxed about being able to press the dates forward a bit for us.

thanks a million for all the help. it seems like a great country for safety except the one thing mentioned! One last thing, Visas- is the €33 for zero hassle worthwhile or in reality is there pretty much no hassle?

Well if you can't find cheaper flights on your own then I guess the price is OK. I can't speak for every hotel in Beijing, but the two hotels I've stayed in (one 3 star and one four star) have been absolutely fine, quite nice in fact. If I remember correctly, I paid roughly 30-35 euro a night for the 3 star, and about 65 for the 4 star. So 50 is somewhere in the middle. Just jump onto trip advisor and read some reviews, should give you an idea of what its like.

However, I would certainly not pay them 33 euro just to get the visa. It's a very simple process. Go to the embassy, Q up for about 5-10 minutes and just hand in your trip details and passport. She'll simply give you a date to come back and collect the visa (3-4 days). You pay by postal order when you collect it. Completely painless. Bare in mind though that its only open from 9am til noon.

c50

steveLFC24 wrote: »

Well if you can't find cheaper flights on your own then I guess the price is OK. I can't speak for every hotel in Beijing, but the two hotels I've stayed in (one 3 star and one four star) have been absolutely fine, quite nice in fact. If I remember correctly, I paid roughly 30-35 euro a night for the 3 star, and about 65 for the 4 star. So 50 is somewhere in the middle. Just jump onto trip advisor and read some reviews, should give you an idea of what its like.

However, I would certainly not pay them 33 euro just to get the visa. It's a very simple process. Go to the embassy, Q up for about 5-10 minutes and just hand in your trip details and passport. She'll simply give you a date to come back and collect the visa (3-4 days). You pay by postal order when you collect it. Completely painless. Bare in mind though that its only open from 9am til noon.

i get yeah, thanks. one thing, and the info on the embassy website seems scarce and i cant make proper sense of it, not described very well IMO- i'm in cork and from what i can see the embassy in dublin, would this mean scanning passport and details to an email address?

steveLFC24

c50 wrote: »

i get yeah, thanks. one thing, and the info on the embassy website seems scarce and i cant make proper sense of it, not described very well IMO- i'm in cork and from what i can see the embassy in dublin, would this mean scanning passport and details to an email address?

Ahhh OK, apologies, I thought you were based in Dublin. In that case you are better getting trailfinders to do it for you. As far as I'm aware you can't apply by post, only in person. Someone else can apply for you in person though, so that's what trailfinders would be doing. They will tell you exactly what you need. 33 euro is cheaper than 2 trips to Dublin

c50

steveLFC24 wrote: »

Ahhh OK, apologies, I thought you were based in Dublin. In that case you are better getting trailfinders to do it for you. As far as I'm aware you can't apply by post, only in person. Someone else can apply for you in person though, so that's what trailfinders would be doing. They will tell you exactly what you need. 33 euro is cheaper than 2 trips to Dublin

ahh maybe thats the miszsing link that i wasnt clicking about on the website. cheers :-) cheaper than 2 trips and numerous hours on the train for sure. well thanks for the help anyway

hfallada

I was in Beijing 3 weeks ago so here is some pretty up to date info. The public
Transport in all cities closes at around 11 pm and doesn't start until about 5/6 am which is means emirates are useless to fly with( learned it the hard way as I was staying in Tianjin 150 km from Beijing and had to get relative to pick us up at 2am and drive for 2 hours instead of 30 mins on the high speed train).

Use hotels.com as the reviews are really helpful and you can get coupons/specials to get really cheap hotels. I got an amazing studio apartment in shanghai for around €45 per night. Public transport is 2 rmb which is 25 cent per journey. Every major tourist attraction (pretty much all) have a subway station.

But the biggest issue was pratically no one in Beijing speaks English. A lonely planet Beijing book is essitential. But it's very safe for westerners even if you can't see police the chances are they are there but you just don't know it.

You can see the great wall on your own with 90 min train ride to badaling which only costs €1,5 return for the train and the entry tickets were reasonable. Nothing in Beijing is for free. But most things are cheap enough.

We brought RMB from boi college green Dublin on the spot( we were lucky as someone had just sold some) . But you can order it into any boi branch with 2 weeks notice. Plus euro can be converted in rmb at any bank. Visa card is useless when buying things and you to use an atm first.

Beijing is well worth visiting. Shanghai is impressive but missable. But I don't think it's worth flying for such a long distance for one city. I would nearly save up and go do Bangkok or Vietnam as well since you are in Asia. You can do all the major attractions in beijing in 5 days if you stay focused.

c50

hfallada wrote: »

I was in Beijing 3 weeks ago so here is some pretty up to date info. The public
Transport in all cities closes at around 11 pm and doesn't start until about 5/6 am which is means emirates are useless to fly with( learned it the hard way as I was staying in Tianjin 150 km from Beijing and had to get relative to pick us up at 2am and drive for 2 hours instead of 30 mins on the high speed train).

Use hotels.com as the reviews are really helpful and you can get coupons/specials to get really cheap hotels. I got an amazing studio apartment in shanghai for around €45 per night. Public transport is 2 rmb which is 25 cent per journey. Every major tourist attraction (pretty much all) have a subway station.

But the biggest issue was pratically no one in Beijing speaks English. A lonely planet Beijing book is essitential. But it's very safe for westerners even if you can't see police the chances are they are there but you just don't know it.

You can see the great wall on your own with 90 min train ride to badaling which only costs €1,5 return for the train and the entry tickets were reasonable. Nothing in Beijing is for free. But most things are cheap enough.

We brought RMB from boi college green Dublin on the spot( we were lucky as someone had just sold some) . But you can order it into any boi branch with 2 weeks notice. Plus euro can be converted in rmb at any bank. Visa card is useless when buying things and you to use an atm first.

Beijing is well worth visiting. Shanghai is impressive but missable. But I don't think it's worth flying for such a long distance for one city. I would nearly save up and go do Bangkok or Vietnam as well since you are in Asia. You can do all the major attractions in beijing in 5 days if you stay focused.

thanks for yet another input :-) so do you mean you can use visa but most places dont take it or that its actually not accepted? can double check that with bank when getting RMB but with tsb myself

roundymac

Get your RMB at an atm in Beijing airport. Saves a lot of messing around. Our laser cards worked just fine back in 2009.

roundymac

If you want to see another city in China why not fly to Xian and go see the Terracotta, Warroriers it's an incredible experience. Shanghai is nice, I liked it, better than Beijing.

Axel Lamp

It is the Best Idea Ever

whomitconcerns

yep i did beijing..train to xian....train to shanghai...train to beijing.

Wasnt backpacking now but just regular class trains...very handy overnights..Xian excellent city..but not very english friendly. Have a good city map.

bewhiched

Guys enjoyed reading this very interesting indeed when would be the best time to visit? Thanks

roundymac

I was there this time of year, Beijing 35C with 100% humidity, savage. Xian was not much better, Shanghai was more temperate, I would say september whenit should start to cool down would be a good time.

InTheTrees

We did the overnight train from Beijing to Shanghai. Great cabin and great service. Fun.

I agree about the heat. Go in Spring or autumn. Really.

One tip we found useful. Have an english language map as well as a chinese language map because when you need directions people wont understand the English map so you have to correlate them together with the chinese map.

c50

InTheTrees wrote: »

We did the overnight train from Beijing to Shanghai. Great cabin and great service. Fun.

I agree about the heat. Go in Spring or autumn. Really.

One tip we found useful. Have an english language map as well as a chinese language map because when you need directions people wont understand the English map so you have to correlate them together with the chinese map.

great idea, thanks

thegreatgonzo

I spent 3 days there in May. The hostel I stayed in (Peking International) was great, staff really helpful and I was able to organise tours and onward travel from there. But word of warning, very few people in Beijing speak English and if any Chinese approach you and have very good English run for the hills because it is some kind of scam. I was travelling alone so I was a beacon for really friendly girls wanting to practice their english on me. Rickshaw drivers are another shower. I agreed a price with one, and then I was brought down a deserted alley where he added a few zeros to the price I'd agreed to. He was only a little fella though so I was able to get away quick enough.

relaxed

I'll just put this out there - I would go to Hong Kong rather than Beijing.

c50

relaxed wrote: »

I'll just put this out there - I would go to Hong Kong rather than Beijing.

from an outsiders view i would have to disagree with that based on people i know who have been there. why would you travel to the other side of the world to see a british colonized country which is westernized? might as well go the full hog and experience something completely different...

thegreatgonzo

I loved Hong Kong, it was friendly, unpolluted and really easy to get around. It's not westernised in the way that say somewhere like Dubai is, it's just very accessible for visitors. Also it's not claustrophobic like Beijing, the harbour is nice and Stanley is nearby for a bit of seaside fun. But I was only in Beijing for a few days, it wasn't for me but it could be someone else's idea of a great city. I preferred Chengdu over Beijing also, I thought the people were so much nicer there and it was easier to get around too.

InTheTrees

Beijing is amazing, but I agree if you're going all that way try and take in Shanghai as well. Its an amazing city, a combination of old colonial french and british (parts of it are like old Marseilles and parts are like the city of london) along with crazy sci-fi neon modernity. Oh and the old traditional parts are being bulldozed as quickly as they can so its a good time to see it.