Journey to Nowhere

If you want to buy air tickets for the Greater China region, check out this website
www.travelzen.com. It claims to be China’s only web-based online travel agency. You can book flights departing from Hong Kong, China and Taiwan, with instant booking and confirmation. This looks like a real convenience for travelers to China. Currently, China’s other major travel sites like www.elong.com are not able to provide instant web-based booking and confirmation.

I’ve tried the interface of Travelzen website and I like it so far.

According to its website, the “Travelzen Group Limited is a joint venture between Shanghai Ever Bright Town International Travel Agency Limited (SEBTI), China’s largest private air ticketing wholesaler and a reputable international private equity group”.

If you plan to travel to mainland China, you’d better avoid the so called golden week in October this year. This year the week stretches from 1 October to 8 October, including the day for Moon Festival which falls on 3 October, making the week slightly longer than usual.

During the golden week, many local Chinese will travel around in the country, making hotel booking and transportation harder to arrange. The major scenic spots will also be packed with visitors. Avoid it.

If you go sightseeing in China, look out for traps like this. 

This small wood bridge is in a park called Lu Hui Tou (meaning Deer Looking Back), a major tourist spot in Sanya, Hainan Province.

On the very top of the wood bridge are Chinese characters “Zou Yun”, meaning “walking luck”. Just for a bit of fun, you may be tempted to walk through the bridge in hopes of getting some luck. You can certainly do that. But after the walk, expect that some one will come up to you to ask you for money. Not much – RMB3 for walking through that one-meter long bridge.

Near the bridge lies a small sign which says RMB3 is charged because it represents harmony of heaven, earth and people.

If you fly in to China, this may be what you will encounter:

After a flight lands on an airport in China, two guys in white medical uniform will board the flight. The first guy will walk through the corridor and take photos of the passengers. This is followed by the second guy who holds a laser machine to check the temperature of each passenger.

Well, at least this is what has happened to me when I took a Southern China airline flight to Sanya, Hainan province, from Hong Kong just days ago.

These are the precautions taken by the Chinese authority for containing the swine flu, as you may have guessed. And I guess the first guy taking photos of passengers is for keeping a record so that in the case of one passenger later is identified to have caught swine flu, those sitting next to him or her would be able to be identified and traced down.

In major China cities such as Guangzhou and Hangzhou, taxis are equipped with fare meters and machines to print receipts. Ask for a print receipt when you leave the taxi, which usually shows the taxi fare, the taxi number and the license number of the taxi driver.  This receipt would be useful if you suspect that you are ripped off and want to lodge a complaint.

Nowadays, because of the rise in fuel price, many cities allow for taxi fuel sub-charge ranging from RMB0.5-1.0 per journey. Say Guangzhou, which imposes on passengers a fuel sub-charge of RMB1 per taxi journey. So do not be surprised if you are asked to pay RMB1 more on top of the charge shown by the taxi meter.

If you travel in China for quite some time, you may need to carry a pretty large amount of money with you. Then you should consider opening a bank account in China so that you can deposit and withdraw money whenever and wherever you want, and no need to carry a pile of bank notes with you.

Just go to any branch of the big banks and show your passport and china visa, fill out some forms and you will have a bank account right away. You will be given a bank passbook when the account opening process is finshed. If you also want a bank card to withdraw money at ATM machines, which you should do, you can have one upon paying RMB10 (Bank of China’s charge in 2007). You will also be given a pin number for accessing your account with the card.

In other words, it is free to open a bank account in China. But if you want to have a bank card to use the ATM machines, you will need to pay a fee of about RMB10.

However, be aware of the tricks and traps. Say, if you open a bank account with Bank of China in Guangdong Province, it is all free for you to use the bank’s ATM machinese in the province. But if you want to use the bank’s ATM machine in another province, then you will be charged about RMB10 each time. If you deposit money over the bank counter, you will be charged even more – about RMB40.