china travel tips...free English speaking guides

Another China travel tip from me ... the prince of cathay
OK...now there are more than one way to go about this. The main thing is to be honest and sincere. That said, here is the formula. Surf around online for Chinese newspapers with English editions, Craigslist [now in parts of China], Expat publications, Online meeting places, etc., etc. Meet Chinese people online and get to know each other. Be honest. Don't string people along. You don't really need to. There are a lot of Chinese people who just want to get to know and possiblly actually meet you. If you are looking for an intimate relationship, say so. But if you just want to get to know China and Chinese people this is one of the best ways that I know of. An example. On my last trip to China I had to spend an extended period of time in Guangzhou. I didn't really want to, but had no choice. I have friends in other parts of Guangdong Province, but not actually in GZ. The guy that I was travelling with went online in our hotel and made contact with a very nice Chinese woman who was very excited about having a chance to meet and talk to people from America. She is a 35 year old chemist who is living something of a boring life and wanted to meet people. Actually she would like to meet an American guy and maybe get married. But anyway that was not going to be part of the deal. So the 3 of us just became friends. She took us all over GZ. We went to places that only somebody from GZ would know about. The two of us wanted to go shoping. So the 3 of us went shopping and we had a great time. She knew where all the little Hutongs are...[look fast as they dissapearing]. She, and so many other Chinese people, just want to meet and spend time with English speaking people just to have the opportunity to practice English. So go for it! Take a chance! Let your tour of China be an adventure. Don't hang out with a lot of "long nosed foreign devils". All they do is look silly and stumble and fumble around and get lost, pay too much for things, and get tired. So surf around and find a new friend who will be your friend in China and afterwords. Someday your new friend may come and visit you and you can return the favor.

China travel - money converter

Number one chinese travel tip. This is by far my most valuable tip for travel in China. A simple 'cheat-sheet' money converter. OK...here is the deal. PAY CLOSE ATTENTION! Go to www.oanda.com . There you will find a conversion table from one currency to another. Simply chose dollars to Chinese RMB or whatever currency is applicable for you. Print them both out. Now trim away all the paper surrounding the chart, leaving some ample margin. Put the two pieces of paper in your scanner and print them out about the size of a business card. You can make them a little bigger or smaller if you wish. I usually print out several so I can have an extra and to give a couple away. Now is where you have to be a little careful...Make a tiny roll of scotch tape about the size of the tip of your little finger. Squish it down on the back of one of the charts. Now take the other chart and place it back to back with the other one. Be very gentle as you don't really want them to stick yet. Hold them up to a bright light or daylit window. That way you can get them to be registered with each other. When they are perfectlly lined up, squish them both together. So far so good. Now hold the two VERY FIRMLY and trim them as close as you can to all applicable margins. You only want the important information. OK...now for the really kool part. Go to Kinkos or any place that does plastic laminations and get them laminated in 5 mill plastic. Heavier is OK, but not neccessary. Now trim the whole thing out and do the corners too. Thats it. BTW it cost almost nothing for this. Pretty much the same price for one as for six. Don't forget Honk Kong dollars if your passing through on your way into the PRC. This tip has proven to be the most popular advice that I have shared with other travelers. No more mental computing. You just reach into your pocket and there is all of the information you need for converting money. It is invaluable when bargaining, particularlly when you are dealling with large amounts of money. It is very quick, but allows you a nano second or two to keep your wits and calculate your negotiating strategy. Extremely handy when you are visiting several countries. TRUST ME ON THIS ONE. I know you can say to yourself that you can do all this in your head, and you can if you want to. But this is better, quicker, and more accurate. You never will make a mistake. If you want to have fun with this you can cut and paste and include a picture or whatever on your cheat sheet. You can even laminate other things into your cheat sheet like currency or leaves or whatever gets your imagination or humour. You can also laminate other things. For myself I have a mini list of things in Chinese and English that I can show to someone on the street. Like "art store", "night market", "antique market", "China Mobil store", "bus station", "train station", etc., etc. BTW you can use google to translate from English to Chinese and cut and paste, or use scissors to create this little list. It can be very handy.

passport problems - china travel - an update

Big passport problem today in the U.S. My previous blog talked about my own problems with getting a new U.S. Passport. Well...I got the damnable thing. So this blog is really a continuation of my last blog. I finally got my "appointment" with the San Francisco Passport office on Hawthorn Street in the city on March 12. I went down there and everything worked out great.

OK...HERE IS THE DEAL! ADVICE TO PASSPORT APPLICANTS

At this time it is nearly impossible to get a new passport through the normal channels. The problem is that the new requirements to have a passport for going and comming from Mexico and Canada has totally overwhelmed the system. The Passport people at www.state.gov all mean well but there is no way that anybody is going to get a passport through the normal procedure. DON'T BOTHER APPLYING unless you have about 3 months before your trip. Wait until you qualify to use the 'emergency' 14 days or less provission. JUST WAIT!!! as soon as you have 13-14 days before your trip RUN DON'T WALK to the regional passport office nearest you.
First try to get an appointment through the telephone system. Push buttons and listen to the taped messages. It will take awhile, but don't give up. Get that appointment. If you live 1-2 days drive away...do it and make a day or two out of it. Go to an opera or fine dining...whatever. Just get thee to the city closest to you with a regional passport office. Email won't help much either. There is another thing you can do if you give up on the telephone. Just go down with no appointment. They will put you in a line and you will have to wait for quite awhile for other people who are as desperate as you. BTW Zanax might help. Once you get that appointment, your problems are most likely over. If you get in in the morning you will have a passport that afternoon. Or you can choose to come back in the morning. In my case I elected to come back in the morning. I got my passport and drove immediatelly to the Chinese Consulate and did my PRC visa application. I will pick up my passport and visa this morning. My flight is on Monday March 19. I went through a lot of anxiety so I could prepare this blog for you. I hope that somebody will profit from my experience......Happy Trails

china travel...passport visa nightmare

Being an experienced traveler I am pretty organized, but also relaxed about visas and passports. So after downloading the visa form from the Chinese Consulate I was filling out the form and when it came to the passport info. I went to a drawer where I keep all my travel papers, foreign currency, extra photos, etc. I got out my passport and discovered that it was going to expire on about the same day that I am scheduled to fly to HK. Oh-oh...Big problem.

That same morning {Feb 27} I am off to the local Post Office to deal with getting my passport renewed in time for my flight {march 19}...... A Day in Hell. I am armed with extra pics, old passport, cash. Everything should be OK. I get there, short wait and there I am at the counter. I have my form for expidited service filled out. Then things began to go downhill. They said I should get new pics {$15.}...OK no big deal. They give me two big envelopes for express mail. One is to be a SASE. I decide to go back to my car and quietlly fill out the address forms. I can not find my new pics. I lost them while walking back to my car. I place the form, the passport the, the SASE into the big Express envelope and back to the Post Office. I have to get new pics {another $15}. I drop them into the envelope. I get in line and give the envelope to the clerk. I think to myself why is there no money in the envelope. I go back to the Passport office and they say ...yes you need to put the $67 renewal fee in the envelope also. I have to "crash" the line to have the clerk retrieve the envelope...whew! He finds it. I get back in the line and get a Postal money order for $67 and stick into the envelope. That should do it. I am done and now I can relax....I don't think so. I get home and go over everything with my wife. At that point I realize that I had failed to include the $60 additional money for it to be expedited. The envelope is on its way. So I go to www.state.gov and learn that I must wait for the application to get into the que. First the payment has to clear. It will show up on their site in several days {today is March 7} and I am still waiting. BTW I have also contacted them through their automated phone system. I need not tell you what that is like...duh...Nice woman there tells me that there is no chance that I am going to make my flight. I can not give up of course. I also sent a couple of emails. So every day I check their site to check the status of my application...nothing as of today. They tell me to contact the San Francisco Passport office that deals in emegency passports. The earliest appointment I can get is two work days {March 15} before my flight. Not so good. I need the 15th and 16th for the two days it takes to get the PRC visa. At this time my wife takes over. She is a Saint. She gets on the phone and after over an hour...yes, a whole hour.... she gets an appointment for March 12 in San Francisco. That will work. I may or may not be able to get my PRC visa in time. But I can always get it in HK. You don't need a visa to go to HK. So it looks like things will work out and somehow I will be on my flight. The lesson in this blog entry should be obvious. I can not really describe in this blog how unpleasant this experience is. BTW I found my lost pics. Didn't need them after all. BTW another travel tip that I may have mentioned before. Use you colour copier to duplicate passport photos on glossy stock. Make a lot of them and take some with you incase you need pics for going to some other country.

• Run, do not walk, and check your passport. Is it current. If it is you can avoid a day in hell. You do not want to go there.

pants save man's life...or keep your valuables safe

Yes...It is true. I have a pair of pants that once saved a man from being killed. I am going to divert from China in this entry to discuss a more general subject that applies to travel anywhere. PICKPOCKETS! Yes they do exist. Certain areas in China are sometimes refered to in reference to this danger. Railway stations and things like that. In my case it was a market in Morocco.

A few years ago my wife and I and another couple were visitting my daughter in Maroc. She was serving as a volunteer in the Peace Corps. We were visiting another Peace Corps member who was serving in a very remote area in East central Morocco. We were all walking together through a typical crowded market. I felt my wife's hand in my pocket. I did not think much about it. I casually reached down and took her wrist and discovered that there was a young Morrocan man attached to the wrist. I think that we were both equally surprised. He ran off into the crowd before I had time to grab him. Well it seems that he must have seen me put some money into my pocket a few moments earlier and had decided that I was to be his opportunity for instant wealth. However I was wearing a pair of 'travel' pants manufactured by Royal Robbins. This pair of pants had a hidden pocket in the pocket that he had seen me use for my money. The pocket was hidden by a light weight plastic zipper. This was were I always kept anything more than 3-4 dollars. I felt secure then and I feel secure now when traveling and wearing these pants. They also have a couple of hidden pockets in the upper leg area. Royal Robbins deserves credit for saving this mans life. They probablly have no idea how some little thing like a hidden pocket could have spared this mans life. Oh, I have not really completed the story. It turns out that in the next village over a man had been beaten to death a month prior for a simular offense. In that part of the world people take care of these issues on their own and with little discussion. It was explained to me that the only thing that would have saved his life would have been intervention from the local police. There were no local police.
Pants like these can be had from most places that sell travel gear. There are, of course, other solutions to travel security. This was and is mine. You can decide for yourself what will work best for you. But do it. The worst nightmare while travelling is to lose your money and/or papers. Don't let it happen to you. Be proactive and deal with it before the fact, not after.

plastic bags, ballpoint pens, & forms

Its time for a few more handi-hints...
There are so many little things that can ease a lot of stress...Here are some, bigger ones in future posts.

• Always have a finepoint ballpoint or some sort of ballpoint pen to fill in forms. Especially on an airplane [unless the airport security people sieze it]. It is such a minor thing, but I mention this anyway because you are going to need the damn thing. Stick to blue ink. The PRC does not like red ink...go figure!
• When you go through Hong Kong Customs, US Customs, and especially the PRC Customs, always grab a few extra forms if you can. It is so nice to be able to fill out the forms while in your hotel room the day or evening before you go through customs.
• This brings up the next HANDI-HINT for the day. Stick all of those forms into a zip-lock bag. Now about zip-lock bags. Get the really good Heavy duty bags. Get different sizes. Use the large bags for different groups of things. One for underwear. One for T-shirts. One for dirty clothes. Some for 8.5x11 sheets of paper. Small ones for money, biz cards, and other small odds and ends. YOU CAN NOT HAVE TOO MANY PLASTIC BAGS. Some are going to rip out or die from broken zipper disease. Just remember...lotsa high quality HD ziplock bags. Also make sure to press out as much air as you can...poor mans shrink-wrap sorta thing.
• Oh yeah...another little thing. If you are over 65 [65...I think] there is a special line for people leaving Shenzhen. Look for the sign. It really helps. They may have this in other border crossings as well. I just don't really know. I always go in and out at Shenzhen because of my business needs.

travel in China - passport photos & GSM cell phones

Here are a few more tips for easing the travel experience.

• Need passport photos? Go to a local passport photo place and get 2 photos or whatever is the minimum. Then use the magic of your own printer and print out a whole slew of copies on glossy paper and put them away. Next time you travel, there they are. I travel to China often and have an area where I keep everything relating to travel. Left over currency, business cards, reciepts, etc. Take some extra photos with you in case you are at a remote border and need some passport photos for a new visa to cross into Burma or Laos, or whatever. Print them 4-up and use them for a bookmark.

• Another big tip is to have a GSM cell phone. First part of the tip is to go to someplace like Ebay or craigslist and procure a 'throwaway' GSM <<<unlocked>>> multiband cell phone. [ 3 or 4 band, although you only need a 3 band for China]. Figure around $30-40. If you screwup and get a locked phone, then go back to craigslist and see if you can find a local person to unlock your phone. It should cost about $15. There are also services on Ebay and on the net. BTW I prefer a 'clamshell' type to prevent accidental button pushing. If you are into photos, then by all means get a phone that will take pics. It is not important to me, but maybe it is to you. The next thing is to get a Chinese SIM card. You can get one on Ebay or you can simply wait till you get to the PRC. China-Mobile stores are almost as common as McDonalds and Starbucks. They are very EZ to find. OK...Now that you have your unlocked GSM multiband cell phone you are ready for your reward. Load into your phone some Mandarin speaking PRC friends. If you don't have any Mandarin speaking friends then load in some Hotel front desk phone numbers or even Bi-lingual travel agents in the PRC. Or simply get a phone number off of a hotel biz card where you have stayed at previously. Now, when and if, you find yourself at a remote train station or bus station you have a translator in your pocket. In most cases you will not see any Roman lettering or English speaking people at all. You cell phone will bail you out. Another valuable aspect is for both you and a travel companion to be able to connect in case you get separated. Whew...a big sigh of relief when you are lost. Also very nice to be able to say hi to fellow travellers that you meet along the road [if they also have a GSM phone]. And lastly.... a nice way to call home. You can go almost anywhere and get your SIM card recharged with more miniutes. Newspaper stands, or another China Mobile store, and you are on your way.

travels in China

This is the first in a series of what I hope will be valuable tips for travelling in China. I have been to China about 10 times in the last 6 years. I have learned a lot of things that I want to pass on to fellow travellers. I will be covering some creative tips from landing at the airport to being homeward bound.

• luggage choices
• GSM cell phones
• money conversion cheat sheets
• bargaining
• student guides for free
• going solo
• trains and busses
• tour groups.....big mr. NO
• travel light
• but wait...there's more

OK...Lets start with luggage choices. It is really up to you. Here is my choice for me. I use a very large, high quality, 'hard shell' suitcase. I use this choice to accomodate my love of shopping. Before leaving I pack some bubble wrap to bring with me. What I don't use I abandon in my last hotel room. But you don't want to take time trying to find bubble wrap when you are there. In China they just use old newspapers. Not a very good choice for something highly fragile that you really want to bring home in one piece. Now if you love to shop and don't want to drag a large suitcase around with you there is another very good option. Buy one there. You can buy a very good quality hard shell suitcase for about $20-25 at any Chinese Dept Store. Not a bad choice. Another variation is a suitcase inside a suitcase. Go to a flea market, thrift store, or a whole bunch of garage sales and find a second suitcase to stick inside another. It can be a matter of luck. Too much trouble I 'spose. But maybe you will be lucky. But keep in mind how EZ it is to pickup extra luggage in China. You might also want to buy some of those big canvas straps that you see some foreigners using on their bulging funky suitcases. Along this line you can also buy, for next to nothing, wooven vinyl open top suitcases [bags] that work well but are not fashion statements. But they will certainally earn respect from other foreigners and for some are a fashion statement. They look good with 'croc' polyvinyl shoes.

BTW...everything in this blog will be countered by a future blog on travelling light.

So back to luggage. Another part of luggage is a small bag to carry over your shoulder at all times for your camera, phone, passport, water bottle, and those sorts of things. Again this is a matter of choice. Whatever you choose it should be like your skin. I can not say enough about this. It is easier for women to get into this [BTW I am a guy]. I use what I call a 'man bag'. It is a bota shaped bag that comes in 2-3 different sizes and simple bland colours. It is almost impossible to be attacked by a pickpocket. Yes there really are pick pockets out there. I will discuss in a future blog how a pair of pants that I was wearing saved a man's life in Morocco. Not a joke. Anyway these bags have lotsa pockets Too many really, but they are really very good for travelling. You can find them in sporting good stores with travel departments. You can also find the kind of pants that spared a man to live another day. A regular two strap day bag will work well if you use one strap only over your shoulder and sorta slung under your arm.