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Thread: Shopping in Beijing is expensive! What city is still cheap?
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[quote=APAULT,264980]Griz: I stay in 50 to 80 rmb hotels, they are a bit basic to say the least but generally clean and safe. 95% have an ensuite and have hot water. The rooms are often small, with a window facing into anothger building perhaps within touching distance... one place I was looking through the false ceiling of a whitegoods shop (pretty shop assistants I noticed). I don't eat a lot and on my own rarely go into a real restaurant. Outdoor eating at places with tables is the norm. Fortunately beer is cheap in the small shops or my budget would be blown!. As China is a bit light on parks, I usually sup my ale sitting on a plastic stool outside the shop. Alternatively, worker 'restaurants' are a good place for a beer outside the eating times. Bars are evening places only and usually pricey and coffee shop prices are higher than Australia. I carry instant nescafe and sugar and buy milk as I go, there is usually hot drinking water in the hotels. A cold beer while you watch TV in the evening means exercise, you won't get a fridge until you are way up market, the normal clientele don't want cold drinks. Taxis are not so important if you have time - time to work out where to get where you want, time to find the bus, time to get off and backtrack when you discover you are on the wrong one, and time to wander around rather than rush from one sight to the next. If you are travelling between cities, youn eed time to find the right bus station, to keep asking people the same question until you get the same answer at least 3 times, and then time to sit down and have a beer to cool off and mull over the fun you had solving the problem, time to observe people as you have a second beer and get into a two or three language conversation with some locals where none of you really know what the other is saying. Finally, you have to enjoy this type of travel - for if you don't you will remain a tourist, you will see all the sights but not see China and its people. (I enjoy it but I still don't really know why!) Buy a map as soon as you arrive in a new city, check out the maps at bus stops where they have them, and don't forget your compass, not only is it useful in the streets and so avoid rescuing yourself by getting a taxi, but the only way to navigate underground shopping centres where every shop looks the same. [/quote]
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