Trip To China: Planning Tips and Tricks
light487
October 03, 2008, 03:43 AM posted in General DiscussionHey..
So I have started to plan my trip to China that will happen around March 2009. I was wondering if anyone knows of any decent websites where I can find cheap accommodation all over China with reviews by people who have stayed there before etc? I'd prefer single rooms, not dorms.
I want to stay in Shanghai for a week, Wuhan for a few days and generally get a feel for different areas of China and where I might like to actually live within the next 5 years. I am not going anywhere near Hong Kong or Beijing on this visit as I am just not interested in those cities. I want to check out Shanghai because I have heard and read so much about it. Same goes for Wuhan.. Other than that, I am easy..
I am trying to workout how much a 3 week holiday is going to cost in terms of living expenses as well. In Sydney it would probably cost me between $100 and $200 a week if I ate take-out food for every meal and generally kept myself comfortable, interested, busy etc. I assume that it's not going to cost that much in China... but how much less.. this is the real mystery to me.
Thanks for all suggestions and tips.
light487
October 04, 2008, 12:27 PMWell.. I went to HostelsWorld.com and found their brilliant little trip planner.. looked up some stuff on Wikipedia along the way and listened to all of your suggestions. I have come up with a preliminary route:
Start in Shanghai then travel to Wuhan, then to Chengdu, then to Xi'an, then to Beijing (why not? I'm in China.. might as well at least go there for a day or two), then down to Jinan, straight past Shanghai to Hangzhou and then finally back to Shanghai.
I don't know how plausible this is.. or whether or not the routes are direct or not. If the train goes through a place along the way to any of those places where you think I should stop for a day or two, please let me know. Or if you can think of a better route to follow (due to directness of the trains) also please let me know.
I only have 3 weeks, 4 weeks maximum, so I don't want to be rushing around everywhere trying to see everything.. so 5 or 6 main stops would be the limit I'd think.. may be I haven't done enough travelling to know how boring it is to stay in one place or not?.. anyway.. at least I now how some semblance of a plan..
RJ
October 03, 2008, 10:30 AMChangye has said it very well. Very true.
sushan
October 03, 2008, 10:39 AMWell, there's always couch surfing. (I would be really interested in how to express this concept in Chinese, anyone?)
The Jinjiang in Chengdu is expensive (Y700 or so a night) and with small, stale smelling rooms. For Chengdu:
Basic hotel or single room in hostel with own room and bath - Y150-250
Own room in hostel, shared bath - Y50-80
Dorm in hostel - Y15-30
Meal at nicer place or western restaurant (usually with picture or English menu) - Y50-100
Eat at McDonalds or KFC - Y20-30
Local diner style restaurant or Taiwanese chain (good Chinese set meals, nothing fancy) Y10-25. Chinese ability or some way of navigating language barrier is important.
Bowl of noodles or wontons, or plate of fried rice - Y3-8, same as above for Chinese ability
Fill up on street snacks - Y1-4 order and pay with hand signals
cab ride from centre of town to most attractions within city limits Y10-30
bus trip Y1-4
light487
October 03, 2008, 10:44 AMYeh.. I hear you loud and clear changye.. That's what I am going to be doing between now and then. I've already started doing spoken tutoring on skype which is 1 hour every day and trying to cram as much learning in as I can every week.
If you don't mind me asking, rjberki, how much would you end up spending in a week in Shanghai?
bababardwan
October 03, 2008, 11:57 AMlight,
I don't have the great man on the street advice like above but did find a couple of interesting web articles you may be interested in if you haven't seen them already.This first one shows that Shanghai is considered the 24th most expensive city in the world [cf Sydney at 15 on the same ranking system;so that's good news at least,relatively speaking ].The link is:
http://www.mercer.com/costofliving
Also found plenty of forums/articles on the cost of living in China such as this one:
http://www.china-briefing.com/news/2008/05/14/
survey-cost-of-living-
in-eight-chinese-cities.html
Sorry ,but that last link wouldn't fit properly in the text box.
However ,nothing beats the excellent advice from the members of this community so I hope you get many more posts here.Sushan's couchsurfing link is excellent as I hadn't come across that before.So once again we all benefit from these posts.Good luck light.
sebire
October 03, 2008, 12:21 PMLight, I had a budget of 300 kuai a day, but I was staying in dorms. In total, I spent about £400 for 4 weeks in China, including HK. I travelled around by train mainly, though I got a sleeper bus once. I couldn't fly on that budget.
I often found places on hostelbookers or hostelworld, which have all sorts of accommodation, not just hostels (though the hostels in China are quite hotel-like, what with there being no kitchens and people making your bed). I have never been disappointed with accommodation off those two sites, and they are much more reliable than any guide book. The hostels will also have private rooms, not just dorms. I think the Chinese hostels are good, definitely better than hostels in Australia! You don't need any language ability either, they all spoke English where I stayed.
I would definitely go to Beijing, it's really interesting there, and although Shanghai is fun, there are more things to see. I mean, compare: Forbidden City, Great Wall, Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven, etc, and Shanghai has... the Bund and the Yu Gardens. Hehe. Anyway, it doesn't take that long to get from Shanghai to Beijing, just get an overnight train and save on the hotel bill ;)
tinyrock
October 03, 2008, 02:19 PMSebire, how much did your plane ticket to China cost?
£400 for 4 weeks? Wow, sounds like I have an idea for what I could do after graduation...;-)
sushan
October 03, 2008, 02:41 PMFor domestic flights and hotels, www.elong.net
They have reviews but only on the Chinese language sister site, which is www.elong.com
March is one of the best times to visit imo; it's well past the craziness of Chun Jie and the weather is very good.
light487
October 03, 2008, 10:57 PMdajia hao!
Thanks for all the responses so far. It has given me lots of stuff to look into. I guess I don't mind dorms in the sense that I would mind sharing, it's just I haven't done the whole "backpacking" thing before and I'll be in China by myself. Single rooms with shared bathrooms would be fine.. I don't need anything perfect.. just somewhere I can feel safe to fall asleep. And I guess I would feel a lot safer in a private room.
Thanks for itemising a few of daily costs for me Sushan, and sebire for letting me know that a budget holiday is possible. :) And thanks for all the links everyone.. I just don't really know where to start now.. lol
UPDATE: Oooh.. just been checking out the couch surfing site.. it's really good! Exactly what I was looking for in a holiday.
changye
October 03, 2008, 09:37 AMHi light,
The less expenditure, the more Chinese communication ability you need. Just try to study Chinese harder than ever so that you can enjoy "inexpensive" travel to China. Good luck!
sebire
October 03, 2008, 11:28 PMI have to admit, I've never felt unsafe in any dorm I've ever stayed in (and there have been many), even in mixed dorms, though if there were more men then women, it stunk like hell (unless the men were Chinese or Japanese, I suppose they don't sweat much). I think I'd feel safer at a hostel than couch surfing! But Light, the hostels will have cheap private rooms too, and it's a great way of meeting people, including young Chinese people. Backpacking around China is loads of fun, because not that many Westerners see it as a backpacker destination. Most of the Westerners I met in hostels were teaching English and were just taking the opportunity to travel. I particularly liked China as a backpacker destination because there just weren't half as many British people out there purely to get utterly wasted...
Tinyrock, it may have been a bit more than £400, I suppose I was budgeting £20 a day, so it's more like £560, I just know I spent £800 in 7.5 weeks, so yes, I suppose it is more than £400. As for flights, I had a round-the-world ticket, which is definitely the way to go if you're going to more than a couple of countries. However, I did see a flight to Shanghai from London the other day for £180 (presumably pretax) in a travel agent's window in London. I usually see them going for around £230-280.
light487
October 04, 2008, 12:22 AMYeh the flight is the biggest figure.. at the moment the March 2009 are coming to roughly $1100 to $1200 Australian dollars (incl. taxes). That's essentially 2 weeks wages to put it into perspective.
The reason I liked the idea of the couch surfing thing is that I want to see how these people live and get by in their lives. As you may or may not know, my goal is to be living in China within the next 5 years teaching English... so I want to be sure I understand what it is really like to live there first, as much as I can.
I'lld definitely be doing more of a backpacker thing than a suitcase tour guide thing.. travelling extremely light etc
bababardwan
October 04, 2008, 12:35 AMlight,
nice pun in your last sentence;are you aiming for 487g or something?
light487
October 04, 2008, 12:50 AMlol.. it was not intentional :P
tinyrock
October 04, 2008, 06:37 AM@sebire Ouch... I suppose then it would be cheaper if I travelled to Britain first and took the plane to China from there! So far, I've only ever seen offers at appr. 600£.
darlingniki
October 04, 2008, 08:39 AMHey Light.. I have been to China several times. This last time for a year. I don't love Beijing and didn't think much of Shanghai either. Bother were too modern for my taste. I loved Xi'an. Its a mix of very old and modern. Its like a big city that doesn't know its a big city. There are some amazing sights there. The Terracotta Warriors, The Banpo Neolithic Village, Big and Small Wild Goose Pagottas. It is the oldest of the ancient capitols and still has its inner city walls fully intact. You can rent a bike and ride on top of it. You can take a 2 hour bus ride to Hua Shan Mountian. It is one of Chinas 5 Sacred Mountains. The tradition is to climb it at night and reach the east peak at sunrise. As you watch the mountain awake you will be amazed at its beauty.
From Xi'an you can go to Chengdu as was previously mentioned. This is the home of the fames Panda sanctuary. Lots of other cool things to see here too! From there you can go to ChongQing and catch a three day 3 Gorges Tour.
The hostels are a great way to go. They are often much cheeper then hotels and do offer private rooms. Most importantly the hostel employees are much better then traditional hotels at assisting foriegn travelers and offer super cheep tours that arn't cheesy like traditional tours. If you decide to go to any of these places let me know. I have freinds at the hostels in the areas. I have friends in Xi'an also who love showing outside visitors around Hostelworld.com is a great way to check the places out as well.
Another final area I suggest does require a bit more skill in Chinese. Not sure what your level is but venturing in Henan is not as user friendly as some of the other more touristy places. Henan is home to the 1,500 year old Shaolin Temple, The Longman Grottos(look this place up...it is breathtakingly beautiful) and Kai Feng(also an ancient capitol)
Im so excited for you!! Whatever you decide I hope you have a fantastic time!!
light487
October 04, 2008, 10:38 AMWow.. some great ideas. Thanks.. See these are all things I just don't know.. China is such a big place I can't do everything at once, even though I want to. Those places you mentioned seem like as good as any to start with and then I can still spend some time in ShangHai and WuHan. How much time do you recommend I hang out in Xi'An and ChengDu?
sebire
October 04, 2008, 11:48 AMTinyrock, where are you based? You want to find an Asian specialist agent for the best prices. Those prices I quoted were special offers from specialist agents. Price comparison websites are rubbish. You should head to you local Chinatown and see what you can find there. Taxes are really expensive though, according to one site, London - Shanghai taxes are around £285! Including taxes, this site quotes £405. Not bad, I reckon.
Light, I had a brilliant time in Xi'an, despite the CPod staff being underwhelmed by it! However, this was probably because I met a couple of people previously also heading that way, and I had a friend out there, so basically it was fun because I had really good company. I wouldn't say Xi'an was particularly pretty, but I ended up staying 5 nights there, whereas I only spent 3 nights in Shanghai. I got a 16 hr overnight train from Xi'an to Shanghai, which wasn't too bad. I didn't go to Chengdu (next time!) but I did head down to Yangshuo, where the landscape is just crazy. However, it's quite touristy. I think next time, I definitely want to go to Sichuan and Yunnan. I think if you don't have a fixed itinerary, I would just turn up somewhere and if you get bored, move on, rather than worry how long you want to stay here or there. However, you do have to book train tickets in advance, so don't think you can turn up on the same day and get one. And Xi'an train station has crazy queues!
changye
October 03, 2008, 11:10 PM春节, Chinese New Year's day, in 2009 is on January 26th. For the record, it was on February 18th in 2007.
RJ
October 03, 2008, 09:05 AMLight, Shanghai is not cheap. I just got back from 3 weeks in China and I usually spend in a day what you hope to last you a week. There are cheaper places to stay, and if you ate street vendor food, I guess it could be done. It depends on your definition of comfortable. Factor in many cab rides or learn the subway.
Jinjiang is a chain and there are several in SH. They are clean and "cheap" but not hostel cheap. Kind of like motel 6 I guess.
http://www.jinjianginns.com/en/?Language=Res_English
Im sure you will get plenty of advice from others but every time I go to SH I am struck by how much prices keep going up. Saying SH will be cheap is like saying New York city will be cheap.
You will love SH but dont factor out Beijing. I love Beijing as well. Quite different but nice in its own way.
Oh, and there are plenty of McDonalds and KFC.
It would be nice if someone started a list of places to stay and the approximate cost with a short critique. Light, maybe you can start a group like this?