It’s kind of ironic that I’m Chinese and been to dozens of other places all over the world that I had no issues navigating, but for some reason getting around China scares me and I just want to book a tour. But since tours seem to be ridiculously pricey, I’d really like to do it on our own if we can. Does anyone that has traveled around China have any tips for getting around to the sites from the city? I’m looking at going to Beijing, Shanghai, Xian and maybe Chengdu. Is the public transportation good enough? Or did you rely more on taxis? Was it easy getting around? I don’t speak Mandarin, so I’d be relying on English and Cantonese.
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@PurplePumps: no clue but my family just booked a trip to China snd my biggest tip is get your Visa asap! Visa fees are almost doubling soon if they haven't already.
Unfortunately, Cantonese isn't going to help you much. The vast majority speak only mandarin. My family has booked a tour here in the states. It was insanely cheap. Do you have s china town near you? Travel agencies in Chinatown usually have really great packages that include airfare, hotel and transportation.
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@regberadaisy: Thanks for the visa tip. I have to decide by Monday (flight promo ends then) if I'm going and will get right on the visas if we do go. Do you know which travel company your family used? I did see some really cheap tours, but my mom heard from her friends that those too good to believe cheap tours take a LOT of time bringing you to shops and trying to get you to buy stuff and I definitely want to avoid that. I've only seen stuff that was like $99 or almost 2k for about 10 days.
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@PurplePumps: they're in NYC; are you? When my family goes they usually go for a month. And about half of it is with a tour group. The other half visiting my hometown and spending time in HK. They've had great experiences! Very nice hotels, great restaurants, etc. I think the tour they booked was either 7 or 10 days and somewhere around $1500. That included sirfare from jfk to HK, HK to Beijing. Beijing to hk, HK to jfk. Then all the lodging, food and transportation during the tour. You're free to travel in and out of HK and China whenever. For example, you can fly into HK a week earlier then to China for the tour. There is a small additional fee for babies and kids (50%).
I can ask them tomorrow about getting around. But you might find it difficult because of the language barrier. Will you be traveling solo? My understanding is it can be a little dangerous (shady) traveling as chinese Americans because of scamming. A lot of China thinks all chinese Americans are loaded!!!
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@regberadaisy: Wow, $1500 sounds really good, especially including air! I'm in Boston, but we visit NYC frequently so it wouldn't be hard to arrange something there. I did that last time (14 years ago) when I went with friends cause Boston didn't have as many options but I don't remember the tour company we went through. I think we'll be booking our flights ourselves though - Cathay pacific is running $700 RT promo right now. We could probably still do a tour without them booking the flight, right? I think my mom will be going too (she can read Chinese and I think she's ok with Mandarin, so that may help?)
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I lived in China for a year and Beijing and Shanghai have a good subway system that is in both English and Chinese. Most of the time though getting around by taxi is usually the way to go. Chengdu and Xian don't have subways. They may have a bus system but I never used the bus. Much of the time I carried brochures and business cards for places I needed to go when I needed to communicate with cab drivers.
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I went to Beijing in 2009 but on a tour (which was with a Thai group--I don't speak Thai but my Thai relatives set up the tour, it was a bit complicated
) . I think you can rely on taxis to get around. At the time they were extremely inexpensive. The one time I took one, my Chinese friend wrote out where we needed to go and I showed that to the taxi driver. I think you could easily point out places in a guide book and have them take you.
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I've been to Beijing a few times. I took taxis occasionally, but the public transportation was more than adequate for most of the time. It's super crowded, so be prepared for that. I don't speak any Mandarin, but English was enough to get everywhere I wanted to go without any issues.
Not so much a "getting around" tip, but I would advise you not to pack too much. Everything there was SO cheap every time I've been, we ended up buying a LOT to bring home.
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Not sure if you have any family in China but when we went, we had some of my relatives who live there arrange the tour for us. That way, we were did not get funneled into factories and stores like they do for most of the American tours (this happened to my mom and dad when they had gone a few years prior. They still saw alot and had a good time though. Their trip was to the places you mentioned).
Either way, I think the tours are great if you don't speak the language and if you want to get out of the cities. We did a big trip to the southern part (Hong Kong, Macau, and Guangzhoa, then a tour to Guilin) and we definitely needed the tour guide for the Guilin part. We were ok in the cities mostly (I don't speak any Chinese, and my dad speaks a weird old dialect of Cantonese that almost no one understands). We often just took our guide books with us to show the taxi drivers where we wanted to go, and we had someone at our hotel write down some info for us on a card.
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How long are you able to travel? I did an amazing tour through China back in 2008 that went for three weeks and covered Beijing, Xi'an, Chengdu, Kunming, Leshan, Dali, Lijiang, Tiger Leaping Gorge, Yangshuo, and Hong Kong. It was absolutely amazing - we used local transport everywhere and it was a very small group (max size of 12 but there were only 6 on my tour - including DH, it's where we met!) The trip was run through G Adventures and I can't remember exactly how much it was but it included everything other than our meals, and we always had our meals at a local hole in the wall spot which was not only very cheap, but also very tasty! Anyway, it might be out of your price range and/or too long, but it was their Wild China trip if you're interested.
Also, because this is a tour company geared at backpackers, they keep their group sizes small and have local guides throughout, so there is no getting ripped off in restaurants, and no issues with being taken to shops and markets. There were so many optional activities and our group leader would arrange them for us if we wanted, but there was definitely no pressure or the typical shepherding of tourists into money traps.
Anyway, it was an amazing trip and I hope you enjoy it!! Feel free to wall me if you have any questions!
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We lived in Hong Kong for four years and made several trips to China - we would book drivers upon arrival through our hotel. Particularly if you stay at chains like Shangri-La, Ritz Carlton, Four Seasons, etc., they'll be good about respecting your wishes (getting a car seat for the baby, not visiting souvenir shops, etc.).
We don't speak mandarin and were fine. We always carried dresses and names of the places we wanted to go in simplified chinese though.
Re: Cathay they run a site separate from the airline site called Cathay Holidays where you can book tour packages with and without flights.
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I don't think you need to book a tour. In Beijing we took the bus everywhere. We went to Badaling Great Wall, Tianamen Square (so sad), Summer Palace, some cultural events and museums all on our own, with just a little mandarin between us. (Not that it helped so much because of the strong Bejing accent!). We ate in some excellent restaurants (had some help finding them from a friend's uncle who lived in Bejing).
I spent about three weeks in China including a week in Bejing, almost a week in Chengdu and the rest in Shanghai (great shopping!)
We were there for the 50th anniversary of Chinese National Day so the whole country was putting on an amazing show for us. We went to many parades and cultural events. None of our trip was preplanned.
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we went through China Spree in 2012-- it actually wasn't all that expensive
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I've never been, but if you're planning to visit HK, you could try booking a tour there. My dad did that and he said it wasn't too expensive!
Plus in my general travel experience, booking locally is much cheaper than trying to book from the US.
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My experience was a bit different - I taught English for a month, but getting around in Taxis and mass transit was really easy. We actually bought bikes - they were super cheap and used them to get around the immediate area. When we left, we just gave them to some students.
We did do a tour with a guide for a weekend to Xi'an and she was great, but I didn't think it was necessary. -
I stayed in Beijing three weeks for 3 years and took taxis. I felt very comfortable and learned enough to hold a simple conversation. I wouldn't advise getting a bike in the city. The traffic patterns are crazy. Meaning people follow their own rules and the the traffic laws we obey are suggestions to them.
Also don't pay what they offer you, pay what it is worth to you! For example a shirt for $30 and they bargain to $15 but you only want to spend $8. Stick to it. Chances are there will be another similar one later. -
Hey fellow Canto!!
I highly suggest stopping in HK first to join a tour. They have many packages to choose from and very affordable and at least it's "your own people". I did have to go through all the gift shop gimmicks and what not but it's not that bad. If you want to travel to different cities and see a lot of things, I think it's much easier to go with a tour so they arrange everything for you, and then maybe you want to leave a few days to roam by yourselves too.
http://www.hongthai.com/tc/home.html
Ugh they don't seem to have a english page but this is one of the most popular travel agencies in HK!
Otherwise I'd go with one of those NYC tours too! Again, can't completely get away from people try to sell you things, and you have to ready to do/see a lot in one day (they really love to cram things in), but that's my style too so I don't mind!
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Wow, lots of great info and tips, thanks everyone! The Cathay promo is over, but there are actually a ton of really inexpensive flights 5-700 to China/HK still, so the pressure is off to book immediately.
@Ree723: @Mrs. Pink: Thanks for the specific tour company recommendations! I check them both and it still seems like a lot more than what I was hoping to pay. I may be delusional with tour pricing right now though and circle back to it later.
@TemperanceBrennan: oh my goodness, you are brave for biking around. If it's like what I remember, or anything like Bangkok, I'm not sure I'd survive biking!
@sunny: @snowjewelz: The only problem with booking the tour from HK is that my husband is white and wouldn't understand. I think our best bet is a tour booked from Boston or NYC Chinatown where they'd speak English and maybe both Cantonese and Mandarin if we do the tour route. I do like not having to plan anything.
Thanks for the site! I'll send it to my mom to check out for me. -
@PurplePumps: Ahh gotcha! Yeah your mom and def at least just browse! Also.. My parents get Chinese news papers... I see the deals in there all the time I'll see if I can remind her to bring some magazines to me next time!
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Bring toilet paper.
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@stiletto_mom: LOL!! I remember my mom threw a 4 pack in my luggage when I went almost 15 years ago. I thought she was nuts, but I think it came in handy!
) . I think you can rely on taxis to get around. At the time they were extremely inexpensive. The one time I took one, my Chinese friend wrote out where we needed to go and I showed that to the taxi driver. I think you could easily point out places in a guide book and have them take you.
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