| Travel China - Limited Chinese Vocabulary | |
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| May 22, 2007 15:10 |   |
 | My travel attitude is closer to "do it yourself" as opposed to "join a tour company". With this attitude: Can a visitor easily arrange and schedule a guide/interpreter at various cities? (Beijing, Xian, Guilin, Yangshuo, Sanya) What is the typical daily cost for a guide/interpreter? Although I'm enhancing my Chinese vocabulary, I currently know ni hao, xie xie, zai jian, and not much more. For the cities noted, would you agree that a guide/interpreter would be advisable? When traveling from city to city, can I "get by" with a limited vocabulary and a phrase book? Thank you. |
| May 22, 2007 19:24 | #1 |
| Hi there Kenxi My husband and I managed a month in China with about as much Chinese as you have and two LP phrase books. We got around with very little trouble and a lot of entertaining moments with the phrase books. We travelled independently where ever we went- no tour- much more fun. We did have the LP guide with us and this enavbled us to "show" the taxi or bus driver where we wanted to go, when they could not understand our pronunciation, and everytime we got there. We found no need for an interpreter or a guide and had an absolute ball! so good in fact that we are heading back in August this year. Have a great time! |
| May 23, 2007 07:39 | #2 |
| Geraldine, Thank you for the feedback! Enjoy your August trip! Ken |
| May 23, 2007 09:43 | #3 |
| Hi Ken, I also also travelled around China my first year with about as much vocab as you will have with the addition of how much does that cost? You sill learn fast once your feet hit the ground. A good guide book and phrase book are the best thing you could do for yourself. Unless you luck on a really good guide they can be a complete waste of your time. Because they often don't listen well, make assumptions about what you want and don't always communicate important details. So if you are on a budget, just plan to enjoy yourself and do your homework. But places like Yangshuo and Sanya are simple to get around and plenty of people speak English who can help you out without being hindered by a guide who thinks they know what you like and what you want to see, buy and eat. Read up on the review of these places. I'll be posting reviews on Hainan before you go so that will give you some insights into what to see on Hainan and Sanya in particular as I covered a lot of ground, some a little disappointing but other places well worth the time and energy to go look. There are also good hostels in all these places with loads of good information and day trips if you want to join with others interested in the same things as you are. I did a trip to the great wall offered through the hostel in Beijing where we stayed. Just four of us with a great private guide and transport for the day. Could not have wished for more but this was catering to foreigners with none of the hard sell that you would get with a Chinese tour or taking a chance on a guide offering services without referral. Most likely they will just try to sell you what everyone else is selling and often it is a bit of a disappointment. You'll likely have more fun if you just go off looking for something and nothing in particular. |
| May 23, 2007 11:41 | #4 |
| Hello Jabarootoo, Thank you for the invaluable insights. I have appreciated your many observations on this forum! Ken |
| May 23, 2007 12:13 | #5 |
| Kenxi. You didnt say how much time you will have and what sort of budget you have. I travel alone with no Chinese language skills but it takes up a lot of time finding things out. However I do not go to tourist sites much and my prefered budget is fairly low (ie I choose not to spend much on hotels and guides). If you just want to go from site to site and there is plenty of info in the guidebooks and on-line it would be less time consuming. |
| May 23, 2007 21:46 | #6 |
| Hello Apault, We're in the preliminary planning stage. We're thinking of two weeks. I've noted on other internet sites that hostels are "kid-friendly". Would the typical hostel be suitable for my wife and me? I've enjoyed your informative posts on this forum! Thank you. Ken |
| May 24, 2007 04:00 | #7 |
| Most of the hotels and hostels are friendly, especiall those YHA's. You may find them in many cities and tourist destinations. |
| May 27, 2007 19:16 | #8 |
| Hi Ken, I'm here , Hope. I am the right person you want :) I am a native of Beijing, 你好,谢谢,再见,are just enough for greeting..hehe. but for travelling, it seems not very much enough..but I can help you if you need. just contact me: 126.com|yyyj2008 I can offer what you need:) |
| May 30, 2007 09:10 | #9 |
| Don't worry about kid friendly, I don't think their are many kids...I have never seen any - and I would change hostels! if you have only two weeks ( a lot to the Chinese, I realise) don't try to cover too much distance. Also for such a short time I would recommend an iorganised tour (such as TCG's) as you will avoid wasting all the time that I do. I travel ad hoc and spend half my time in each city trying to get info...and often miss things.... but that suits my long timescales. I wouldnt worry about language. I have virtually no Chinese and when I learn phrases they are seldom understood so I don't try very hard any more I have said 'bing pijiu' a thousand times and I still find it easier to get a cold beer from the fridge myself. But for some reason people do seem to understand 'da kai'... but maybe it is the motioning action that suggests opening the bottle that really achieves the required outcome !! haha Learn numbers and the hand signs for numbers. Also not in the normal books: kwai is colloquial for Yuan/RMB, So in money: yi kwai wu, for example is 1.5 yuan. Yo replaces yi (one) in situations like bus route numbers, Lian or is it Liang (?) replaces 2 in some situations...but I havent worked out when!! Can someone else help? Fruit in the streets may be priced as 10 yuan for 3 jin (weight - a jin = half a kilo), but if don't really want a kilo and a half of strawberries you can buy less at a higher rate per jin. |
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