Heading to China for 3 weeks

I'm jelous of you being able to take all with you! We've spent now about 3 and half weeks in China, but i was able to take only 18-55mm with me due limitations of bags (we're travelling with 20mnth old baby girl).

Post some shots when you're back, i'll do the same, even we didn't this time travel so much around. We were mostly in Guangdong province, around Dongguan where my wifes family lives.

Shawn,

I read in a local magazine last night that the local authority in Zhangjiajie renamed one of the mountains "Avatar Hallellujah Mountain" hoping to cash in.

"Tourists can now join a "Magical tour to Avatar-Pandora" or a "Miracle tour to Avatar's floating mountain," the Zhangjiajie branch of China International Travel Service Corp said on its website. (www.citszjj.com)"Pand​ora is far but Zhangjiajie is near," the municipal government added on its website. "Welcome to Zhangjiajie to see 'Avatar's Hallelujah Mountains' and discover the real world of Pandora."


However, they have now had to drop the name change after uproar from the locals - only in China Zhangjiajie and Huangshan are on my list to visit but not near the top at the moment

Look forward to the photos. Watch out for the natives!

Dave,

I read that as well and chuckled a bit as the page we found said "Come see the Avatar floating Mountains! Pandora may be far away but Zhangjiajie is near". I'm really looking forward to seeing both of those mountains and it works out even better for us because we can take a train right from Zhangjiajie and head to Beijing on a nice 23 hour train

I'll be sure to bring back lots of photos including some blue native people

smcclelland wrote in post #10085430
Yep, my office has booked us a VIP tour of the World Expo the last day I am on business there so I plan on checking that out for sure. We're going to extend our time in Shanghai and probably knock of Xian from the trip to make up for the extra time. World Expo is once in a lifetime thing to see in a country like China

one day may be enough if you just do the walk and not enter the pavilions..
just came back from there... the lines are HUGE...

i was not overly impressed... from afar, the structures look great... when you get near, you see the typical china construction... and it shows...

sadly, the pollution there was sad... white buildings with stains from the dust and pollution...

anyways, it's still worth a visit...

it's huge... in china's typical grandiose scale.

in hangzhou, the hyatt is a very nice hotel to stay... but in case you select the shangri-la, before you dish out the extra cash for a lake view room, check out the room and make sure there's no 400 year old tree blocking the lake... hahaha

Very cool man, how did you enjoy your trip? The pollution is one of the main reasons we are traveling off to some of the more remote areas to basically cleanse ourself of the dense population and pollution I'd like to do the day tour of the Expo and then head back with a night pass to capture some nice evening photos especially the UK pavilion with all its LED lights.

I saw some of your photos, be sure to post up more!

We should have our itinerary and entire trip finalized by Monday or Tuesday I hope and I've got my fingers crossed that my F-Stop bag, BG-E7 and extra memory cards arrive in time next week before we leave on the Sunday heh.

how are you going from shanghai to hanzhou? or covering the shorter distances?
cab fare is about $100... but would not recommend it...

the folks over there drive like there's no tomorrow... and i've done many Nanjing-Shanghai-Hangzhou-Suzhou routes and i found them to be quite scary.

better and safer and even cleaner route is arranging car service with hotels... they, at least, have better mannered drivers.

i go to china very often... to the extent that everyone in sheraton tai ping yang hotel in shanghai knows me by name... i always loved going to china... i enjoy more the country/rural side...

big metropolitan cities are the same.

have fun... and eat well.

also, be careful with water... carry bottled water from hotel... some bottled water they sell in the outskirts or the street is very craftily capped tap water.

oh, and suzhou is also very nice... despite being surrounded by mega industrial parks... (hu-ning highway to suzhou is always backed up by freight trucks) but in there, the city has lots of pagodas and lakes and such...
sheraton suzhou looks like an ancient chinese castle...

Actually we are skipping Hangzhou entirely on the trip and managed to pick up some other days elsewhere (we were only going to Hangzhou initially as a transfer to get to Huangshan).

Our schedule basically looks like this:

June 6 - 13 in Shanghai
June 14 - 16 in Huangshan
June 17 - 18 in Fenghuang
June 18 - 22 in Zhangjiajie
June 23 - 30 in Beijing

Thanks for the advice on the water, we planned on sticking to hotel bottles or purchased bottles from stores in the main cities as I've heard stories like you mention about craftily capped tap water. Food wise it should be interesting for us as I'm sure I'll be bringing a box of protein bars just in case

smcclelland wrote in post #10268788
Actually we are skipping Hangzhou entirely on the trip and managed to pick up some other days elsewhere (we were only going to Hangzhou initially as a transfer to get to Huangshan).

Our schedule basically looks like this:

June 6 - 13 in Shanghai
June 14 - 16 in Huangshan
June 17 - 18 in Fenghuang
June 18 - 22 in Zhangjiajie
June 23 - 30 in Beijing

Thanks for the advice on the water, we planned on sticking to hotel bottles or purchased bottles from stores in the main cities as I've heard stories like you mention about craftily capped tap water. Food wise it should be interesting for us as I'm sure I'll be bringing a box of protein bars just in case

well, seasoned snake skin tasted ok... till i found out what it was...
hahaha

oh, take tumbs and/or gaviscon, just in case... lol...

kinghong1970 wrote in post #10268968
well, seasoned snake skin tasted ok... till i found out what it was...
hahaha

oh, take tumbs and/or gaviscon, just in case... lol...

Haha, oh joy... seasoned snake skin

Both of us got prescribed Ducarol a few weeks back that we took but that's not a bad idea to bring some indigestion pills just in case

I lived in Beijing for 9 months last year and have since returned to the states so I am majorly jealous of your trip. I carried a Canon G9 around the entire time and got some pretty good shots so don't worry too much about the lenses.
A few recommendations for places to visit in Beijing that might not be on your itinerary (sorry if this is ridiculously long. I kinda love Beijing):

Jingshan Park - this is directly north of the Forbidden City. It will be right across the road when you exit, but somehow a lot of people seem to miss it. It is my favorite park in Beijing for two reasons:
1) Climb the tallest hill (the one in the middle) and you have a crazy awesome view over the Forbidden City and all of Beijing (I was told it's the highest spot in the city. I'm not sure if thats true though). It's a very good photo-op.
2) There are always tons of local people dancing or singing old cultural revolution songs which is really fun to watch. Also, tickets are only like 3 yuan so its a pretty good deal. Don't miss it!

If you are going shopping at the bit counterfeit markets check out Xi Dan. It's a mall in the south west part of the city, and it is unlike anything I have seen in American (or Canada). There are a variety of stores ranging from insanely expensive to dirt cheap. It's also much less touristy than the Pearl Market or the Silk Market (which might be a mixed blessing for you. Sellers at the touristy markets will probably speak more English than those at Xidan). The subway goes straight there: the stop is called Xi Dan. The subway is very easy to navigate and in my opinion is the second best way to get around Beijing after biking (Which you should also try. You can rent bikes at Houhai).

For one day get over your fear of indigestion and walk into a sketchy looking restaurant (find one that has a lot of people in it though). I found the small sketchy restaurants were always the best (the sichuan ones are particularly good: they are almost all called 成都小吃). Order 宫保鸡丁盖饭 (gōngbǎojīdīng gàifàn - Kung Pao Chicken over rice). You won't regret it.

If you want a crazy view of the Olympic stadiums, go to the northern end of the building to the left of them with the wavy top (you'll know it when you see it. Its called 盘古- pan gu). There is a 6-star hotel with a bar at the top called the 乐满堂. If you want some unique photos and a stunning view check it out.

Also, the summer palace is pretty spectacular. The crowds can be bad though.

Enjoy your trip! Message me or post if you have any questions.

I am jealous! China is sooo awesome! As far as trains go, I hope I can help with my experience.

Sleeper trains are definitely an option. I took a "regular" sleeper train from Xi'an to Beijing. However, the experience is less than expected: there are no showers for overnight, so if you sweat the whole day and hop on the sleeper train at night, bring some wet naps with you.

I've also heard of instances where there are robberies in sleeper trains. Are you traveling with a buddy? Normally, sleeper trains have cabins, and each [regular] cabin fits 6 passengers (very cramped). Robbers would all occupy one cabin except for 1 bed (for the one being robbed), and they'll tell him/her to leave stuff behind or bad things will happen.

Upgrading to a more "luxurious" cabin is not much more expensive.

XxDJCyberLoverxX wrote in post #10274565
I am jealous! China is sooo awesome! As far as trains go, I hope I can help with my experience.

Sleeper trains are definitely an option. I took a "regular" sleeper train from Xi'an to Beijing. However, the experience is less than expected: there are no showers for overnight, so if you sweat the whole day and hop on the sleeper train at night, bring some wet naps with you.

I've also heard of instances where there are robberies in sleeper trains. Are you traveling with a buddy? Normally, sleeper trains have cabins, and each [regular] cabin fits 6 passengers (very cramped). Robbers would all occupy one cabin except for 1 bed (for the one being robbed), and they'll tell him/her to leave stuff behind or bad things will happen.

Upgrading to a more "luxurious" cabin is not much more expensive.

Yep, we are pretty much taking sleeper trains wherever we can to nix the cost of staying in a hotel some nights when traveling. Thanks for the advice on the wet naps, will probably need that for the 24 hour train ride from Zhangjiajie to Beijing

It's me and my girlfriend traveling in soft sleepers which have 4 bunks to a room (or at least that's what we've been informed it is for our rides) so I'll be tasked with guarding of the luggage and gear for the most part. I stand about 6'1 and 230lbs (canadian hockey player build) so I hope that'll be a bit of a deterrent for would be thieves

smcclelland wrote in post #10275422
Yep, we are pretty much taking sleeper trains wherever we can to nix the cost of staying in a hotel some nights when traveling. Thanks for the advice on the wet naps, will probably need that for the 24 hour train ride from Zhangjiajie to Beijing

It's me and my girlfriend traveling in soft sleepers which have 4 bunks to a room (or at least that's what we've been informed it is for our rides) so I'll be tasked with guarding of the luggage and gear for the most part. I stand about 6'1 and 230lbs (canadian hockey player build) so I hope that'll be a bit of a deterrent for would be thieves

I've taken a few sleeper trains through China with the family in the last six months (four berth soft sleeper rather than six berth hard sleeper) and the security has been fine. Most people on these trains are just ordinary Chinese folk who are very accommodating and social. I would be very surprised if you had any problems like those mentioned. That said, it always pays to be vigilant when traveling.

I've previously taken the Trans-Mongolian Beijing - Moscow train and that was a different story. I was sleeping with my valuables every night. Couldn't even trust the police who were on the train.

I'll be in Shanghai the same time as you for a business trip. I am working days but am hoping to get out and do some shooting in the evenings. Anyone have any good suggestions for night shots in Shanghai?