Anyone been to China? (easy, western, eastern, visit)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Oh yeah also if you need to ask for help from locals, look for someone young (under 40) that is working somewhere involving customer service. 7-11, a bank, a coffee shop, etc.
That generation will have learned some English in school, and while they might not speak it well or even be willing to try your odds are a lot better than asking middle aged or older. People dealing with communicating with strangers every day are also more likely to be willing to try communicating/helping. Obviously a general guideline, some younger are no use and some older turn out to speak English well and be helpful, but I think overall good plan.
Bottom line = as someone else pointed out if you're on a tour you really don't have much to worry about. Everywhere you eat will probably be able to provide forks because they are restaurants the tours use regularly with boatloads of westerners. Location is what you make of it, someone seeing a location as not good because not near western restaurants or touristy things while another might see a great chance to get out and stroll around in an area with more local flavor.
The cruises on the Yangtze usually all have stops among the usual places Chongqing/Lichuan/Yichang/Wuhan, I'd suggest if your group has a stop to do something cheesey one day like visit a school why don't you instead opt out and go exploring on your own. Have your tour leader write down the location of the boat in Chinese, as long as you don't go too far anyone should be able to direct you back if you get lost.
September can be lovely weather in Beijing (October even better) while the more southern areas will be a bit hot. Forget people saying you won't see the sun in big cities, bring sun screen you'' probably need it at some point.
My wife and I travel to China often, I speak Chinese, I'm posting this from China, and will be here for at least another two months, any questions/concerns feel free to ask.
Good luck, have fun!
Thank you so much Lieqiang. We board the cruise in Chongqing and apart from taking a smaller boat at Wuhan for a side trip, plus a visit to the Pagoda in Shibaozhai, most of the cruise focuses on the various gorges along the river. But I do like your idea of having the tour guide write out the name of the boat in Chinese and in fact I will ask him/her to also write our locations as we do like to do what the tourists aren't doing and could very likely get lost!
Bonus fun if you do your own thing at one of the smaller stops is you might be a celebrity. Off the beaten path in that area you still sometimes get people wanting to take pictures with round-eye, or school kids approaching to say "hello" then when you say it back they get all excited.
Location: Was Midvalley Oregon; Now Eastside Seattle area
13,053 posts, read 7,485,436 times
Reputation: 9782
In US, I always carry a set of plastic fork and spoon and a sharp knife. Also disposable chopsticks.
Plan to do the same in China but will probably bring longer chopsticks that we use at home.
Hate those plastic chopsticks and the number of trees used annually for disposable chopsticks is appalling. BYOC and save a tree,
Going to be looking for streetfood and stinky tofu.
How many, Caucasians on these cruise tours?
What cruise line are you going on and what is points of embarkation and disembarkation? I took a cruise from Singapore to Hong Kong and it seemed half "western" (mostly americans and aussies) and half eastern (Mix of SEA nationalities, maybe some Chinese).
From what I heard, you do NOT want a cruise with only Chinese. If you know how Chinese tourists act you will know why.
What cruise line are you going on and what is points of embarkation and disembarkation? I took a cruise from Singapore to Hong Kong and it seemed half "western" (mostly americans and aussies) and half eastern (Mix of SEA nationalities, maybe some Chinese).
From what I heard, you do NOT want a cruise with only Chinese. If you know how Chinese tourists act you will know why.
On Yangtze River Cruise, almost all the passengers are foreigners.
Location: Was Midvalley Oregon; Now Eastside Seattle area
13,053 posts, read 7,485,436 times
Reputation: 9782
I guess, we will have to follow our nose.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
In US, I always carry a set of plastic fork and spoon and a sharp knife. Also disposable chopsticks. 
