Some Handy Travel Tips for Those Heading to China
1. Airport Tips: Have the name of your hotel written in Chinese characters (ideograms) before you arrive at the airport. Taxi drivers, and most adults outside of the tourist areas, do not read, speak or understand English. Get your hotel to fax or e-mail you a confirmation that includes the name, address and telephone number, then just show it to your driver at the airport. For excursions, ask your hotel to write where you want to go in Chinese characters. Make sure you carry with you at all times the hotel card with its name, address and phone number in Chinese. That way you'll always be able to get back.
Most Important: The only safe taxis to take at any airport are in the taxi line. People will offer you "taxi, no wait." Don't accept! They will charge you five times as much and they are dangerous. (Note: Foreigners cannot rent a car in China, so that's not an option.)
2. Get an English-language map of the city before leaving the airport. It will be next to impossible to find one outside of the airport.
3. Take the Metro in Beijing and Shanghai. It is clean, efficient, safe and easy to understand. Automated ticket dispensers in the stations provide directions in Mandarin or English.
4. Don't tip. It's not expected in taxicabs or at most restaurants. If a tour guide is particularly good, you might tip, but most people don't.
5. Get a small Mandarin phrase book in the United States and learn how to say a few simple words:
Ni Hao (nee-how) — Hello
Xie xie (she-she) — thank you
Ching — please
Fu yuan (Foo Yoo-wan) — waitress/waiter
Youguai (yo-gway) — right
Zuoguai (zo-gway) — left
Shenme? (shen-may) — what?
Faygeechang — airport
6. Bring lots of yuans. China is a cash economy. Only hotels, bigger restaurants and mall-like stores take credit cards. Convert about $500 to yuans before leaving the United States. Once there, you can replenish your supply at ATMs that take Visa, which are available in most cities.
7. Drink only bottled water or Chinese beer, like Tsingtao (pronounced ching dow). The water is not potable anywhere in China, even in five-star hotels.
8. Bring your antihistamines and other allergy medications — and anything else you might need to counteract the effects of pollution. The smog is so thick you often don't see the sun in Shanghai and Beijing. My eyes itched a lot.
9. Dress comfortably. Most people don't dress up in China. Outside of the downtown areas, we often saw natives out and about in what we would call pajamas. You won't need a coat and tie, or a cocktail dress, even at better restaurants.
10. Look up. China's modern high-rises have some of the most remarkable architectural elements you will see anywhere. Chicago, look out.
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