Take Your Time
 From Jiaxing | Jul 26, 2012 23:25

Check First | -General- | Jul 26, 2012 23:42
When I first came to this town I wanted to see a lot of the attractions and famous places, and even though I am Chinese, I still made some silly mistakes that I am sure you all need to learn from.

I heard about the famous Peach areas just on the edge of town, and as such read up online and found there were some reasonable priced tours from Jiaxing. I started to call a few places and was lucky that their numbers were busy.

The next day I was at the train/bus station and found there is a local bus that goes there for only 2 or 3rmb. I decided it will be easier to go that way and then just pay admissions etc when I arrived. I certainly was silly as when we arrive we found it was sill a few weeks before the blossoms came out and there was no charge to walk around almost anywhere.

Next disaster was Xitang and I decided to go alone to check all the places before one day taking husband and daughter to see. I got off the bus and was mobed by the local bicycle taxi drivers/riders and as I did not know my way around from there, I accepted the offer of one driver to take me direct to a side enterance where he will pay the entry fee (and he said he gets special prices) and the fare was included.

A few weeks later I took husband and daughter and instead of getting bicycle taki we walked so we could see the local shops and people. when we arrived we found it was free to enter because of the day and time of day we arrived. I was so angry as that meant on my trip I was charged 60rmb when I could have walked there and entered for free.

Moral is:- Ask as many people as you can before you go to these type places as almost all places someone will try and make easy money from the unwary tourist, no matter if they are foreign or local.