China trip status report.

[camwyn]

Currently all still seems to be on course with the trip to China in September. This assumes that the President does not take us into a war so internationally unpopular or bloody and lengthy that the plane will be stoned when it touches down at Tokyo Narita on its way to Beijing, of course. Consider that the standard disclaimer for all future updates...

Anyway. Current status:

Still not going on a tour. Will argue with parents about that later. Not worth it right now.

Price to beat for flight: $1,009. This is for travel on United Airlines, leaving 9 September (Tuesday) from Newark International Airport. The plane would land in Beijing the next day. Return flight would be out of Hong Kong on 25 September (Thursday) and land early in the evening of the same day, if I am reading orbitz.com's 'Matrix Display' right.

Lodging likely status:

BEIJING
Zhaolong International Youth Hostel. 2 Workers Stadium Rd (N), Chaoyang District, Beijing. Tel. 86-10-65972299-6111, Fax 86-10-65972288. At current exchange rates, a bed is $6 a night. I think this is for HI members only, so I will have to either get one of those stamp cards (one stamp per night at hostel yields a working card after six nights) or buy a membership (good for one year). This hostel has daily tours to the Great Wall at Jinshanling for 90 yuan, transportation only. Internet access, bike rental, 5 km from train station, possible airport shuttle.

Backup lodging possibility: Fenlong International Youth Hostel. No 5 You An Men Dong Jie, Xuan Wu District, Beijing 100054. Tel. 86-10-63545836, Fax 86-10-63536446. Also $6/night. Bicycle rentals, low budget tour booking. 5 km south of Tiananmen Square, 8 km from one train station, 7 km from the other. Shuttle to the airport.

XI'AN
Um. I'm not sure how to read the phone numbers in the Lonely Planet guide book. I assume they all start with 86, that's the country code, but I'm looking at phone numbers of the same length as American phone numbers and that doesn't synch up with what I have for Beijing and Hong Kong at all. I'll have to read the section on phone services more carefully... anyway. There are a couple of backpackers' places, one of which is said to have 'toilets that don't look like they've been cleaned since the Ming Dynasty', and one which gets 'extremely mixed reviews but you can't beat the location'. There's a place called the Lijing Jiudian which charges $48 US for a single room, I can deal with that. There's another called the Jiefang Fandian directly across from the train station, with double rooms for as low as 198 yuan and as high as 320 yuan. Comes out to around $39 at worst. Also something I can deal with.

WUHAN
The Foreign Student Dormitory of Wuhan University looks like the winner here, esp. since the easiest way to get across campus to get there is to hire a motorcycle with a sidecar. That just sounds like fun. 40 yuan a night for a dorm bed. Phone number given as 8768 2813. They say to call ahead. Since I had planned on making reservations if at all possible for, oooh, every place I plan to stay 'if at all possible' means 'a month in advance' inside my head. No problems there.

Backups include the Marine Hotel which is directly opposite one of the three main train stations and charges up to 138 yuan a night. That's $17 American. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I am not a fussy person when it comes to where I sleep on a trip. I also have a penpal in Wuhan, but he lives with his parents and I am not going to impose if I can help it.

HONG KONG
Jockey Club Mt. Davis Youth Hostel, Top of Mount Davis Path, off Victoria Road, Kennedy Town, Hong Kong. Tel. 852-2817-5715, Fax 852-2788-3105. $65 HKD/night, which translates to $8.50/night American. Cannot accommodate kids under age 5. 9 km from the airport. Many HK tour-type things available there, but they suggest you contact the tourism division at the airport for your details.

Possible backup for Hong Kong: my penpal's apartment. She has offered to let me stay if I want, but I don't want to impose on her and her family.

Train information later, when I've puzzled out exactly which trains I need to get to Xi'an and then to Wuhan.

Comments

[mtr1966.livejournal.com]

A couple of recommendations:

1. Don't worry about sorting out trains in advance. You can get from any point in China to any point in China pretty easily by just going to the train station and buying the tickets. Keep in mind, however, that they don't do connecting tickets and the like so you have to buy tickets for each leg at each connecting point. Rely on helpful locals to assist you with reading the schedules. If worst comes to worst, you can always just take a bus for part of any given journey.


2. Phone numbers in China are variable-length. The typical way to read them is something like this: +86 (0)792 831 1115. (That's my fax/modem number.) If you're out of the country, you enter your international dialing code (likely "0" or "00" or the like) and then dial 867928311115. You drop the "0" before "792" in this case. If you're in the country, you dial 07928311115. The "0" is now inserted because you're doing an in-country long distance call. Finally, if you're in the 792 area code itself, you just dial 8311115. The varying length comes in at both the area code level (792 in my example) and in the exchange level (831 in my example). Different provinces and different cities have different ways of handling these. Now, most Chinese people don't know or understand their phone system -- especially as it regards international dialing. They don't know, for example, that you ditch the "0" part of the area code because it's not actually part of the area code -- it's a long distance dialing code. You will therefore see a lot of numbers like +86 0555 555 5555 given out for international dialing. Ignore the extraneous "0" and you'll do fine.


3. If your penpal has offered a stay with his/her family, take them up on it. Turning them down could make them lose face. Don't be doing that to them. The Chinese pride themselves on their hospitality. You could offend them (although people in HK will likely have more exposure to foreign ideas and thus would not as likely be offended). But trust me: if they've offered, it will be a genuine pleasure for them to have you stay with them.

[camwyn]

1. The only reason I'm interested in sorting out trains in advance is because I think saying 'I will be taking the #97 train on thus and such a day at thus and such a time, and I have the tickets reserved' will take some of the edge off my parents' 'get on a tour!' fear.

2. Got it. I expect my family will handle it by dialing the international operator and saying 'can you give me thus and such a number?'.

3. The exact phrasing was 'I think you can stay at your mum's friend's home or my home (though you'll find it quite small and may need to sleep on the couch).' I'd told her about my mother's friend's daughter who lived in HK in a previous letter. Since she mentioned the daughter as a possibility, I wasn't sure exactly how much of an offer that was, and wanted to give her a way out if it looked like matters would get too chaotic for her for some reason. If she writes back to me and still says I'd be welcome, I'll take her up on the offer and buy her some gifts over here. She's a Lord of the Rings fan. I expect a copy of one of those artists' conceptions of Middle Earth books would be nice...

Silly, irrelevant side-comment.

[mtr1966.livejournal.com]

"Jiudian" and "Da Jiudian" mean literally "wine shop" or "big wine shop". Just thought you might want to giggle at all the wine shops you'll be staying in while travelling in China....

Re: Silly, irrelevant side-comment.

[camwyn]

You know, I should have recognized that. I learned 'jiu' a while ago. My only excuse is that they didn't give me the character, which would have tipped me off immediately. *sigh* I have a pretty decent Chinese vocabulary, but only for cooking or food related terms. Everything else has to be shoehorned into my brain.

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

IIRC, HI's yearly fee is only $24. It was way worth it, for me, at least in the US.

[camwyn]

Sounds about like where it was when I visited Canada. I'll give it a go, save myself some grief.

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