China Romance
General Discussion and Useful Links => Useful Links And Articles => Topic started by: Arnold on July 19, 2009, 03:06:21 pm
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I hope this will be of some help for our Member's that will be going to Beijing and needing a contact of an inexpensive Tourguide with Car , that speak's English very well .
His nmae is Jonvey Zhang : his cell phone for appointment's is ...
86 (for China) 10 (for Beijing) - 13520066523
His E-Mail address ... is : jon.vey@hotmail.com
I have written him a letter , telling him about some of our Member's that are going to stay / visit Beijing might get in contact with him .
He's very knowledgable of the chinese History around Beijng and is a good Driver also .
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Sorry Arnold, but there is no such thing as a good driver in China. Just those that do not get their clients killed. lol
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Sorry Arnold, but there is no such thing as a good driver in China. Just those that do not get their clients killed. lol
Hahaha Jim , in fact .. I think most of them are excellent driver's , it's the RULE of the Road that's crazy/bad there .
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Thanks for the sharing, Arnold ;)
It will be useful :)
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That is useful Arnold. I wonder if we could get a list of sights to see that the brothers liked for all the cities we visit.
We have a bunch of guys here that have seen the real China experience up close and personal, i reckon i could make a decent stab at a Guangzhou guide hmmm..I might do just that on my next day off work.
Maybe we could start a "Things to do in ..." thread for all the big cities the guys visit and keep it all tidy and together.
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That would be great and of same help of course . We could also point out what is way over-priced and not worth seeing .
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Good Afternoon, I have been reading the threads for sometime and have decided to respond to this idea and ask that it be taken a bit further. There have been several men that have made the trip to China. It would be helpful for those of us that are getting close to their first trip to have access to their knowledge. By this I mean have a "just the facts" type of forum. In this the experienced members could post how to get thru Beijing Airport. (luggage pickup, customs, where to expect our lady, taxi, etc). Along with the Beijing could be a list of hotels, the good, bad and really ugly. If we can agree of a couple, maybe we could arrange a discount for members. Another item would be what to see, and what not to see in Beijing. This thread could be extended to include getting thru Hong Kong. And finally each member that makes a trip to his special ladies' hometown, what are the hotels, transportation, and sights for that specific area. I realize that a lot of this information is burried in many older threads, but what would set this apart is that it would be all in one easy to read and update location. Hence slow down on many of the repeat questions we new members have. Any way have enjoyed my reading, and look forward to talking with.
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This isn't a bad idea...but many of us enter China through different routes. I have never seen Beijing or Hong Kong. There are a multitude of routes to take into the country. Personally, I traveled through Tokyo's Narita International.
It is a lot of reading to go through each post trying to find your answers. The best bet, is to post your question, and those that have been to Beijing can help you out.
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Mike you never know.Robert Snellgroves wife is from Quingdao.And ther was a guy from The Uk his women was from there to.The guy from the Uk I think his name was mike to.
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This isn't a bad idea...but many of us enter China through different routes. I have never seen Beijing or Hong Kong. There are a multitude of routes to take into the country. Personally, I traveled through Tokyo's Narita International.
It is a lot of reading to go through each post trying to find your answers. The best bet, is to post your question, and those that have been to Beijing can help you out.
I am flying from
Rochester, NY to Chicago IL to Tokyo Narita to Qingdao China
and the reverse to get back home ....
I really did not think anyone else would be taking that route....
Mike
I see Mike , you be taking the old Route 66 to China .
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No really , that Route doesn't sound too bad at all . Are there long lay - over's at each of the stop's , or is it pretty much Run MIke Run .
( Have you ever seen the Movie Run Lola Run ? Very funny ) ?
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My last trip to China was this:
Ottawa->Newark->Beijing
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Beijing airport is fantastic, and it's really easy to go through customs etc. Just don't go there in cold weather as I understand their de-icing facilities aren't great :dodgy:.
Incidentally, is the airport near central Beijing or can anyone recommend a hotel near the airport? Next time I visit my lady's hometown I think I will stay in Beijing for a day or two as the flight connections aren't great and I found getting 2 flights in the same day hard going.
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Beijing airport is fantastic, and it's really easy to go through customs etc. Just don't go there in cold weather as I understand their de-icing facilities aren't great :dodgy:.
Incidentally, is the airport near central Beijing or can anyone recommend a hotel near the airport? Next time I visit my lady's hometown I think I will stay in Beijing for a day or two as the flight connections aren't great and I found getting 2 flights in the same day hard going.
The airport is on the edge of town. It takes between 30 minutes to 45 minutes to get there from northern Beijing (3rd ring) on an average day. There is a subway link so if you find something near a subway line, you should be able to get there. I didn't have the chance to take it when I was there, but I know it was active.
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Not just Beijing,
First off, I'd like to mention that China messes with your body. Especially when you first get here. Everyone appears to catch a cold!
There are some seriously rank odors out there on the street Rotting organic matter, urine, feces, stinky tofu.... But don't worry, soon you'll be gleefully playing "name that odor" with your Chinese friends!
About that food thing again... Inconveniences include little rocks in your rice, tons of tiny, tiny little bones in the fish, pieces of chopped up bone inside meat. Then there's also the food that's just plain not good, or hazardous to your intestinal tract. But be adventurous anyway! You'll learn soon enough what not to eat.Your body will let you know.
You will find yourself being stared at by the locals where ever you go. I expect you really won't mind being stared at by the Chinese girls. Even if 10 seconds after you pass her, you turn and see she is still looking at you. Imagining that she is exuding her "that-is-what-I-have-been-waiting-for-all-my-life "look. but unfortunately you won't be able to distinguish this from the Jeez-what-a-freak! look.
Sometimes the pollution is pretty bad. It might even make your eyes water some days, especially if you come from some wussy place with really clean air. So environmental protection has not exactly "caught on" yet in China. But it is gaining ground.. You might find this disturbing at first, and think about it a lot. Don't worry, soon you'll be wallowing in toxic apathy with the rest of us!
Another surprise in China is dealing with the omni-present problem of squat-toilets and lack of plumbing. It is not uncommon in public places such as schools, restaurants and shopping centres for the flushing mechanism to consist of a tap and a bucket. A tap and a bucket may sound fairly primitive, but this is often the classier end of the spectrum.
If you're coming to China, I hope you're not too tall. That can be inconvenient sometimes.
It also helps if you're pretty healthy. Sure, they have modern medical facilities here, but the standards may not quite be up to what you have come to expect in the West. Solution? Look after yourself or better still let your lady do that for you.
Don't get too attached to elevators. According to Chinese building codes, elevators are only required in buildings taller than 7 stories. Hey, it's cool. Elevators are for capitalist wusses!
Virtually everyone you encounter will not be able to communicate with you in English. What this means is that until you acquire some minimal language survival skills you won't be able to do anything that you took for granted back home, without first imposing on someone else with Chinese communication skills to accompany you. If you do have to take a taxi anywhere or are returning to your hotel you will need to carry on your person several scrapes of paper with the destinations written in Chinese and remember not all taxi drivers are literate.
You might be impressed by the amount of computers in use in China. Internet cafes are everywhere. You won't be impressed by the buildings though, because building code standards are so low that buildings everywhere are already falling apart scant years after they're completed. Preventative maintenance , Whats that?
The good news is that stuff in China is really cheap! Sure, the quality might not be quite up to the standards you're used to, but you'll get over that. When stuff is this cheap, you can just keep rebuying it every time it falls apart! Neat!
There's lots more surprises waiting for you in China, so come on over! Before long you'll be familiar with the slew of inconveniences inherent to life here. Then you won't be annoyed -- rather, you'll accept them with a smile and a "Well that's China for you!" :dodgy:
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That's a great update Paul.
But you forgot to mention to keep your eyes open when you're walking, I don't know about the rest of China but the sidewalks in Wuhan were a nightmare what with the stinky stuff, the water, the dripping washing, the random piles of masonry and unexplained potholes! Not that the roads were any safer of course! After dark the lack of street lighting was scary.
I also didn't think that things in China were that cheap. The trip up the Yangtze wasn't cheap. The 3 Gorges Dam gift shop had outrageous prices considering there were only 2 westerners visiting. There were shopping malls in Yichang where even this capitalist pig gasped at the prices. Ha! No wonder I was about their only customer.
I didn't have too much problems with plumbing, although the 4 star hotel in Yichang only had hot water for part of my stay. I did want to go to the loo on the boat trip, but the only loo was in a temple place and there was no toilet paper (it's OK I brought some) and no door on the cubicles (yikes!). I see now why you're advised to take an umbrella everywhere!
My lady told me that the pollution in Wuhan was bad, and it was. But in her home town of Yichang it was worse! Ha! Coal fired power stations and rice stubble burning are in my opinion even worse than factory toxins.
As to the original topic of this thread, well I must say that Beijing airport is so good that I reckon that the rest of the sites in the city could be a disappointment. I mean, there is a little train that connects the different parts of the terminal building, how cool is that!? And all of the female airport shop and security staff appear to be ex-models :fi_lone_ranger:.
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and walking when it rains with everyone holding an
umbrella is quite hazardous to your wellbeing. but
overall its still a great experience
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Hehe.
About Beijing, I'll use your contact, Arnold, because I'll visit the Great Wall and many other places with Lyian, in February.
But I'd just like to know how cold it can be over there in February...
I've checked last week the weather in Beijing/Chengde, and it was -7° at morning for Beijing, while -17° in Chengde...
Too cooooooooooldddddddddddddd :icon_cheesygrin:
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Sylvain,
temp in february is anywere between 5 and 35 degrees
so it will be a little chilly weather still going on there
that is in f not c for the temps
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Hi Sylvain,
When I was in Beijing in February, it went down to -10. If you bring a winter jacket, you should be fine, but be prepared for wind...the cold you can deal with...the wind at that time is really bad (although it does keep the air clean)
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Thanks for the comments, Tt' and mustfocus :)
Maybe will I see once arrived in Beijing, to buy a winter jacket, with Lyian. Or maybe will I take one from France.. I'll see :)
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Like mustfocus said, it gets pretty darn cold in Beijing in February. Winter jacket and gloves warm socks and boots are the uniform of the day. I am also going in February, But will spend most of the time in Wuhan to see inlaws. (Not my favorite city). Anyway good luck and have fun.
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I loved Wuhan, as an aspiring travel photographer it was just a dream to go somewhere almost completely unknown to Westerners.
I don't know what else there is to do though, once you've seen the Yangtze and been up the Yellow Crane tower you've pretty much covered all the tourist sights. Apparently there is a good night market, but Wuhan was way bigger than I imagined and I never made it that far.
Wuhan Zoo is great, it's only about 20RMB to go in and there's a naughty monkey who has learned to splash water over the human visitors!!!
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Thanks, JimB ;)
hav'fun too
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Hey, the temp today is 1C. Visability is very limited due to smog. Wind chill makes warm coat, gloves, and hat a must. The real concern is the quality of air. buzz
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I think the cold weather from Guangzhou came across to here? Weather changed today from 80 degrees F to low 70's degrees (21.1 degree) with 50 degree (10 degree) at night?
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Vince,
You are right. High today was 61 and will drop to 35 tonight. Last night my heated decided to bite the dust so we are all wrapped up waiting for service tomorrow. It sounds like it is a simple fix in cleaning the orifice. Now I know what my sweetheart was going through.
What the heck this has to so with Beijing; I don't know.
Shaun
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Beijing could be a capital of all sorts of scams: scenic cab rides from the airport, fake ATMs and fake money, fake companies and online businesses and even fake baozi. I believe that if you get scammed, it’s all your fault for being so naive and trusting in foreign country.So read on !
There are three main variations of this scam as well as many spin-offs employed all over China, not only in Beijing.
The Teahouse Scam:
The Scammers: Usually college age girls, wearing casual clothes, with pretty good English language skills.
The Approach: “Hi, where are you from?” , “That’s a nice country …blah blah blah”, “Can you help me practice English?” “Let’s go have some tea while we chat, I know a place”
The Take: At the “Tea House” you get to drink some tea (you don’t get to see the menu, since the girls recommend which tea to drink) and watch the “traditional Chinese tea drinking ritual”. In the end you get presented with a bill which is usually around 1000RMB (~150USD) or more. With a lot of arguing and yelling you can get away with paying less than the actual bill (a major sign of a scam), but your whole China experience could be ruined.
The Art Gallery Scam:
The Scammers: Once again college age girls or guys, posing as art students, exceptional English skills.
The Approach: “Hi, where are you from?”, “Have you traveled around China much?”, “I’m an art student and my professor is having an Art exhibition today.”, “The Gallery is just around the corner and if you come with me I can get you in for free!”
The Take: You end up at some crappy studio, with mediocre paintings at best. While you’re looking at the paintings the high pressure sales pitch begins (think timeshare sales or any pyramid scheme agents). They try to sell you the paintings for more than 200USD, but even if you bargain it down to 20USD, you’re still getting ripped off. In fact they don’t want to let you go until you buy at least a couple of hideously overpriced “art pieces”.
The Tour Guide Scam:
The Scammers: Practically any Chinese person at a major tourist location, from young hot girls to old but wise men.
The Approach: “Cheap (or sometimes free) tour guide, I’ll show you the places most tourist don’t know of.”
The Take: After a brief “tour” of whatever tourist destination you get lured into:
a) A Teahouse or a restaurant that the guide sincerely recommends since it’s a “unique Chinese experience”,
b) An Art Gallery or a souvenir shop of sorts with astronomical prices and skilled salespeople.
c) The two above.
Like I said there are many variations of these scams, some done more “professionally” while some have “scam” written all over them. Don’t fall for their fake kindness and compliments. Just say “No“, no matter how sad they pretend to be when you reject them. Remember, you live in the real world, if you’re a 50-year-old something and a 18-year-old girl seems interested in you, it’s not because you’re a handsome foreigner, it’s because she wants something from you! Although I’m sure there are exceptions to the rule.
If you are tempted just keep your eyes open and look for the signs. and while there are millions of nice and friendly people in China, chances are that the person, who stops you at Wangfujing or Tiananmen Square, is not one of them. Personally I like to have fun with these people and with a bit of creativity and if your in the mood you can just reverse it up on them. Use it as a great way to practice your Mandarin for free, belive me they will be very attentive and when the BS line comes out just look at your watch and say sorry, I'm late for an appointment it was really nice talking with you:icon_cheesygrin:.Just how long can you keep them talking?:icon_cheesygrin: So enjoy your China experience and use your head.
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Question 1: I don't remember which terminal I landed at the first time (CX was the airline...but not sure if that helps). It was pretty spartan there and I was met immediately outside by one of my cousin's friends. But T3 was pretty nice behind customs. It was flowing quite nicely. HOWEVER, it was pretty spartan when you got into the visitor area. :)
Question 2: I didn't see any exchange booths when I got out (see above), however I would always carry some RMB on you at all times. Not necessarily a lot, but enough to get you into the city.
One thing you could do, instead of going by taxi is take the subway. There is a line dedicated to the airport. On the road, it's a long ride from the airport into the city...you could save some by getting into the city first. There should be an ATM somewhere within throwing distance of the subway.
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Hi Scott,
I've never used T2 but I landed at T3 in September. Really easy to get through, just follow the signs and hop on the train to pick up your bags, you can't go wrong.I used the money exchange booth that's situated just after customs and before you walk out into the arrivals hall,very convenient.
There are ATM machines distributed on 2 and 3 floors of T3, Here's a map!
http://www.airchina.com.cn/en/travel_information/airport_information/terminal3_instructions/terminal3_instructions.shtml and this is the airport website http://en.bcia.com.cn/swf/menu/default.asp?nowsmenu=202
Have a great trip,:icon_cheesygrin:
Ming Zhi, Paul
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Terminal 3 is a wonderous Norman Foster designed building, and I loved the little train that connects the two parts of the building. It is incredibly easy to follow the signage. I guess there would be ATMs there.
All first time visitors to China should watch out for fake taxis from the airports!
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T2 and T3 are linked, its easy to walk from one to the other, just follow the signs. Is a fair distance, maybe a ten minute walk. Don't go outside if you can avoid it - 1) Horrible air quality and 2) its freezing this time of year!
T1 you have to get a bus to/from which takes about 20 minutes but is free.
There are atms all over, just have a look at the wall maps which are in English and Chinese. Bank Of China tends to have the best rate but for me in Guangzhou would only let me take out 2,500 RMB at a time whereas others let me take out 3000RMB. My visa card company charges me to withdraw cash so I'm a tight wad and notice these little details!
Pickpockets are everywhere, put your wallet in your pocket and keep your hand there too, or better yet, give it to your lady to take care of.
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I have landed at both and seemed the same to me. ATM's at both. I have used the bus between terminals and they are quick and efficient. Dont worry too much about Taxi's. Just take the ones that look like taxi's and you will be ok. I am sure you know the rest. if your lady will be with you she will surely be able to show you around. You read my posts, so you know everything i saw when I was there. Any other questions, just ask.
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I guess an unofficial taxi will be as knocked about as the official ones will be, the only difference will be the price of the journey :icon_cheesygrin:. As always, make sure you have your hotel's address written in hanzi characters.
I found most things quite straightforward to do in China, EXCEPT for changing foreign currency. Mind you, I did go to a city where foreigners weren't just rare, they did not exist at all :s.
I found flight punctuality at Beijing very questionable, but I'm not sure if this is usual :icon_confused:.
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It depends on which bus lines you're taking and where the hotel is. All I can say is that taking the bus when I took it was a long and confusing affair. Of course, I arrived quite late as well (around 7pm), but what the heck. :) Never got to try the subway, but I'm thinking it would be easier. You also get more legroom (those buses from the airport are CRAMPED for a 6' guy)