Tripping to the PRC?

Hi!

Can anyone tell me what the easiest way is to go a trip to the PRC? Has anyone ever bought a ticket straight-through from Taiwan to Beijing/Shanghai? If so, for how much?

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks!

jcb7588@yahoo.com

quote:
Originally posted by New To Taiwan: [b]Has anyone ever bought a ticket straight-through from Taiwan to Beijing/Shanghai?[/b]

Not since 1949. To get to Beijing or Shanghai you have to go through another point, usually Hong Kong. That’s why flights to Shanghai take such a long time, even though it’s not really all that far away.

But travel agents will sell you a ticket with the brief stopover included. Taipei-Shanghai (r/t) costs about NT$18,000.

You can also go to any travel agency and ask for DragonAir tours into China.

Dragon Air has prepackaged deals that include a car, a driver, and a tour guide at each point of destination (English or Chinese-speaking tour guides, your choice) who will meet you from point to point, for the same cost, even if you are just one traveler. You can choose from different levels of packages (5-star, 4-star, etc.) and decide what day you want to depart, etc. and the total price is dirt cheap.

For those who don’t wish to have to deal with logistics. If you want to backpack it into China, I would suggest you to use the Lonely Planet guides.

For those who’ve spent some time trecking around China, where would you say would be some of the better places to spend Chinese new year with the missus?

Travelling anywhere in China at Chinese New Year will be horrible. Make sure if you do go that you have pre-arranged transport at every step of the way, especially airport to hotel. The crowds at airports are absolutely unbelievable. Sorry I can’t recommend anywhere, but any of the places I have been are either too remote or too boring.

Chinese New Year is the worst time of year to visit China. Transportation can be a real nightmare. And then there are problems with accomodations and food, what with much of the country shutting down during that period.

That’s not to say that a trip then is completely impossible, just inadvisable.

I travelled in Mainland China during CNY 1997, and it was the greatest five weeks of my life except for the actual New Years day where my friend and I got stuck in one of the most boring places in China, Baoshan in Yunnan. Scary enough, there were no people on the streets for one and a half days, so we mostly stayed in our hotel room, munched on Fangbian Mian and watched crappy New Year’s shows on tv.

We started off in Tianjin (where we studied) - train to Xi’an - train/ bus to Lijiang - bus to Dali - stupid detour by bus to Baoshan - bus to Jinghong (Xishuang Banna) - plane to Kunming (short-term decision because we were sick of taking buses, getting ticket no problem) - train back to Beijing. Except for the actual New Year’s day and the very last weekend of the main vacation, travelling (and getting tickets) wasn’t a problem at all. We hadn’t booked anything in advance. But then, we went on low budget, stayed in Zhaodaisuos and took the hard sleeper (except for the two and half days back to Beijing, we invested in in soft sleeper for that one, and never regretted it). The only travellers we met would be students like ourselves or English teachers, not really crowds of tourists, neither Chinese nor Foreign.

IMHO the Lonely Planet China edition is the best Lonely Planet I’ve ever seen (the Taiwan edition is not half as good), absolute advisable to take it for your trip. I wouldn’t advise to go to Beijing or Shanghai for CNY, they’ll be crowded as hell, accomodation will definitely be a problem, and you don’t really want to put up with Chinese peasants pointing at you all the time. However, if you feel you have to go there, the “Shanghai” edition of the Lonely Planet is very good, and I guess the “Beijing” one isn’t bad, either, so you wouldn’t have to take the whole volume.

Gosh, I could go on for pages and pages about travelling in China (I’ve done that before :wink: ), however, my experiences are like 5 years old, and I could never guarantee that all of it still applies. It might make sense to avoid places that draw Chinese crowds and concentrate on areas that are preferred by foreigners.

HTH
Iris

[quote=“iris”]

We started off in Tianjin (where we studied)
HTH
Iris[/quote]
I studied in Tianjin about 6 years ago!
Where in Tianjin did you study?
I was at Nankai Daxue

Hey, thanks for the advice guys. The missus is heading off to the travel agent today to check things out, I’ll see what she has to say before filling her in. Cheers Amos.

[quote=“Quirky”]
I studied in Tianjin about 6 years ago!
Where in Tianjin did you study?
I was at Nankai Daxue[/quote]

Hi Quirky
I was at Tianjin Daxue (right next to Nankai, remember?) from summer 1996 to summer 1997. When exactly were you there?

Iris

I agree with Hexuan and Cranky. I you want to go to China, go some other time. Autumn is the best season in north China. If you want to travel at Chinese New Year, go somewhere that isn’t Chinese, e.g. the Philippines. Note: The Chinese Lunar New Year is celebrated by Chinese, Koreans, Vietnamese, Tibetans and Mongolians.

No where in China I would say. I would think the crush of humanity getting to your destination during this holiday period might spoil your trip. As much I also desparately want to go to China during Chinese New Year, I avoid it during that time and any public PRC holiday.