|
|
Browse by Tags
All Tags » Travel
Sorry, but there are no more tags available to filter with.
-
 Okay, Shanghaiist has got several hundred blogs on his RSS that he scans through everyday. Some things scream at us, others are quickly forgotten and yet others are hidden in some corner of our brain for (mostly useless) information ready to be used at some future point in time. There are all these bloggers that you've never met personally that you can form an impression of only after a long period of reading their blogs. You're reading them every single day, and sometimes it almost feels as though they're your friend, even though you don't really know them. It's most surreal.
So you read them. Everyday. Religiously. And I'm talking about people like James Fallows. Yes, remember the guy whose wife's week-long journal published in Slate on her first Shanghai experiences stirred up a huge debate here and caused ripples elsewhere? Well, we've been following his blog for quite a while now and the conclusion we've come to is this: This man has got to be the biggest fan of Chinese airlines/airports alive (and he unabashedly confesses to be one).
For the sake of brevity, we'll include some choiciest bits of what he said. In a first post on 12 Sept: I am a fan of Chinese domestic air travel. The airplanes, Airbuses or Boeings, are new enough and safe-seeming, unlike the alarming Soviet-made castoffs we rode here in the mid-1980s. The attendants are chipper. It's hard to be sure, but the pilots seem fine. Every flight I’ve been on has offered a hot meal, and by U.S. airline standards the food is great. Buying tickets is easy – you can walk into the airport and pay in cash, or order online through a unique high-tech/low-tech process I’ll describe some other day. Flights in China are usually late, but they’re late everywhere.
Most amazing of all, the airport experience itself – a phrase that makes you feel bad just hearing it in America – is as low-stress as it can be. Check-in lines move fast – OK, there’s no “line,” but once you get in the spirit you can fight your way up pretty quickly. Getting through security takes five or ten minutes tops.
In a more recent post where Fallows compared a US Airlines flight he took from Washington to Boston to a China Eastern Beijing-Shanghai flight he took: 1) Cost: Roughly $150 advertised fare on China Eastern, vs $385 for USAir. Edge to the Chinese, especially considering that the trip is longer. On the other hand, given the 7- or 8- fold difference in national per capita income, the US fare is obviously more "affordable."
2) Amenities: No contest. China Eastern is way nicer. Hot meals on all flights -- standard choice is "rice" or "noodles," meaning a choice of the side dish that will accompany chicken, fish, etc. Plus, free beer. (Yes, Chinese beer, but still.) On USAir today, tiny pack of pretzels and a soft drink. On the other hand, the "seat pitch" in Chinese airplanes seems an inch or two shorter than even for US economy class, with that much less leg "room."
3) Atmospherics: I have yet to encounter a surly Chinese flight attendant. (Likely reason: it's a relatively much, much better job in China. Also, air travel is a new experience there, with the excitement it once had in America.) Today I encountered only such people on USAir.
 Hmm.... chipper attendants? Hot meals on ALL flights? And a low-stress airport experience? Honestly, that's the first time we've heard those three things mentioned in the same breath in describing the Chinese flying experience. It may be the case that Fallows does not fly cattle class like we do (well, good for him and too bad for us), but we're going to say this with ALL due respects to the man: The next time we get our "hot" meal looking like what you see on the right, we will be sure to Fedex it to Fallows.
Related links:
James Fallows: Efficiency secrets from Shanghai Airlines
James Fallows: Beijing-Shanghai, DC-Boston: compare and contrast
Shanghaiist: Deborah Fallows in Shanghai
EastSouthWestNorth: Deborah Fallows, Lung Ying-Tai and I
|
-
When Shanghai resident and blogger Jakob Montrasio posted this photo on our Contribute Page, we wondered exactly when he visited the Forbidden City, because the blue skies in the photo weren't in Beijing last week when we were there. Then we realized the photo was taken in Zhejiang Province — a place called Hengdian World Studios (横店影视城) — where a seemingly life-size replica of the Forbidden City can be found (with a small mountain in the distance). We've been wanting to check this place out for a while now.
Here's what Wikipedia has to say:
Hengdian World Studios is one of the largest artificial studio built for movie and film production in China. The movie studio is operated by the privately-owned Hengdian Group. The studios comprises of 13 shooting bases with a total area of up to 330 ha. and building areas of 49,5995 square meters. In addition to its huge scale, the studio also has several records which includes:
1. Largest Indoor Buddha Figure in China.
2. Largest Scale Indoor Studio.
3. Most number of Films and Teleplay Shoots as of 2005.
One of the studio's largest buildings is the Imperial Palace Building built in the Early Chinese Dynasty style to mimic those in the Qin and Han period. That area is still frequently used to shoot movies based on these eras. Internationally acclaimed director Zhang Yimou used this building as the backdrop for the Emperor Qin's palace for his 2002 movie Hero. A Hong Kong TVB drama serial titled A Step into the Past which tells the story of the the First Qin Emperor also used the same building as the main backdrop.
Above you can find a slideshow of Jakob's photos from Hengdian. Here is his writeup. You can find more detailed info at travelchinaguide.com, which tells us that is costs just as much to see the fake Forbidden City (60 RMB) as it does the real one and: "Hengdian Film Studios are located in the village of Hengdian (横店), Zhejiang Province (浙江省). The nearest town is Dongyang (东阳)." Here's a map that shows the area and its location relative to Shanghai. Zoom in for a closer look.
|
-
Normally the water itself here in China is enough to make your skin start to blister and peel and fall off, but in a shallow pool at Dianchi Chuntian, a wonderfully relaxing (and affordable) hot springs spa in Kunming, Yunnan Province, it's swarms of hungry fish that seek out your skin — the dead stuff, we were assured — and ingest it. It's meant to be healthy, for you and the fish.
Wikipedia tells us that these "doctor fish," or garra rufa, are popular in Turkish spas, and can be especially beneficial for people with psoriasis. (In Chinese the fish are called mei ti yu, 美体鱼, or "beautifying fish.")
The dead skin that flakes off the bodies of visitors to Dianchi Chuntian must be among the most delicious and nutritious in the world — because the fish in the pool are huge (compared to all photos we have seen, including Dianchi Chuntian's own pamphlets, that make the skin-eating fish look like tiny minnows). That didn't stop us from hopping in the pool, for some reason. And before long, we were up to our necks in water and fish ... and fish poop (all that delicious skin has to go somewhere). It tickles a lot at first, and then only kind of tickles after that. This is perhaps the only situation we can think of in which Speedos (or some other kind of skin-tight trunks) would be a good idea — we spent a lot of time trying to make sure fish didn't swim up our shorts.
A couple of questions you might be thinking:
Would we do it again?
Sure.
Is our skin healthier now?
We have absolutely no idea.
Can you drink beer while fish suck off your dead skin?
Yes. Budweiser. Big bottles (600 ml). Around 15 kuai, we think.
For those headed to Kunming, entry to Dianchi Chuntian is RMB 86 per person, which includes a whole bunch of hot springs, pools and tubs. You can stay as long as you want (the place doesn't close until 2 am), or you can rent a room (with your own hot spring). There are plenty of other add-on massages and treatments you can purchase (all priced reasonably) and it is very easy to spend an entire day at the spa. It's RMB 28 to become fish food. And yes, guys, there is a huge gold penis near your changing area. Here's the address, courtesy of GoKunming.com:
Dianchi Spring Spa
滇池春天温泉会馆
1290 Dianchi Lu
滇池路1290号
Tel: 8066094
For those of you stuck in Shanghai, SH tells us that you can find these fish at a place called Shanghai Orient Rome Bathhouse — a “super, five-star, large-scale place” — at 1420 Jiangning Lu, near Suzhou Creek (东方罗马浴场, 江宁路1420号). Tel: 6660 0666.
More photos here.
|
-
It is true. Some people will do anything for a photo opportunity! Watch this group of fearless Chinese tourists in Yuhuan, Zhejiang, face the waves -- with their backs, that is.
|
-
 Inspired by the latest Mercer HR rankings of the world's most expensive cities for expats, Rob Meyer of the GoBudgetTravel blog (a pretty new site apparently) has put together a similar ranking of the least-expensive cities in the world for budget travellers.
The two variables he used in determining the Budget Cost per Day for each of the 94 cities in his study are:
1. The cheapest private, double occupancy room that I could find in each city. (private rooms, as they were the most commonly available accommodation options I found across the board. This does not mean that these are the cheapest of all accommodation options, as a dorm style accommodation is certainly less expensive when available. However, for comparison purposes it made more sense to just look at private rooms.)
2. The price of a cheap local meal in each city, multiplied by 2. Meant to represent the cost of two meals per day.
All expenses were derived from either his personal experiences, information provided by his fellow backpacker friends, HostelBookers.com (accommodation prices), HostelWorld.com (accommodation prices), and the Lonely Planet World Guide (cheap meal prices).
So Shanghai ranked 26th on the expensive list and 16th on the cheap list. Guess it is true how Shanghai can both be expensive or cheap depending on your lifestyle! And here the rankings:
Image from shieken.
|
-
 Originally expected to overtake France as the number one tourism destination in 2020, China is now tipped to do so six years earlier in 2014, according to the World Tourism Organisation. A story released today by our favourite English paper attributed this to the Olympic rush and "a rising global fascination in all things Chinese". It also included some staggering statistics from the China National Tourism Administration:
From just 300,000 in 1978, the number of foreign visitors to China reached 22 million in 2006, excluding arrivals from Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.
Well it appears China is not just a beneficiary in this whole cycle of things as Chinese tourists have become a key driving force behind fast tourism growth in the Asia-Pacific region, according to the first travel trend and research conference of the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA):
John Koldowski, head of the PATA strategy and information center, said there were about 500 million in-bound tourists in the Asia-Pac region in 2006, including 30 million Chinese tourists. The "Chinese factor" will have a big impact on tourism destinations, he said. According to him, 710,000 Chinese tourists visited the Republic of Korea in 2005, but the number will double to 1.5 million by 2009. Chinese tourists to New Zealand totaled 87,000 in 2005, but the number will rise to 200,000 by 2009.
Rosy statistics aside, Shanghaiist thinks that with increasing interconnectivity between China and the global economy on more and more fronts, any blip in the Chinese economy could have devastating results on the rest of the world. Whether we like it or not, we will begin to see more and more instances that support the idea -- "When China sneezes, the world catches a cold".
Image from China Daily.
|
|
|
|