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Survival China Travel Tips and Tricks |
by:
Colin Jin |
These China Travel Tips, Survival Techniques, will help you get around and make your trip to China easier, so you will be able to experiencereal China withlittle less stress. China isodd beast that needs to be respected;major cities,Beijing, Shanghai, and Xian, all have their own personalities.
Some complex situations that you think would beorganizational disaster turn out to be great and you wonder afterward what allfuss and worry was about. Thensimplest of tasks can turn out to bemajor calamity.
This is when you have what we call here"China day".
These days come and go and are part ofexperience of everyday travel in China. One needs to haveopen mind when travelling China. It isplace with thousands of years of history and culture that is trying overnight to adapt to Western ways of living.
You need to havevery open mind when you Travel in China. I have listed belowfew China Travel Tips that will make life that wee bit more bearable on your Travel China experience.
one. China Travel Tips - Be Toilet Wise
* Never expectclean toilet onezerozero% oftime.
* Be prepared; Carry some tissue.
* You may have to usesquat toilet, again if you know this before hand it is notshock. If you don’t know how to usesquat toilet, tryfollowing experiment at home.
While holding onto something for support with both hands, lower your body down intolow squat position, so thatcheeks of your bottom is almost touching your heels orback of your calf. Now, let go with your hands. See if you stay in this position for at least one minute. If you fall backwards or you cannot get up, thensquat toilet could beproblem for you! Practice, you will be happy you did.
* If you seeclean toilet, Go… it may not come again forwhile.
* There are many public toilets aroundcities, usuallyones you pay for are OK, (RMB .five),others best to stay away from if you can. You will soon notice them as you walk aroundcities.
* Be warned that public areas like bus and train stations are usually what I class as “tough toilets”, however if gotta go you gotta go.
* Outside ofmajor cities,toilet systems are old or have very narrow plumbing/pipes and get blocked easily. In these casessmall basket is usually besidetoilet, this is for your used toilet paper.
One ofbest China Travel toilet Tips I can give you, is use hotel lobby toilets; these are everywhere and are always clean. Still they may not always have toilet paper. It depends onclass of hotel that you are using.
I do not wish to scare you. However, of allChina Travel Tips in allother web sites I have read, this istopic not often mentioned, but it is very important to us all.
So outside ofmajor cities conditions can be tough. But most oftime everything will be fine, especially if you booktour; everything will have been checked out before hand. However evenbest laid plans can go wrong, so be prepared,toilets insmaller cities, towns and villages can be scary.
two. China Travel Tips - The Food
* The food is great andvariety is overwhelming. Most oftime you get to choose what you eat, or you can recognize what you're eating, however sometimes you do not getchoice. Carrychocolate bar or something; this will keep you going until some food that you can recognize turns up. Drink bottled or boiled water, astap water is NOT safe to drink, this is forwhole of China. Even boiled water, while sterilised can
containlot of minerals and iron deposits that you probably do not want in your system. The safest bet is to drink bottle water. Tap water in most big cities is OK for brushing teeth.
* Eating habits - Most Chinese people havegreat habit of being very noisy when they eat and lunch and dinner times can bewonderfully noisy celebration, food tends to go in all directions, its just part of being in China.
* People also smoke attable while everyone is eating, so some restaurants get very loud and smoky.
* If you get stuck what to order as most ofmenu's are in Chinese just look attable next to you and point todish you fancy and ask how much it is, this system works really well and know seems to mind.
* I havebasic menu that will help you order safe food, (no Cats or Dog) this will enable you to visitlarger selection of restaurants, not justtourist ones with high prices. You can carry it with you and use it inlocal restaurants where most will be able to serve what is on it. This way you will know what you are eating.
These local places are very cheap andfood it great. Contact me if you would like me to send it to you.
three. China Travel Tips - Taxis
* Taxis areexperience that can have you gripingseat and gasping for breath; however you soon get used to it, afterfirst few rides, you'reold hand.
* The taxis in Shanghai are, overall, quite good. Try to getBlue, Blue'ish Turquoise, Gold and White taxis, these arebest… these arefour major taxi companies and are generally recognised by their single colour paintwork. The others are OK, just older androugher ride (the others also may have faulty metres). No drivers will speak English.
* Carry your hotel or accommodation business card with you, written in Chinese, this helps if you get lost walking around town.
* In alltaxis aroundcountry you will seedrivers name and taxi registration number in plain sight. If you have any problem, or if you think you have been over charged etc, just take this number down, makebig fuss about it, anddriver then should wake up and fix whatever problem you have. Even better is to takereceipt. This has alltrip details on it and you can ringtaxi company if you want to take things further or if you’ve left something intaxi.
* The government takes rip-off drivers in all cities, Beijing and Xian especially, very seriously and if you complain they will lose their license. This is their livelihood. So far I have had not one driver in three years that has not backed down and we have then agreedprice fortrip or solved our problem.
* In Shanghai, it is common practice for taxi fare increases after oneonepm. However, one can usually bargain fortwozero% discount, which will getfare back topre-oneonepm rate. Be strong withtaxi drivers, never-the-less, keep your cool, smile and negotiate.
four. China Travel Tips - Shopping
* China isshopper’s paradise, Markets, Bargains; Top labels… anything and everything if you havetime. With clothes,larger (Western) sizes can be quite hard to find, however inmajor cities where you getlot of tourist traffic, you can find them.
* Electrical gear, DVD’s, Cameras, stuff like this is not worth buying in China, Hong Kong is stillbest place for this.
* Store hours inmajor cities are from onezeroam to onezeropm, seven daysweek.
* Visa card is stillbest card to carry, with ATM’s in good supply all with PLUS access etc. There is usuallysurcharge for use of VISA, MasterCard or other forms of credit card.
* Wait on purchasing if you can, look around to getfeel forprices. The Chinese are VERY experienced at selling and know that we halveopening price when bargaining. Inmarkets go for twofive% of what they first ask; go so low that they let you walk away. This will give youidea ofbottom price. The resulting end-price will probably be around fourzero% to fivezero% of where they started.
Whatevermarket people say, they are used to pushing and haggling for best prices. Do not worry about being too hard, they are used to it and will not sell youitem unless they makeprofit. Don't be concerned withapparently hurt body language when you go low – it is all part ofgame. As soon as they have wrapped up your first purchase, they will try to sell you something more. Remember to keep smiling and having fun
while bargaining.
five. China Travel Tips - Medical Treatment and Records
* Most hotels will havedoctor that you can see. Inmajor hotels English will be spoken.
* Always takesmall first aid kit, cold remedy, headache tablets atvery least. WATSONS isvery large chain chemist. Most ofremedies, tablets etc, that you may require should be in these shops. These shops are all over China.
* There isgreat network of pharmacy type shops; these are indicated byGreen Cross. There will always betwofour hr Green Cross pharmacy incity you are in. It is handy to carryPhase book, as no one will speak English, however you will end up with something that will help.
* INPORTANT POINT – for most ofmass produced packet type medicines,packaging will be written in Chinese on one side, English onother. However inshops you only seeChinese side. Havegood look, turnpacks over, it gives youlot more confidence knowing you can readpackage.
* If you havespecific medical issue, take records, most ofDoctors will have OK written/reading English, even though their oral English will be poor.
six. China Travel Tips - Telephone
* Usingphone is as easy as at home. Howeverperson picking it up will not speak English or have very broken English…Major four- or five-Star Hotels will all be OK.
* What is worth doing is buyingChinese Telecom SIM card, they are about RMBonezerozero and with this you get RMBfivezero in calls,other fivezero is forprice ofSIM card; this SIM card will go into all major brand phones and work OK.
By doing this, people can reach you within and out of China if there isemergency. If you havecouple of phones, you can short (txt) message each other (SMS). Also you are able to call your tourist guide, hotel etc if you have any major problems. It ischeap way to keep in touch.
Note: Before you buyChinese SIM card, check that it will work in your Cell/Mobile phone. There are plenty of China Telecom shops that can help.
seven. China Travel Tips on when NOT to move around China
* Spring Festival, this would beChinese New Year time, aroundend of January/Early February
* Early May; Labour day Holidays
* Early October; National Day Holidays
Of allChina Travel Tips National Day isbiggest one. Millions of Chinese travel at these holiday times ofyear. Most are travelling back to home towns or visiting family. Hotels, trains, planes, cars, buses, and roads are all crowded tomaximum. Major congestion, everywhere.
Also travel fares are at their full price. No discounts are offered! Stay in one place and enjoy where you are. It’s best and causes fewer hassles.
eight. China Travel Tips - TV
* If you want to watch TV, most ofmajor hotels will have cable and if you are insmaller places,national channel, CCTVnine is in English. Overlast couple of years it has gotlot better, with some great China Travel Tips programs, news and views on people and places around China.
nine. China Travel Tips - Airport Tax
* There is“construction fee” at almost all airports.
Domestic flights RMB fivezero International flights RMB ninezero - which is to be paid in local currency. Just recently, tickets are being tissued withConstruction Tax included; however make sure you haveTax money with you just to make sure.
Aboutauthor John Mckenna
John Mckenna is from New Zealand and have been traveling within China for more than three years. For more on China Travel information, pls visit http://www.chinatravel.com,portal on China Travel and China Tour, and http://www.travel-the-real-china.com, experienced based Travel and Tour information onwonders of Travel in China. |
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