China’s Great Wall – Simatai 812
Originally uploaded by JoeDuck
At Simatai the Great Wall of China goes up from a valley in both directions, then winds around a steep moutainside. Incredibly this wall was begun over 2000 years ago, though I think most parts were completed during the Ming Dynasty which ruled China for about 300 years – from 1368 to 1644. The Ming were the last of the Han and were deposed by the Qing Dynasty who ruled until the Nationalists kicked their butts in 1911.
Foreign Experts Building Hotel Buffet 607
Originally uploaded by JoeDuck
The morning breakfast buffet at the Foreign Experts Building Hotel in Beijing was free and exceptional. Rice, vegetables, wonton, Bao, eggs cooked to order, bacon, sausages, and much more made the morning meal a huge feast. FEB was an exceptional hotel at the price we paid – about $80 per night US due to some special deal from our Beijing Friend Kevin Wu, the best dentist in Medford Oregon. We had a huge 1BR suite. Even Hotels.com pricing was more than double this and rack rates were about $500 US per night for our large room .
Beijing Tea Scam: Avoid the Si Zhu Xiang Tea House near Forbidden City / Tiananmen Square
Originally uploaded by JoeDuck
Update: Generally, if you are approached by a good English speaker there is a *very good chance* he or she is trying to scam you or sell you something rather than “practice English”. In Tea houses confirm pricing *before you sit down* or you’ll probably be in for a surprising bill.
Beware the SI ZHU XIANG Tea House in Beijing!
I fell for the Beijing Tea Scam (also common in Shanghai) where you are approached by a person claiming to want to practice english, then subtly lured to a Tea House for a “Tea Ceremony” that is hugely overpriced.
The scam is so good I have learned that many other travelers have also been duped by this because it preys on the fact that you don’t want to insult anybody and generally are unfamiliar enough with the landscape, money, etc. that you just pay the bill. My bill was $85 for a few tea samples. I’m guessing some who fall for this never even realize that they have been scammed – rather just think they paid “a lot” for Tea as I did untili I realized this was a very clever con game common in Beijing and Shanghai. I have challenged the charge and cancelled my card and will post follow ups on this later.
The China Tourism groups and guidebooks are guilty of NOT warning people enough about the fact that generally if you are approached in popular tourism areas by people who can speak english they are usually working some sort of sale or scam. Several sources suggested to me that it is common in China for people to come up and ask to take pictures and “practice” their English. Although I’m sure there are exceptions to the rule, the notion that people are looking to practice their english is only true in that that they are improving on these very clever short cons. I think I was approached at least ten times – mostly in Beijing – sometimes it was obvious they were working to sell me something but sometimes not at all apparent.
I can only hope that law enforcement does something to prevent this during the Olympics because a lot of this may overshadow the experience of meeting some of the wonderful people of China, only a tiny number of whom are perpetrating the scams.
Beware the SI ZHU XIANG Tea House in Beijing!
Looking for legitimate tea? Try Beijing Tea Street but still make sure you understand pricing. China really takes tea seriously and some are very expensive.
Here at Starbucks in Kowloon´s Hung Hom train station I am getting a good wireless signal but not sure if it is Starbucks or not.
Things here seem to be named in complicated ways with some overlap. This is the key Hong Kong train station to mainland but it is in Kowloon and called Hung Hom. We will board for Shanghai in about an hour and take the 20 hour train north, hopefully with some scenery. We have soft sleepers but not the top class of them and I´m not clear how comfortable we will be yet, but I think just fine.
We stumbled into a sport center near the Temple Street market, where I was informed that the sport is not called pingpongcho – the word I have carefully practiced saying, rather…Table Tennis !
Originally uploaded by JoeDuck
Here on Victoria Peak the view is legendary….but we can’t see due to fog right now. The tram was a fun and cool short ride up extremely steep slope to the top where there is a nice “Pacific Coffee” shop from which I’m writing this off a free internet terminal. Ironically I’m carrying around my spiffy 2 pound eee PC but it would have cost to use the WIFI that way.
Dim Sum for Breakfast was tasty
Great list from Tang Dynasty Travel:
http://www.tangdynastytravel.com/destination/shanghai-sights.html
Here’s a blog by a local from Shanghai, written for travelers to the city:
http://home.wangjianshuo.com/
Thanks to some advice from Matt at Cutler Investments I’ve started a great list of things to do in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Beijing. I’m also reading guidebooks and surfing but it’s always best to talk to experience travelers (or better yet, locals) who can clue you in to the “must see” tourist spots as well as the hidden gems.
For this first trip to Hong Kong I just had him quickly list for me some of the “don’t miss” stuff and I’m fleshing this in as I go with details as I find more things to see – this is as much for my reference as anything else.
Stanley Market
Fishing Villages via Ferry, where they’ll fix the fish you choose at a local restaurant. Aberdeen has many places like this plus the monster brightly lit floating restaurant called ? The food there is not great but OK.
Star Ferry Hong Kong to Kowloon. This is the one often cited for great views of the Hong Kong skyline.
Nathan Street Night Market
Double Decker bus. Take it from Wau Chai sp? over the mountain. Get the upstairs front seat for the best dramatic views and experience as it whizzes through traffic and over steep cliffsides. I think we can get on this near our first hotel, the Island Pacific Hotel, right off the main road that forms a crescent around Victoria Harbor.
Trams: There is one to Victoria Peak and another I’m not yet clear about.
Lei Yu Mun
Temple Street Market
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Top 14 Must-See Sights from Oriental Travel: |
360 Ngong Ping Hong Kong Disneyland
Central District (then to Star Ferry)
Star Ferry Small green and white ferries link Central District on Hong Kong Island with Tsim Shs Tsui. 10 minutes.Aberdeen : Hong Kong Tsai – traditional fishing village. Boat-dwellers in the Aberdeen Bay, shuttling with sampan along the Bay. Jumbo Floating Restaurant and the Tai Bak (Tai Bei) Seafood Boat in Aberdeen Habour. Free travel by ferry boat to the restaurants, then to old Hong Kong Tsai Street and to the Hung Shing (God of the South Seas and weather prophet) Temple at the juncture of the sea lane and the land road, and the Tin Hau Temple
Victoria Peak “funicular” Tram.Double Decker Bus Ride
Ding ding rail tram across north side of Island – sit upstairs.Ngong Ping Cable Car: spectacular 5.7km bi-cable. From Tung Chung, cross Tung Chung Bay, angle station on Airport Island, turning in air towards North Lantau.
The Po Lin temple (Big Buddah! & Tai O fishing village:
On Lantau Island – take the Ngong Ping Cable car? Temple Street “men’s street bazaar”. Between Yau Ma Tei and Jordan. Men clothing, watches etc. Chinese opera at end of banyan trees. Bustling like a night club. The Tung Choi Street is also known as Ladies Street and has women’s clothing, handbags, etc for sale.
We are booked for three nights at the Island Pacific Hotel in Hong Kong and I’m looking forward to enjoying what looks like a great hotel very near the waterfront along Hong Kong’s spectacular Victoria Harbor.
We appear to be about two miles to the west of downtown Hong Kong, though only about a mile from the metro which can take us all over the city, and I think we are easy walking distance from the Macau Ferry Terminal where we can catch ferries to other parts of the Hong Kong island empire. There are several huge ferry terminal complexes along the harbor and I’m not sure how this works yet. The site of all those ships in the harbor must be amazing.
With less than a week to go on the China trip I’m trying to pin down some trip details. We have our China Visas Passport attachments, which my friend picked up for us at the Chinese Embassy in San Francisco. We’ve got our Medford to Hong Kong Plane Tickets, and we are booked at the Island Pacific Hotel on the harbor in the western part of Hong Kong. The hotel appears to be excellent quality and appeared to be a very good deal at Hotels.com’s $87 per night.
From Hong Kong International I understand we take a metro or bus that will deliver us to the Metro station at the Macau ferry terminal . Update: There is an express train to downtown hong kong from the Airport leaving every 12 minutes that costs about $15 US, but we’ll take the Island Pacific hotel shuttle for about $19 that departs from A02 every 30 minutes and will deliver us to the Island Pacific Hotel = cool!. which is within a mile of the hotel. I think the hotels have pickups but not at the airport which is some 60 miles away by road on Lantau Island. Hong Kong is the major city on the Island of Hong Kong, but there are many other big cities and activity on many other islands in the area, all connected by a massive ferry system that centers on docks along the Hong Kong Waterfront or Victoria Harbor, one of the world’s busiest ports and most spectacular waterfront skylines. We’ll be able to see this from our hotel.
We’ve heard some criticism from folks who have travelled in China about the plan to take a 20 hour overnight train to Shanghai, but I’m pretty sure we’ll be just fine and will see more of the countryside this way. The train system is huge and there are many classes of travel. We’ll probably try to get the “soft sleeper” which looks great from pictures on non-official websites. Some have said that travelling in the seats will hurt backs, but I have a hunch many of the bad rumors are from China’s pre-capitalist days when travel was a lot more spartan.
From the excellent (and I hope very accurate) train travel website www.Seat61.com : HK to Shanghai runs on odd dates in Jan, March, June, July 2008, & even dates in Feb, April, May 2008
We need to remember this:
The station in Hong Kong is in Kowloon and called ‘Hung Hom’ …. the Chinese refer to Hong Kong/Kowloon as ‘Jiulong’
So it looks like we’ll shoot for the April 4th train to Shanghai! Cost should be about $120 per person for a really nice sleeper.
I’m a little concerned about trying to buy tickets there just a few days before but that gives us some flexibility and also I’m hearing it can be more expensive and complicated to reserve them here or online.
Joe Duck 