China - holiday

tribble

I am going on holiday to China for a month in june/july.
TBH it's more of a sojourn as i will be travelling on my own.

Basically i will be landing in Beijing and hopefully headind south for 'bout 2 weeks and then back up north.


Is there anything i should know before going relating to either visa, travel (i haven't booked yet), food, sights, people etc.)?

PS> I don't speak much Cantonese [edit](see colinskys post)[/edit] , yet


b

colinsky

Well, perhaps the first thing you should know is that the official dialect of most of the country is Mandarin, not Cantonese

tribble

Well, perhaps the first thing you should know is that the official dialect of most of the country is Mandarin, not Cantonese

eeeek - now that's what i meant by anything i should know

thanks colinsky

apiou

Tribble, totally agree with Colinsky. Also I would not bother to even try with Mandarin of Guo Yue as it is now called (language of the people.;......) because of the tones. It is not like Irish or English Chinese "languages" have tones, Mandarin has five but "only" four used normally and Cantonese has a whopping nine tones, so if you think of the meaning of this you will realise that instead of saying ta or anything else you may be telling them something woefull (don't remember how that should be spelt). Mandarin takes three years to learn and Cantonese five so if I were you I'd let that one go.

If you are going from Pekin down south I would no longer call that China but different China's as each region has a different "language" and culture, AND I MEAN DIFFERENT.

For me, your best best would be to pick up a book or two in some of the book shops in Ireland and read thorugh them before going.

Be careful of your money, and be way careful of taking road transport in China - you will be far safer in trains.

Other than that, it is a fab country and the food is FAB, do not ask what you are eating, just eat and you will enjoy.

Enjoy your trip, Enjoy China (s).

Heh Colinsky, maybe we should get our travellers to write a report on their thread when they come back, we already have threads on Hong Kong, Japan, Australia, Spain, and now China, What do you think........Hey Colinsky, :cool: :cool:

tribble

ta for that apiou -

1 question - how much do the trains cost?

I'll pick up a few books on the other stuff...


b

apiou

Trains are not expensive - you will pay more than the Chinese because you are a Foreigner (a long nose in Mandarin and aghost man in Cantonese - just to show you the difference in the languages) but really they are not expensive - can not give you prices off hand - you can also eat cheaply on the trains. But I am serious about road travel - China has a heafty problem on its hands with the road safety problem.
If you know when you will be going to different places it is cheaper to reserve your hotels from Europe. You can stay in 5 star hotels for sometimes just 40 quid a night - it is all about knowing in advance.
If you have any other questions, just ask

Coyote

How much money have you too spent?
You can live for as little as €10-15 a day but that can cut down on your fun, so a little more means more choices.
I was travelling over there for 6 weeks last summer, your not going to learn any meaning full amount of Chinese before you go but a few words make all the diff in being you a better traveller if you can at least say thank you.

Trains are a cheep and good way to travel, Beijing to Xi’an is 17 hours and Xi’an to Chengdu is 14 hours, soft-sleepers cost about 2 times as much as a hard-sleeper.
I had one of the best meals on the Train.
Hard-sleeper is 6 bunks open to the corridor of the carriage. With a small mat on your bunk. You can go soft-seat or even hard-seat but it’s not work the saving of €10 on a 17 hour train ride. (soft-sleeper Beijing to Xi’an is about 55 Irish, Hard-Sleeper about 30) working off memory so might not be just right on the price.

As for places to stay, I travelled over 4000 miles by train and bus and never booked anywhere to stay, Just turned up and found somewhere. Most places I stayed cost from €1 to very max €15 (nearly all under €8-10) Unlike most places you travel. In china you can be alone as a western much more that if you travelled to somewhere like Vietnam or places with more tourists, and some thing to note is that Chinese people can stare at you. Just warning you as it freaks some people out.

Get the Lonely Planet for China it’s just about the best book on China for travelling around. Make sure to go places not listed, like just getting on a bus to go see somewhere.
Apiou is right about Chinese buses, one bus I was on the brakes stopped working as we were going down a mountain, had to wait for a other bus to come along. And an other bus I was on going over a mountain range for 13 hours the steering was slowly failing, they temp fixed it ever 2-3 hours.

Get a small phrase book with English/Mandrin/Pic of the word. this way you know what it is, you can try to say it, and best of all you can show it to people. Learn to finger count (inside Lonely Planet, makes bargaining for water and things easier.
You need to bargain for ever thing, do your best but do not be rude. you make more in one hour that they do in a full week of work.


If you want to book a place to stay then try these guys.
They book from inside china and get much better rates. On ever thing from 5 star to a hostel.
SinoHotel.com

If you have any Q that i can answer just ask.

Coyote

apiou

Coyote, you were lucky - already this year i don't know how many busses have fallen over bridges, run onto the other side of the road, fallen down mountains etc and not just the busses from the country side - even the HK China regular bus, that's why I opt out of that one - on saying thank you Sheh Sheh is fine in Mandarin cos it is thanks for everything, in Cantonese Daw Che is thanks for a present and MGoii is thanks for a service (eg in a restaurant when you are been served ) now the problem with that is - as my brother found out when he insisted that I teach him how to say MGoii in a Chinese rest in Dubiln is that he ended up telling the waiter that he was stupid - because he used the wrong tone........ nice eh - stick to Sheh Sheh
Ttribble, you will be over there July August, hot very hot - if you want to sleep well - choose your hotel well as most of the cheaper hotels do not have air conditionning - and Peking is scorching in August.

colinsky

Originally posted by apiou
Heh Colinsky, maybe we should get our travellers to write a report on their thread when they come back, we already have threads on Hong Kong, Japan, Australia, Spain, and now China, What do you think........

Well, I'd like to hear about other people's holidays

I've only spent a week in Beijing, scheduled around a conference, so I'm not the best suited to make suggestions as to what to see. I've been longer in HK -- about a month total, and I lived in Japan for about 3.5 years, so I'd be happy to make suggestions around those ends.

tribble

xièxie !

Thanks guys -

I honestly don't expect to make it back alive so i'll try to keep what you all said in mind (might survive that bit longer;) )

Seen as i'll be carrying quite a bit o' money around (and not staying in posh places that take credit cards) - should i carry cash/travellers cheques/ credit card/ salt/ beads etc.

once again (i need practice) xièxie !

apiou

heh Tribble, forgot one thing - Make sure that your visa corresponds to your pasport. Look at your visa properly. I got stuck for over an hour a year ago when I was with a group of 29. At first I just let be but after an hour I got a bit fed up and started speaking to them in Chinese (I try to avoid that at the border as I do not want any problems with the fact that i speak the lingo) anyway the problem that they could not solve was that some of the visas did not correspond to the pasports (look at full stops - big letters small letters etc). Our pasport number is easier than a lot as it is just one letter and numbers - but they WILL stop you if the visa is not filled in properly. Out of the 29 most had errors.
Nothing else for the moment.

davros

You don't have to learn the language before you go but, if you have a good ear for this stuff, I recommend you learn how to pronounce Chinese (Mandarin).

When you have that, you can buy tickets, jump into taxis, find your way to major sights, etc. Phonetic Chinese (the excellent 'pinyin' system) is included throughout the Lonely Planet. Mandarin works all over China (though it is not the only language spoken, as apiou points out).

Get a book (a phrase book should be enough) and a Chinese person (there are millions in Dublin alone; offer a language exchange). One or two weeks are enough for you to nail it.

Tones are easy. We *do* have them in English. E.g., the first two Chinese tones are:

High tone, as in Homer Simpson's 'Doh!'
Rising tone, as in the final word of 'Are you talking to me?'

Also:

Train (and bus and plane) ticket prices are the same for foreigners and Chinese. The government changed policy on this a few years ago.

Dollars (crisp and fairly new) and travellers' cheques are both fine all over China. I imagine euros are good now too, but I can't swear to it. Credit cards are pretty useless outside top class hotels.

Coyote

Credit cards will not buy you any thing in a shop but they are very useful. In the main "Bank of China" of any town they will give you a cash advance on your credit card. (in the bank or useing them atm) So if you put the cash in before you go then you do not have to carry it all around, and it's a small charge.
All you need is your pin number, your card and your passport.

Still bring some Dollars, and keep some cash hidden in your backpack and on your self,

Some good ideas. Make two copes of ever thing. Passport. Air-tickets, visa, insurance. keep one in your backpack and one in your day bag.
you may never need them but if you lose any your stuff you will be so glad of them.

werid enuf I was able to get txt msgs in beijing china. and make calls, but not in most of china, worked on some networks but not others.

Coyote