Before my year abroad in China become too distant a memory, I wanted to share some of my advice about travelling in China. The first of these posts will be about where to travel in China.
It depends on what you want to see: history, nature, ‘ethnic culture,’ a tropical getaway.
I will say one of my biggest pieces of advice if you’re going on a year abroad to China is to try to focus on why you’re there. I think it’s really tempting for a lot of people to want to ‘escape’ China during the holidays or just for short trips. It’s really convenient to go to Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, etc. from China. But I found it really valuable to spend most of my free time travelling around China. Just a few reasons are that you can still escape feeling overwhelmed by China by getting out to more rural places, or just to a different city. Obviously you can still practice Chinese while travelling in China – and learn a lot outside of the classes. You also get to explore your interests in China – or even learn about new interests. For instance, I had no exposure to or knowledge of minority cultures in China before I went to Xi’an. Since I went I have done a lot of reading and also visited other minority areas and it has shaped my decisions on how to plan the rest of my degree. Basically, that’s a long winded way of saying stay in China during your year abroad in China. It’s great!
I’ve written three blog posts compiling all the places I went in China during the year.
That said, I did go on a couple international trips and a trip to Taiwan. It was really good, but it was a personal decision to only leave China for about 2-3 weeks total the whole year. I’m really happy I did it that way.
Getting Around – I think getting around was something that definitely took some figuring out. Even buying train tickets at first seems really overwhelming because you have to go to a ticket office, do the interaction in Chinese, have your passport, and make sure you get the right tickets. Aside from that, I didn’t know how to get good travel advice, cheap plane tickets, or find any of the shortcuts Chinese people seemed to know about. I slowly learned, especially with the help of my Chinese flatmate. Picking a mode of transport is key for saving money. You can fly domestic practically anywhere in China for relatively little, especially given the distance you are travelling. I flew from Shanghai to Lhasa, Tibet for about 1000 RMB, which was just over 100 GBP. If you are going to fly, I suggest using qunar.com (only really works in China). It has really good deals for domestic flights. You do have to use like Chinese bank cards and stuff, but it works really well if you’ve got all that stuff set up. Planes aren’t always the way to go. I took a 24-hour train from Lanzhou to Shanghai for like 500 RMB. It was a normal sleeper train and I thought it was worth saving on costs for travelling across the country. A few notes about the trains:
- The high-speed trains are amazing and I love taking gaotie 高铁 so much
- 高铁 gaotie and 动车 dongche are pretty much the same thing and it’s usually worth taking 动车 for the price difference. From Hangzhou-Shanghai, the difference was usually significant, but it would only take about 10-15 minutes longer.
- Sleeper cars are great – double up on transport and accommodation by taking an overnight train. The ‘soft sleeper’ cars are not really that much nicer than the normal ones – not really worth the extra money.
- book tickets on qunar.com or through AliPay/WeChat. Make sure you get the confirmation code – show the confirmation code and your passport at a ticket office to collect your tickets.
| This is one of the soft sleeper cars |
Never underestimate buses. I hate buses and I’m not one one to advocate for taking a bus most of the time. I’d usually rather walk. But I took the 10-hour bus from Chengdu to Jiuzhaigou. It was a really nice way of seeing the scenery. We ended up stopping every hour or two at a rest stop where you could buy food and drinks and use the toilet. It was actually a fairly enjoyable journey. And much, much cheaper than flying (there isn’t a train there yet). As far as navigation and public transport, you should use the app 高德地图 – it is unrivaled in its knowledge of China’s roads, restaurants and cafes, tourist spots, and public transport. Download this app and never use Google Maps or Baidu Maps. They don’t work and will get you lost.
Packing for trips – I would always advise pack and light as possible (for any trip, really). But in China, if you’re going on a multi-destination trip, if you can pack in a backpack, it’s pretty much the ideal way. It’s easy to hop on trains and buses and taxis and planes. It’s also good if you have to change your plans a lot, run through train stations, trek to your hostel, or carry your bag with you while doing something. I have a blog post about how I packed for one of my month-long trips.
Accommodation – I stayed in hostels all over China and rarely had any problems. I had heard horror stories before I went, but I was relieved to find there is some amazing and cheap accommodation out there. I have found that anything you find on hostelworld.com is generally really good. But the accommodation they have listed is not always the absolute cheapest and does not have listings in every place. I only had one bad experience (and it was mostly because of the staff) – it was at this place in Changsha. One of their staff lived in a tent on the roof and was pretty eccentric. Though it might have just been Changsha. We moved to a hotel after our weird time there and the room smelled of cigarettes and we got cards for prostitutes shoved under our door.
The other good resource for accommodation is qunar.com again. They have some really amazing hostels there – most will take foreigners, but it is usually a good idea to call the place before you book. Sometimes they will only take you if you speak Chinese. I had a particularly good experience with a hostel in Dunhuang, where we paid 200 RMB for one night to stay in tents. I thought it was a bit pricey, but seemed cool. The owner called me about an hour after I booked online to ask if I spoke Chinese. It was evident when I got there that it was because the whole campsite does ATV riding, a karaoke/dancing show, a buffet dinner, group bonfire, and fireworks (all included), and it wouldn’t really be fun if you couldn’t talk with other people. It was kind of the best hostel I’ve ever stayed at. As far as prices, I would suggest generally not paying more than 50-70 RMB per night. I don’t think it’s necessary really. If you book a hotel room and share it with a friend, I have gotten an ensuite hotel room for as low as 35RMB per night. In cities, you will have to pay a bit more – maybe 100-150RMB per night. Warning! Never use booking.com or ctrip.com. I had many bad experiences with cancellations by the hosts and generally bad experience with them. Also AirBnB can work in China, but my account was blocked a month after I moved to China and I have not been able to use my account since.
