Hotels.com and Cheaptickets helped me to organise the trip.
I feel like puking …
When you read this I will be at the Airport with Mike to catch our flight to Hong Kong. This is Mike’s surprise birthday present. That means even though his Bday was on June 29th he had to wait until today at the airport to find out what it is.
Not sure if he will like it and how he will react. He probably will puke right in front of the check in when he finds out and thinks about how much the trip will cost us. But again this is his 30ies and I am pretty sure that he will never forget this present ever for the rest of his live.
This is going to be our greatest vacation ever but there will be a chance that it could be our last as well. I am nervous.
Have you been to these places? Do you have great tips on restaurants, bars, clubs or sightseeing? Please post a comment to let me know.
If you would like to make sure that we have a great time … feel free to buy us a drink, a dinner or a hotel stay by using this button
If that button does not work you can just send money to my email using paypal… see right sidebar image for my address.
Everyone who sends in some money will get a link (in order of the highest donation to the lowest) in each post relating to this trip. And there will be tons. Those China posts will get pretty popular since they are unique and people will sooner or later end up on RGS trying to plan a similar trip. There is not much information out there. And Google will be very kind to those posts.
Not sure how much I will be able to post but we will be most of the time out there exploring but I will check my emails.
We will back on July 23. and totally be exhausted. So get ready for some china adventures and wish me luck that everything goes well.
Now I even feel more sick ….
Ottomatic wrote,
the Green-T House in Beijing…. coolest restaurant on the planet.
Link | July 11th, 2007 at 11:11 pm
Suhan wrote,
In beijing, theres the world renowned Beijing Roast Duck restaurant called Quanjude (Pronounced Chwan-jwee-duh). When youre in beijing, eating roast duck is a must. It’s kind of fatty but the natural flavors of the duck are amazing.
Theres the walking street in bejing called WangFuJing thats pretty packed day in day out. It’s downtown beijing.. so like somewhere south east of the forbidden city between the 2nd and 3rd ring road.
And then theres the essential Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Summer palace tours to go on. My recommendation is to wake up EARLY, like 5am and go to these places cause they can get PACKED like mad.
As for the Great Wall, theres the cliche location for tourists to go to, but theres another part that i went to that was an hours drive away where theres very very few foreign tourists, so its much quieter and more enjoyable. You should ask the locals for more info since i’m not too clear on its location.
Shopping for counterfeit products in Beijing! The only place i remember is Xiu Sui Jie (shoe sway jay). Not sure if they closed it down yet. You can bargain like MAD there, if youre foreigners they’ll ask for a super elevated price but start with 1/4 of what the ask and work your way up to no more than 50% original. Theres a few other counterfeit markets in Beijing, but i dont remember them.
Eating dumplings in beijing is a must.. it’s a northern china dish so you’ll get the best there. Southern China is more seafood, rice oriented dishes.
I dont know as much about the other cities, but the only other bit i know is that when youre in Hong Kong, go check out the view from victoria peak. It’s pretty nice.
Oh and it’s incredibly unbelieveably humid in china at the moment. So be prepared to sweat and drink tons of water.
Hope that was helpful :]
Link | July 12th, 2007 at 6:49 am
Suhan wrote,
Oh i forgot to mention while you in beijing take a richshaw tour of the Hutong (old style housing with super narrow alleyways) Theres not many left, but its quite a contrast to modern beijing.
Link | July 12th, 2007 at 6:55 am
Tracy wrote,
You will definitely have fun and culture shock. It is now pretty hot so drink lots of water! Beer works as well
Hong Kong is vibrant, never been to Macau, Shenzen is chaos and Beijing is awesome. Enjoy!
Link | July 12th, 2007 at 7:10 am
a wrote,
Hong Kong has an amazing nightlife, although I’d leave the gay bars alone (they were just sad really). My only tip is that drinks are EXPENSIVE and rather oddly priced – a European beer will cost the same as a cocktail made by the barstaff with 3-4 shots of liquor in it! All the best bars have Western bartenders who mix a mean drink. If you want a beer I recommend getting nice cold beer from the convenience stores dotted around the city – cold and cheap(ish) your can use your travelcard to pay for it!
What a great present (link has been sent to my partner for inspiration).
A
x
Link | July 13th, 2007 at 5:38 am
jimbo wrote,
Having lived in Shenzhen for 2 years I can tell you that anything north of Shekou (a district of Shenzhen) is pretty much crap. You should take the ferry from HK or Macau to Shekou and then stay at the Hai Tai hotel – right down the street from the Nan Hai hotel. Behind that hotel is a great bar called X-Ta-Sea, and another good bar called Mary’s. If you go to Mary’s tell them Handsome Rob and Yuki from Chengdu sent ya, and they should take good care of ya… Seriously, anything outside of Shekou is really crap.
A note on bargaining – you bargain for EVERYTHING (except food)! Rule of thumb is take the first price they quote and divide by 1/3, and that is what you counter with. Never, ever pay more than 40% of original quote, and if they won’t give to you then just walk away. If they really want to sell to you they will track you down. This seems kinda rude, but this is the way everyone in China bargains – they are counting on you to be nice, so they can rip you off. In Shenzhen the best places for shopping (fakes and otherwise) is Lou Wu and Dong Men…
Enjoy!
Link | July 13th, 2007 at 8:57 am
RGS wrote,
RGS Readers you are great …. thank you all for the tips and kind comments. We are having a blast. If you remember some more things on what to do please do post
. I still need some insperation for Shenzhen restaurants.. anyone ..
Also … on our last day we have a whole day again in Hong Kong … again looking for a great place to eat.
Off to see that giant Buddha…
Thank you all.
Link | July 14th, 2007 at 2:02 am
Hong Konk Sky | Random Good Stuff - The Entertainment Blog wrote,
[...] Infotek sent me a booming $50 donation … Thank you very much. Do you wanna buy me a drink? [...]
Link | July 14th, 2007 at 2:35 am
jimbo wrote,
Almost all of the restaurants in Shenzhen are good. Because it is a boom town, and an immigrant community (only about 15% of the people who live in Shenzhen were actually born in Shenzhen) it has attracted all of the really good chefs from other provinces. Ask any Chinese person and they will tell you that some of the best food in China can be found in Shenzhen. I can’t think of how to tell you where to go for some of my favs, but if you walk around DiWang (tallest building in Shenzhen) there are a lot of good ones. Make sure that you go for hot pot, and get the 1/2 spicy 1/2 not spicy and then just go crazy.
Link | July 14th, 2007 at 10:34 am
RGS wrote,
Jimbo,
thank you very much …. I just can’t wait to get there. Hot Pot souds like a lot fun and we will give it a try. Were are you living now?
Out of all the places we are visiting Shenzhen I am the most nervous about. I couldn’t find much about it online and you hear a lot about passport snatchers
I will report how it went, he he.
Link | July 15th, 2007 at 1:51 am
jimbo wrote,
We are living out in Chengdu, and love it. It is much more laid-back, especially compared to Shenzhen.
No need to be nervous about Shenzhen, just keeps your wits about you and you will have no problems. Purse snatching and pickpockets are the biggest problem (I will not let my wife carry a purse when we go back to visit her family there), and violent crime is all but non-existent for foreigners.
Like I mentioned above I would suggest that you stay in Shekou and go to Mary’s bar or X-Ta-Sea your first night and meet some of the local expats – they will help you plan on where to go and what to see. You can also send me an email and I can give you my mobile number and I or my wife (she is Chinese from Shenzhen) can help you get around.
Hopefully you have a tri-band phone that can accept SIM cards – if so make sure to buy a SIM card when you get to Shenzhen. They are RMB100, and you have RMB100 worth of talk time (within China only). Then can then send you SMS in Chinese of where you want to go, and all you have to do is show it to the taxi driver…
Link | July 15th, 2007 at 4:37 am
RGS wrote,
Jimbo,
we just got to Shenzhen …. besided a small little ATM Drama we made it to the hotel … ear Windows of the world. I will not bring a bag or anything … thank you for the tip. Heading to the city to do some shopping
Can’t wait to hackle ….. And tomorrow we do some theme parks. Just taking it slow. And then we are off to Beijing. So we are just here for a short stay.
Thank you again …
Link | July 16th, 2007 at 7:38 am
Arrived to Hong Kong / What now? | Random Good Stuff - The Entertainment Blog wrote,
[...] Infotek sent me a booming $50 donation … Thank you very much. Do you wanna buy me a drink? [...]
Link | July 24th, 2007 at 5:31 pm