Hello everyone,

We just got back from our 2 week long trip from China. Thank you for all your advises on this forum.

We stayed 8 days in Beijing, 2 days in Xian, and 4 days in Shanghai.

Here is just a little feedback from our trip.

---Money:

1. We got all our Chinese yuan from the China Construction Bank ATM's. Since it is partnered with Bank of America, there is no ATM fee or foreign transaction fee. The rate was about 7.4 something.

---Flight:

1. We flew in and out of Beijing through Air China and Shanghai through China Eastern. Both airlines are not bad. The food is actually pretty good. We preferred the better service of China Eastern.

2. The airports in Beijing, Xian, and Shanghai all offer free filtered water after the security gates. If you are like me who needs to drink a lot of water on the plane, bring empty water bottles to the airport and fill them up after you have passed the security gates.

3. The airports are also smoke-free. They have designated rooms for people to smoke.

4. We have no problem with checked lugguage. The airports are actually more efficient than LAX.

---Food:

1. Food is cheap. But we found Chinese food a little greasy. So we mostly sticked with "foreign" cusine over there.


---Taxi:

1. We travelled mostly by taxi in China. It is cheap and abundant. The taxi drivers are all very honest.


---People:

1. We love Beijing people. They are friendly and helpful. We found that they are very willing to share their culture with you.

2. The most memorable moment for us is visiting the garden ground around the Temple of Heaven. We saw people playing chess, different Chinese musical instruments. We saw people dancing and practicing Chinese opera. It was just amazing.

Thank you for posting! It seems as if our itinerary changes daily (!) and our current itinerary looks similar to yours. What do you think about 9 days in Beijing and 3 in Shanghai?
Thanks!
marksfour

Glad to hear that you had a great trip!

I share your love for the Beijingers. I lived there for several years, and even though I lived in other places in China before returning to the US, I look back most fondly on Beijing - because of the great people there.

Your summary very much reflects our experience. We struggled to find GOOD quality Chinese food and consequently often used the western outlets.

Activities in the gardens and parks. Yes, this was one of our highlights too and the best piece of advice I could give to anyone visiting China is to visit these areas whenever you have some spare time. You are likely to see absolutely anything. From Opera singing to mini orchestra practice to traditional dancing .....the list is endless. Wonderfully friendly people. They sure make good use of their parks.

I agree - I also loved "people watching" at the Temple of Heaven park. Especially the covered area with people singing and playing music. Spending a good part of the morning wandering through the park was truly an uplifting experience!

Cocor, My daughter (age 17) will be taking this same trip at the end of March - 9 days worth. She is going with a student group from school. Can you recommend any "must see" items other than the regular tourist sites? How about shopping?

I just returned from Beijing, Xian, Shanghai & Hong Kong.
- air quality in Xian was the worst. I feel for the people who live there and have to breathe that horrible air. Even Hong Kong had smog but not as bad as Xian. You especially can see how hazy it is in all those cities in my pictures.
- cheap taxis were a pleasant surprise. Taxi in Shanghai to airport from our hotel was $20 and it's a 45 minute trip at least.
- if you smoke, cigarettes are a $1.30 a pack. Noticed that Panda cigarettes were very highly priced. Anyone know the reason? I'm not a smoker so not point in me trying one to find out.
- everywhere we went people were very nice and friendly.
- Hong Kong airport is very westernized but the other 3 are not in terms of western food and reading materials. I had brought enough books to read but my teenage son wanted a magazine in English & couldn't find one except for People or Newsweek. I told him that he needs to bring all that stuff with him because you never know how westernized an airport will be. But Hong Kong had American eating places and plenty of English reading material.
- I always bring some cheap wash clothes because hotels in Europe don't have them. Well, all the Asian ones did so I brought them for nothing. Always have Kleenex with you due to the restroom situation.
- I didn't buy some of the cheap souvenirs that the locals were hawking around the Forbidden City and Terra Cotta Warriors and regreted it because I saw the same things for $10-$15 more later on. You can buy a very nice colored booklet on Beijing for $1 at the Forbidden City which sells elsewhere for $10. Same with the fake fur soldier's hats. $1 - saw it later for $13. My son bought a sox of Terra Cotta Warriors for $2.50 there (at the display) and later saw them in Hong Kong for $15. The quality wasn't good but if you don't drop & break them, they're a fun souvenir to bring home. Wish I would have bought those type of things when I first saw them for $1-$2. Son also got a fake Rolex on the Bund in Shanghai for $2. It actually still runs. The Muslim market in Xian had great bargains also.

Sorry, should be "bought a set of Terra Cotta Warrios".

Panda cigarettes are a product of the gift economy in China. These together with the Zhonghua brand (only the soft packs are valued for some reason).

Most Chinese cigarettes taste equally bad, regardless of price. When I was forced to smoke in business occasions, I preferred the cheap Zhongnanhai (RMB5/pack) to any of the expensive (RMB200/pack) very harsh tasting cigs. It's all about branding and giving face with little to do with the quality of the product. When you are making a gift to an official or business partner, a carton of either the highly priced Panda or the Zhonghua soft packs shows that you are willing to spend enough to value to relationship

Considering that Panda cigarettes are about $12 US a pack, that would be quite a gift.The Chinese are quite blunt about the dangers of cigarette smoking. The warning on the American cigarettes bought there was "cigarettes kill". No beating around the bush like in the US. The pack of Chinese cigarettes that I saw had the warning "may cause peripheral vascular disease". Then there was this gruesome colored picture on the cigarette pack of a gangrenous ulcer on someone's lower leg. I'm a nurse so I've seen this before in the hospital but this was a first on a cigarette pack. Can you imagine what the tobacco industry would do in the US if a picture of a cancerous lung was put on the outside of cigarette packs?

Hello Cocor

I would love to hear more about your trip, like where you stayed, how did you buy your flights and things of this sort.

I am planning to go there next May and would like to know more about.

My husband and I are leaving for China on Thursday (our first trip) and are wondering if there is a dpearture tax payable at the airport upon our return. Reading your trip report just added to my excitement about our trip.

Thanks for the sourvenir info. My daughter is very excited about the trip so anything else you can pass along would be very helpful!