The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
Traveling to China & Japan
Superdupe
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Fun topic! Okay, so my family will be taking a vacation to China in the middle of March, and I would like to join them. As I will be in that part of the world anyway, I would really like to see Japan, and so I've been looking into packages that hit all the things I'd like to do while over there. I'll try to give you guys suitable background info and what I want to accomplish while over there, and I'm hoping you might have some tips for a first-timer to Asia.
Okay. Stuff I know:
- It'll probably be a 8-10 day trip in early March. Due to vacation time at work and the amount of stuff I want to see I expect this to be somewhat of a whirlwind tour, but I'm okay with that
- I will be traveling from Atlanta, GA. In order to meet up with my family China has to be the first stop
- I have traveled abroad a little bit in Europe, so I have very limited international experience. I know I need to get a visa and get my passport updated but it's been 5 years since I last traveled internationally, so I'm rusty
- Stuff I'd like to see in China/Japan: Great Wall (duh), Forbidden City, Terra Cotta Army, Beijing, 3 Gorges Dam, Tokyo, Meiji Temple, Mt. Fuji. I'd like to see some countryside in both places if I have time
- My budget is flexible but I'd like to stay in the $2000-2500 area
- Based on these restrictions I've only just begun looking into travel packages like this one. Any feedback on these type of package deals would be super
That's basically it. The whole thing is pretty flexible right now so I would love to hear any ideas you guys have about any aspect of the trip.
Edit: a note on the friendlyplanet package I linked: the price is obviously quite attractive, and I think the time in China is about right, especially if I want to take a day or 2 to get out to see the Terra Cotta Army, but I think I could see all I really want to in Japan in 2 days or so, and as I'll be pushing my vacation time limit as is, saving a day would be nice.
Okay. Stuff I know:
- It'll probably be a 8-10 day trip in early March. Due to vacation time at work and the amount of stuff I want to see I expect this to be somewhat of a whirlwind tour, but I'm okay with that
- I will be traveling from Atlanta, GA. In order to meet up with my family China has to be the first stop
- I have traveled abroad a little bit in Europe, so I have very limited international experience. I know I need to get a visa and get my passport updated but it's been 5 years since I last traveled internationally, so I'm rusty
- Stuff I'd like to see in China/Japan: Great Wall (duh), Forbidden City, Terra Cotta Army, Beijing, 3 Gorges Dam, Tokyo, Meiji Temple, Mt. Fuji. I'd like to see some countryside in both places if I have time
- My budget is flexible but I'd like to stay in the $2000-2500 area
- Based on these restrictions I've only just begun looking into travel packages like this one. Any feedback on these type of package deals would be super
That's basically it. The whole thing is pretty flexible right now so I would love to hear any ideas you guys have about any aspect of the trip.
Edit: a note on the friendlyplanet package I linked: the price is obviously quite attractive, and I think the time in China is about right, especially if I want to take a day or 2 to get out to see the Terra Cotta Army, but I think I could see all I really want to in Japan in 2 days or so, and as I'll be pushing my vacation time limit as is, saving a day would be nice.
Superdupe on
0
Posts
thread is here: http://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/167032/traveling-by-myself-to-insert-location-here
The sights you want to see are a bit too spread out to facilitate easy planning. There's a section of the Great Wall in Beijing, and will probably take an afternoon at least. The Forbidden City will take a day. Beijing itself will take another day, or an afternoon if there's nothing else that interests you. The Terracotta army is out in Xi'an and will take two days including travel. The Three Gorges Dam is in Hubei, and will take two days including travel.
Tokyo in 2 days is a bit crazy. If it were up to me, I'd steer you towards Kyoto, where it's small enough to get all the major sights within two days. However, I can understand the attraction of Tokyo.
Throughout all this time you'll be jetlagged like hell as well, so unless you plan on chugging coffee and feeling like a zombie late afternoon, you won't be doing much a night.
If you have more vacation time, you could probably extend your time there by doing it on your own. If that time frame is really your max, and decreasing the price is not worth the extra effort on your end (which is entirely possible, I'm not trying to be insulting or anything:) ), then the package may work best. I haven't done any math to see what a price on your own would be, but I'm pretty confident it would be noticeably cheaper.
Edit: I also second that thread, particularly chaosisorder's post near the end like zerzhul said.
Edit2: Yeah, as Akilae said and I think you understand, you will be really going through things fast.
3DS Friend Code: 3110-5393-4113
Steam profile
Thanks for posting that link @zerzhul, I searched the forum but wasn't having any luck finding specifics. There's some good advice in there. One thing that doesn't get addressed in that post are these vacation packages like the one I linked from friendlyplanet, so if anyone has any experience with that I'd love to hear about it.
@Akilae those estimations are handy, thanks. I think I may have to consign myself to dropping 3 Gorges out of the China portion. It just doesn't seem like I can fit in everything and if I have to sacrifice something that'd be it.
As far as Tokyo goes, I'm going in completely blind. Outside of the Meiji Shrine I don't know what else I'd do there besides wander the city to get a feel for the culture. That's my reasoning for the 2 day allotment, but like I said I really have no idea.
@Kime yep I kinda neglected that in the OP. My parents are going to Hong Kong after mainland China but given my time constraints I'm skipping that for Japan. My brother will likely be coming with me on the Japan leg.
I've looked very briefly at booking stuff separately/independently, and I'm willing to do the work if the potential is there, but just looking at flights to/from China, completely excluding Japan, I was finding stuff in the $2000 range. I'll keep looking.
for china
http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1089.html
for Japan
http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1148.html
The state department also would like you to enrole in the smart traveler program so if some shit goes down they know that you are there.
I however did manage to see most of the major attractions in Beijing over the course of three days. I visited the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, the National Museum of China (which is only worth the wait if you're interested in Chinese history), the Temple of Heaven, the Beijing National Stadium and some of the slummier areas.
But yeah, like Akilae said, some of the stuff you mention for China is pretty far apart and just trying to get between sites is going to eat a lot of time, especially if you're trying to keep costs down and therefore aren't bouncing all over by air. A possible way to get from Beijing to Xi'an might be to try to take an overnight train to save time, but this might not be a great idea if you don't speak Chinese (things may have changed though since I was there, which was a while ago).
Tokyo really depends on your personal interests. However, a few fascinating sights, some already mentioned, would be:
Tsukiji Fish Market (Would work well with your jet lag, if you still have it when you hit Japan).
Akihabara (a veritable Mecca for all nerds and gamers).
Asakusa Shrine (although I personally think Senso-ji is more worth the trip, if only for the giant lantern).
Imperial Palace.
Imperial Gardens.
Tokyo Tower.
Ghibli Museum.
Tokyo National Museum.
Japan Sake Center.
Sumo.
3DS Friend Code: 3110-5393-4113
Steam profile
I am getting the distinct impression from all these posts that even with the understanding that I don't mind squeezing as much into my time frame as possible, I may not get to everything I want to see. I saw (parts of) the terra cotta army when the exhibit came to Atlanta so I suppose I could cut that, but I would really like to go to Xi'an for the other historical stuff as well. That kinda goes to another point. I do enjoy gaming, but I'm more interested in the historical aspects of these places, if that helps narrow down the options.
I traveled by overnight train from Shanghai to Beijing and back and me and my friend didn't encounter any major problems. The only real obstacle was buying the tickets, we managed to do so using gestures and a few words of Chinese. The OP shouldn't expect anyone in China to be able to speak or understand English. If you don't speak Chinese, you should rely on good planning and keep in mind that knowing at least a few words of Chinese is incredibly helpful.
I think you'd be fine. From what I recall, the names of the cities on the ticket and such are in Chinese, but since you'd be going Beijing to Xi'an, you'd just be getting off at the only "real" stop anyways, where everyone else gets off.
So you could theoretically do Xi'an in a day, then, if that's something you were really wanting. Overnight there, see the stuff, overnight back. I'm not 100% sure that's feasible, but would that be something you would consider, even?
3DS Friend Code: 3110-5393-4113
Steam profile
A few words in Chinese is nice, yeah, but for that duration and not having any language knowledge prior to it, I'd probably say a phrase book and maybe a printed out sheet with some specific phrases for what you want would be more useful. Even ignoring the different dialects that would cause many people to not understand another person's spoken Chinese very well, there would probably be too many problems with tones that most people would find it unintelligible anyways. Unless the OP wants to put in some time beforehand to really practice
But yeah, "I want a train ticket to Xi'an. I want a hard bed ticket"
"When/where do I wait in line to board?"
"Where is my spot?"
"How long until we arrive to Xi'an?"
That would probably keep you covered for most train-riding hiccups :P
3DS Friend Code: 3110-5393-4113
Steam profile
Did you ever travel by hard bed ticket? Everyone I met and talked to advised against it.
If the exhibit is the same one that's been making the rounds... well, The Terracotta Army is one of those things I really recommend seeing in person if at all possible. Until you see the rows upon rows of soldiers standing there with your own eyes, it's hard to imagine the sheer scale of things. I went over 10 years ago and was impressed, and supposedly they've unearthed even more.
All things being equal at tourist locations in China and Japan, I've had more success communicating in English in Japan than in China. A tour package would go a long way towards helping, but it severely reduces your flexibility and what you want to do. Not to mention a handful of people using mass transit (thankfully both Beijing and Tokyo are blessed with well developed mass transit systems) can move a lot faster than 22 people using a tour bus.
You did not specify whether you HAD to make Beijing your first stop, however, here's what I would do:
1) Buy two travel oriented dictionaries/phrase books: English-Japanese, and English-Chinese Mandarin.
2) See if you can book advanced tickets online for all the sights you want to see.
3) Using Google Maps, plot out mass transit routes from your hotel. Print these out on a proper color printer. If all else fails, show your printout to a local.
4) Print out a Google Maps description of the sights you want to see. If all else fails, show your printout to a local.
5) Travel from west to east. That means flying into Xi'an FIRST, then to Beijing, then on towards Tokyo. This will save on some traveling and make things less painful.
6) Xi'an will be the main challenge, where there's no mass transit that I'm aware of. But a group of foreigners will find easy assistance, since it should be quite obvious what you're there for. If all else fails, show people your printouts.
Also, almost forgot:
Xi'an is also famous for dumplings. So if at all possible, don't leave until you've done this: http://www.travelchinaguide.com/cityguides/shaanxi/xian/xian-dumpling-dinner.htm
Yeah, a few times. Hard chair was fairly miserable, I would not recommend that for any long trip. Soft chair was better, I did one overnight with that. Not ideal, but OK. Hard bed was the best for me. Enough space and privacy, comfortable enough to sleep in, etc. I've never actually done soft bed, but I heard it was just like an inch more padding, but a lot more expensive.
I've got fairly low requirements to be able to sleep, though, especially in vehicles :P. So if it's tough for you to sleep or something, you may want to go with the soft bed. I just heard it wasn't much of an upgrade, so I never bothered.
I never thought of traveling East to West. That seems like a nice idea to save travel time, but only if you get a nice flight into Xi'an at the beginning.
3DS Friend Code: 3110-5393-4113
Steam profile
Not very well. Even in Beijing, where supposedly the Beijing dialect is the basis for putonghua, it'll be a miracle if the app will work well. Which brings to mind: You're willing to shoulder the cost of international data roaming?
Both of them actually should work fairly well. As long as he's talking with someone who's literate, the written language is fairly standardized. Most people understand written stuff from other provinces, even if they wouldn't understand verbal stuff very much.
It's why the television programs all have subtitles.
3DS Friend Code: 3110-5393-4113
Steam profile
I was thinking of the verbal component of Google Translate, where you can speak then hear a translation, which would be a luck draw. But yes, written will work everywhere.
Considering how well it tends to translate full sentences, not saying those out loud is probably for the best :P
3DS Friend Code: 3110-5393-4113
Steam profile
Actually, in general for traveling through that part of the world, bring some travel packs of tissue paper.
Tokyo is going to be the easiest to navigate for a tourist, but all of the major cities are fairly good for this. Tokyo is big, but the transit makes it pretty quick to get around, and you can make sure to stay as close to what you want to see as possible. Are you going to be in Japan for a full 48 hours?
Great Wall is cool. But unless you want to go on a ten km hike on it you only need an hour. Get there when it opens. When there is no one on it, it's a quiet, serene place. When people are at the top it sucks.
Catch the back or whatever and go to the forbidden palace. Walk through tieanmen square on the way (its out the front) it again is maybe a four hour thing.
That will give you a day to mess around in in Beijing. I would recommend the summer gardens.
fly to xi'an. The city train link up in china is great, but comparatively it's slow.
Terracotta can be done in a day, but its more of a 3/4 days thing. Then you can check out the old city wall and wander through random streets. (I preferred doing this in xi'an over Beijing)
Flying to Japan will take a bug chunk of time though as it will be a minimum of two flights pls immigration. I can't help you with this.
In summary.
You can do a lot on a holiday if you stick to a schedule and wake up at seven each morning and don't drink excessively. (Though budget at least one of those days in) on a busy day I visited three different places. It's easily possible. You just need organization.
You don't need to learn the language. Learn yes, no, thankyou and be able to count (and sign) to ten. For locations talk to the concierge at the hotel ask them to write instructions and ask them how much it should be. (Also get the address of the hotel where you are staying)
Look at where the direct flights from china to Tokyo go. If I were you I'd forget xi'an and either spend more time in Beijing of fly to shanghai instead then. They will mostly likely have direct flights which will save you significant time.
Get sleeping tablets and adjust early so you can hit the ground running.
Satans..... hints.....
@Blake T I think I can do the kind of schedule you're suggesting, it's nice to hear that it might be possible.
@KrubixCube good advice, I think you might be right. How far is Mt. Fuji from Kyoto vs. Tokyo? Thanks for mentioning Himeji, I totally forgot about that and would definitely like to see it if time permits. Is it a full day trip as well?
Thank you everyone for all the great advice you've offered. I know I really can't do either country justice in the time I have available, but I just don't know if or when I'll be getting to this part of the world again, and I think I'd regret not at least trying to see some of both, even if it costs me a fair amount of sleep.
Alternatively, Fushimi Inari in sourthern Kyoto is also totally worth the slightly longer subway ride from JR Kyoto. In the same day you can then squeeze a trip further down south to Nara to visit Todai-ji and feed the deer. Then back up north and visit Gion at night for an even better chance at seeing geisha!
Or, you can visit Kinkaku-ji north of Kyoto, and swing by Ryoan-ji and Kitano Tenman-gu while you're there.
Or, north west and visit the Philosopher's Walk up to Ginkaku-ji (could be done on same day as Imperial Palace Park and Nijo-jo). For best experiences, book an early reservation to get a tour of the Imperial Palace itself.
The nice thing about Kyoto is that it preserves a small town feel, but the entire town is tourism-ready and largely English capable, without looking like a giant tourist trap. If you crave something of a night life, Osaka is just a quick train ride away.
Also, when in Kyoto, to get the full experience you can look into staying at a traditional ryokan instead of a modern hotel. Potentially cheaper, more intimate, sleeping on tatami mats, and wonderful Japanese style breakfast. What's not to like about Kyoto?
(Disclaimer: The Kyoto Tourism Bureau does not pay me to promote the fine city.)
Wherever you do go, try and find somewhere with some kind of a night life scene. Even though it's not my sort of thing, it is worth checking out, and there isn't going to be much else for you to do late at night.
I can't give any advice on food in China, but while you're in Japan, eat the cheap food. The places I miss eating out at most are the places you could get a meal for 500 Yen.