Top tips for travelling in China

China Beijing Forbidden City travel blog top tip chinese pandas panda food visas restaurants zoos animals tipping

A friend of mine was planning their trip to China and came to me for advice recently. At first I wasn't sure what to suggest but quickly found that I couldn't stop sending them tips and places to visit so thought I'd put it all into a little post for you guys.

1. Visas
Get these sorted as soon as possible, if not sooner! These took a bloody age for us and annoyingly because I put off popping into the Visa centre by one week we had to pay even more as the price went up!
Something to bear in mind is that the visa will obviously be put into your passport so you have to send it off for a week or so, so make sure you plan getting your visa around any other trips or activities that you might need you passport for.
You also need to have the first three nights of accommodation booked before you apply which brings me nicely to my next tip…

2. Accommodation
If you're looking for cheap accommodation but still want some privacy I'd definitely recommend getting a private room at hostels. In most hostels we got our own bathroom as well, but the main saving grace was not having the constant flow of people in and out the room or having to wait for someone to remember to turn off the bloody light.
All the hostels we stayed in throughout our travels each had their own charm and character but the Beijing Hutong hostel complete with indoor koi pond and mini bridge will always be my stand out favourite!

3. Restaurants
When ordering at a restaurant it's completely normal to stick your hand up to get a waiter’s attention. At first we were extremely British about it and refused to do it as we felt it was rude but it's the quickest way to get someone's attention and as we quickly learnt in China when there are so many people in one place you have to fight to get noticed and you have to adopt ‘unbritish’ manners.
In most restaurants you pay for your food before you eat. Personally I loved this, it gets the boring bit out the way and then you know how much you have left for drinks!
Never tip in China, even if you try to leave a tip they will always come back with the exact change. Again this leaves more money for cheap beer so I wasn't complaining!

4. Zoos
If you really love animals and going to the zoo then please stay away from all and any Chinese Zoos. I'm not sure if we had really bad luck everytime we went to a zoo but we always seemed to witness people being idiots around the animals. We saw a huge orangutan being thrown a sweet, still in the wrapper, by a member of public, with everyone cheering him on and laughing. There were parents showing their kids how to drop their crisps down into the bear enclosure to get the bear to come over. People banging on the baby chimps enclosure to get them moving and the worst I saw was someone dangling their bag into the crocodile enclosure trying to get them to move and when it wouldn't they resorted to spitting on it to see if that got a reaction...it did but from me rather than the crocodile.

5. Pandas
All that being said about Chinese zoos the complete opposite is true of the Panda Research Base in Chengdu. I absolutely loved it there! Be sure to get there early, as in 8ish as once the pandas have eaten all their food they get very sluggish and just tend to sleep a lot. We went in February time so were also really fortunate to see the new baby pandas. The baby panda area is over a bridge and about a five minute walk away from everything else. We almost turned back as we felt like we were going the wrong way just make sure you keep going, it's so worth it I promise!

6. Travel
Travelling around China was actually really cheap and easy. We managed to get in most modes of transport including experiencing the bullet train which was very fast...duh. Flying within the country is cheap and the quickest way around I'd just steer clear of the plane food if I were you!

7. Weather
I know this sounds really stupid, but we forgot just how big China is. We started our travels in sunny, warm Hong Kong down in the south of China. Our adventure took us all the way to Beijing where it was so far removed from the t-shirt weather we'd experienced in Hong Kong. In Beijing I had just my eyes out, everything else was covered...in at least 5 layers. Just bear in mind where you're going and make sure you pack accordingly to the climates of all the areas you'll be visiting!

I think my main tip has to be just go there and experience it! You definitely won't regret it. It's like nothing I've ever experienced before and definitely one of my travel highlights...and don't even get me started on the food!

Share this:

Post a Comment

 
Copyright © Nachos and Wine. Designed by OddThemes