Source: me

I’m on the plane in Hong Kong, and we’re just about to embark on the 15.5 hour flight to Toronto. I hope to be able to sleep most of the way. But I do want to write down some thoughts of Shanghai ­– what I liked, and what I did not.

I’m glad I had as much time there as I did. 4 days in Beijing, and 3 days in Xi’an was feeling a bit rushed to me, and so 6 days in Shanghai allowed me to see and do a lot, and give me the extra time to get to know the place a bit.

Beijing, for me, felt like an old city. I stayed next to the Forbidden City in the center of the city, and there was a lot of history there. As I described, stumbling into a garden that was actually hundreds of years old, you could feel the history in almost everything there. I did not really get to experience the new modern parts of that city. I was far from the subway, so I don’t even know what it looks like!

Of course, Xi’an is an old city that doesn’t feel like one. The place was called Xi’an even 1,000, 2,000 and 3,000 years ago, and people had been known to inhabit the area for 6,000 years. The city wall, the bell and drum towers, all are showcases of that history. But most of the city feels new, with its bars and shopping malls. Blocks of 30, 40 condo buildings being built all at once. A giant nuclear power plant on the outskirts of town.

But Shanghai is something else. You may stumble across some history in the middle of the city, but its not a city of historical tourist attractions. Shanghai may have had it’s heyday in the 1920’s and 1930’s, when it was a movie making capital in China. There are certainly historical places like The Bund, and through various building architectures that suggest an early 20^th century feeling. And yet, a lot of the really giant skyscrapers have only been built in the last 20 years, and more are going up. Shanghai is becoming, or is, the economic capital of China.

The subway has 13 lines, although once did I really got lost in there. It was generally very easy to navigate, and even buy tickets through the automated machines – thank you to whoever added an “English” button to those kiosks! But I had made a couple of faulty assumptions about my destination, and then compounded the error by going in the wrong direction for a while until I looked up and said, what am I doing here? Up til then (and even after) I had the subway down pat, no problem.

Shanghai can suffer the same problem as Beijing sometimes, as it might be difficult to get a taxi on a busy day. In fact, I think for the first time in my life (or certainly the first time I remember), I was stuck in a taxi that did not move for more than 15 minutes. Literally stuck in the same spot on a road that had 2 lanes in each direction, and not moving an inch in that time. I think the Chinese propensity to enter intersections on a red light was the problem, as I am sure the traffic on one end of the street was blocked by some drivers being stuck in the intersection and the same thing another block over (and me in the middle).

The busy-ness of the taxis caused me to make what was, in hindsight, probably a terrible decision. Every once and a while a motorcycle will come by, and ask me if I wanted to go somewhere as I am standing on the side of the road trying to flag a cab. One night I had plans to go out, and was waiting what seemed like a long time for a cab (probably 10-15 minutes in reality) and a motorcyclist came by. OK, here’s the address, take me there. I should have known something was up from the start, as I kept pestering him for a price, and he kept insisting I just get on. Back and forth, how much, just get on, no how much, no just get on. 5 minutes of this, and we finally settle on a price. Basically it was 3 times a cab fare for the same distance, but there were no cabs (supply and demand). And 3 times a $3 cab far is still a pretty good deal for a Canadian when you really want to go somewhere and you’re stuck.

The ride was perhaps the scariest of my life. We drove in the oncoming traffic, squeezed between cars and buses and did not stop for even a single red light. I’ll say this, the guy got me there fast (which was a good thing), but doing 90 kph in the oncoming traffic lane straight through a red light is probably an experience best left for “once in your life”. OK, scratch that one off the bucket list.

The funniest thing was when it came time to pay him. The fare we agreed on was 70 yuan – $10. I pull out the cash, and of course he says “dollars”. Ah, no. I’m not paying you 70 dollars. He literally refused to take the money and insisted on 70 US dollars. Yeah, that’s basically a non-starter. The Chinese, with all due respect, are very persistent at trying to squeeze you for a few dollars more. Well a deal is a deal in my book. So after quite a bit of bickering, I forced the 70 yuan into his hand, and was off to the club.

The nightlife scene was perhaps the funnest part of the trip for me in Shanghai. I’m not much of a club goer back home (that is, not at all). And I was able to find a club that was free to get in, had good music, had good people (met some neat folks there), and the drinks were cheap ($15 for all you can drink). I almost wanted to go to different places and visit different clubs in different spots of town, but when you have fun one night, why risk it by doing something different the next. So I ended up going there night after night.

So the trip is over, and I am only left with the photos and memories of my time there. I am sure by the next time I will be able to go back, China will be very different. That’s the one thing about a rapidly growing culture, it’s never the same from year to year.

I enjoyed China. I would love to talk to people who are thinking about going there, and share some of my experiences and tips. Stay on your guard – this isn’t like a trip to New York. But let yourself have fun. China is a wonderful place, with a ton of history. Well worth putting on your list of places to visit.

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Related posts:

1. On The Road: The Ancient City of Xi’an
2. On the Road: If It’s Raining in Shanghai, What Time Is It in Toronto?
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Source: mathias.apitz at flickr

I am thankful to Kevin Rose and Tim Ferriss. After watching their videos on their trip to China, I became aware of a couple of the more popular scams here. Now that I am here, I can honestly say that has probably saved me a lot of money, and so it’s my duty to pass the word along to fellow travelers.

I don’t know why there are so many in person scammers here in China. I would think that the Chinese government would shut them down fairly efficiently – one of the benefits of a communist government is it doesn’t have to worry about the rights of the shady business owners, although one of the downsides is that it doesn’t have to worry about the rights of the innocent consumer either. But still, hundreds of scammers roam the popular tourist spots, trying to trick tourists out of their money.

The most popular scam, by far, that I’ve encountered is the tea house scam, or the lets go get a drink scam. It’s happened to me in both Beijing and Shanghai. As an example, yesterday I was approached by three young-looking students (two girls and a guy) on The Bund – the popular waterfront promenade. First, they wanted me to take their picture with their digital camera in front of a landmark. Then they started quizzing me about where I was from, what I was doing here, how long I’d be here, etc. They knew of Canada, talked about the Maple Leaf flag, and Maple Syrup. And on and on, for about 5 minutes of getting to know you talk. Then the proposition – they were going over to a nearby tea house, and would I like to join?

Ah, that’s the catch there. I have not fallen for this personally, but a quick search of the Internet revealed many stories of tourists who accompany the students to the tea house. There they sample several different types of tea. And when the bill comes: 2000 Yuan (or roughly $300). Since it is two girls and a guy, the guy part of their group leans over to you and says “in China, it is customary for the men to pay for the women”, and he offers to split the check 50/50 with you, leaving you with 1000 Yuan to pay for some tea and snacks.

Now maybe to some tourists $150 is money they can afford to pay for spending a couple of hours with some nice students learning some Chinese and trying some tea. I have read stories from people who enjoyed their time with them. But to most, it’s a scam. The students are employed by the tea house and paid a commission to bring you there. The money the other guy “chipped in”, he’s going to get back. And the students head out again to the tourist spot to nab more victims immediately after you leave.

I have been approached probably 8 or 9 times by these students wanting to go for some tea or just a drink. So this is a popular scam here.

Another scam, mostly in Beijing I have found, is the bicycle cart scam. Let’s say you’re walking near the Forbidden City, and it’s been a long tiring day. A guy on a bicycle-powered rickshaw comes by, and offers you a ride. You ask how much, and he says “3″. Wow, 3. That’s like 50 cents. “3?” “Yes, 3.” OK you say, and you hop in. He takes you back to your hotel, a 20 minute bicycle ride away. You’re feeling pretty generous, thinking such hard work deserves a big tip, at least pay him 10 or 20 you think.

Then you get there. “300″, he says. “300? You said 3!” Yes, 300. He shows a printed, laminated card with the prices. 300 is clearly the published price. Ah, you tricked me. Instead of 50 cents, it’s more like $50. Then he ups the price, and wants 600. He shows you how sweaty he is. How hard he worked.  He showed you a Hutong along the way like a tour guide, and the price card clearly shows that sightseeing is extra. Well the good news is, you can pay these guys a little money and then walk away. Nice try though. I have no sympathy for them.

I have heard about a foot massage scam but have not dared step into any of those places. Basically, you walk into a legitimate looking massage spa, even on a popular busy street. They tell you all the masseuses are busy, and that you should wait. They serve you tea while you wait. Then 30 minutes later they return, saying the masseuse is ready, but first you must pay for the room rental. Huh? $10 for the cup of tea, and $40 for using the room for half an hour. Two big guys with clubs suddenly appear to collect the fee. Again, you can generally argue your way out the door, basically daring them to call the police on you, which they won’t.

The bottom line is generally, if you pay them, there is very little way you are getting your money back. You can go to the police – I have read that some have tried. The police might patiently take your statement. But basically, the transaction has taken place. A service was rendered or a product was sold for a price (as high as it is), and money changed hands. They find it hard to say any crime has taken place. If you don’t pay, and they actually have to try to force you to take the money, that’s assault or robbery, and it’s much easier to get the police involved. Not that you want to get beat up, but just realize that if you voluntarily pay – out of guilt or out of fear or out of some obligation because in Western cultures we don’t ever demand a discount once a bill with a number is presented to us – then you aren’t getting that money back.

Related posts:

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Source: lee_blake_somerset at flickr

Today is Day 3 of my visit to Shanghai. And it’s raining. It rains every day here for a little bit, or so it seems. And it’s not a light sprinkle rain either. Thunder, lightening, and the heavens above open completely and release a torrent of water upon the city.

Shanghai has not been cooler unfortunately. It seems to have the same ability to soak through t-shirts as Beijing did. The heat itself has not been difficult for me to stand, but going through 3 t-shirts a day has been tough on my laundry situation. So I think I packed enough clothes, and then it turns out I had no idea how fast I actually use them up.

In each city (Beijing, Xian and now Shanghai) I have been sending my laundry out to be done to replenish my supply of fresh clothes. That was always part of the plan anyways, but I had no idea I had to do it 3 times. There’s an irony, I suppose, in that I’ve probably spent $100 in getting my laundry done in China. Ancient Chinese secret, huh? Sounds like someone is making a lot of profit to me.

Shanghai itself is wonderfully modern. The hotel is, as I hoped, in a very good area. It is within walking distance to the major shopping street here, and steps from the subway. In fact, I surprised myself and took the Maglev train and subway from the airport to my hotel with no map and no idea how to get there ahead of time. I probably saved myself 150 Yuan on the cab fare (about $24). Not sure why the Maglev train excites me, but it does. I wish Toronto had one. It reached speeds of 300 kph (180 mph) when I took it here. And the ticket only cost $8.

I wish the rain would let up soon. It’s 1pm, and I’m anxious to go out today and do something. I was thinking of going to the Expo, maybe go visit, take a walk around with no expectation of seeing the inside of any of the Pavilions, and just take some pictures. If the rain stops and the skies look like they’re clearing, I’m going to do that.

I am getting some long-sleeve shirts made – custom tailored. I am excited about that. For about $125, I am getting 3 shirts made here. I was tempted to get some suits done too, but I don’t have a lot of opportunities to wear suits.

That’s all for now. The rain doesn’t seem to be letting up, but I am still really enjoying my time in Shanghai. I have lots of pictures to share once I get back.

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Source: SF Bit at flickr

I have six days in Shanghai coming up, and I am hoping this will actually be a restful part of the trip. I spent only 4 days in Beijing and 3 in Xi’an, and have felt a bit rushed in those cities. I’d love to have time to see a bit more, and rest a bit more. Maybe do a bit less walking, as my hotel in Shanghai is not too far from the subway line.

The big thing going on in Shanghai right now is the Expo. In case you don’t know, every two years one international city hosts the World Expo, in which dozens of countries participate. A large site is developed with various country-specific buildings, and each country puts on some type of display for tourists. The displays vary from actual live shows, to food and drink from that nation, to more simple information booths.

The Shanghai Expo is quite large, with upwards of 50,000 people per day visiting the site. The Expo runs for only six months, and so they expect more than 10 million people to pass through. Those are staggering numbers. Now the majority of Shanghai Expo visitors, I hear, are mainland Chinese families. That means the most popular attractions are the Asian exhibits (particularly China which looks spectacular from the outside). I hear reservations to the China exhibit are gone out by 6:30am each day, and even with reservations the line up is a couple of hours long. The chances of me seeing the inside this time around are… none. I doubt I will be able to see Japan or Korea either as those are popular second choices for the Chinese.

I hear the USA exhibit has only a 6 hour line and Canada is only 4 hours. That’s a bit disheartening too, as I would like to be able to at least see the Canada Pavilion while I have travelled all this way to be there. Maybe I can talk my way in – wear my Olympic Canada shirt, show my passport and beg 15 minutes to enjoy what my taxes have paid for.

I may be forced to go to the “less popular” countries. I will try to visit India, some of the Middle Eastern ones, and maybe be able to get into some of the smaller South and Central American ones. After coming all this way to see the Expo, I am expecting to be disappointed at how little I will be able to see of it due to the number of visitors and the multi-hour line ups for most of the interesting ones.

Besides the Expo, Shanghai is a modern city with an interesting skyline. I hear there are a mix of different architectural styles, from the time the city had French, Dutch and other occupiers. There are areas with distinct European flairs and I am told the buildings there even resemble what you see in Europe.

Lastly, I have my doubts about this hotel. I found it very difficult to choose a hotel given all the choices. Shanghai has about 8 distinct areas, each with their unique features. Some are residential areas, and some are business. There’s the area near the airport, and area where the French and Dutch were. In the end, I chose the area with the best reputation for nightlife. I find it enjoyable to go for a walk at night, when it’s a bit cooler, and it’d be nice to be close to where the bars and restaurants were for that. I was not anywhere near that in Beijing, and it was my major problem with that hotel.

Once I had chosen an area, finding the “best” hotel given all the choices of price, quality and features was no easy task. I ended up picking a hotel that had the best reviews. There were a few really glowing ones (“the best hotel I stayed at anywhere in China”) which has me a bit optimistic. But ultimately, even if it’s not as good as my hotel in Xi’an, if it’s half as good but in a good area of town, I’ll be happy. Close to a subway is a huge feature.

So fingers crossed about that.

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Related posts:

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Source: B.D.'s World at flickr

It seems like I only have time to write these blog entries in the airport, as I sit once again in an airport waiting to catch a flight. I’m leaving the wonderful city of Xi’an and heading to Shanghai, which should be exciting.

As expected, the hotel in Xi’an was VERY nice. I only had three nights here, but I did manage to sleep until 2 in the afternoon one of those days on the very comfortable bed. I also took the opportunity to get a massage done at the hotel spa. I went in with a sore back, and I came out ready to fall asleep without a care in the world. Probably my first ever real massage, as all those neck and back people don’t seem to make any of my pains go away.

It was one of those hotels that made it very easy to not have to leave the hotel if you didn’t want to. It offered a luxurious room, pool, spa, night club, choice of several restaurants on site. The service was top notch.

Enough about the hotel. The city itself is obviously a rapidly growing city. They don’t just build one condo at a time here, they build 30. There are large areas of the city devoted to shopping, and so if shopping is your thing you could spend several days getting lost in all the shops. Since I stayed in the center of town (the old city is surrounded by a huge wall), I did a lot of walking. There was quite a lot to see and do within walking distance.

One thing I need to mention is a mall called “Xi’an Computer Mall”. Now you might think the term “Computer Mall” might be a bit of an overstatement, but I assure you it is not. Imagine a large department store (Macy’s, Bloomingdales, Sears, you name it). And imagine that store is 6 floors. Now imagine all they sell is computers. Wall to wall, top to bottom, laptops, desktops, and computer parts. The mind boggles at the very thought. Why don’t they have anything like this in Toronto? Or even North America? This isn’t like a super-big Best Buy or something. Best Buy sells CDs, DVDs, home theatres, washing machines, and video games. This MALL just sold computers. Two floors devoted purely to laptops.

Driving in China is an interesting ballet to watch. I used to say about the Philippines, that lines on the road were just a suggestion not a rule. Well in mainland China, traffic lights are regarded as a Christmas decoration, and oncoming traffic does not scare people. I’ve seen cars and motorcycles driving down the wrong way of a one way street, people of all ages just walk into an intersection without regard to how busy it is, slow moving bicycles with carts attached taking up one lane of a raised expressway filled with cars doing 120 kph, and cars turning left that force their way through the intersection across five lanes of busy traffic. And when one successfully does that, the five cars immediately behind follow across in a chain causing everyone to have to stop and let them through.

Very interesting to watch, but I would never want to drive here. I think the rapid development from a rural society, known for being a country of bicycle riders to suddenly everyone owning a car has been a difficult adjustment for China. I wonder what the traffic fatality rate is here compared to Canada.

Sitting in the front seat of a cab, I actually had a taxi driver ask me NOT to put my seat belt on while he was putting his on. Umm, I wonder why he would object to that?

I spent one day on an organized tour here in Xi’an, visiting a few sites the most famous of which is the Terracotta Warriors. I actually met the man who discovered them while digging a well on his family land (Mr. Yang), and got a picture and autograph. So while a handful of the statues may be at the ROM in Toronto right now, I got to meet the man who essentially turned Xi’an from a sleepy town into an upcoming economic powerhouse. I hope he is well taken care of by the government. I am willing to bet 95% of the tourists that come through here are coming to see the clay statues he found while digging that well.

Anyways, I hear them calling my flight number. Next time you hear from me, I’ll be in Shanghai!

Xie xie.

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1. On The Road: The Ancient City of Xi’an
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Source: Fracisco Diez at flickr

I writing today’s entry at the Beijing airport, waiting to leave on my flight to Xi’an. Having spent 4 days here, I am of mixed emotions as I leave. On the one hand, I think I am ready to go to someplace new, and on the other, I feel like I hardly saw or did anything and will probably need to come back in order to experience it better. There is just so much to see and do here!

Did I have Peking Duck here? No. Did I have more than one or two decent meals? No. Did I even enter the Forbidden City, the most famous landmark in Beijing? Also no. (It was way too busy the day I went, and I was way too tired from walking there.) I have to ask myself, what DID I do?

There are two things about Beijing in the summer that makes it a difficult place to get around. One, it’s hot. The temperature never got below 35 degrees C during the day, and even late at night the heat makes you soak a shirt through in 5 minutes.

And two, taxis are difficult. (My hotel was 30 minutes walk from the subway station, which I hear is nice.) It’s not that taxis are impossible; it’s just sometimes a lot like trying to catch a cab in downtown Manhattan at 5pm on a weekday. You’re going to be waiting a long, long time for an empty one to pass.

Now I actually did not have much trouble with the actual taxi experience once I got one. It’s true that drivers rarely speak much English, but the hotel had this very handy card with its address on it written in Chinese, and the addresses of the top 10 tourist attractions. I carried that card with me everywhere, it was very handy. I hope they have that in Xi’an.

A couple of taxi drivers tried to play the “no meter, no meter” game with me. But at least they were up front about it. Taxis in Beijing are extremely cheap. A very long 30 minute cab ride will only cost you about $10. As a result, when it’s a busy time to catch a cab, the driver is likely to want to double, triple or more the meter price. It’s basic supply and demand. Most times, I said no and left the cab. Catching the next cab was not a problem. But once I did agree to go off the meter, and it was actually a good experience. The taxi driver was very friendly, funny, and spoke pretty good English.

So, to answer the question, what DID I do in Beijing. Well, the hotel I stayed at was in an actual “Hutong”, which is itself a tourist attraction. It is a very narrow street where people who worked in the Forbidden City used to live more than 1000 years ago. The one I stayed on had restaurants, markets, and various vendors lining both sides of the street, like a mini-market.

I did walk for a few hours one day, and saw a strange entrance down the end of a short street. Of course, I investigated, and was charged 10 Yuan ($2) for the pivillege of entering this garden. And oh I am glad I did. It ended up being the Imperial Palace Garden and Temple. and it was almost completely empty of tourists! I walked about, enjoying the gardens, and each of the ancient buildings within. There were places for animal sacrifice, and places for prayer. There was a very large set of bells for playing music on, and in general I was in awe of the real history I was just idly wandering through.

Of course, that feeling didn’t last long as I left the park and tried to make my way to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square itself. Let me tell you, there must have been 100,000 people there. After walking for hours, and spending more than an hour in a peaceful park all by myself, I had no appetite to fight the crowds. And so I made my way back to my hotel, which was still a long way away.

I managed to take a tour while I was in Beijing, which took me to The Great Wall.  I tried to climb it, and made it about half way up the first section. The climb is very steep, and well I decided I still had a long day of touring ahead and did not want to kill myself before lunch.

I also saw a place called Ming Tombs.  This is the site where 13 of the Ming Dynasty emperors are buried. If I recall the tour guide correctly, they opened one of the tombs in the 1950’s, most of the silks and textiles that were found inside the tombs deteriorated quickly. They emptied the tomb too quickly, and there was very poor documentation over what was found and where. Basically, they will not be opening any more tombs until a technology exists to ensure the artifacts inside will not be destroyed, which will be a very long time.

So, to sum up Beijing: hot, crowded, scary, exciting, fun. Hopefully the next few days in Xi’an are quiet before I hit the supercity of Shanghai. The hotel has a pool apparently, so perhaps I can make use of that. And it won’t be so hot.

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Source: eviltomthai at flickr

It’s hard to call any city in China “the ancient city of” since most of them have been around for thousands of years. One city I will be going to is called Xi’an – which has more than 3,100 years of recorded history! Canada was formed as a country a mere 150 years ago, and North America was only discovered 500 years ago. (Thanks Chris!) I am fascinated by history, and China has a lot of it.

Of course, the most famous place just outside of Xi’an is the Terracotta Warriors (also called Terracotta Army) that were discovered buried in a farmer’s field only 35 years ago. These warriors date from around 300 BC! There are an estimated 8,000 statues buried, including men, and even horses. It is part of the mausoleum built for the First Emperor of China, and they say 700,000 workers worked on the site. By the Emperor’s command, every statue is made to look different.

The funny thing is, a small part of the Terracotta Army (20 soldiers) is currently on display at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) which is within walking distance of my apartment in Toronto. I could have saved $2,475 if I just bought a museum ticket to that instead of flying all this way!

I originally had 4 nights booked here, but a friend told me 2 would be enough. The same friend told me Shanghai was one of her favorite cities in the world, so that convinced me to change my plans. Luckily the plans were changeable (not easily, but it only cost me $13 in the end). So now I have 3 nights in Xi’an and I leave first thing on the fourth day to head to Shanghai.

I am staying in a really nice hotel. It may be my best hotel of the trip. If the town of Xi’an doesn’t have much to offer, perhaps I can swim in the hotel pool, and make use of the spa services? I don’t think I will at all be bored. No worries about that.

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I am excited to get started my two week trip to China. Excited and a bit scared. I am travelling alone, and don’t speak that much Mandarin Chinese. Even the words I can speak I am highly doubtful I am pronouncing correct. I am well aware that Chinese has tones and inflections that change the meanings of words, so Ni Hao coming from my mouth might come out as a deep insult to the hotel receptionist’s ancestors. 

As I type this, my plane seems to be entering the air space over Greenland. Now to some of you, you might think, he’s flying from Toronto to Beijing, East to West, what the heck is he doing over Greenland? And I might have asked myself the same question except I did some reading recently about how imperfect it is to translate a 3D spherical map of the globe onto a 2D surface. So technically, the fight from Toronto to Beijing goes over the North Pole, and technically Greenland is lying lengthwise above Canada and not beside it as most Mercator maps represent. Also, Greenland is a LOT smaller in reality than most maps depict in true relative scale. I’ve seen maps that show Greenland as big as all of Canada. 

The Real Greenland - Above Canada

Researching hotels for China was fun. I probably did more research on them than anything else, because there are so many different varieties to choose from with different price ranges. The hotel I found in Beijing is very interesting. It gets good reviews on TripAdvisor (top 50 in Beijing), it’s cheap ($50 a night for the cheapest rooms), it’s close to many attractions (steps from the Forbidden City), has Internet access, and the staff reportedly speak English and are helpful. They say taxi drivers have trouble finding it, but I brought with me a map in Chinese. 

I have 4 nights in Beijing. I will visit the Forbidden City, the Great Wall of China, Tiananmen Square, Mao’s Tomb, do some shopping in a couple of the famous markets (clothes and DVDs!), visit the famous night “snack market” where scorpions on a stick can be had (I will stick to meat), and perhaps do a tour that will take me to the site of the Olympic Games. Since Beijing is the capital, I am sure there are lots of very old and/or very interesting things to do there. 

I also just need to get oriented with being in China. How to get around, what food to eat, some basic words and phrases, and other beginner tasks. You just don’t know what you don’t know sometimes. 

I am tempted to hire a personal tour guide for a day. I saw a taxi driver who will drive you around for 500 Yuan a day, which is $75. Having an English speaking taxi driver for a whole day might totally be worth it. I will play it by ear when I get there. 

That’s all for now. I’ll have more to say about China when I’m there!

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Source: Omar A at flickr

This is a new experience for me. I have a couple of weeks vacation from work coming up at the end of July, and somehow I convinced myself I need to visit China. So I booked myself a plane ticket to Shanghai this past Thursday. No hotel, no idea what I’m going to do there. But I’m sure there must be interesting things. This has got to be the most disorganized trip I have ever booked.

It’s a bit scary to be quite honest and I’m not sure why. Perhaps it’s because I don’t speak a word of Mandarin Chinese. Usually if I go to a country that doesn’t speak English, I can “get by”. I can talk to people, order food, deal with taxis, read some signs. It doesn’t matter the European language - French, Italian, Spanish… even Greek. I can look at a Greek sign and make out the word Airport or make out the word for Acropolis, and I know I’ll be alright. I can look at a word, and it might sound terrible, but I can pronounce it and teach myself the language in a shorter time.

But Chinese is not a phonetic language in it’s written form. But a friend who once lived in China suggests I get the name of my hotel written in Mandarin before I go, because taxi drivers don’t speak English! That’s tough to comprehend, because in most countries it’s the taxi drivers who DO speak English. I am expecting to get really, really lost at some point. (Not sure if that’s a bad thing or a good thing. Getting lost can be fun!)

The expense of the trip is bothering me as well. Hot on the heals of describing a $5,000 6-month vacation in a recent blog post, I am looking to spend $4,000-$5,000 on a single 2 week trip! That’s precisely NOT what I want to do in the future. But yet, here I sit with only a couple of weeks to go before my trip, and the plane ticket alone is $2,500.

I apologize if my writing isn’t very coherent today, as you can see my mind is a bit of a mess right now. It’s hard to figure out the right thing to do. Do I go on an overpriced trip to a dream destination, or do I save that money for a longer and more fulfilling trip next year? Or do I do both?

I think I need to go. It’s been a year since my last trip, and so I need to go somewhere, anywhere. I literally said to the travel agent, if you can’t get me to Shanghai, anywhere else will do. Beijing, Bangkok, Hong Kong… doesn’t matter. If all they had was a ticket to Buffalo, I might be tempted to take it. Well, maybe not.

The Shanghai World Expo 2010 should be interesting. I’ll definitely spend a couple of days doing that. And I can book myself a couple of side tours to see a place such as Xi’an where the Terracotta Warriors are. The irony of that is that the Royal Ontario Museum

 has a display of them going on right now – and it’s within walking distance from here. I could save $4,475 by going there instead.

In the end, I will go. I can’t get myself in too much trouble in Communist China, can I? Just as long as I get back on the plane back to Canada, I should be alright.

But wow, the butterflies are having a field day in my stomach right now.

Oh, and the answer to the question, why does the word Shanghaiing mean kidnapping? It comes from the practice of tricking or forcing sailors to join a crew, and then treating them like slaves once they are aboard. They used to get men drunk, forge their signature on the signup sheet, and then when the man woke up, he was aboard a ship headed out to sea for a few years. It was actually illegal to leave a ship once you signed up (similar to treason in those days I guess), so watch out who you got drunk with! Shanghai was a popular destination for these ships apparently, so when someone was tricked into joining a crew, they were “Shanghaied”. Yikes!

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Related posts:

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3. On the Road: Thoughts on Beijing Before I Arrive

Source: ToastyKen at flickr

For many years, I have been fascinated with the concept of Round the World (RTW) travel. There are many different ways to do that, and one of the most interesting for me is a “Round the World Plane Ticket”.

That is just as it sounds. For one fixed price, you get to plot a course around the world, across several continents, and have up to one year to take that trip of a lifetime. There used to be a couple of airline groups offering this, but from what I hear, the only one that now does is OneWorld with their OneWorld Explorer and Global Explorer programs.

In the old days, it used to work geographically in that you could book any number of plane tickets as long as they were all going in the same direction (east or west). I used to dream of taking 100 small flights to make my way across Asia and Europe.

Well I guess the airlines caught on to my evil plan, and the updated rules put an upper limit on the number of total flights at 16. But backtracking is now allowed in a limited fashion. Basically, you have to make your way around the world and can only cross the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans once each.

The whole concept is pretty interesting. You have to tell the airline in advance your itinerary city-by-city, although you can choose your exact dates later.

How much is this going to cost? How much for a single plane ticket that will allow you up to 16 flight segments that allow you to circumnavigate the globe?

3 continents in Economy class works out to $4,500. You can visit 4 continents for a mere $5,100. 5 continents is $5,900, and 6 continents is $6,900. Interesting that the prices are exactly the same in US and Canadian dollars. How often does that happen?

That seems like a pretty good deal. I recently bought a plane ticket for my wife, from Toronto to Manila round trip. The ticket cost over $2,000. So for just over double that, she could have gone to Hawaii, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Manila, Australia, New Zealand, New York, Boston and back to Toronto.

Also in the fine print, it seems you can buy more flight segments, up to 2 more per continent at $150 per ticket. So you can have 22 flight segments, for a mere $5,100. That’s only $230 per flight! And some of those are over oceans and connecting continents.

Has anyone ever used a OneWorld round the world ticket? I would be very curious to find out how it went!

I don’t normally do this, but Chris Guillebeau wrote an excellent article on his experiences with RTW tickets. One important tip from Chris’ site is that prices are significantly cheaper if you initially depart from places outside North America. Leaving from Sri Lanka, for instance, is only $2,900 compared to $4,500. That’s a big savings. If you can get to Sri Lanka for less than $1,600.

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Related posts:

1. Visiting Every Country in the World – In One Trip
2. See the World For Even Less
3. See The World on $5,000