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Hello Chinese-speaking teamliquidians. I need your help. Me and a bunch of friends are planning on going to China this summer, but we don't feel like going with a bigger group with guides etc because it's expensive and limits our freedom.
What we want to do instead is just to make reservations for hotels in the cities we plan on going to, and use trains to go from city to city. We are only planning on visiting around 5 different major cities I think.
This is where you come in. What we need is a good Chinese travelling agency that would be able to make reservations for trains we would be taking.
Does such a travelling agency exist?
Can you find one?
If it doesn't exist, is there another way to make reservations for trains?
All of this, of course, needs to be reliable, because we don't want to end up trying to convey our interests to a random Chinese person working in a trainstation once we're there.
Among this group of young renegade travellers is my brother, vGl-CoW. This means you will not only win my gratitude, but more importantly, the gratitude of a Teamliquid moderator.
Any thoughts on other, perhaps more convenient ways of going about our business in China are of course very welcome. Thank you.
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I believe you actually save money by joining a tour in HK. Travelling agencies can buy train tickets, hotel rooms, etc. much cheaper than if you buy it yourself.
Are you mandarin speaker or Cantonese?
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Only 5 major cities? lol that's a fully loaded potato there in my opinion.
Anyway, when I travel by trains, I always buy the tickets myself. There are many small shops that sell train tickets, and of course, there's always the train station itself if you are really lost. Usually the train tickets are on sale 3 days before your desired departure date, counting that actual date. For example if you want to leave on a train on the 5th, the tickets for that train should be on sale on the 3rd. There are exceptions and some trains offer tickets 5 days in advance. It's important to decide which days you want to leave and try to buy the tickets AS SOON AS THEY ARE AVAILABLE! There are A LOT of Chinese people and trains are cheap so if you wait to buy tickets the day of or even the day before, most of the time (at least in my experience), they will be sold out. Actually there are 3 types of tickets, the ones where you don't have a bed and the ones where you DO HAVE A BED. Unless the city you're trying to get to is close by, get a bed. The bed tickets have 2 comfort levels, "yingwo" and "ranwo." It's basically like business and economy class in airplanes. "yingwo" is just a compartment with 3 beds on either side of the aisle. they are separated into bottom, middle, and top bunk each with different prices but not by much. "ranwo" is basically the same thing except you get a door and more space and it looks nicer, it's more luxurious so less people to bother you and shit.
Lol sorry for the wall of text and I know I said stuff you didn't even ask about. but I just wanted to throw some real general knowledge out there.
About traveling agencies, god I hate those tourist bus group things. Fuck them, all they do is divert you from the fun and try to sell gay shit to you.
But to answer you general question it's really easy just to decide where you want to go, then buy the tickets 3 days in advance like I said as you go. I think that gives you more flexibility than trying to buy tickets all at once (which I'm not sure is even possible cuz like I said they are only on sale 3 days in advance to the public).
If you have any other questions or need help and shit just ask here I'm sure me and the other legions of chinese people on tl will try to help if we know.
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you should get a friend whos chinese. 
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On November 01 2008 06:27 Raithed wrote:you should get a friend whos chinese.
yes, don't hire travel agencies and guides, they'll rip you off to the max and horrible service.
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On November 01 2008 06:27 Raithed wrote:you should get a friend whos chinese.
Yeah, its not a great idea to go to China without a tour guide considering that none of you speak chinese.
I am the only person in my family who knows any mandarin at all (we are Cantonese), so when we visit Mandarin speaking areas it's always with a tour guide. China just isn't very accessible for those who don't know chinese. It will be difficult for you to navigate and buy food, ect. Tour guides are actually a very good deal in China, idk what people are talking about above me. By far your greatest expensive going to china will be the plane tickets. Tour guide, even 5 star hotel is very very low price, especially outside of the major metropolitan areas (Beijing, HK).
Ideal situation imo is to find a friend who has been to china, speaks chinese, and knows the area which you are traveling to. My trips to Hong Kong are always very good because we meet up with my uncle who lives there and he takes us around the city. He knows all of the good places to eat, good places to shop, beaches, and other tourist destinations.
Basically Chinese friend>tour guide>winging it.
Edit: loool figures that my post #444 was about china. chinese ppl should understand this.
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On November 01 2008 06:37 ilovehnk wrote:Show nested quote +On November 01 2008 06:27 Raithed wrote:you should get a friend whos chinese. yes, don't hire travel agencies and guides, they'll rip you off to the max and horrible service.
Not true in Hong Kong and China. The total price of the tour will cost less than the price of the airplane tickets you buy if you go by yourself. Tours also provide transportation, food, hotel, and a guide.
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This is what you do -- Book a hotel from a trusted American site (ie. hotels.com or whatever), OR you can also go through an Asian travel agency in your country but you'll have to physically go there, and you'd have go find one yourself in your area. If you have a Chinatown around where you live, go there and look for those travel shops. Once you know your hotel in China, book everything (train tickets, plane tickets, tours) through the travel agency at your hotel. 99.99% of hotels in China have a travel agency, if somehow you come upon a hotel that doesn't, find a hotel that has one and go there and book. They don't care if you stay at the hotel or not. Good luck.
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On November 01 2008 06:23 Titusmaster6 wrote:
Only 5 major cities? lol that's a fully loaded potato there in my opinion.
Anyway, when I travel by trains, I always buy the tickets myself. There are many small shops that sell train tickets, and of course, there's always the train station itself if you are really lost. Usually the train tickets are on sale 3 days before your desired departure date, counting that actual date. For example if you want to leave on a train on the 5th, the tickets for that train should be on sale on the 3rd. There are exceptions and some trains offer tickets 5 days in advance. It's important to decide which days you want to leave and try to buy the tickets AS SOON AS THEY ARE AVAILABLE! There are A LOT of Chinese people and trains are cheap so if you wait to buy tickets the day of or even the day before, most of the time (at least in my experience), they will be sold out. Actually there are 3 types of tickets, the ones where you don't have a bed and the ones where you DO HAVE A BED. Unless the city you're trying to get to is close by, get a bed. The bed tickets have 2 comfort levels, "yingwo" and "ranwo." It's basically like business and economy class in airplanes. "yingwo" is just a compartment with 3 beds on either side of the aisle. they are separated into bottom, middle, and top bunk each with different prices but not by much. "ranwo" is basically the same thing except you get a door and more space and it looks nicer, it's more luxurious so less people to bother you and shit.
Lol sorry for the wall of text and I know I said stuff you didn't even ask about. but I just wanted to throw some real general knowledge out there.
About traveling agencies, god I hate those tourist bus group things. Fuck them, all they do is divert you from the fun and try to sell gay shit to you.
But to answer you general question it's really easy just to decide where you want to go, then buy the tickets 3 days in advance like I said as you go. I think that gives you more flexibility than trying to buy tickets all at once (which I'm not sure is even possible cuz like I said they are only on sale 3 days in advance to the public).
If you have any other questions or need help and shit just ask here I'm sure me and the other legions of chinese people on tl will try to help if we know.
Yeah I know about the comfort levels, don't know anything about the 3-day-in-advance-tickets though? It seems kind of improbable that there would be no way to make reservations a lot earlier? I think basically every train we will be taking will be a sleep train, seeing as the cities we plan on visiting are quite far apart.
To visit stuff like the wall etc we were planning on taking a cab cause they're really cheap, but we could also go with a tour guide for like half a day or something, but this is something we can arrange when we get there.
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On November 01 2008 06:44 Fontong wrote:Show nested quote +On November 01 2008 06:27 Raithed wrote:you should get a friend whos chinese. Yeah, its not a great idea to go to China without a tour guide considering that none of you speak chinese. I am the only person in my family who knows any mandarin at all (we are Cantonese), so when we visit Mandarin speaking areas it's always with a tour guide. China just isn't very accessible for those who don't know chinese. It will be difficult for you to navigate and buy food, ect. Tour guides are actually a very good deal in China, idk what people are talking about above me. By far your greatest expensive going to china will be the plane tickets. Tour guide, even 5 star hotel is very very low price, especially outside of the major metropolitan areas (Beijing, HK). Ideal situation imo is to find a friend who has been to china, speaks chinese, and knows the area which you are traveling to. My trips to Hong Kong are always very good because we meet up with my uncle who lives there and he takes us around the city. He knows all of the good places to eat, good places to shop, beaches, and other tourist destinations. Basically Chinese friend>tour guide>winging it. Edit: loool figures that my post #444 was about china. chinese ppl should understand this.
Yeah that would be ideal but unfortunately I don't have a Chinese friend. I know the plain tickets are by far the most expensive, and everything in China is basically cheap. This is why we don't want to go with a group from a travelling agency around here because they're a lot more expensive and they determine where you go, which stuff you see, how early you get up, etc.
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On November 01 2008 07:39 Hydrolisko wrote:
This is what you do -- Book a hotel from a trusted American site (ie. hotels.com or whatever), OR you can also go through an Asian travel agency in your country but you'll have to physically go there, and you'd have go find one yourself in your area. If you have a Chinatown around where you live, go there and look for those travel shops. Once you know your hotel in China, book everything (train tickets, plane tickets, tours) through the travel agency at your hotel. 99.99% of hotels in China have a travel agency, if somehow you come upon a hotel that doesn't, find a hotel that has one and go there and book. They don't care if you stay at the hotel or not. Good luck.
This seems like a really good idea. I'm definitely going to check into this, thanks a lot.
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EPT
