First Visit to China
Discussion
Bringing this thread back up as I am a little clearer on my plan now, I intend to travel to Shanghai to use that as a base, It appears I need to go north and south of Shanghai.
My First visits are in Wenzhou and Lishui, I have found the website www.travelchinaguide.com which has a train table guide on it which has been useful.
Not sure what internal flights are like but im a fearful guy so instead of an hour flight to Wenzhou im going to take 4.1/2 hour train, although fully reclining seats in business class look pretty cool.
From Wenzhou I need to go to Suzhou which is about an hour out of Shanghai although can get a train from Wenzhou to Suzhou.
Was wondering if anybody has been to either Wenzhou or Suzhou and can recommend anything.
In addition to all the good advise given last year can anybody comment on :
Airlines to use from London to Shanghai, does the journey have to have a stop over, Is it always Hong Kong ? What class to travel ? Im sure the airlines differ so much from one to other so maybe something like premium economy on one very good airline is not a million miles from business on another ?
Hotels to recommend in Shanghai, It seems for £100.00 ish per night I am in the 5 star bracket ! ?
Hotels in Wenzhou or Suzhou if by chance anybody has been there ?
My First visits are in Wenzhou and Lishui, I have found the website www.travelchinaguide.com which has a train table guide on it which has been useful.
Not sure what internal flights are like but im a fearful guy so instead of an hour flight to Wenzhou im going to take 4.1/2 hour train, although fully reclining seats in business class look pretty cool.
From Wenzhou I need to go to Suzhou which is about an hour out of Shanghai although can get a train from Wenzhou to Suzhou.
Was wondering if anybody has been to either Wenzhou or Suzhou and can recommend anything.
In addition to all the good advise given last year can anybody comment on :
Airlines to use from London to Shanghai, does the journey have to have a stop over, Is it always Hong Kong ? What class to travel ? Im sure the airlines differ so much from one to other so maybe something like premium economy on one very good airline is not a million miles from business on another ?
Hotels to recommend in Shanghai, It seems for £100.00 ish per night I am in the 5 star bracket ! ?
Hotels in Wenzhou or Suzhou if by chance anybody has been there ?
I used to do London-Shanghai-Suzhou a few times per year
Virgin upper class into Shanghai (although could just about cope premium economy at a push if I had to pay for it myself)
take the fast train from airport into the city
In the city stay at Hilton (my usual chain) and local guide will meet me next day, all transport arranged to Suzhou by car
there are lots of western tech company manufacturing in Suzhou, Shenzhen areas, so they cater for foreigners well in those parts
I still dont like the authentic Chinese food and prefer to eat western whilst im there, even that does not always taste how you think it will
Virgin upper class into Shanghai (although could just about cope premium economy at a push if I had to pay for it myself)
take the fast train from airport into the city
In the city stay at Hilton (my usual chain) and local guide will meet me next day, all transport arranged to Suzhou by car
there are lots of western tech company manufacturing in Suzhou, Shenzhen areas, so they cater for foreigners well in those parts
I still dont like the authentic Chinese food and prefer to eat western whilst im there, even that does not always taste how you think it will
Virgin Upper looks amazing but at over 5K for a return flight OMG ! Hoping some lesser business class providers are lower
sgrimshaw said:
Virgin Upper Class was my preference for London - Shanghai.
Suzhou is nice, the area around Jinji Lake is safe and has lots of good hotels and western style restaurants.
Suzhou is nice, the area around Jinji Lake is safe and has lots of good hotels and western style restaurants.
For direct flights I'd stick with Virgin or BA, Air China is OK but try and avoid China Eastern... And I'd recommend sticking to direct flights, under no circumstances do a stopover in PEK!
bogie said:
I still dont like the authentic Chinese food and prefer to eat western whilst im there, even that does not always taste how you think it will
You're right, KFC tastes better in China Interesting, I noted using a flight checker that lots state stopover in PEK, Whats the problem with that then 
[quote=Shaoxter]For direct flights I'd stick with Virgin or BA, Air China is OK but try and avoid China Eastern... And I'd recommend sticking to direct flights, under no circumstances do a stopover in PEK!
[quote=Shaoxter]For direct flights I'd stick with Virgin or BA, Air China is OK but try and avoid China Eastern... And I'd recommend sticking to direct flights, under no circumstances do a stopover in PEK!
Our lass visits Shanghai every couple of months..
Always Direct from Heathrow, Virgin or BA - BA Business if she can
Hotels?.. She stays at the Puli http://www.thepuli.com/en/ She doesn't like to slum it
But the Westin Bund isn't too shabby http://www.starwoodhotels.com/westin/property/over...
As said before, proper Chinese food isn't to everyones taste, so i'd recommend a visit to the Shanghai Brewery for food & beer or The Brew at The Kerry Hotel
One last thing... If you're out & about and some Chinese girls ask you to take their photo, engage you in conversation & suggest you accompany them to 'An authentic Chinese tea party'....
Let me know what the tea tastes like
Always Direct from Heathrow, Virgin or BA - BA Business if she can
Hotels?.. She stays at the Puli http://www.thepuli.com/en/ She doesn't like to slum it
But the Westin Bund isn't too shabby http://www.starwoodhotels.com/westin/property/over...
As said before, proper Chinese food isn't to everyones taste, so i'd recommend a visit to the Shanghai Brewery for food & beer or The Brew at The Kerry Hotel
One last thing... If you're out & about and some Chinese girls ask you to take their photo, engage you in conversation & suggest you accompany them to 'An authentic Chinese tea party'....
Let me know what the tea tastes like
An often overlooked resource is the support services provided by UK Trade and Investment.
They can provide local support including local chaperones from the British consulate staff in China, within which will be a very large import/export division dedicated to supporting UK businesses. These will be Chinese people but, by virtue of the government training, will be very "British' as well.
I've used this service numerous times (though not in China) and cannot speak high enough of them. Very, very good service. Does cost but worth the investment. Visiting companies accompanied by an Embassy official carries significant cachet as well.
You need to find your local UKTi office and local rep and go from there.
They also offer various grants and the like that can soften the financial pain of a trip.
I always try to plan in at least a day being a tourist when travelling on business. Although you are there to do business, you're in a different country with a different culture, sights and sounds and I see it as a colossal waste of an opportunity if you don't least stick your head in and have a look round while you're there. I've been doing a bit of work in Cairo these past few years and was chatting to another consultant who's been working on the same project recently who mentioned to me that in the three years he'd been going there, he's not once gone to look at the Pyramids, which are 15 minutes from the office and 30 from his hotel. Madness!
They can provide local support including local chaperones from the British consulate staff in China, within which will be a very large import/export division dedicated to supporting UK businesses. These will be Chinese people but, by virtue of the government training, will be very "British' as well.
I've used this service numerous times (though not in China) and cannot speak high enough of them. Very, very good service. Does cost but worth the investment. Visiting companies accompanied by an Embassy official carries significant cachet as well.
You need to find your local UKTi office and local rep and go from there.
They also offer various grants and the like that can soften the financial pain of a trip.
I always try to plan in at least a day being a tourist when travelling on business. Although you are there to do business, you're in a different country with a different culture, sights and sounds and I see it as a colossal waste of an opportunity if you don't least stick your head in and have a look round while you're there. I've been doing a bit of work in Cairo these past few years and was chatting to another consultant who's been working on the same project recently who mentioned to me that in the three years he'd been going there, he's not once gone to look at the Pyramids, which are 15 minutes from the office and 30 from his hotel. Madness!
Shaoxter said:
You have to clear Chinese immigration before boarding the domestic leg. Queues are always mahoosive, they have about 20 booths for Chinese citizens and 5 for everyone else.
Not my experience flying in to Beijing with BA. They have smaller immigration areas near each group of gates so it's busy-ish while the flight unloads but if you're off first or last it doesn't matter too much. Once the locals have been processed the foreigners are always asked to join the other queues anyway.I always found it a lot quicker than HK (which is far from slow unless you're crossing in to SZ on a Saturday morning).
I get out to China maybe once a year, it's an interesting place to visit and not at all what I expected. I really enjoy the food, though the Italian restaurant that my hosts took me to in Shanghai wasn't great, and you do have to be selective with the menu... I work on the basis that if I don't recognise it I don't eat it, and if I do recognise it I often won't eat it either. The cheapest beer I bought cost 25p a pint, the most expensive cost £7, parts of Shanghai aren't cheap.
The train network is really good (especially the Maglev from Pudong airport) better than flying internally imo, but the roads are a nightmare. I had a driver for my last visit but it was more scary than sitting in the passenger seat when my 17 year old learner daughter is driving, he actually drove the wrong way down a dual carriageway! Overtaking on the hard shoulder is normal, and I saw someone changing a wheel in the middle lane of a motorway, madness. If you do use the trains them make sure you keep your passport with you, security at train stations is a bit like that at airports in the UK, luggage is x rayed, there are metal detectors, and you have to show ID, a passport for visitors or identity card for the locals.
If you travel around Europe a lot you get used to everyone being able to speak English, this isn't the case in China. Many of the factories that I've visited have no English speakers on site, neither do many train stations or hotels. I route a lot of purchases through one particular supplier and in return he acts as a Mr Fixit for me, so I get allocated a translator to travel with me, it very much helps.
I always get a direct flight but am to mean to pay for business class, though I can see why some would (especially if their employer is paying), it took me over 24 hours door to door to get home recently, mostly due to bad weather in China. I booked with a Chinese airline but the flight was operated by Virgin, and the plane was a very nice Dreamliner, so don't rule out a cheaper flight without checking who's operating it.
It's definitely worth visiting suppliers in China, if you get a good one you can save a lot of money compared to European alternatives, but there's a lot of poor quality suppliers out there so it's always worth checking.
The train network is really good (especially the Maglev from Pudong airport) better than flying internally imo, but the roads are a nightmare. I had a driver for my last visit but it was more scary than sitting in the passenger seat when my 17 year old learner daughter is driving, he actually drove the wrong way down a dual carriageway! Overtaking on the hard shoulder is normal, and I saw someone changing a wheel in the middle lane of a motorway, madness. If you do use the trains them make sure you keep your passport with you, security at train stations is a bit like that at airports in the UK, luggage is x rayed, there are metal detectors, and you have to show ID, a passport for visitors or identity card for the locals.
If you travel around Europe a lot you get used to everyone being able to speak English, this isn't the case in China. Many of the factories that I've visited have no English speakers on site, neither do many train stations or hotels. I route a lot of purchases through one particular supplier and in return he acts as a Mr Fixit for me, so I get allocated a translator to travel with me, it very much helps.
I always get a direct flight but am to mean to pay for business class, though I can see why some would (especially if their employer is paying), it took me over 24 hours door to door to get home recently, mostly due to bad weather in China. I booked with a Chinese airline but the flight was operated by Virgin, and the plane was a very nice Dreamliner, so don't rule out a cheaper flight without checking who's operating it.
It's definitely worth visiting suppliers in China, if you get a good one you can save a lot of money compared to European alternatives, but there's a lot of poor quality suppliers out there so it's always worth checking.
The driving's not so bad once you get used to it, there's just different skills involved.
Actually, the rules are broadly similar to ours and the penalties not far off too, it's just nobody takes any notice at all if they're middle class (which if they're driving a car, is pretty much everybody).
If you're being driven, just get in the car, shut your eyes and hang on.
You do much the same in the driving seat.
Actually, the rules are broadly similar to ours and the penalties not far off too, it's just nobody takes any notice at all if they're middle class (which if they're driving a car, is pretty much everybody).
If you're being driven, just get in the car, shut your eyes and hang on.
You do much the same in the driving seat.
Gassing Station | Business | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff