Korean Job Discussion Forums

[highland01]

Anyone have some info on what I can expect to pay for hotel (basic to 3 star range), food, transport to major tourist sites (great wall, forbidden city, etc), and any other mundane costs that I'm overlooking? Help appreciated.

[whatthefunk]

Ive never been to Beijing, but Ive been to Shanghai and it was pretty cheap. Stayed at a hotel on a university campus and it cost about $15 US a night. Huge room, pretty clean, everything I needed. Eating was also cheap...about $5-15 a meal depending on the place. You could do better than that though...but might as well pay a bit more and eat well. Street stalls were really cheap...chicken sticks for pennies. Dont forget that in China you can bargin for everything! The asked for price is about 500 times what he payed for it. Transport was well cheap...taxis were about the same as in Korea, buses and subways about the same too. Dont know how much tourist sights cost though... If you want to save money, DO NOT VISIT HOE BARS! Damn hoes take all your money and for nothing...

[bosintang]

Beijing can be cheap. However you will have to be savvy if you actually want to get good prices, otherwise you could easily pay through the nose. For getting to the Great Wall and Ming tombs, there are busses that leave near Tiananmen Square that you can take for 40yuan ($5) that will take you there. However, the bus driver will probably try to take you to all kinds of "factories" where you can buy *extremely* overpriced products. The bus driver gets a cut from taking you to these places, and they can be a huge waste of your time, so if there's only a few people on the bus, you may want to try 'baksheeshing' the driver if he insists on going.

In general, barter for *everything* including hotels, meals, and my baksheeshing example above. If you get a menu with English writing on it, pick up a menu at a Chinese customers table (they'll be different) and demand the same prices, or at least a discount on the 'foreign' price. If you're buying stuff in an area that sees a fair share of tourists, barter hard. 25% of the original price is the maximum you should aim for (so start your opening price lower -- much lower!)! On some things while I was there, I literally bartered 90% off the price!

[Cedar]

Be sweet when you bargain. Smile. Have an idea what things should cost. Don't think everything should cost 25% of what they said... that's ridiculous unless you are talking tourist souveneirs. Most food cannot be bargained for (unless, again, it's food sold out of a basket outside the Ming Tombs or something). Even for Chinese, outside a major tourist site a 1 RMB bottle of water can cost 4 RMB. a 1 RMB ice cream bar can cost 5 RMB. EVEN FOR CHINESE. So, don't buy stuff outside the tourist sites. Oh and the Ming Tombs are boring, the Summer Palace and Forbidden City are great, though.

Go to a university campus to find housing, they usually have one or two dorms that will take you, it's not 3 star, really, but it's at least half of what you'd otherwise pay in Beijing. Last time I stayed in Beijing I paid 70 RMB per night for double occupancy (me and my now-husband, then fiance). That is an extreme case, and we both speak Chinese, you should budget minimum 150 RMB per night and be willing to sleep in a shared room for that price.

Take the public buses from near Tianamen to the big sites. (Walk straight away from the big photo of Mao to the far end of the square and you'll see the bus stops there for the big sites at the right hand corner of the square, across the street). You can also buy cheap North Face stuff in that area, search around, bargain pretty hard. I think I paid 25,000 won for a great zip apart jacket, but again, I speak Chinese.

Baksheesh, in case you are confused is a Hindi (not Chinese) word for tip/bribe. Who knows why the previous poster is using it to people who live in Korea and want to explore China.

[bosintang]

[peppermint]

When I went a couple of years ago, I asked a Chinese co worker to teach me a few phrases. She said all I'd need to know was hello, thank you and " it's too expensive"

www.sinohotel.com for hotel prices

[Cedar]

[theSeeker]

What about airline tickets? how much are they roundtrip from Seoul?

[Thunndarr]

Hmm...Well, I had an all-inclusive package there last year for about 800,000 won for 5 days/nights or so. I know some people don't like those kinds of tours because they tend to rush you through places, but, honestly, it was so damn cold outside when I went I really didn't mind. I also didn't mind seeing the "buy my sh*t" shops either, although some people may. All in all, I feel like I definitely saw more than I would have if left to my own devices. But then, I am lazy.

[Saunagukin]

I recommend against the tours. We went for 5 days and must have been forced to go to 15 factories or as the previous poster said "buy my sh*t" shops". There ended up being a mutiny on the tour I was on, where myself and several others left the tour and traveled the city on our own. Mao's underground bunker wasn't on the tour, neither were the houtongs(sp?). Don't miss them. We saw both, off the tour, and were very happy with both.

We didn't bargain for food or hotel, as they were included, but anything else, we did. Some things really did start at 10 times more than they ended up selling for. Smile...for sure.

[theSeeker]

i have a place to stay, with a friend. i'm just wondering how much i can expect to pay for the RT ticket.

[bosintang]

[Captain Corea]

[Badmojo]

[bosintang]