Traveling to China for 2 Weeks... Suggestions?

[hwalker84]

Hello all, it's time for me to ask the great members of this site on suggestions for my upcoming trip to China. On "another" site these questions for Japan eventually turned into the official Japan Travel Thread which has made it's journey over to here. Maybe the same will happen here :).

I'm leaving October 10th (arriving Oct 11th) and leaving on Oct 26th. Flying in and out of Hong Kong via Air Canada leaving from Pittsburgh. .

City suggestions? How and where to see the Great Wall? Hidden gem cities? Day trip suggestions? Good way to get your China visitors visa? etc. Thanks in advance!

 

[Robin]

Haven't been there myself but I'd love to go someday, I have a friend who went and it sounded like a neat experience. I hope you have a great time!

 

[Mezentine]

Shanghai is a hell of a city, Beijing is better if you care about historical sites, the further inland you go the less stuff will be in English. Get up further north asap unless you want to die in the heat, I did Shenzhen in July once and it was miserable

Eat lots of big meals.

 

[DOT_mjo]

Beijing is awesome, try a lot of new foods, and be sure to choose the hard path when climbing up the Great Wall.

 

[LewieP]

Chongqing hot pot.

 

[TheBiInBilingual]

get yourself educated on what you're allowed to do in public and what not

 

[Mezentine]

Chongqing hot pot.

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Chongqing has a street market over water that's one of my favorite places I've ever been but I'm not sure I'd reccomend it for someone's first unaccompanied trip

 

[DiipuSurotu]

get yourself educated on what you're allowed to do in public and what not

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This. Please be safe OP.

 

[Daysean]

get yourself educated on what you're allowed to do in public and what not

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This, dont do any stupid ass shit

 

[CaptSpaulding]

You didn't get your Chinese visa yet? Uhm I just hope you're aware that's something you need to do BEFORE going on your trip. China isn't a country that you can just waltz in hoping to get a visa at the airport. It'll take at least week to process after you submit your application to your local Chinese consulate and around 200 bucks.

 

[LewieP]

Chongqing has a street market over water that's one of my favorite places I've ever been but I'm not sure I'd reccomend it for someone's first unaccompanied trip

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I meant the style of cuisine more than the location.

 

[PanickyFool]

Do you have a guide? Do you have a driver? Do you have friends that in advance you can send money to so they can send you funds in wechat?

 

[Genesius]

Get your visa squared away beforehand
Brace for cultural differences
Brace for bathroom differences (mostly in mainland China, Hong Kong is basically like NY or any other large city)

 

[Marin-Lune]

October would be coincidentally the best period to visit Hong Kong and the Guangdong province: typhoon season is likely to be over and weather is still hot and nice but not so humid anymore.

Couldn't disagree more with the above post: HK is NOT just "any other large city" as its nature parks are really worth a visit and easily accessible. October would be the ideal beach season too.
Happy to post a few more detailed recommandations and photos later on.

After that: a short train ride to Guangzhou. Not the most incredible city but still worth the visit. Or even Shenzhen for a fun and wild Friday or Saturday night out, and witness the crazy contrast between the two sides of the border.

For a nearby true hidden gem, head to Kaiping and Chikanzhen.

 

[SilentPanda]

Get your visa first, and China is big, so it's not like traveling from one city to another.

Are you fluent in Chinese, or traveling with someone that can speak it?

What are you mainly interested in?

Food, culture, history, sight?

But advise....

1. Bring your own tissue and wet tissue, the restaurant charge money for napkin and such,
2. when crossing street, or if driving be careful, the driver there aren't exactly the best at looking out for people crossing street.
3. Take note of the city you plan to visit, and the nearest consolate of your country, also inform your consolute that you will be visiting x city for x day too.
4. Make sure your cellphone provider allow internet access, if not, you'll need to buy a 3g/4g sim card at the airport
5. Get a VPN on your device first, get a paid one that does allow access in China, there are option like expressvpn or tunnelbear, or you can set one up through Amazon AWS at the japan server farm.
6. When in Hong Kong and Maccau, when giving payment and receiving change in cash, check and make sure the currency is correct, the exchange rate is China Yan > Hong Kong Dollar, so if you paid 100 and they are supposed to give 10 yuan back, don't let them cheat you by giving you a different currency.

 

[Deleted member 4452]

If you want to see a preserved ancient walled city, Pingyao might be worth a side trip. It's a UNESCO world heritage site.

 

[hwalker84]

You didn't get your Chinese visa yet? Uhm I just hope you're aware that's something you need to do BEFORE going on your trip. China isn't a country that you can just waltz in hoping to get a visa at the airport. It'll take at least week to process after you submit your application to your local Chinese consulate and around 200 bucks.

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I read that you don't really need too until about a month out.

 

[Chakoo]

GET YOUR VISA NOW!!!!

Also my vote for Beijing & Shanghai being worth a trip.

 

[Kyuuji]

get yourself educated on what you're allowed to do in public and what not

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Imperative.

 

[Jie Li]

Are you guys actually giving advise from exprience? Casue they are generic as fuck.

* sign up for expressvpn
* install and sign up for shared bike apps ahead of time
* bring a ATM bank card, they don't take your credit cards, you can take rmb from any bank of china branch
* sign up for wechat, give cash to a friend and have him send you virtual wechat money back on red pocket so you can actually pay for street food
* baidu map

Thats about it

Shanghai is a watered down try hard New York, its trash

Or yeah, bring your own tissue paper.

 

[Chikor]

Hello all, it's time for me to ask the great members of this site on suggestions for my upcoming trip to China. On "another" site these questions for Japan eventually turned into the official Japan Travel Thread which has made it's journey over to here. Maybe the same will happen here :).

I'm leaving October 10th (arriving Oct 11th) and leaving on Oct 26th. Flying in and out of Hong Kong via Air Canada leaving from Pittsburgh. .

City suggestions? How and where to see the Great Wall? Hidden gem cities? Day trip suggestions? Good way to get your China visitors visa? etc. Thanks in advance!

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It would really help if you narrow down a bit on what you want to do, but I will throw some general ideas for you to consider -
Hong Kong is the greatest city in the world and you should spend some time there.
Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan is a great city with amazing food, also, the best place to see Pandas. The area around it is very pretty. Google huanglong.
Guilin is gorgeous, consider taking the boat to yangshuo there. You can spent quite a few days mountain biking and hiking in the region.
Kunming is the cleanest, best designed and best run city in China (it's a bit of a model city since they run all their pilot programs on it) and it's in a beautiful region.
If you want to see mountains, google Zhangjiajie, hua shan and mount tai and pick the one you think is the prettiest (I can list 20 more if you want, I tried to keep it manageable).
X'ian is really pretty, has amazing food and is in a really beautiful region, I believe the high speed rail from Chengdu to X'ian should be open now and I would highly recommend taking it. The terracotta army is there, but honestly, it's shitty, would skip.
Shanghai is the most westernized city in China and as someone who lived in Beijing I'm contractually obliged to shit on it. It has great night life, amazing skyline and the most art deco buildings of any city in the world outside NYC. Also, their food is too sweet and they have no culture.
You go to Beijing to see the great wall and the forbidden city, it has amazing food and great night life, but the touristy stuff there is not great. I would not budget too much time there.

That's just stuff that popped in my head, I traveled China a lot, if you have any other questions I will be happy to answer. Once you settle on an itinerary, I can go into more details, I'd rather not wall of text about a region you won't visit.

p.s.
I always that that the UNESCO list of world heritage sites is a great place to start when planning a trip to a new country.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_World_Heritage_Sites_in_China

 

[Keuja]

Be prepared mentally, people are rude in Shanghai so don't take it personally...

 

[Swiggins]

My boss lived in China for several years back in the mid 2000's. He's said multiple times that Hong Kong is the best city in all of China and told me if I ever go there to spend a week in Hong Kong bare mimimum.

He said that the city he was most surprised by (and had the best food) was Chengdu, but he also said that unlike Hong-Kong, Shanghai and Beijing, it's not super tourist friendly unless you speak the language.

 

[Raguel]

Get a VPN.
Bring your own tissue paper.
Bring extra cash with you.
Apply for Visa asap.

 

[ZackieChan]

Where are you going? It's a big ass country.

 

[giallo]

I lived in Shanghai for 13 years (just moved out of China last April), so feel free to PM me for more specific recommendations.

Shanghai is a fantastic food city. Eat at any hole-in-the-wall that's busy.

The Former French Concession is an amazing area. I lived there for seven years, it remains the best neighbourhood/district I've ever lived in. Just walk around day or night, and enjoy the ambience.

Lujiazui has some great photo ops for futuristic architecture. The bar on the 91st floor of the Shanghai World Financial Center has amazing views of the city, and the bar serves decent cocktails.

Another place for great views in the Indigo Hotel on the Bund. Not as busy as Hyatt on the Bund, and, in my opinion, has a better view from the rooftop bar.

For touristy stuff, sure, go to Yu Garden and Nanjing Pedestrian street, but keep your wallet in your front pocket at all times, and don't follow anyone anywhere. It'll be a scam 100% of the time.

Nightlife in Shanghai is fantastic, but it's taken a big hit recently. The city has being on a crusade to rid Shanghai of "undesirable" foreigners, so it's not uncommon to have bars, clubs and even restaurants raided by the police, and administering drug tests through hair and urine samples. This is a very real thing, and is still happening, so keep your passport on you at all times, and if you have taken any drugs before entering China, be very wary about going out to bars or clubs at night. Even if you've smoked weed in a country where it's legal, if it shows up in your system after the cops have taken a hair or urine sample, it's not going to be a fun time (fines, expulsion, and even 10 days in jail).

China is a wonderful country that has so much to offer. Just be cool, don't make a scene, and enjoy the food and the awesome people.

 

[SEBattleship]

I went to Beijing briefly for a work trip and I did not care for it. The lack of personal space in some public places and the constant security check points really made it a hassle to get anywhere.

I also got turned away from a restaurant because I did not look Chinese.

Hong Kong is cool though.

 

[Chikor]

I went to Beijing briefly for a work trip and I did not care for it. The lack of personal space in some public places and the constant security check points really made it a hassle to get anywhere.

I also got turned away from a restaurant because I did not look Chinese.

Hong Kong is cool though.

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I lived in Beijing for almost 6 years and I was never declined service at any business for being a forefinger, in my experience pretty much all places are pretty excited to have foreigner costumers (mainly because on average they have more money). FWIW, I never heard of such thing happening to any of my friends either.

 

[Realyst]

Beijing is awesome, try a lot of new foods, and be sure to choose the hard path when climbing up the Great Wall.

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Yep. Do me a favor, and go into a Pizza Hut while in Beijing. Trust me on that one.

Yes, go the hard way up the wall, but reward yourself with a slide down from it!

Forbidden City is cool. Really enjoyed walking through it.

Shanghai, the Bund of course.

 

[Vern]

Great Wall go to Mutianyu section so you can rid the toboggan down.

Spend most of your time in Southwest China aka yunnan, Sichuan and guizhou provinces. Best food, scenery, culture, etc.

 

[hwalker84]

Where are you going? It's a big ass country.

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That's what this thread is for. I literally was up at 4am after a night out and said F it and bought a ticket.

 

[Vern]

That's what this thread is for. I literally was up at 4am after a night out and said F it and bought a ticket.

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Seriously go to sw china if anywhere is open to you. Spend a couple days in sh and bj just because then the other 10 you should be in Dali, shangrila, zhenyuan, etc.

My Instagram has lots of pics all around china:

 

[Woody]

That's what this thread is for. I literally was up at 4am after a night out and said F it and bought a ticket.

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Ahh, I was wondering why you're flying in/out of HK instead of the mainland. Are you going to spend any time in HK? It deserves at least a few days, so that leaves you what, 10 days for the mainland + return travel to HK? That's not much time at all for such a big place, and it'll limit your destinations if you're intent on seeing the Wall. You could take the high speed rail from Guangzhou to Beijing (after checking out Shenzhen) then work your way back down south. If you'd rather skip the mega cities, you could take the HSR from Guangzhou > Guilin > Guiyang > Chongqing > Chengdu and back. Be advised, navigating huge train/bus stations in China can be daunting even for experienced travelers. Especially if you don't know the language or have access to WeChat wallet for ticket purchases. Don't put yourself on a tight itinerary.

 

[rAndom]

Shenzhen is a nice one day trip and you can access it by land from Hong Kong. Just about every must see places there are within the vicinity of train stops so it's easy to move from place to place.

Macau is a very nice place, though if you are from the West it might not feel new to you.

Hong Kong is also great because it's always alive 24/7. Just be careful not to get caught up in the tension with the protests and everything right now.

Guilin is a nice town with beautiful sceneries. Nice for nature tripping.

You might also want to visit Zhangjiajie in Hunan province. The floating mountains in the movie Avatar was inspired by the mountains there.

And of course Beijing and Shanghai are the staple for foreign tourists.

 

[Cabbagehead]

don't go

 

[Chakoo]

Are you guys actually giving advise from exprience? Casue they are generic as fuck.

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His request sounded like a first timer (his follow up confirms it). He'll probably be over whelmed quickly so best to send to touristy spots.

* sign up for wechat, give cash to a friend and have him send you virtual wechat money back on red pocket so you can actually pay for street food

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I'm not sure you can hold a balance in your wechat wallet anymore with out verification or national id.

 

[BobLoblaw]

Just assume that everything you do online will be tracked and added to your profile. I wouldn't log in to any important websites while you're there.

 

[KillLaCam]

Go to Guilin, it's really nice

 

[Marin-Lune]

I literally was up at 4am after a night out and said F it and bought a ticket.

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Damn I miss this kind of freedom!

Also, please ignore all this noise about having to have a vpn and whatnot. It's only really relevant if you're moving there permanently or going there for work. A good ol' fashioned paper guidebook is good enough and very useful for China.

I also concur with some of the above comments that Shanghai is pretty meh. The Bund is a must see of course and there are nice daytrips from there such as Hangzhou or Suzhou for the most famous ones, but that's pretty much it for a first-timer. Still go but smash it in two to three days then go to Beijing and Chengdu.

Lastly, if you're planning to travel outside of big urban areas and don't know a word of mandarin, carry with you some paper and a pen to draw stuff, works a treat :D


China is an awesome country to explore, and people are fun and helpful.

 

[GungHo]

Don't be afraid of the street food.

Don't expect air conditioning.

Don't get led into alleys by people who want to show you where the "good places are".

Definitely don't get led into alleys by people who want to show you where "the pretty girls are".

 

[MisterSnrub]

Rent a bicycle in Yangshuo and spend a couple of days riding around the countryside. PM me for recs on places to stay, places to eat etc etc, bc I absolutely fuckin loved Yangshuo. The Li River waterfront; Impression San'jie, the ten mile gallery with sights like Moon Hill, and the big Bantan tree. Beware the tourist caves though, the most popular one was literally full of fuckin christmas lights and even some neon reindeer (the type you'd put in your garden). I was speechless.

If you go to Yangshuo you don't really need to visit Guilin, although Guilin is amazing (and I met somebody special there) Yangshuo is the clear winner of the two in terms of possibilities and options. Unless you have Alipay/Wechat Pay you will not be able to rent a bicycle in Guilin, of course, Yangshuo is not under such strict control by the powers that be. The only thing Guilin has over Yangshuo is superior coffee; I could never find a great cup of coffee in Yangshuo, but Starbucks is pretty commonplace in Guilin if you really need ya fix.

Further recs in the HK area:
Lamma Island near HK - the beaches need a fucking clean. Hell their beaches need some bins installed on them. Beautiful island marred by industry and a complete lack of environmental care. Don't bother.

Shenzhen - it's mediocre as fuck, definitely more of a business city.

Guangzhou - more to do here, a lot of worthwhile sights, a lot of beauty adjacent to the city too (Shamian Island is a treat) but again this city is fuelled by business and it is reflected in the personalities of the people who live there.

If you can't make it as far north as Zhangjiajie or Xi'an, or as far to the West as Dali and Sichuan province, then really mate, Yangshuo is your perfect spot.

 

[MisterSnrub]

Hello all, it's time for me to ask the great members of this site on suggestions for my upcoming trip to China. On "another" site these questions for Japan eventually turned into the official Japan Travel Thread which has made it's journey over to here. Maybe the same will happen here :).

I'm leaving October 10th (arriving Oct 11th) and leaving on Oct 26th. Flying in and out of Hong Kong via Air Canada leaving from Pittsburgh. .

City suggestions? How and where to see the Great Wall? Hidden gem cities? Day trip suggestions? Good way to get your China visitors visa? etc. Thanks in advance!

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Also mate stay in Chungking Mansions if you are interested in a loose Kowloon Walled City kinda vibe. It's pretty lurid in there, to say the least, but its the cheapest place in the city and the true cultural melting pot of Hong Kong. You'll find people from across the globe making a living there.

 

[Vern]

Don't stay in Chungking Mansions

 

[Deleted member 4452]

Also, tailored dress shirts are super cheap. Wish I had ordered more while I was there.

 

[hwalker84]

Ahh, I was wondering why you're flying in/out of HK instead of the mainland. Are you going to spend any time in HK? It deserves at least a few days, so that leaves you what, 10 days for the mainland + return travel to HK? That's not much time at all for such a big place, and it'll limit your destinations if you're intent on seeing the Wall. You could take the high speed rail from Guangzhou to Beijing (after checking out Shenzhen) then work your way back down south. If you'd rather skip the mega cities, you could take the HSR from Guangzhou > Guilin > Guiyang > Chongqing > Chengdu and back. Be advised, navigating huge train/bus stations in China can be daunting even for experienced travelers. Especially if you don't know the language or have access to WeChat wallet for ticket purchases. Don't put yourself on a tight itinerary.

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So I was thinking the first two nights I stay in Hong Kong and then start moving.
Leave October 10th
Arrive mid day October 11th in Hong Kong
October 13th head to next destination
.
.
.
.
.
.
October 23rd/24th arrive back in Hong Kong and spend my time around there before leaving.

Somewhere in there I need to make it to Beijing. For the Great Wall.

Generally when I go to Japan I start in Tokyo. Pick a far end destination and work my way back. This was something I was thinking for this trip. Hit Beijing for a few days and start my path back through China until I get back near Hong Kong for the last few nights.

Couple of questions.
Hows Macau? I hear it's pretty much Vegas.
Anyone have travel tips as a Black man? Treatment, stuff encountered, etc?
Hostels are always my go to in Japan. Should I expect the same style in China? Anyone's to avoid or recommendations?
This WeChat wallet looks frustrating for foreigners to setup.

Thank you for the information I'll start to assimilate a lot of it soon and start honing down a bigger gameplan. I usually fly by the seat of my pants but to even obtain a Visa it looks like I need to have some outline of intended travel.

 

[Chikor]

1. Hows Macau? I hear it's pretty much Vegas.
2. Anyone have travel tips as a Black man? Treatment, stuff encountered, etc?
3. Hostels are always my go to in Japan. Should I expect the same style in China? Anyone's to avoid or recommendations?
4. This WeChat wallet looks frustrating for foreigners to setup.

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1. Macau is a poor man's Vegas on its best day and a poor man's Atlantic city on most. The only good thing about it is the ferry ride back to HK, I would recommend skipping it.
2. My friend says that China is like how white people in the US would talk if no one ever call them on their shit ever. I think that's a pretty damn accurate and if you talk to Chinese people you are likely to experience some casual racism. FWIW, a lot of that shit is directed at people from Africa and most people's admiration of the US override their casual racism. It's still gross.
3. I never stayed in hostels in Japan, but they're generally fine in China, I would say not as good as Thailand but better than places like Laos.
4. You couldn't setup a wechat wallet without a Chinese bank account when I moved to China, so I never had to go through that process, but I will say this - it is 100% worth your time to get it to work. It will make you trip way way easier.

As a general idea about your trip - consider that a fast train from Shenzhen (think HK) to Beijing is about 9 hours, and that's pretty much the length of China going north-south. I would generally try to plan my trip mostly around trains, but I think I like trains more than the average person.

 

[hwalker84]

Got my 10 year Visa today. Below is my proposed travel plan. Oct 11th-26th.

Haven't Hong Kong is locked Oct 11th-13th then back on Oct 23rd-26th.

Up in the air on how many days to stay at the other places. Any suggestions on that?

 

[Piggus]

Get your visa squared away beforehand
Brace for cultural differences
Brace for bathroom differences (mostly in mainland China, Hong Kong is basically like NY or any other large city)

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Re: bathroom differences:

I walked into a bathroom at the Hong Kong airport, and when I opened one of the stalls, I was greeted with a closed toilet fully covered in shit that had been spread out all over the cover, and it had a plastic fork sticking out of the top. Thanks for a farewell image (and smell) I'll never forget, HK!

Edit: I also recommend skipping Macao, although the older part of town is kinda cool. The Vegas area is bizarre. It's like Vegas with 1/10th the people and none of the things that make Vegas fun.

 

[hwalker84]

Not sure if you can see the picture I uploaded.

 

[hwalker84]

Do you have a guide? Do you have a driver? Do you have friends that in advance you can send money to so they can send you funds in wechat?

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No, no and no.,