Budget Travel - China Travel....Should I wait until I get there?

With these cheap airfares, We are looking at going to China in June. Possibly the Tibet thing with the new train back from Lhasa.

If not, possibly one of the cruises on the Yangtze. And air/rail between points in China. I know you can easily book over there, but will I save any $$ by doing so? In particular the Yangtze Cruise and transportation getting back and forth to there.

Also, want to ride the new train Shanghai-Beijing......

Any comments would be welcome!
:confused:

Hopefully, Tibet will be 're-open for business' by then (June 09), do check first.

Over all, if you are flexible, then you will save some money by book your tickets for travel / trips in China. Only thing you need to take care is to make sure you use a good travel agent (look for the one's have lots customers). Its not a big problem to book your own tickets etc in the main Chinese cities, your hotel can also help you out by write down the ticket you require in Chinese for you (if you don't know Chinese) so you can go and book at the station, or someone at the hotel will be able to get the tickets for you (for a tip of around USD 2).

When you say the new train Shanghai - Beijing, I assume you mean the Chinese version of the 'bullet train'? It is not all that fast! :D It leaves Shanghai at 10.50 arrives Beijing at 20.50, costs about USD 80 (today's exchange rate) one-way for first class seat, I would strongly suggest you should use first class on that train (or any train in China).

I like to travel around China by myself, but I have known westerners booked package tours in China designed for Chinese people. If you like a little 'adventure'. and don't mind eating exclusively Chinese food and have all the commentaries in Chinese, then that could be an interesting option, the prices are very good, compared with the package designed for Westerners. No all Chinese tour groups accept, or keen to have non-Chinese participants.

If you know what you want to do, then you might like to book your train tickets (especially for the train in/out of Lhasa) as soon as you get there.

These are just some general points I can think of at the moment. If you have any other questions just ask, I am sure someone here will have the answer.

Enjoy your planning!

If you can read mandarin, you can book directly through certain chinese airlines websites for a nice discount.

Some are even starting to have a respectable English page which offers the discount - Air China and China Southern (it works now!) have decent pages in English where you can book a domestic flight on a foreign credit card with the 'in china' discount.

For example. I just booked a ICN-CAN return flight with CZ and it was 610RMB return all in.

I am a single parent traveller, and I travelled throughout China with my daughter all last summer (she was age 7). We don't speak a speck of mandarin, and we along with our trusty "Rough Guide China" and a good map found our way from Beijing down through Xian, and onto the Sichuan Province where we stayed in Chengdu and headed west through Leshan, scaled Mt. Emeishan and then headed up to Tibet. Although we had made and paid our way in, we were turned away when we boarded our flight up there. We opted out of the Yangtze as I have heard that it is pretty depressing after what has happened there, so we opted instead for Guilin and took a boat up the Li River after investigating the city and all the neat places there. Wen got off the boat in a place that was wonderful called Yangshuo, and visited a self-sustaining minority village there, and after a few days we went back to Guilin, made way for Shenzen to cross over into Hong Kong by bus and flew home to Canada after 6 days in Hong Kong.

I had no problems booking any of our transportation in China. All I booked from Canada was our international flights into Beijing and out of Hong Kong due to the Olympics being in China when we would be there.

The railstation in Beijing was the loudest, most crazy place I have ever tried to negotiate travel, so you may need to keep your wits about you there if you are booking train tickets. But while my daughter clung to my leg for dear life, I did get us booked onto the Z train overnight to Xian. It was after that that we decided not to take any more trains, and we flew very cheaply and easily to any of our other main destinations:
Beijing - Xian (Z train)
Xian to Chengdu (Air China - approx. 70US$ adult, 45 USD for my daughter)
Chengdu to Leshan (local bus - approx. $7 USD for adult, and $4 USD child)
Leshan - Mt. Emeishan (local bus approx $10 USD adult, $5.50 USD child)
Mt. Emeishan back to Chengdu (local bus approx $12.00 USD adult $6.00 Child)
Flight arranged Chengdu to Lhasa (Air China adult $148 USD - $99 USD child - one way, but we were rejected and refunded)
Chengdu to Guilin (Air China - adult $62 USD - child $44 USD)
Guilin to Shenzen (Air China - adult $55 USD, child $40.00 USD)
Shenzen to Kowloon - Hong Kong (local bus which left from Shenzen airport - $32 USD adult/$24. USD child)

So really, all in all it was very cheap to get around - yu certainly couldn't fly that cheaply in Canada. It was very easy to find affordable accomodations, and travel agencies to book flights. Often there are accomodations that have little travel agencies in them as well to help.

Loke others have mentioned, make sure you check Tibet before you on a train. I was lucky, when we checked in at the airport in Chengdu, we were declined as they were still protesting the Olympics and the airline just simply said that all transit was cancelled for travel into or out of Lhasa and they kindly refunded the air tickets that I had booked through our accomodation.

Have a great time!!

Very simply, yes it is a lot cheaper to book internal flights/trains in China than from outside. Have a great trip!

For example. I just booked a ICN-CAN return flight with CZ and it was 610RMB return all in.

Wow... seriously? That's about $100US r/t?

Wow... seriously? That's about $100US r/t?

1 Chinese yuan = 0.146314 U.S. dollars

$100.00 = ¥680

Looks like you're in the ballpark :)

EmailKid

Doesn't earn any SkyTeam miles though. I make bi-monthly trips down to the CAN to do shopping and to get out of ICN.

The 100$ RT on CZ are always the cheapest.

Thanks very much for all the great replies,

Although my travel plans are a bit more upscale then when I went around the world in 1973 and 1987 or so, my wife and I are pretty much independent travelers. We don't need a tour-guide and such (except when it is necessary like in Tibet). We have been all over Asia, (but not China except HK). We have stayed in Hostels, etc. and are basic travellers, (Hot Shower, Soft Bed).

I am just kinda nervous, I have done the backpack thing, I am a bit more upscale than that at age 62, but I like the idea of flexibility of China as you can book on a moments notice.

Any further comments would be welcome. And yes, I have already learn I need to get a Chinese Mandarin Guidebook/Translation!

Looks like you're in the ballpark :)

EmailKid

Doesn't earn any SkyTeam miles though. I make bi-monthly trips down to the CAN to do shopping and to get out of ICN.

The 100$ RT on CZ are always the cheapest.

I know what the exchange rates are :) I wanted to make sure he didn't miss a zero.

Nice stuff... no miles isn't the end of the world for such a cheap rate. Could fly KE ex-HKG or SZX and pay $300+....

With these cheap airfares, We are looking at going to China in June. Possibly the Tibet thing with the new train back from Lhasa.

If not, possibly one of the cruises on the Yangtze. And air/rail between points in China. I know you can easily book over there, but will I save any $$ by doing so? In particular the Yangtze Cruise and transportation getting back and forth to there.

Also, want to ride the new train Shanghai-Beijing......

Any comments would be welcome!
:confused:

Be careful on the Yangtze cruises. Personally, I'd do the shortest amount of time possible. I'm not sure of the cruise line my sister and I went on in 2007, but her bed had a few bed bugs and kind of ruined that portion of the trip.

Thanks all the above for all the advice on China. We got back a month ago and had a great time, with no hassles whatever. More that we can say for many other countries we have visited.

My question is, yes we booked all onward travel/hotels once we got to Shanghai, but after our first flight to Tsing Tao on China Eastern, when I tried to book future flights on ctrip.com it would give me a discounted fare, but after I put my address and CC info info in, it would not give me the fare, only the higher-non restriced one!

Does China have their system set up to charge foreigners more on the computer? I think so.

We took the train instead through the rest of China, about 2400 miles in all. Soft Sleeper and Bullet train. Wasn't bad at all! :)

Don't use ctrip! At one time, they were the only game in town. But these days, there are other sites, much better and less unfriendly. Being charged a different rate because you're a foreigner is commonplace. Having your room reservation changed is another, and they pulled that on me for the last time. "Not suitable for foreigners" is B.S., when I've stayed in the same hotel same room repeatedly.

In China, you get an inconsistent experience because many times, someone stands to gain from rebooking you. They'll come up with some cockamamie excuse for doing it. Yeah, train travel is how to do it, no pressure to get there, a place to sleep, and the nice lady with the cart with the beer! Have to bring your own ice, though...

can you recommend "other sites" other than Ctrip? I used ctrip once and it charged full fare airline ticket.

Don't use ctrip! At one time, they were the only game in town. But these days, there are other sites, much better and less unfriendly. Being charged a different rate because you're a foreigner is commonplace. Having your room reservation changed is another, and they pulled that on me for the last time. "Not suitable for foreigners" is B.S., when I've stayed in the same hotel same room repeatedly.

In China, you get an inconsistent experience because many times, someone stands to gain from rebooking you. They'll come up with some cockamamie excuse for doing it. Yeah, train travel is how to do it, no pressure to get there, a place to sleep, and the nice lady with the cart with the beer! Have to bring your own ice, though...

http://www.elong.net/ is one. There are a couple of other domestic travel websites, however they're on my bookmarks page at my office computer in China! Sorry this doesn't do anyone here any good...

www.travelchinaguide.com
www.flychina.com

are 2 others. I'd also recommend going directly to hotel/airline websites, they've gotten a LOT better in the past 12-24 months. You can get a decent deal, and use Google Maps to find out where it is in relation to the train station, etc. There are new motels all over China for $25-50 per night!

The best deals come from looking at the ads in local newspapers and snapping up the specials. It doesn't take much to memorize the two characters for your destination, and then you can at least see what the going rate is. That's how I get my discount travel; otherwise I just call my travel agent and she tells me how much it is.

You can also buy domestic airfare on Taobao (China's eBay ripoff). You have to have a strong heart to wade through the Chinese, but this link at Taobao field guide (http://taobaofieldguide.com/cool-stuff-to-buy-on-taobao/buying-flight-tickets-on-taobao) will walk you through it.

elong.net is great. I used them the first time I was to China about three years ago.

I booked online, and their agents provided further assistance via email. I chose to pick up the tickets at their Beiing office (rather than arranging for the hotel front desk to provide cash to the delivery person).

When I got to their office, they welcomed me into their back office, and gave me a tour. Plus, one of their agents helped me book another set of tickets for later in my trip.

All applicable discounts were applied to my fares ... certainly no "non-resident" surcharges.

Doesn't earn any SkyTeam miles though. I make bi-monthly trips down to the CAN to do shopping and to get out of ICN.

The 100$ RT on CZ are always the cheapest.


How do you book these fares- I can see them on the China Southern site, but there is a warning that you need to have a credit card address in China. If I got to the worldwide site the price goes up to $278 RT. \

Do you have a Chinese Credit Card?