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Maybe it’s the Olympics and the season (or maybe my blog is just that fascinating), but I have been receiving a lot of e-mails lately asking for travel advise about China. So I sat down this morning and came up with a rambling list of the things I think are most important. This is based solely on personal opinion and experiences, though, so take it with a grain of salt. I hope this helps point interested parties in the right direction, if nothing else.

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ERIN’S UNSOLICITED ADVICE AND TO-KNOW LIST ABOUT TRAVELING IN CHINA

1. Be Adventurous

Do not hermit away in your dorm room/hotel room and do not spend all your time at KFC/Pizza Hut/arcades/clubs or only hanging out with other international students/fellow travelers. Basically, do not create a Little America during your stay in China. Don’t get stuck in the tour group mindset where you have a carefully coordinated and chaperoned experience of the largest tourist spots only. Go out walking without a plan. Stop at places along the way. Stop at that cruddy dive restaurant. Go into the clothing store. Don’t fear getting lost or being unable to communicate so much that you spend your time in China staring at the same four walls, or solely interacting with fellow travelers. Do your own research and plan your own stay. Make friends and go places with them. Take the initiative and invite them out somewhere. Be curious – if you see a food that interests you and you don’t know what it is, taste it. Ask your new friends what they enjoy doing around town, what restaurants are good and what KTV places are the best. Go to the night markets and buy DVDs and CDs of popular movies and music, even without knowing what they are about or what they sound like. Ask questions. As permission if you are unsure. As my mother used to tell me when I was growing up, “The worst they can do is tell you no.” You will look silly sometimes, you will probably get lost, get sick or make some ridiculous verbal mistake…but that’s all part of life and all part of international travel. If nothing else, think of the good story that experience will make (for example, I have had some ridiculous transit-related escapade in every country I’ve ever visited, much to the amusement of my friends and family).

2. Really Try Chinese Food

Odds are if you live in the West, unless you are the exception, the food you refer to as Chinese is anything but. Actual, honest-to-goodness Chinese food is very different what you get at the buffet or the take-out up the road. In fact, many of our “Chinese” dishes were actually modified or created outright to suit Western tastes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Chinese_cuisine

It will be different…it will contain vegetables you’ve never seen and animal parts you would not find on the menu on Texas Roadhouse. There will probably be bones in everything, including fish (which are usually served whole). You may not have any idea what comprises the food you are putting in your mouth…dish names do not indicate the cooking method and the ingredients (for example, one of the most popular eggplant dishes has a name that is something like “almost as good as fish”, and yet contains no ocean flora or fauna)...be adventurous, take a guess and try something new. Try something you’d never imagine eating in a million years…chances are, you’ll be very surprised…just don’t seek out General Tso’s, Fried Rice and Sesame Chicken in every restaurant you come across.

3. Chinese Restrooms

Not all rest areas in China have toilet paper and/or sinks to wash your hands in. Seriously. In fact, depending on where you are, many don’t. It was by far the norm during my travels to come across a place that didn’t rather than a place that did. Also, there’s a little something up with Chinese toilets that you will probably come across sooner rather than later…

This is a Chinese toilet. No, I will not describe it any further and, no, I will not explain how to use it. ;) That can be part of your own travel research and experiences. The only thing I will say about these is something a friend once told me while I was visiting Kyoto many years ago as a high-school exchange student…”there’s only one rule for using a squat toilet – exhaust all other options first.”

Usually these are tucked inside of ceiling-high stalls, affording privacy while you navigate with difficulty something 5-year-old Chinese children do with ease…sometimes, though, you will come across what is known as a 你好 (ni hao) bathroom…ni hao being Mandarin for hello...see if you can figure out why they would be called this from the photo below…bear in mind – Jillian, Yuki and Natalie are all standing straight up in their stalls and they all are between, maybe, 5 foot 2 through 5 foot 4 inches tall…

Don’t get flipped out just yet, though. Western-style toilets are by far the norm. Just don’t be surprised to encounter one of these every now and again…especially in older districts and establishments.

A WORD OF SERIOUS ADVICE: Bring toilet paper/hand sanitizer/personal hygiene products with you wherever you go. Seriously. Just do it.

4. Be Prepared To Be Close

As one of my professors is fond of telling me, the idea of personal space is somewhat foreign to most Chinese. It is, after all, one of the most populous countries in the world…one that has a social structure emphasizing social relationships and obligations…so it should come as no surprise that Chinese people are close, physically and emotionally. It’s not considered rude to ask questions about someone’s weight, income, age and marital/romantic status. People will touch you, move you and brush against you without apology on the street in a way that doesn’t even happen on the NYC Metro (it’s not considered a violation, so it’s not exactly rude). For example – I was on a flight from Shanghai to Tokyo where my seatmate (a 50+ professional on a business trip), began asking me detailed questions about my income and my personal expenditures in the course of a routine conversation about the American versus the Chinese economy. In Suzhou, shopkeepers would often hold clothing up to my body and begin checking for fit in a way that only my mother and my grandmother have ever done to me. New acquaintances would ask me about marital and childbearing prospects…it’s all part of the territory. Offering advice or taking on the role of a go-between in some problematic situation is also common (less so among the younger generation, though). If this happens to you (as it likely will), don’t be offended or put off – just realize this is a part of Chinese culture and that you’re just having a culture shock moment. After the shock passes, you may find the honesty and the forthrightness behind those gestures to be very refreshing.

5. Language, Language, Language

If you are traveling in the mainland, the lingua franca there is Mandarin as we call it, 普通话 (putonghua) as they call it. This is also true for Taiwan. However, in places like Hong Kong and Singapore, the spoken word is generally Cantonese (AKA yue). All this in addition to the numerous方言(fangyan), or regional dialects, within China. On top of this, in the mainland a simplified character system is used in the written language (where strokes have been streamlined and condensed to aid retention), whereas traditional characters are used in other places (like Hong Kong). How different can this be? 国 (S) versus 國 (T) indicate the same word.

However…don’t allow the intricacies of Chinese to scare you off from delving deeper. Chances are very high (especially in the mainland), that you will be placed in situations where the other communicative party does not speak English…after all, you are in a different country and English is your tongue, not theirs…what to do?

Well…I would recommend learning at least a few key phrases…here’s a site with good information and good links:

http://www.omniglot.com/writing/chinese_spoken.htm

The largest part of making yourself understandable in Chinese involves pronunciation and tone (for example, the words for mother and horse are the same…the tone with which they are pronounced is what determines their meaning). This obviously presents a problem to the beginning language student, especially if you are studying on your own. If pronunciation and memorization turn out to be real problems, I would recommend purchasing a photo dictionary. These are small books that contain a variety of simple photos and drawings which can be quite simply pointed to. It’s surprising how effective that kind of communication can be.

6. Planes, Sleeper Trains, Public Transport and Taxis

Getting around China is easy with a little know-how. Obviously, the quickest way to get from city to city is by plane. However, flights are by far the most expensive option for travel…in addition to the fact that you miss out on the experiences and scenery of these other methods…so, do as most Chinese do. Take a sleeper train.

Tickets for these trains can be bought at train terminals . Hard sleepers are the cheapest…but, honestly, these things are incredibly crowded and small (6 small cots per space, 3 per each wall)...it’s basically a series of small metal cots studding open alcoves, more like storage then bedding, with no privacy…expect to be sharing space with families with small children and, on occasion, animals (I traveled for 36 hours on one in the company of chicks and ducklings, believe it or not)...if you are traveling in a group, pay the extra money and get a soft sleeper. These are individual compartments on the trains (4 beds per), usually with individual TVs or radios per bed (which are softer, larger, couch-type beds). These will have individual hot water carafes to hold your boiling water, in addition to being much quieter.

Soft Sleepers:

Hard Sleepers:

Feathered Traveling Companions:

There are also sleeper buses…these are cheaper than trains and will take you through many tiny little cities and on many strange roads. These can be kind of a scary experience, as it’s almost guaranteed to be a Chinese-language only trip through what will appear to you to be the middle of nowhere. And you’ve never seen a roadside dive until you stop at a “bus stop” during one of these rides (packed earth courtyards with open water spigots and doorless urinals, anyone?) Unless you are traveling with some friends and speak a fair amount of Chinese, don’t do it. If you meet those conditions, it can be quite an interesting way to see parts of the countryside you’d never see from a train.

Remember, also, to bring food with you on the trains and buses. The trips can be long and there are no vending machines. There’s usually hot water on the trains to make noodles and tea, but bring whatever you want to eat with you. (Some trains have dining cars, but don’t hold out for it…they’re not open 24/7, and the food can be kind of mediocre and expensive). At many train stops, there will be sellers with carts of fruit, vegetables, drinks, foods, magazines and cigarettes. There’s also often stores or restaurants in the train stations.

Taking a taxi from place to place will usually be relatively reasonable…just remember that your driver most likely doesn’t speak English…minimum fares vary from place to place, usually starting no cheaper than 10元 for a short hop…the only problem with this method is that often taxi drivers will note that you are not Chinese and will try to inflate the rates. This is so incredibly common, especially around tourist areas and travel hubs. They do this usually by immediately quoting a price that is 5 or 6 times what the actual cost is or by not turning on their meters once you are inside and then charged you an inflated rate upon arrival. There’s no full-proof method for avoiding this difficulty (off-duty taxis do the same thing), but if you avoid taxi hawkers and go to taxi stands (located outside of airports and train stations), queue up with everyone else and look for an official-looking taxi that quotes their price per kilometer on the side, in addition to having a meter installed in the front dashboard. This photo is from the Shanghaiist (great blog) and is what a meter generally looks like:

That paper sprouting out of the top is the receipt. The meter is generally on if the little flip sign above it that indicates the taxi is available is pushed down. You’ll hear the buzzing, printing sound of the receipt being readied and the meter kicking on once its been started. Do not be afraid to barter or argue with these drivers, or to insist that they turn on the meter (请打表 – qing3 da2 biao3). Don’t be afraid to simply get out of the taxi if you feel uncomfortable, either. Just don’t do it on the middle of nowhere. ;)

Jitneys are also very common and should be avoided unless it is absolutely not possible to do so (these rates will always be hugely inflated.)

Public transport is dirt cheap…usually 1元 a ride, or some such…obviously, subways are nice because they’re quick and universal…public buses are good, too, although this form of transport can become ridiculously crowded. Just remember that on a Chinese bus, etiquette demands you turn your body away from the aisle and the people across from you and look out the window of the side of the bus you are on. In the West, we tend to turn away from the people we are hovering over and to look out into the middle of the aisle or on the ground, maybe out a window further up or on the other side…this is considered weird in China. If you walk onto a crowded bus in China, expect to see a row of standing passengers presenting a line of backsides all the way down the aisle. Do the same.

Or, you know…do what most people do. Walk or, like Yuki and John, ride a bike.

A WORD OF SERIOUS ADVICE: If you are traveling in China, you MUST get the addresses of the places you will be going to/staying at written in Chinese characters for you. If you can’t do that, at least get a working telephone number for your destination. Do not expect your taxi driver or passersby to recognize an address written in English. First of all, the pinyin (if it is correctly translated, which it often is not), will not contain those essential accent marks so you will not be able to decipher it to pronounce it correctly…(we’re all guilty – I don’t use correct pinyin on this blog when I type, either)...also, pinyin requires training to read for the native speaker as well as the foreign student (it’s a transliteration system, not a writing system), so many people just will not know how to read what you’re showing them…on top of all this, places and streets are often “Westernized” for hotel/hostel/tourist reservations and information…Phoenix Banquet can actually turn out to be something completely different in Chinese. :( I cannot tell you how many times I have come across a group of tourists/students waving a guidebook or a printout of with a Westernized address in the face of a completely bewildered taxi driver.

7. Learn To Barter

You just will not be able to get away without doing this. Very rarely will a price in a store not be negotiable, unless it’s a department store or convenience store or some such…most of the tiny little boutiques/stands/shops you come across will have negotiable prices, so you will be expected to barter. Also keep in mind that many of the goods you are buying are most likely knockoffs…and that the shop clerks will lie outright to your face if it means you will buy something. I had a shopkeeper in Guilin try to tell me that this BOX OF JAPANESE YOMOGI MOCHI she was peddling was a Chinese regional specialty only produced in this one place in all the world…even though the lettering on the box was in Japanese, of which I read some to her…even though it had a photo of Mount Fuji under an embossed print of cherry blossoms on the back of the package… ::sigh::

I’m going to have a separate post on this later, so that will contain more detailing tips and information…in the meantime, just realize that you need to be willing and able to negotiate, and to call somebody’s bluff.

8. Pack Wisely

With one of the few highly favorable exchange rates left to US wallets, not to mention with so many interesting and valuable goods available for purchase, you WILL buy something while you are in China. Even if you aren’t a big shopper. Even if you only have thismuch room left in your suitcase. Even if you only have 5 bucks left to your name. So pack as lightly as you can. Airlines are restricting weights and bags more as each day passes, so every pound counts. You can buy many personal care products for the equivalent of nickels and dimes once in China – about the only thing you can’t buy is clothing/shoes if you are tall or larger than a women’s size medium. (The same goes for men.) Chinese sizes are very, very small – a women’s size 12, for example, hovers somewhere between a 1X and a 2XX in the Chinese market…if you are of a more diminutive size, you can find many great bargains and deals that double as souvenirs. Otherwise, bring everything you think you’ll need with you, because you won’t be buying it once there.

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That’s about the most I can think of at the moment, so I hope that helps any of you looking to travel in China. Completely seriously, going to China was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I really encourage anyone interested and able to do the same, and would be more than happy to answer any other questions about China through e-mail.