We like to share our experiences and ideas about P.R. China! This fascinating place on earth have lots of good-bad, interesting, beautiful, authentic-modern: cultures and people! Gigantic cities near the coastlines; where money is religion! And back land with beautiful unspoiled scenes and helpful farmers. There is much to be said (–in careful way) about the Peoples Republic.
travel and transport in China
As a foreign traveller, never mind man or woman, you can travel comfortably through China with public transport by yourself. Public transport system is well developed especially long-distance travel: with sleeping- busses or train cabins.
In general you will not be disturbed in public areas. Well, it also depends on what you find disturbing, of course as you can always expect someone who wants to practice English or some people are just staring at the foreigner.
People have always been are very helpful when I was traveling through the country in 2002 and 2004. The cheap taxi rate makes China easy and accessible. So make sure the taxi meter is running when you take off!
It is advisable to equip yourself with a travel guidebook or a phrasebook with the characters of your travel destinations. While traveling you will notice very few signs are in English or even Pinyin (the roman alphabetical for the character). E.g.
-
?? Beijing
?? Shanghai
?? Guangzhou
?? Kunming
Outside big cities you will probably meet fewer and fewer English speaking Chinese everywhere. If you, once in a while, enjoy meeting people without too much a communication problem 
it is smart to stay overnight in the backbackers hotels from the guidebooks.
It is also very useful to learn the counting and the phrase:
-
duo shao xian? (how much money?)
1. yi
2. er
3. san
4 shi
5. wu
6. liu
7.qi
8.pa
9.jiu
10.shi
11. shiyi
…
Chinese restaurant knowhow
The equivalent for ‘how are you?’ in Chinese is ‘did you eat rice?’ [ni chifan le ma? ??????]. Having said this, it is logical that eating is very important for the Chinese people. You have two main options; fast food or dinner. Most fast food (kuai fan) restaurants serve rice with meat and noodle soup. One dish a person!
In the ‘dinner type’ restaurants customers are expected to choose several dishes from the menu. After the waiter handed over the menu to the customer he will wait next his customer until the order comes. If you are new to this; don’t be annoyed! or try not to! It s considerd good serves China. Usually dishes are ordered Spanish-Tapes style; and you share the dishes. Usually 3 dishes are enough to eat with two people. For three people you can order 4 or 5 dishes. When the dishes arrive at the table you usually ask for a bowl with rice. There are no other formalities: so enjoy the attack when the dish arrives.
Oh yes, eating Chinese is delicious but for some of us it can be a nightmare. For any food lovers, I advice to make notes of dishes you like. We met some travellers who brought their own fork and knife because they couldnt eat with chopsticks :).
Myself: I used to save names of delicious dishes as a msg in my mobile. This way I could always: tomato with fried egg. in Chinese: xihongshi he jidan ??????!
One specialty everyone you have to try when visiting Guangdong (south China) is “Yam Cha”. (=drink tea). Drinking tea but more important order dimsum snacks while being together with the family or friends. The dimsum snack are made available by the waiters on mobile carts. The carts contain all kinds of Cantonese snacks: dim sums. A delicious way of gathering and trying the Southern kitchen!
Internet is available everywhere and most websites (not all) are accessible in China. The rates for using one hour internet are low, the only problem is recognizing Internet bars. ? stands for net. Nine out of ten times you see this character (square with two crosses inside) it is an Internet bar. Good luck!
Toilets
Your best guess to ask for toilet is: asking for WC or in Chinese: xi shou jian. Arriving at the ‘xi shou jian’ you need to choose your gender. It is common practice for many restaurant holders to just put the character on the toilet door.. Now what to do?
Take your guess:
nan= ?
nu= ?
- You can wait until someone goes into the toilet or comes out.
- You try to remember nan ? = man, nu ?=woman
Good luck now, guys!
Festival dates: Many festivals are based on the lunar calendar and are determined yearly. Here is the lunar calendar for the main holidays:
Mid-Autumn festival: 6 October 2006
Chinese New Year or Spring festival: Feb 2007
International labour day: 1st week of May 2007 (not related to lunar calendar)
Dragon boat festival: 19 June 2007
CNY = Spring Festival
Chinese New Year is also called the spring festival and it is the longest and most important holiday. Chinese New Year involves: reunite with your family, visit temples (for rituals), drink & eat, do fireworks, play lots of mah-jong, check the dragon dance and rest.
Red envelopes are usually given to the younger ones (not married) during Chinese new year. The envelop contains an amount of money which varying according to relation and status.
During Chinese New Year: try to impress your Chinese friends by saying: Gongxi facai, gongbao na lai! prosperity to you, come give me the red envelop with $$!
The time to avoid traveling!! in China is during the main festivals because really millions and millions of Chinese are travelling during these festivals and ticket prices for public transport go up till sometimes more than fifty percent of the normal price.
Price index 2006
RMB: ren min bi (peoples money)
100 RMB = around 10 Euro
Bottle of beer = 6 RMB
Big mac set menu = 20 RMB
1 night in an average hotel = 150 RMB
Taxi rate (short ride) = 20 RMB
Illegal but available DVD= 8 RMB
Hair wash and hair cut = 25 RMB
Body Massage = 40 RMB
Mandarin group language training= 100 RMB/hour
Please note that given rates fluctuate per region.
Bargaining: In department stores and supermarkets prices are fixed. But elsewhere, with patience and a friendly smile, you can bargain till 20-60% off the asking price. This is different in Thailand!
Old Chinese money?
