[Guide] Ever think about going to China?

Have you ever thought about going to China, but just don't know where in china should you be going? Well you opened the correct thread!

Places to eat and what kind of food to eat

Now everyone gets hungry if there's no food and beverage. No matter have busy you are you still need to put time out to grab something to eat. A snack, full meal, drink whatever! Your going to need it.

For those people who has seen the Food Channel where they eat nasty things in Beijing streets during the Olympics. Yes it is true you can find cockroaches, bugs, snail yep..almost anything nasty you can think of you can find it. Most of these are just street vendors. People crowding around each street vendors as if it was a flee market. On the side you might see people munching on their food chatting with their friends and many more. You will find the weirdest food around in these street vendors. Sounds nasty, but does anyone dare to give it a try? =P

=]

Don't worry, if you don't like those nasty foods there are still many many many options out there. When people think of Chinese food they think of the classic foods such as friend rice, chow mein, sesame chicken and many more classic, but that is just the basics. There are many more dishes in the culture. Dishes include roasted duck, hotpot, chinese muffin, chinese pizza and many more.

An example place would be LuLu restaurant located in No.19, Zhongguancun Dajie, Haidian District, Beijing City.

The thing about Chinese food is that there are many types of Chinese foods. Most of them orgin from their own city. If you go to Shanghai there are foods similar to the picture above. Others would include Hunan, Fujian and many more. Most stores of all kind sell soda and many other cool drinks. If your thirsty you can grab a drink anywhere even street venders. In china pepsi and coke come in different brands. I couldn't tell the difference in taste, but maybe you guys can.

If you do not like Chinese food, and want to eat fast food such as McDonald, KFC or even pizza hut..no problem!! you got it! As you walk in the streets of China in any city you will find McDonald everywhere. Most McDonald are packed with customers back and forth, but they serve quick. If your scared about being confused by the menu..no worries it's pretty much the exact same thing as the one in USA or Canada etc. However in China McDonald they also sell Hot Wings similar to the ones we have in KFC. The Pizza Hut over there also sells pasta, hotwings, and many more. KFC have delicious chicken burger similar to the KFC snacker but bigger.

Places to Visit!

Usually when people think of China they think of Beijing. Beijing is the capital city of China. The Olympics of 2008 was held in Beijing in the Beijing National Stadium. The stadium still exist and it is a beautiful structure to take a look at.
When people speak of Beijing they usually want to go see the famous "Forbidden Palace" which is a huge palace where the kings/queens use to live in. Now it has became a tourist attraction with more than thousands of visitors a day. Inside the palace you may find old artifacts, paintings, clothes, weapons and many more. The address to this place is No.4 Jingshan Front Street, Dongcheng District.

Here is a great picture of the front door of the Forbidden Palace.

Now if you ask where can i see more tourist attractions of Beijing? One of the top answers will have to be Tiananmen Square. Tiananmen Square is where Mao announced the establishment of People's Republic of China. Also Mao's body is protected by chemicals and you may do a walkby to take a look at his body. (creepy i know). There are theory that say that the body that is laid there is a fake body, while the real one is under it. You will have to go take a look for yourself to see! At sunrise and sunset there is a raising and lowering flag ceremony where people march out in an orderly fashion and raises/lower the China flag.

Now I know most people are thinking about where is the Great Wall of China in this guide? Well here comes the Great Wall of China! There is a famous quote in chinese saying which is "If you haven't step foot on the Great Wall of China your not a hero!" The wall is soooooooo long that it streches all the way to Mongolia can you believe that? It is over 6,700 km (4,160 miles) in total! The steps are pretty steep, so just walking up the steps can give you a great workout. Some of the steps are broken, but don't worry you wont fall down. =]

Now enough with Beijing time to move onto other cities in China. However if you want to visit Beijing and those places but don't know how to get there you may follow a tour. There are many tours all over Beijing that you may join for very low fees. Now I don't want to only give you good information about China. There are also a lot of pickpocketing that goes on in China. Usually it happens in main tourist areas, so please stay alert and keep your wallet in a safe place.

For those people who would love to visit Southern China a good place to be is the city of Guangzhou. Most people in northern china speak Mandarin, while in the south they speak Cantonese.

For Those people who love to hike and go sightseeing, you might want to visit White Cloud Mountain. White Cloud Mountain is located in the northeast of Guangzhou and it is a great relaxing place to be.

Who likes Great America, Six Flags etc.? Who likes Roller Coasters? In the city of Guangzhou you can find the worlds longest roller coaster invented! It includes falling of 80 meters and it's located in Chimelong Paradise amusement park.

To all the gamers out there who would like to go to arcades, there's a very good one in Guangzhou in the TeeMall. You can find arcades in most malls in China, but TeeMall is a great example. You may find bumper cars, food, arcade and many things in that mall. Paying a visit is well worth it! Arcade is cheap there and you can get many games off 10 bucks US dollars.

Many people might want to see how village life is in China. How the farmers are and many more. A great place to be to see this village life would be Toishan. It's near Southern China main city Guangzhou. There are buses you can take to toishan and finding village life is not difficult at all. Trust me you won't miss it =]. You can walk a couple blocks and you will be able to see many things you probably have not seen before. However you should beware of dogs because in the village there are a lot of wandering dogs and chicken etc.

The people who like animals would probably want to visit Beijing Zoo. Admission is only 15 Yan which is about 2 dollar something US money. Open Hours are 7:30-18:00. Drop by a visit and see over 7000 animals with over 600 different species. Great place to relax and spend sometime there.

Another place worthwhile to visit will be the famous Temple of Heaven. Build at around the same time as the Forbidden Palace. However it is bigger than the Forbidden Palace and a great structure to take a look at. This place was dedicated to heaven. The temple is divided into two walls the inner wall and outer wall. The Vermilion Steps Bridge connects the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest and the Imperial Vault of Heaven. The emperors believed that they could go to heaven through the bridge. Huge place to take a look at. Sometime these places make me wonder how hard it was for people to build that huge of a building without modern technology.

Transportation
Not too much to say about Transportation other than it's easy! One thing you will notice when you step foot on the streets of China is that there are a lot of taxi! You won't see this many taxi's in USA or Canada and probably not other parts of the world. From my own guess 75% of the cars you see on the street is either shipping trucks or taxi. Catching a taxi might not be as difficult as you think. Taxi are also not too expensive.

That is an example picture of Taxi, however there are other colors such as red and green.
However if you want to go city viewing in a moving vehicle taxi might not be a smart idea because you will be wasting money. There are also bus stops all over the place, so you may get on a bus and tour the city =]

Shopping

Whether it's buying souvenir for a friend or just plain shopping for a new outfit you can do it in china. In every city in china there are malls and you can purchase outfit and other items easily. Prices are cheaper compare to the states, and in China you can always pull off a bargain. In Guangzhou there is a famous road called Beijing Road and you can go there and walk through many blocks of stores. You will find anything from shoes to clothing to books anything you will need. If your tired you may also take a rest in the chairs in the middle of the street. One recent news about Beijing Street in Guangzhou is that they recently dug up the street and realized that "Beijing Street" have roads under it from the Ming Dynasty. If you go to Beijing Street today you will see the roads being protected by transparent glass, but you may look through it and see how the ancient roads look like.

Others
For those who are interested in Martial Arts or Chinese Kung Fu you may visit any kung fu school in china and most will gladly welcome you and show you some demos. The more famous places that people know of about Kung Fu is the Shaolin Temple. Shaolin Temple is where monks spend 14-15 hours a day training kung fu. They also do not eat meat. A famous Shaolin temple is located in Henan, China. Kung Fu is a great art to take a look at.

Some Facts about China is that China have over 5,000 years of history. China has 4 main inventions that include paper, printing, gun powder and the compass.

Another great place to be if your happening to be in China is Hong Kong. Hong Kong was a former British city, but has returned to China in 1997. Hong Kong is a fun city which also includes the same kind of food that China has. Shopping Mall and many more. However Hong Kong uses Hong Kong money and not China Yan, so be alert for that. Things are a little bit more expensive in Hong Kong.
1 US dollar = 6.8 Yan

Comments
Woo finally done! If your planning to go to China, during the summer will be extremely hot. Depending on which part of China your in during the winter it can be very cold so bring a extra coat. If there are any other questions please feel free to PM me or comment here. If there are anything else that you would like for me to post in this guide about China please feel free to contact me about that also.
Thanks to TeamLiquid for giving me the chance to post this guide and thanks everyone for viewing this.

[Guide] Ever think about going to China?

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