Korean Job Discussion Forums

[toniyellow]

If you don't want to buy the book, they have single chapters for sale on the internet as .pdf You can print only the provinces that interest you.

Wherever there is a pdf, there is also a torrent site that has the pdf.

I would take some kind of written guide with me, be it Lonely Planet or a competitor (I like to read Lonely Planet for the prices and travel directions, and Eyewitness for the pictures) You will hear about places to see on the way and want to change your plans, and it is a great way to be able to look stuff up on trains or other transport where you don't have the internet at hand.

[barneygumbell]

[ramen209]

You must visit Yangshuo China, you won't regret it!

Stay at the Moon Resort in Yangshuo, or Monkey Jane's if you're into partying.

It was the most beautiful scenery of karst peaks and such a nice, small town.

It was the best trip I've ever been on.

[rollo]

Ramen is dead on about Yangshou!! Just incredible scenery. the people who are not Han mostly Zhong and Di tribes are very friendy. The hostels are reasonably priced. the boat trip down the Li river is awesome. I lived there for about two months, what a great place. Hiking climbing kayaking biking and great bars. a Lonely Planet is , a necessity, because in most chinese toilets they dont supply toilet paper you have to bring your own, this is the very best use for a lonely planet. Its an advertiser. Only the places that pay get mentioned, so the wonderful off the beaten path places stay wonderful and off the beaten path, because all the lonely planet users go to the same places and there are gadzillions of them . so those places are overrun .

[barneygumbell]

yea i'd love to be in a position where i had months to stay..but unfortunately i don't so don't have the opportunity to go very slowly which is what i prefer. i think i will try to visit beijing, xian, chengdu, yunnan, then finish with suzhou, hangzhou and shanghai..i think i am probably trying to do too much so maybe iwill change it later.

i know what you mean about the lonely planet..i wsas in india for a year some time back and i had a lonely planet and i got to know the book very well..and i became very suspicious of them..it does seem pretty corrupt.

[jomiro]

any idea on where you want to go?
beijing you will need 1.5 weeks, a week at a minimum to actually see all the sights.
shanghai the same, i guess.

id recommend you going to guangzhou. very cool city probably 1.5 hours by train from shanghai.
forget about suzhou. its supposed to be the place to go to to buy silk. but its very touristy now and not nice to spend time at anymore.
nanjing is nice for some history on the chinese-japanese war.

if you have 7 weeks.. why dont you consider going to lhasa? check how to get a visa in advance. you need a special visa for that. the normal chinese tourist visa wont cut it.

inner mongolia maybe, if you are in beijing.

or the very south as sichuan (very hot and spicy food, the talles buddha statue, amusement parks, etc).

however, do you speak chinese?
if not, i would advise you to stay in the main cities. its very difficult to get around in china, if you dont know any chinese. the further down south or the more rural you go (and thats where you find the most amazing sights and most interesting things), the less chinese is spoken.

as for hotels. 5 stars, book in advance. otherwise browse the internet. you can just show up and check in. its not expensive either.
cheapest place to stay at i would say is still wudaokou (one of the korean parts of beijing. or maybe somewhere else across the yellow line. thats line 13).
the closer you get to the city center (1st ring, tian an men square, forbidden city, etc), or the closer you get to dongzhimen (embassy locations) the more you pay.
as far as i know there are no guest houses in beijing and im not quite so sure on whether or not theres a youth hostel. but i honestly would say not to check in there, as the 3 star hotels are already dirt wholes.

cant give you any advice on shanghai. if you check out guangzhou, they have a good and very nice hostel. they speak english there too. but of course, chinese is still recommended ^^

for tours check out www.chinatour.net

[samd]

[D.D.]

dont apply for your visa in korea. fly to hk-dont past customs take ferry to shekou china and get visa at border must arrive in hk during day time for this. they will give you a 90 day double entry visa for around 110 us dollars. go to areas in the south that you like such as guilin, yum cha , fly to beijing and tour around take train to shanghai and fly back to korea from there, visit xian and tsindao ( spelled wrong). dont enter on a 30 day visa if you plan on 7 weeks it will be hell to extend it.

[pugwall]

I didnt used to be too hard to extend a visa. In 7 weeks I would do:

Beijing
Yunnan(need 2 weeks for xishuanbanna, dali, kunming,lijiang)
Yangshuo
Hangzhou and Suzhou
Chengdu
I would fly to BJ take a train to Hangzhou got Suzhou FLy to from Guangzhou to Gulin, goto yangshuo take a train to Kunming, mess about in Yunna take a train to Chengdu then fly to BJ

[barneygumbell]

yes i have read many places it is easy to get a visa extenson the 1st time..hell it was stressful enough getting a 30 day visa..don't tell me it's gonna be a torture to extend.

i'm flying into beijing and flying out of shanghai..thanks all for your suggestions..i actually bought a LP today and had a look through it..there's a million nice places to go it seems so i'm not sure where i will go..i don't really like flying around a country but also i would like to go to yunnan which is far from beijing and shanghai. maybe an internal flight wouldn't be a bad idea..or maybe the visa extension will be a no go and i'll have to go to HK anyway...

[definitely maybe]

[pugwall]

[moosehead]

I second the suggestion about Yunnan Province, Kungmin - too bad you're leaving out of Shanghai - I flew into Shanghai and took a train down to Kungmin, then a bus to the Vietnam border - OMG it was so beautiful!! scary, too, mostly single lane roads, dirt, no shoulder, we climbed 3 mountain ranges and the 4th was pitch dark and that's where we stopped.

that's where the steppe farms are, everywhere, on the highest slopes, gorgeous country homes very idyllic, primitive, yes, some of the factories were frighteningly antiquated. that was about a 10 hour bus trip, not for the faint of heart - they hand out paper sacks along with bottled water - all the twisting and turning you soon find out what the sacks are for!! poor fellow in front of me used his and I handed him mine

as for LP - yeah I don't trust them either most of the time - they are absolutely useless for Africa, be advised. but for China - pick up the Mandarin phrase book - mine had wrinkled pages I used it so much - E is sparse and unpredictable, mostly in the larger cities.

traveling is cheap, trains and buses, try to stay local, it will broaden your experience - have fun and enjoy!

[D.D.]

If you want to SPEND 7 WEEKS IN CHINA***** dont fly into Beijing or Shanghai on a 30 day tourist visa. My friends wanted to extend their visa recently and they were asked to put proof of cash into a chinese bank and other painful stuff that totally ruins your trip.

FLY INTO HK AND TAKE THE FERRY TO SHEKOU AND IT TAKES 20 MINUTES TO GET A 90 DAY VISA

then go and enjoy your trip-dont be the fixed mind guy on this thread that is fixated on flying into beijing and will end up with visa hassles.

Listen to people like myself who live in China and have toured around for years. Once again I will say FLY INTO HONG KONG not Beijing if you want to tour around China for 7 weeks.

Dont think because one person can extend a visa the next person will be able to . Visas offices and officers have inconsistant rules here and it ruins your trip if you have to spend days sorting out an extension that you might not get.

[barneygumbell]

hmm well if i'd known that before i bought my tickets 2 weeks ago then of course i would fly into hong kong..but i don't really want to buy another plane ticket now..

also if i went to extend my visa and they started giving me hassle then i would have plenty of time to go to hong kong and buy another visa..right?

the only problem i could envisage would be if i got to beijing airport and they started hassling me...but they wouldn't do that i think (hope)..i mean their embassy gave me a visa to enter after all..

i'm not being fixed minded..i am taking in everything people are telling me and trying to make the best decisions..