*China*

Society Travel & Tourism
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Who’s been? I need tips..

Want to do loadss of shopping and travel around as much as possible in 10 days.. I will be on my own and don’t speak the language (yet :D)

Also, I’ll be flying in from Karachi or Dhaka on a UK passport.. I’m not likely to run into problems am I?

(I’ve read that it’s very hard for Pakistani passport holders to get a visa for China.. I don’t have a Pak passport tho)..

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I am not good in giving travel tips i guess. But let me try.

China is a difficult country specially if you do not know their language.

it is huge, and i mean HUGE. in 10 days you can only see 1-2 cities. the cities are so big and so far apart that only traveling from one city to other city takes like good 7-10 hrs, that is by road. If you want to go by air, the tickets are not that cheap. So preplan it, go to google, try to see what places you want to visit and then look for the travel distance between them. i am sure you will be surprised.

Food is problem. I was lucky, my brother was with me, and he was bit familiar with places. We could find Halal food restaurants, they aer very very few though. Again depends on the place you are going to. If Muslim population is very low in that place, then you will really find it difficult to find halal food. Me and bro mostly ate veg pizza at pizza hut. There was no much choice. Reminds me, you can find pizza hut and McDonalds almost easily. They have many branches.

Transportation is another masla. due to their BIGGG population, all trains, buses, taxis are always FULL. You just need to fit urself somhow inside train and bus. Do not think that ok let me wait for another one which may be less full. That is not going to happen.

shopping is not as cheap as we all think. I thought too that i am going to do loads of shopping. I was disappointed. Remember, you need to bargain for each and everything. never ever and i mean never ever beleive the price what they tell you at first. They know you are tourist and they will try to make maximum money from you. if the salesman (usually they are ladies btw) asks you for Yuen 300 for a pair of socks, just say you will give Yuen 30. You will get it for 35 :D - i swear i am telling you from my own experience. There was a shirt i wanted to buy. The lady told me that was for Yuen 500, i was like are you crazy? 500 for this shirt? my bro said, we will give you 50. i thought ok bad idea to bring man to shopping. he is going to lose the deal and i will lose the shirt. we got that shirt for 80 :-|

Take important medicnes like for headache, stomach ache etc. with yourself. they do not sell english medicines, u wont find pharmacies there.

Forgot to tell you, i was in Beijing and Tianjin. Not sure where do you plan to go. My trip was for 10 days too and i got hell tired. Try to find someone who knows Chinese and has a bit knowledge of that place.

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Just remember, Chinese Restaurant is called just Restaurant in China. Dont be confused when you are looking for one.

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Thx :smiley:

Fairytale, are there many signs in English? I don’t mind non-halal beef but obviously not pork.. Is the train system easy to understand and use?
I’ve been to Thailand and Vietnam but for some reason China is scaring me a bit :blush:

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i've been to Hong KOng which is quite different than mainland China. i haven't been to mainland China as of yet! :( i wanna go there ASAP :)

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ji aur wanha angrezi ki jagah khalis urdu use kijiyega.............:D

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Yes you will find signs in English. Though the chinese names, like of places, train stations etc are so so difficult that u wont remember them even if they have put those in english.

Train system is almost same as you have in London.

you can find non-halal beef, i am sure of that, but the way they cook is not very pleasing to eyes, hence thinking & guessing that it may not be pleasing to mouth as well :smiley: - Be careful, i heard they cook and sell donkey"s meat too, so be carefull lol. make sure you eat beef and not something else.

dont be scared, ppl there are friendly. dont be surprised if they come to you and want to take a picture with you lol. they really look at tourists , the way Pakistanis look at any foreigner in Pak (that is if you have experienced that). Rest just be careful and do not pay for things without bargaining. take your medicines with you, take some stock of chips and biscuits, tea bags, chewing gums etc.

It is a good country, clean and orgnaized. You will find many places very interesting. So much of history. Take your camera for sure. You will like the way ppl live there. They are simple and hard workers. They have invented many things for the world, but their own life style is still dependant on very basic & simple things. There is no difference between men and women. They all work all kind of jobs. you should see that.

it would be really good if you have someone with you who knows the language a bit. it is really really hard to communicate in english or any language other than chinese. Most of them do not even understand a word as simple as Thank You :-\ - I could only find some speaking in some really broken english at the hotel counter & in pizza hut. Reminds me, the guy in pizza hut didnt know what is ICE and it was so hard to explain to him what i was talking about :frowning:

Do full search on google about places, and take print outs with you. That is one good thing i had done. I was asked at the airport, actually many questions, may be coz i have Pakistani pp. I had those print outs of my bookings and places to visit details & stuff, which satisfied them that i was there only for tourism.

Try to book a hotel / hostel, which is near the main railway stations.

btw where do you intend to go? There are tourism packages etc available too. May be you want to try those.

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You will survive. I have been there in early 90s when China was not this progressive and very few people knew English (if at all). At times I have to speak sign language. It took almost 30 min for me to buy bed-sheet/Sugar from a shop.

Bus system was extensive (and little train system then) but if you love travelling, you are in for a treat. I really want to go back. Places there are so fascinating. Try to book hotel online before you fly in.

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Please share experience of finding public toilets.............:D

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I just followed men who were on their toes and looking left, right and center in panic :)

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Great luck.............that you didn't end boarding a train............:D

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i was in china early this year on a business trip and would be visiting again later this year. i have a pak passport and getting the visa was not really a hassle except they wanted me to have a MRP passport (i had the old passport at the time which is not machine readable). i live in chicago so had to travel to ny to get the MRP passport..wasn't a big deal since work paid for it.. ;-)

i mainly stayed in Beijing and Shanghai. i was amazed with the progress and development china has made especially when i compared it to pak :--(. this was of course based on two major cities that i visited.

i flew in to shanghai and took a taxi from the airport to the hotel. you can exchange your currency with chinese yuan at the airport from the state bank (i think that is what it was). it makes it more official and they give you a receipt. for a taxi try not to get haggled by some random person offering you a taxi service (happened in beijing to me at the train station). they have a proper waiting service area where you can get a taxi (just like ohare). if something does not look legit it most likely is not.

make sure to print out the address of your destination in chinese (you can do that online) which you can show to your taxi driver or the attendant. the meter they have is in english so you know how much you have to pay. always carry cash for your transactions (credit cards is not going to be accepted in most places). you can ask for a receipt which is one of the words i learnt to say in chinese along with hello and thank you.

i had a guy from work who showed me around the city when i first arrived there. i was staying at Pudong Shangrlia hotel which is i think west or east of the river and was right in the heart of the city so everything was at a walking distance from me. i think one side of the river is old and the other one shows the new development in the past 10 or 15 years. people speak english at the hotel so that should not really be a problem. at major stores you can get away with speaking in english but it would be a problem if you are in a more non touristy place. and especially with taxi drivers. i did not come across one taxi driver who spoke any english. i loved the hotel experience there compared to US. the breakfast is awesome. you get much more for the price you would here in america or europe.

there are plenty of retail stores and fancy shamancy restaurants/malls (might even be better than usa in most cases i think) and you will not have a problem finding good food if you are okay with non halal.

however, if you want to eat traditional food then yes it might be a problem since they eat a lot of pork in china. i was with a colleague and he was able to tell me for the most part what was what. i did try there tradnitional food (more on the cheap side->kind of like those bus adas back home) but was not too pleased :--). one of the places i visited was stinky and reminded me of the curry smell. i was not too excited about the smell on my clothes after that!! khair, you need to get that expericnce too though!

since you are going there for 10 days and will not know your way around, it might be worth to get a guided tour. make a list of some popular destinations that you can visit in the area you plan to go to and look for a tour guide which best matches your wish list. in your down time you can explore the areas on your own.

in beijing, i went on a guided tour (1 day) and it covered great wall, free lunch, tea tasting,silk factory/stadium visit. overall, it was worth every cent since otherwise i would have just stayed in my hotel doing nothing. the hotel had brouchers for quite a few tours so you should be able to find the one you like.

i took the fast train from shanghai to beijing. it went upto ~300 km/h!!! don't remember what it is called but it was pretty cool! they offered business class and it was great! the journey was very comfortable. however, there was not much of a scenery which probably reflects what most of the country looks like. i went to the train station with my colleague to get the ticket since apparently you cannot buy it online and after what i saw at the station where we bought the tickets i don't think i would consider it very tourist friendly. i remember reading somewhere on the a website that they have a separate line for tourists to buy tickets but don't think if i saw one. however, once i had a ticket, getting to the train station/boarding the train and so on was a breeze.

for traveling locally with in the city, there public transportation (bus/train) is quite good. if you are comfortable with that you can try it out. i just took taxi which was easy. i traveled on the bus/train a couple of times in the city with my colleague but that was about it. don't think if you would need to consider the train/bus option unless you are there for an extended period of time.

generally, the expenses are quite cheap in china and the impression i got was that ppl in china like ppl from pakistan or atleast the ones i met.

and i did take quite of a few granola bars with me but only used them since i was either too lazy to go out and eat or did not have the time. most of the time, i just ate at the hotel.

good luck and have fun! and remember to bring your camera along with some extra batteries!

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Thanks for all the detailed info and suggestions..

I need to mull this all over..

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China is a beautiful country...

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In major cities you can get chauffeured cars with bilingual drivers who serve as drivers, tour guides, personal assistants etc. smaller cities are a diff issue.

I would say that it's completely worth it, the price difference between luxury and local cars is high which may help get good service at cheaper price.

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I went to china earlier this year.
A lot of people didn't know how to speak English but good luck!

just point and use simple words