Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Holiday in China (2)


This post is in response to the responses to my earlier post on Holiday in China. I am quite amused at the response I got from my younger readers. Someone said "Walao! You are calculating it!" And may I know what is wrong with that? I think this is what we call generation gap. The younger people find it odd to calculate the cost and might think it spoils the enjoyment. They'd rather spend and not think about the money. That's how generation -X (or Y) think ,as compared to baby bloomers (people in the 50's and 60's). On the contrary, I think knowing your budget and spending within the budget makes the trip more enjoyable. When people hear the word budget (as in budget hotels) they think we will be miserable on the holiday having to budget our spending. This is absolutely not true. A budget is simply a summary of the various estimates for the trip. That way, we know how much to bring, we know how much we can splurge on the shopping, and we have no worries about overspending! When we prepare the budget, we should make a higher estimate especially on the food and shopping. I think my information on the costing of a holiday trip interests more people than shock them. Even though Generation Y may be laughing at us, I think money matters still play the most important component of planning for a  trip. Some people won't even think of a holiday abroad, not knowing how much it will cost them. More details on the costing.
What are the items of the budget?
1) Flight tickets
For certain items, the estimate will be very close or even exactly the same. For example the flight tickets. You can check much earlier and estimate how much it would cost. And it will already have been paid for, weeks before you fly. For certain destinations, you can save a lot when you fly budget airlines. But this is not necessarily true. Sometimes other airlines do offer fares which are only slightly higher than budget planes. For the comfort and service of major airlines, I'd rather not save the money on budget airlines. You have to check the schedule and the transit times. It's worthwhile spending more, booking from a major airline and don't have to worry about not being able to catch a connecting flight.
Transit at Guangzhou Airport

For this trip to China, I did not book Air Asia even though my connecting flight is through Guangzhou. One reason is that the flight to Guangzhou for Air Asia is from KL, which means we waste time changing flights. Another reason is the departure and arrival times. Sometimes it is better to choose a more expensive flight rather than save some money and bear the inconvenience. And it turned out to be a good thing I chose China Southern Airlines. 
On our way back from Xiamen, there was a heavy fog and many flights were delayed.

Our flight was also delayed and we almost had to spend a night in Guangzhou to catch the next day's flight. But since our booking was through China Southern Airlines, we need not have to worry as they will be responsible to make sure we get back to Penang. I informed the chief stewardess about my connecting flight from Guangzhou and she told me not to worry as they will do the necessary. True enough, someone was waiting for us the moment we set foot on the ground. He had our boarding passes ready and led us through a series of shortcuts until we finally boarded the connecting flight in the shortest possible time. First he brought us to the back of the plane to identify our luggage and make sure it will be transferred to our plane. He had all the luggage tags ready. Then he took us by buggy to the VIP passage and brought us to the security and immigration checkpoints, using business class lines to finally reach our boarding gate. Even so, it still took us some time despite our brisk walk. The young man attending to us was very efficient. I guess he does it everyday, helping transfer passengers catch their planes! For us, it was truly an experience....all the rushing. When we finally fastened our seat belts to take off, we had a good laugh thinking about the whole thing.
2)  Hotels
For China hotels, use the many reservation sites which only require us to pay at the desk. ..no deposit no credit card guarantee required.
http://www.chinahotel.com.cn/
http://www.chinahotels.org/
http://www.chinahotel4u.com/
For other sites like Agoda or Asiarooms, you have to make advance payment.
Since no payment is needed, I made more than one booking for each night. If you don't show up, they will email you and you just explain why, out of courtesy. You can ignore them if you don't want to respond. If you have checked in, they will ask for comments. Write something if you want, otherwise just ignore. The cost? China hotels are so cheap. For CNY200 in big cities like Guangzhou and Xiamen, you get decent, clean hotels in nice locations. If you want more posh hotels, there are a lot of choices from CNY300. For smaller towns, the rate is much cheaper, my Dabu hotel is only CNY138 (good location, is clean and has heater in the rooms.)
Capital of Hakka Hotspring Hotel 


The Hotspring hotel has mirrors at the ceiling.

The Hotspring hotel in Xiayang at CNY198 ( includes breakfast and hotspring) is so cheap.

Hongkeng Tulou Village
Room at the tulou (Fuyulou, Hongkeng Village) 
Staying in the villages costs next to nothing (CNY100 including breakfast at the Tulou,
(for reservations and car hire, email Mr Lin at tulou.lqm@163.com)
Peitian Ancient Hakka Village
and CNY70 for room only at the Peitian Village)
Wu's Courtyard Home Stay at Peitian Village

The rooms at the Villages have been converted to look like modern hotel rooms but the building is ancient. It is quite an experience, a home stay. They will cook breakfast and meals for you . You get to savour local home cooked food at a cheap price.

Some of you might want to stay in a modern hotel instead.
3) Entrance tickets
After planning where to visit, you will already know how much to spend for the tickets. This might come to a big sum.
Gaobei tulou cluster - CNY50 per person to the tulou cluster featuring the largest tulou.

Hongkeng Tulou cluster CNY90 per person for entrance to the Village

CNY55 per person for entry to the Longkong caves, compulsory tour guide  CNY30 per group.

CNY115 person includes boat ride and mountain climb or CNY80 for boat ride only
By having all the entrance fees included it in your estimates, you have no worries. On conducted tours, we have been given the options to add "extra" tours and we usually will comply, otherwise you will be left alone while your tour mates go along. Unless of course everyone agrees not to go. Usually they'll go.
4) Food
I estimated CNY 20 for each breakfast for days when the hotel price doesn't include breakfast. Usually they charge CNY10 per person for buffet breakfast. In Xiamen, we didn't take the buffet breakfast but went sampling local street food. A basket of  nine xiao long bao's is only CNY6 and a bowl of misua kor only CNY5. I estimated CNY50 for lunches and CNY100 for dinners but ended up spending less. The most expensive dinner we had was CNY90 for the two of us, where we ordered 2 set meals and coffee.

If you need to drink coffee, better bring some. Its expensive in China. The cup of American brewed coffee I had in the Tulou  costs CNY20 and a bowl of noodles in Dabu is only CNY3.

 In the rural areas, meals cooked to order for 3 persons cost between CNY 50 to CNY80 and we usually cannot finish the food. I keep track of the money I spent so that I can share the information on my blog. I know my young friends are disgusted with having to do this but to me it is fun. On our last few days, we had quite a sum left, even though I had to spend more for transport due to change of plans, so we spent more on shopping.
5) Shopping
Initially I didn't plan to spend a lot on shopping but changed my mind and set aside CNY1000 for shopping. In the end, we spent more than CNY1000 on shopping because of surplus cash on food. Things are cheap in China because our ringgit is double the CNY. If not for the inconvenience of carrying we would have spent more. The warm clothing was cheap because the cold weather was ending. We bought some warm clothing in anticipation of more trips during the cold seasons.


Besides warm clothing,, we bought mainly tea leaves and preserved vegetables


Friday, March 23, 2012

Holiday in China


China is a scenic place to visit. There are so many places to see-- you will probably need many trips. But one thing that puts people off a China tour is numerous "shopping" trips in the itinerary. Some people might be wondering what is wrong with shopping? For those who have been on China tours will understand why I say that we detest going on these shopping trips.
Another horror story about visiting China is the toilet story. I'm surprised people still talk about it because during the trips that I went,  I have never encountered any problems with dirty toilets or door-less latrines.
So, for this China trip, as usual we did it DIY style. We decide on the itinerary, we decide what time we want to start, we decide where, when and what to eat and we don't have to wait for others or rush so as not to let others wait for us. Like what people say...free and easy. And best of all the shopping is our kind of shopping not the tour group type of shopping. In this post I'll share the overall trip, the planning, the cost and some experiences. Later I'll post the various legs of the tour separately.
Planning the Itinerary
China is so vast. You have to decide which area you want to go and then start planning. How to decide where to go? Maybe you've heard it from friends, read about it somewhere. If you have no idea, then check out the various China tourism websites or blogs. I have already visited Beijing, Guangzhou, Xiamen and Shenzhen. From a friend's blog I was fascinated by the tulous, the earthen Hakka dwellings which are now UN declared world heritage sites. Being a Taipu Hakka, I was also curious to see the Dabu County because my father and grandparents migrated to Malaya from this place. At first I wanted to go through Guangzhou since Dabu is in the Guangdong Province. After doing much web research, I decided to go through Xiamen so that I can also visit Longyan in Fujian Province because my wife's ancestors are from there.
To find out which are the interesting places to see, first I visited local travel agents and pretended to be interested in their tours. You collect all their itinerary, their cost and then you check it out on the internet. Besides the official tourism sites of the various places, there are other private local tour websites providing information. Popular websites like virtual tourist, trip advisor or lonely planet are good sources of information. Through the forums, you can post enquiries and there will always be people willing to share the information. However, some information might be outdated. After some planning this is what I came out with:

Day 1 : Penang to Guangzhou to Xiamen, stay in Xiamen
Xiamen

Day 2: Depart Xiamen for Longyan, visit Longkong Caves
Inside the Longkong Caves

 and Peitian Ancient Hakka Village
Scenic Peitian Ancient Hakka Village

Day 3: Visit Yunlong Bridge in Luofang, 
View from Yunlong Bridge

Guanzhai Mountain in Liancheng
Beautiful scenery at Guanzhai Mountain

Day 4: Visit Hongkeng tulou cluster 
Zhenchenlou

and Gaobei tulou cluster 
Chenqilou

and stay in Hotspring Resort
Capital of Hakka Hotspring Resort
Day 5: Visit Chuxi Tulou cluster and depart for Dabu
Dabu Gourmet Street

Day 6: Visit Dabu
Dabu Street Market

Day 7: Go back to Xiamen
Xiamen
Day 8: Xiamen to Guangzhou to Penang.


One thing good about travelling on our own is that we can make adjustments to the planned itinerary to suit ourselves. Because of some dispute between the villagers and the authorities, we couldn't visit Chuxi Tulou so we had more time to visit Dabu. We cut short the Dabu stay and left for Xiamen earlier to do shopping.

The Cost.
To cover such a wide area which is mainly the mountainous regions, it would not be possible and practical to go by public transport. You can either join the local tours or hire a car plus driver to take you round. Of course don't expect this DIY trip to be cheap. But you have to work out a budget for the trip before you go. Unlike following a tour where you pay in advance and just bring money for shopping, here you have to break down the details. A quick check with some Malaysian Tour companies told me an 8-day trip costs around RM3900. Someone quoted me RM3600 but I'll have to fly to KL to meet the rest, which means it'll be also around RM4000. Coincidently, my Taipu Association also organised a trip during the same time, for RM3920 but there are certain days they let you go free and easy to visit relatives and you have to pay for your own food. I don't know whether the trip materialised or not. Anyway in total,despite hiring a private car and driver for 5 days, I only spent RM3100 per person and that includes the hotels, food and all the entrance tickets and other transport, which means DIY is still cheaper.
The car we hired for 5 days.
Transport.
The usual rate for car rental plus driver is CNY400 (RM200) per day but you have to clarify the details because there might be extra charges. The fare is inclusive of car rental, petrol and drivers fees. Originally I asked for 4 day rental so the total came out to CNY1600. The man asked for CNY200 petrol surcharge because my trip covers a large area and I agreed to pay. Then he told me the trip starts in Longyan on the Mainland and we would have to find our way to Longyan. In order not to waste time travelling I paid an extra day's rental for the driver to come to pick us from Xiamen in the morning. Halfway along the road he asked me whether I want to pay the toll to use the highway. Since it will save me time and it's safer, I agreed. Otherwise he'll use the old road. On the last day, we decided to cut short the Dabu stay and leave for Xiamen a day earlier. I wanted to go by public bus CNY100 per person but the bus leaves at 6.40am..too early. So I booked another day's car rental. All in (plus toll and surcharges) I paid CNY2800 for 5 days car and driver fees.
Food.
 


Food is cheap in China especially in the rural areas. Its more expensive in the big cities and even worse at the airport.  But one thing you might want to know is that even though the driver doesn't request for it, out of courtesy you'll invite him to join you for lunch or dinner when you are travelling. It didn't really cost me much because usually my wife and I couldn't finish the food when we ate so we didn't have to order more. The drivers were from the tulous so they didn't join us for the meals in the tulous. But one good thing about having a local around when you eat is that the restaurant dare not cheat you. The driver reminded me ask the price of each dish before ordering, and he helped by telling them not to cook too much.He does  the complaining for me about the food. In Malaysia, we might be shy to ask the price but in China (especially the rural areas) we go the kitchen, they show us the ingredients and we discuss the price first. Meals are usually around CNY50-80 for 3 persons . When we go jalan-jalan trying the street food, it is much cheaper.
Entrance tickets

The two of us spent about CNY700 for entrance tickets for the whole tour.If you follow a tour group it is supposed to be inclusive but sometimes they will ask whether you want to pay extra for optional tours, boat rides and so on.


Hotels
Jinfan Hotel, Dabu

 




Spacious modern rooms, including breakfast and hotspring facilities for only CNY198nett at Xiayang
Nice clean bathrooms
Hotels are quite cheap. Just check out the location and reviews. Most China hotels don't require you to pay in advance. I booked all my hotels without paying. If you don't show up, they will just ask you by email why you didn't show up. Just say change of plans and they'll thank you for responding. If you stay, they'll ask you to give comments about the hotel and you don't have to if you don't want to.
In my next few posts I'll go through some details of each leg of the trip.