My trip to China

My trip to China
Mar 1, 2008 04:45
VIPERJOE Points: Join Date: Feb 6, 2008 Status: offline	First let me say that this thread is going to be a list of do's and dont's for the first time traveler to China and while most of my time was spent in Beijing these tidbits of info should apply to anywhere you go. I am not going to have the time to enter everthing I have to say at one time and will add to this as time allows. With that being said let me get started. Money. How much do I need to bring and how much should I exchange? Well if your room is prepaid for and you are not town hopping by train or plane Beijing is a very cheap trip. You will need China money(RMB)for taxis food and tourist attractions. The trip from the airport is the most expensive and will run around $12us around town $2 to $3. I ate at a local resturant near my Hostel Beijing Backpackers and never spent over $5 if you want McDonalds or KFC they are also around town and while the menu is different from the states a big mac meal is under $5 and there pizza huts but they are pricer. The historic attractions were around $7 and while I am on the subject of attractions let me warn you of the scam artists. The first is the tea scam which my friend and I got suckered into without even knowing it was happening. I wont go into details but the first red flag is when someone asks if you are from the US. Next they just want to chat to polish their english even tho they speak better english than anybody you have met there. If they want to tag along or ask if you want to tag along they are drawing you in for the kill. In the end their goal is to get you to a tea house where you set on these stumps in front of this fancy wooden table and the lady will make a varity of tea for you then charge you hundreds of dollars for tea samples. Next is some kind of artist scam, I am not sure how it works but I found out about it at the hostel after the tea trap and was later approached by a young couple a McDonalds. Bottom line is get a price before you eat drink or do anything overe there. While 99.9% of the people over ther are wonderful there are bottom feeders too. MORE TO COME LATER.

Mar 1, 2008 04:45

VIPERJOE
Points:
Join Date: Feb 6, 2008
Status: offline

First let me say that this thread is going to be a list of do's and dont's for the first time traveler to China and while most of my time was spent in Beijing these tidbits of info should apply to anywhere you go. I am not going to have the time to enter everthing I have to say at one time and will add to this as time allows. With that being said let me get started. Money. How much do I need to bring and how much should I exchange? Well if your room is prepaid for and you are not town hopping by train or plane Beijing is a very cheap trip. You will need China money(RMB)for taxis food and tourist attractions. The trip from the airport is the most expensive and will run around $12us around town $2 to $3. I ate at a local resturant near my Hostel Beijing Backpackers and never spent over $5 if you want McDonalds or KFC they are also around town and while the menu is different from the states a big mac meal is under $5 and there pizza huts but they are pricer. The historic attractions were around $7 and while I am on the subject of attractions let me warn you of the scam artists. The first is the tea scam which my friend and I got suckered into without even knowing it was happening. I wont go into details but the first red flag is when someone asks if you are from the US. Next they just want to chat to polish their english even tho they speak better english than anybody you have met there. If they want to tag along or ask if you want to tag along they are drawing you in for the kill. In the end their goal is to get you to a tea house where you set on these stumps in front of this fancy wooden table and the lady will make a varity of tea for you then charge you hundreds of dollars for tea samples. Next is some kind of artist scam, I am not sure how it works but I found out about it at the hostel after the tea trap and was later approached by a young couple a McDonalds. Bottom line is get a price before you eat drink or do anything overe there. While 99.9% of the people over ther are wonderful there are bottom feeders too. MORE TO COME LATER.

Mar 1, 2008 09:48	#1
JABAROOTOO Points: Join Date: Jul 4, 2005 Status: Offline	Hi Joe, Just a couple of comments for yours' and other s benefits. All these scams are very well posted on other threads here on the forum. If you want to posts TIPS then you probably should use the "TIP' area of the community. And quoting prices in $US only benefits US citizens and is both useless and confusing for the rest of us non-Americans, me of course being one of them

Mar 1, 2008 12:33	#2
VIPERJOE Points: Join Date: Feb 6, 2008 Status: Offline	And just how does this comment benefit me or anybody else. If this thread confuses you then don't read it.

Mar 1, 2008 18:41	#3
GRIZ326 Points: Join Date: Jun 12, 2006 Status: Offline	Say Joe, Jabarootoo is a long time contributor to this site and deserves better treatment than you've just displayed. She can certainly take care of herself, but you're from my country so please soften your tone a bit.

Mar 1, 2008 19:35	#4
WCTMAN Points: Join Date: Dec 17, 2005 Status: Offline	I am in agreement with Jabarootoo. Post future editions in the TIP section. And besides, ni zhi dao ge pi.

Mar 1, 2008 20:25

VIPERJOE
Points:
Join Date: Feb 6, 2008
Status: Offline

Yea so this thread would have been better off in the tip area, I agree, big deal. I started this for people who wanted first hand advice for theie first trip to China from someone else who just got back from their first trip to China and I have no intention of softening my tone. I get tired of going to different forums no matter what the subject and seeing someone posting to a thread that does nothing but try to belittle the person who started it. If I had known then what I know now I could have done more seen more and saved me some cash and I was just trying to pass that info on to others.

Mar 1, 2008 21:50	#6
JABAROOTOO Points: Join Date: Jul 4, 2005 Status: Offline	Joe, The third thread on the forum titled 'Tell others about travel traps' contains the same experiences that you have listed here. This thread remains on the top of the forum threads where all will see it Your thread unfortunately will eventually get buried with many others as contributions to it dwindle. Thanks you guys for you support

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