Travelling to China

[Super_Geo]

I'm flying into Beijing tomorrow and have a few questions...

- Is it safe to use credit cards in China? (Do stores even accept them?)
- Can you access Gmail/Facebook, or is it blocked?
- Is it better to exchange to yuan here in Canada, or over there in China?


Any other general tips?

[roopi]

Is it safe to use credit cards in China? (Do stores even accept them?)

Yes it is completely safe to use them. Just use some common sense. If you are in a mall/restaurant/tour site it's good. If it looks shady don't use it.

- Can you access Gmail/Facebook, or is it blocked?
Facebook is definately blocked. I can't remember trying to access Gmail while I was there but I'm pretty sure you could. Don't know now since all the Google/China stuff going on.

- Is it better to exchange to yuan here in Canada, or over there in China?
You are better off exchanging there. Don't exchange eat the booths by the luggage carousel. Wait until you get out of the luggage/security area as you will either get a better rate or you you won't have to pay the transfer fee.


If you plan on doing quite a bit of siteseeing forget going with the tours. Talk to a taxi driver and see what he'll charge you for the day 8-10 hours. We were able to hire a taxi driver for 600 RMB (~100 USD) and he took us whereever we wanted for 8 hours and just waited for us wherever we were. Never asked to be prepaid just asked for the money at the end. The only hidden fee was that he wanted me to pay all the toll charges at the end of the day (worked out to an extra 60 RMB).

Also if you don't speak Mandarin/Cantonese I suggest you have all the hotel names/numbers with you if you are getting around by taxi / public transportation.

Definately go see The Great Wall. Didn't care for the Ming Tombs.

[G]

Originally posted by roopi

Also if you don't speak Mandarin/Cantonese I suggest you have all the hotel names/numbers with you if you are getting around by taxi / public transportation.

Definately go see The Great Wall. Didn't care for the Ming Tombs.

Cantonese is pretty much useless outside Hong Kong.

[roopi]

Originally posted by G


Cantonese is pretty much useless outside Hong Kong.

I'm EI so I really didn't have a clue what they spoke where. I just didn't want to say if you don't speak Chinese...

Don't they speak Cantonese in Southern China though? I'm just asking/assuming this since Guangzhou used to be known as Canton?

[Power_Of_Rotary]

there is alot of cities that are majority cantonese speakers...

as for sites that were blocked, i cant recall facebook, but alot of porn sites were blocked, which was more of a piss off than fb lol

[Sugarphreak]

.....

[szw]

I found it easiest to just use an ATM to take money out. The currency conversion isn't that bad and its just simpler.

You can pick up some prepaid SIM cards pretty cheap (lucky numbers cost more). With that, its pretty cheap to call home to Canada (1RMB per min I believe) and you can get some data options on the prepaid plan as well. Well worth it since if you are trying to find something its much easier to just google it than to ask people. Not sure how their 3G coverage is but they definitely had GPRS everywhere (slow but it works). You have to call in to activate the international options and the data options. They have english speaking operators.

Oh yeah and if some young girls approach you on the street to show you their artwork or take you for a tea ceremony, don't go. very common scam.

Facebook is not always blocked. When I was there it was only blocked about 5% of the time. Sites get blocked and unblocked all the time so its kind of random, though its not hard at all to get around the great firewall of china.

[Kinjou]

Facebook was blocked for me in Beijing. I managed to get around it using a VPN.

Make sure you get a prepaid SIM. It's so cheap there. Use a calling card if you need to call international.

If you take a cab, make sure the bill you give them is legit. They might do the old switcheroo and tell you the one you gave them is fake. Try to use low currency as much as possible if you want to buy something with cash. Even if its a big market, there's still a chance of scams.

I found the exchange rates offered by the hotels was close to what the banks were offering. By using the hotel, I skipped having to look for a bank and pay user fees on top of that. You might want to have some money exchanged beforehand so you don't have to look for those counters when you get there. Plus the ones at the airports try to rip you off as much as possible.

Bargain as much as possible if you're buying small souvenirs to bring back.

[TomcoPDR]

Make sure you don't pick up money or backpacks/packages that doesn't belong to you

[LLLimit]

My credit card worked in the higher end tourist malls and stores. It's better to take cash everywhere you go. Too bad their biggest bill is a 1hundred, and I always walked around with a huge stack. A friend had problems in some banks w/ travellers cheques.

I used the China Construction bank for cash withdrawals, the exchange wasnt too bad. I also have an HSBC account, so when I ran across an HSBC atm, i took cash w/o huge fees. I remember 1 at the bottom floor Oriental Plaza at wangfujing.

Cash is king in China

[roopi]

Biggest bill isn't 100. It's just the most common.

[szw]

Originally posted by roopi
Biggest bill isn't 100. It's just the most common.

Actually 100 is the largest denomination available for mainland China yuan/RMB.

[quazimoto]

what happens if you walk up to the one of the military guards at the airport and say "Chi Shi" to them. Do you think they would be pissed and arrest you? Or maybe "Cao Ni Ma". Causing an international incident could be fun lol.

[roopi]

Originally posted by szw


Actually 100 is the largest denomination available for mainland China yuan/RMB.

Oh I thought I'd seen 1000's before. Must of been HKD's?

[Super_Geo]

Facebook is blocked.
Gmail is not blocked.
Beyond is not blocked.

CCTV-9 is the state owned English TV station where they have a black chick with a clean British accent as a newscaster... listening to the news in China is pretty interesting. There's definitely a tinge of government propaganda, but it's put in so subtly that if this was all you had access to then I doubt you'd notice at all. I just consider it China's version fox FOX News.

I was pretty stoked when they said "Now for international weather, Canada..." and a map of Canada is thrown up with weather patterns overlaid and the only city that it has a number beside is... Winnipeg? They did a whole week long forecast for Winnipeg, and that was it... no other cities were even marked on the country map. Haha I hope no one from China thinks Winnipeg is the cultural/financial center of Canada, definitely not a case of putting your best foot forward!

Anyway, thanks for the tips guys. I'll be here for 2 weeks, should be a good time!

[Manhattan]

Anyone been to Beijing recently? What are some interesting things to see and do besides the main attractions like Forbidden City Restaurant and Great Wall?

And what did you guys eat when you were there? Last time I was in Shanghai I got sick eating something the first day and we ended up eating western fast food (Mcdonalds) rest of the way to be safe.