Entries from May 2007 ↓

If you stay in Nanjing, a budget hotel is recommended, which is:

http://www.elong.net/hotels/details.aspx?m=&hotelid=21101011

It is at a prime site – in the Confucius Temple area. 168RMB per room. The room is clean and with fast internet connection. I chose the hotel for a friend based on hotel users’ positive review. My friend’s comment after using it? Positive, of course.

Opposite this budget hotel is a five-star “Mandarin Garden Hotel” where you can buy train tickets to anywhere in China for a service charge of 5RMB. Very convenient.

Nanjing is one of the four great ancient capitals of China. It is also the second largest commercial center in the East China region, behind Shanghai.

My friend says the city is a cheap copy of Shanghai, with construction sites everywhere, even in the city centre. In the underground train, you can find parents with children wearing open trousers in tow - a scene you probably won’t see in Shanghai. So if you want to see a Chinese city of mid-level of development, and see a bit of Chinese culture and history, you probably should come to Nanjing.

I must say, Nanjing is not very exciting. But Nangjing is a popular tourist destination for Chinese tourists, because of some historic and cultural sites. And the city wall and the interspersed lakes do add to the charm of the city.

Here’s some travel info inside the city:

Bus No.1 runs from Confucius Temple all the way northward to the train station - every one or two minutes. 2 RMB fare for an air-conditioned bus, and 1RMB without air-condition. This is the city’s most popular and frequent bus line.

Nanjing’s train station is impressive, like an airport, very moden and new. In front of the train station lies a lake and some relaxing areas. “Probably the train station is the most impressive of all in Nanjing,” my friend said, who just visited the city.

The old Hong Kong Star Ferry Pier in Central was demolished, after the authoritarian HK Government frowned on public protest and anger and went ahead as planned.

I used the new Star Ferry Pier last week, carrying my 3-year-old niece with me. It was a hell. The way from the bus station on the main road of Central to the pier is SO LONG.. With the baby in my arms, it was an uphill battle to walk the minimum 15-min passage to the pier. Anger fired up inside me. What the hell is this demolition for? Not to mention keeping history and collective memory, the simple fact is, the demolition is not in the interest of the residents of the city. The new pier in Central is so hard to reach.

With a nice location, historic value and collective memory, the old pier just disappeared like that, and a fake-Victoria style building as the new pier, stands somewhere, out of touch with people. Just like the government of this city.

A foreigner wanting to buy a train ticket in China, who cannot speak or read Chinese, will find it very frustrating. It is hard, very hard. The common experience is, you take your chance to queue at one of the long lines, and when you finally get to the front, you are told it is wrong line, or “mei you mei you” (not available).

The tip is, you go to the five-star hotels, if any, and try your luck. In these luxury hotels, they usually have ticketing service and the staff can speak English. You can get your train or bus tickets for a handling fee of 5-20rmb.

You can also try four-star hotels where ticketing service can be available.

You don’t need to be a guest of the hotel to use the service.

Another China hotel booking website I would like to recommend is Sinohotel. I’ve used their service, which is satisfactory to me.

Their English page has more user comment than elong, and for some hotels, they conduct checks and write their own comment. This is one great advantage over elong - more review in English. The price they offer and the range of the hotels they have are no different from those at elong, though.

As elong, once you fill out the online booking form, they will email you to acknowledge your booking and then email again to confirm the booking. Credit card is usually not needed for keeping the booking. You make payment when you arrive at the hotel.

However, you have to take note that China hotels request guests to pay deposit for their stay and the deposit will be returned when they check out. The deposit can be paid in the form of cash or credit card, usually a few hundred RMB.