China on a Budget

If you wish to spend a holiday in the most populated country in the world, the good news is that you can enjoy your holiday at a price you can afford. If you are on a budget, which most of us are, then you will be able to work around that budget. If you wish to experience luxury hotels, then you will be well catered for as well, as there are first class international hotels available for the discerning. My wife and I travelled to China in June 2007 and we experienced a unique holiday for a price which did not break the bank. Our trip involved the two largest cities in China, namely Shanghai and Beijing. We flew into Shanghai on the eighteenth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, not that anyone in China would remind you of the fact. We were lucky that our son was attending university in Shanghai and was able to meet us at the airport and ease us into our stay with small but vital pieces of information such as how to get money from an ATM at the airport and how to negotiate the streets of Shanghai without losing your life! Our son had booked a hotel for us, so that was not an issue for us, and our hotel was comfortable and clean and cheap at about $40 Australian per night. Certainly you would be able to get cheaper accommodation than that even, but we were happy with the quality and the position. Once we were shown how to navigate the subways of Shanghai we were able to find our way to all of the main attractions of the city, such as the Bund and the new part of Shanghai, namely Pudong, on the other side of the river. This part of the city is truly dazzling, and it accommodates three of the tallest structures in the world. The views from the top of this city are amazing, despite the constant smog which is a chronic problem in Shanghai and Beijing. We were told that there are 12,000 buildings in Shanghai which are 18 stories or more tall! I believe it! The skyline is something to behold, and wherever you are in the city tall buildings are to be seen. This is something of a mixed blessing, as the newer parts of the city are truly spectacular, whereas much of the residential high-rise is no more attractive than in any other city in the world. From Shanghai, we travelled by overnight train to Beijing. We were accommodated in a four berth sleeper which we shared with a Chinese woman who spoke little English and promptly nodded off to sleep not long after we left Shanghai. Upon arriving in Shanghai we needed to find our hotel which we had booked ahead, and we ran the gauntlet of marauding Beijing taxi drivers who made a series of outrageous quotes to get us to our destination. Eventually we chose to go with the least outrageous offer, which was still about 45 Yuan overpriced! At this stage we were just relieved to be on our way to our hotel so we could settle in and get our bearings. Our hotel turned out to be a little gem in terms of location and the friendliness of the staff. It was located in the middle of a Hutong (a traditional narrow Chinese street), and we just had to go out of the hotel entrance to find ourselves immersed in the traditional bustling lifestyle of Beijing street markets, shops, pedestrians, bicycles, and various types of motorized vehicles, all vying for the limited space available. With a little guidance from the helpful hotel staff, we managed to more or less master the local bus service, and for the princely sum of 2 Yuan (about 30 cents) we were able to travel to most destinations within Beijing. Our hotel was located just around the corner from one of Beijing's many parks (namely Jingshan Park), and it was a joy to wander around and watch the locals play games and sing and dance and play musical instruments. In most western countries wandering around a park at night would be an invitation to a mugging: not here. In fact, at no stage in Beijing did we ever feel threatened, even though one evening we found ourselves walking around some pretty quiet streets late at night. Also close to our hotel was the northern entrance to the Forbidden City. We spent a number of hours in this impressive complex of ancient buildings which housed Chinese Emperors and their entourages. Of course, a trip to Beijing would be incomplete without visiting the Great Wall. We went to the Badaling section of wall which was awash with tourists, but was none the less impressive for that fact. Next time though, I think we may go to one of the slightly more remote and less popular sections. We left China with a sense of having just scratched the surface of a complex and incredible country. We will return, to paraphrase MacArthur, and we look forward to seeing a little more of what this vast land has to offer. China on a Budget is a post from: Traveling China from Traveling China http://www.chinaya.org

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