Korean Job Discussion Forums

[crlb2006]

i've formed an exploratory committee to see about going to Shanghai around Christmas time. I'm seeking the advice of any and all veterans who may know what would constitute a good fair under these circumstances? will booking soon save me money, or is there some other strategy to consider?

thanks a lot for any information, i really appreciate it.

[bbb0777]

Earlier this year a friend and I each paid 260,000 after taxes/fees for a roundtrip flight + 1 night pretty decent hotel. It wasn't booked that far in advance (by Korean standards) if I recall. Difficult too as we could only do very exact dates. Generally in Korea it's best to book far in advance.

Onlinetour.co.kr often has very good prices, though it's a Korean-language-only site. If you want to be very diligent, you could check Wikipedia for the two airports in Shanghai - Wikipedia will also list which airlines fly between those airports and Seoul - then check the websites of each of those airlines for tickets.

Have you been to anywhere in mainland China before?

[blade]

[bbb0777]

Exactly. My 260,000 w/ hotel could have been much lower, but with fixed travel dates and not booking early (though earlier than you)...that was the best we could find. I do dislike how quickly flights go up in price/sell out in Korea.

[joeyjoejoe]

i paid 114,000 one way booking the night before a few weeks ago.
coming back was significantly more than that for some reason.

[crlb2006]

hey thanks for the replies guys... this will be my first voyage to mainland china, and anything in the 200-300,000 won range seems like a fair deal

[waynehead]

Don't forget to consider the exorbitant cost of a Chinese visa in your budget.

[bbb0777]

If it's you first trip there then keep in mind for costs:

The Visa for an American is around 140,000 KRW. They also require travel agencies to take care of visas - no private citizens can apply directly. An agency will charge a small fee to do this. For non-Americans the fee is closer to 40,000 KRW. It's that much for American because that's how much the US charges Chinese citizens to visit, so China decided to do a reciprocal fee.

However Taxis in China are very inexpensive. At least in Beijing/Shanghai, use the meter without a problem. In Beijing/Shanghai I've stayed shorter periods, but then gotten around more quickly by using a taxi instead of a subway for the most part. Split 2 ways the taxis are very very cheap, even compared to Korea. Just have a paper with tourist destination names written in Chinese and the taxis will take you there easily.