DESPERATELY NEED CHINA ADVICE

Hi Bally from what i have heard it shouldn't be an issue going yourself, i always think tours should only be considered if necessary, after all wouldnt you rather go at your own pace and go with the flow?

Thx Mike Reply to this

Where do you want to go in China ? Travel in China ? If is Guangdong province ,I can give you some suggestions . Reply to this

Bally,

The trains are extremely cheap and given your itinerary - which is very similar to what ours was - a tour is definitely not required. We didn't go to Hong Kong but these are the prices we paid for each leg of our journey and a rough guide to the time involved (all prices are for two oneway tickets):

Beijing to Shanghai - we splashed out here and took the train "Z5". The trains numbers beginning with Z are China's ultrafast, ultra modern and ultra clean bullet trains but they only run on some routes i.e. Beijing to Shanghai or Shanghai to Hong Kong. It also included dinner, toothbrush, slippers...! I think it only had softsleeper and was RMB1058 (£71.40). It was overnight - roughly 12hours.
Shanghai to Huangzhou (supposedly China's most beautiful city) - RMB88 (£5.80); short journey in Soft Seater.
Huangzhou to Xi'an - RMB890 (£58.68); Overnight in Soft Sleeper (approx 27hrs).
Xi'an to Chengdu - RMB581 (£38.31); Overnight in Soft Sleeper (approx 18hrs).

The conversion to £ is obviously based on the exchange rate at the time.

They are easy to get on you just have to make sure you know which station the train leaves from - Shanghai and Beijing both have two stations. When you buy your tickets you should ask which station you need to go to. Usually the trains board about 30minutes before departure and each train has its own waiting area (you just need to know your trains number to identify it) in the station where passengers wait. If you do go Soft Sleeper - we didn't realise until our last trip - there is actually a seperate lounge so that you don't have to mingle with the masses if you don't want to.
You should get to the stations probably an hour before the train leaves because there is a queue outside each station as everything goes through security scans (airport style) before you can get in. We never had to wait too long in these queues but its better to be safe than sorry. The queues are part of the reason it can look so busy outside the stations - just don't be daunted - walk straight up to the front of the building look for the security staff and join that queue.

When they call the train for boarding it will be obvious because all the trains have electronic boards at each waiting area that signal boarding. It will also be obvious from the mad dash to get to the gate. The Chinese love to be first - think Christmas sales times five and you're there. If you've opted for the Soft Sleeper lounge you can avoid this chaos as you are seperately escorted by staff to the train. If you do face the scramble to get aboard don't worry. We joined in several times and had no problems. The crowd just gently carries you along to your waiting train. Alternatively, just hang back a bit, let the main body of the people go through and then tag along at the back somewhere.

When you're in Beijing, use the Metro system it's excellent and really cheap. I think it's just RMB3 per ride (20p) and it's really clean and efficient.

Feel free to ask any questions you like - more than happy to try and help.


Bob & Vik.
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Yes ,Bob & Vik had give the detail you want . And you can laugh at my poor English ,some words for short I didn't know, such as LOL , Z . Z is the time before dawn ? I want to help the people who travel in my country ,but it is not easy . Reply to this

My wife and I, both in our 60's, spent 5 weeks traveling independenly from Beijing to Xi'an, Chengdu, Chongqing, Guilin, Yangshuo and Longsheng. At no time did we feel unsafe. We made most arrangements in country as we went and had no problems. China has been one of our best travel experiences. Just follow the same travel safety advice you'd use anywhere. We know several couples who took the crammed 2-week package tour and we wouldn't trade places with them for anything. Reply to this

If you are comfortable with independent travel we encourage you to avoid an organized tour. See our post above - If we can do it, you can do it. Before we went to China everyone, including our Chinese neighbors, tried to convince us to be safe and go on a tour. I can't begin to tell you how glad we are that we didn't take the advice and traveled, instead, independently.
As for the language, you won't have a problem. All areas and activities that are tourist related are staffed mostly by young college students who are studying English. Here's a few communication tips that got us by during the 5 weeks on our own:1. If you book accomodations online print out a copy of the Chinese address to give to the taxi driver. 2. When you get a hotel, each of you should take a business card and keep with you. You can give it to the taxi driver if you need to return to your hotel. 3. Going somewhere - Have your hotel, etc. write out the Chinese address for your destination and use that for the taxi driver. (use only metered taxies) 4. In a restaurant - they often have pictorial menus. If not, it is acceptable to browse the customers' dishes and point to something that looks good. 5. An excellent travel book is the "Point it" guide, a small book with thousands of photos for traveling, eating, accomodations, medical, and most everything else you may need. When everything else fails use the "Point it" book. It came in handy for us when we couldn't get across that we needed a bathroom.
With the proper preparation and confidence we found that traveling in China was no more difficult that traveling in Europe. Go for it!!!! Have fun and enjoy.
Feel free to ask questions.
Roy and Ann Reply to this

I think its funny the idea of being unsafe or harassed in China. Been living here for 4 months now. Never felt safer in my life. Pickpocketing is the only thing you need to worry about, and that just comes down to common sense.

Getting by in Chinese IS an issue as people mentionned above.

If you are travelling just the two of you I recommend the following: 1. Take some lessons on how to read pinyin. Its not the same phonetic pronunciation as reading english (and the tones) so reading from your phrase book can be useless. Often, they will take the book from you, sound it out themselves and try to make sense of it. A few lessons will greatly improve your chances of being understood.

2. Practice up on Charades. I take 3 hours of Chinese Lessons a week, its improving tons, but it still comes down to Charades quite often. Fortunately, most Chinese find this really fun.

3. You can hire english tour guides everywhere! I agree you will miss the importance of much of what you are seeing with just a guidebook. But just line up to buy your ticket for the Forbidden City and student tour guides will offer to take you around (negotiate the price please) or you can pay at the ticket office for a live guide, or audio guide. ALSO, I find the staff at hostels have pretty good English and can help you learn a lot about your local area.

The Chinese people are beautiful people. I'm trying really hard to understand HOW you could be harassed??? I'm thinking that maybe they mean that in Beijing or really touristy places, they can be aggressive in the markets (Silk Street for example). But just walk away! Nothing is going to happen. Maybe they mean taxi cabs??? Most are great, just make sure its a real taxi and they turn on the meter (never agree to a price before you leave, its a sure fire sign you are going to get gauged), but I don't see this as a big deal. Maybe people mean the staring? You get stared at a lot as a westerner. Its curiosity, the Chinese are very curious people, expect them to ask lots of questions, sometimes we consider them very personal (I've been asked my weight and salary but I just let them know I'm uncomfortable and they get all embarassed). I can't imagine what they mean...

My biggest warning would be to learn to pay attention when you hear somebody clearing their lungs, I've had a few spits land dangerously near my shoes...

Anyway, I recommend Chengde - just North of Beijing.

Happy Travels Reply to this

So many information about China!! But I think, if you want your tour more comfortable, it's good to travel alone or with your companies, Do not Join in the package tour group, if so ,you will find your trip is just follow the pace of others and spend a lot of time in shops, and sometimes you can just only have a glance of the destination which you want to have a deep trip. So I think a solo trip would be fantastic through you may meet some troubles caused by the communication. Meanwhile, a suggestion for you . Before you leave to another destination, Please make a reservation of the hotel and transportation. As mentioned above, if you want to book a ticket of train, YOU have to take a long time to queue and sometimes you have to face a case of many people come around to watch you, (which makes me uncomfortable). SO just find a travel agency, especially those serve for Foreigners to help you making the reservation. That would be fine for your trip. Reply to this

Bally,

I will be travelling on my own to China in April also, I wont be doing a group tour, I think its best to experience these things yourself since you are free to go and do what you want although it might seem daunting. Most of the posts that I have read regarding travelling on your own seems to have the same opinion. :-) Reply to this

Just to follow up on this, I had an amazing time in China and and no trouble at all, no pickpockets, nothing stolen, only fantastic friendly people. Maybe people trying to sell things, mainly hassling on The Great Wall but apart from that it was cool.

I have to say the trains are by far my favorite mode of transport, especially the bunks that are open and you dont have a private compartment, you really get to mingle with the locals and experience how they travel, amazing experience, I seriously want to do it again sometime! Had some unforgettable moments getting to the restaurant cars and talking (or at least trying to communicate in one way or another) to people along the way, priceless. The only thing with that is though, if you are on your own just make sure you dont leave any valuables in your bunk, but I wouldnt do that in any country I travel, just common sense I guess. Reply to this