Reply #8: I was just there 7 months ago...long post. [View All]

[NewJeffCT]

I'll probably go again next year, if not sooner. In every city we went to, most street signs are in English & Chinese. If you call a major hotel, they will likely first answer in English, then in Chinese. Be prepared for restaurants that have hundreds of tables seating thousands of people. The people are almost always polite & helpful.

When you're in Beijing, make sure you see the Forbidden City, and since Tianenmen Square is right outside the Forbidden City, you can knock that off right afterwards. The Temple of Heaven & the Summer Palace are good, if you have time. The "Lonely Planet" guide recommends buying an English language tape when you get in there, and the tape will guide you on a walking tour. We did not do that - we went with a tour group.

The Great Wall can be an all-day trip. Make sure you wear comfortable walking shoes. And, if you go between mid-May and mid-September, bring light clothes as it can get very humid - it was around 80 and partly cloudy the day we went and I was dripping sweat after the first flight. I also think JRR Tolkien got his inspiration for the stairs of Cirith Ungol from the Great Wall - some of the stairs are very steep & somewhat treacherous.

I actually liked Nanjing a lot, too. The Ming City Wall dwarfs the Great Wall in actual size, but is only 30 miles or so long, instead of thousands of miles like the Great Wall. Make sure you also visit the Nanjing Massacre Memorial & the Tomb of Sun Yat-Sen, the Father of modern China. Fuzi Miao is like a gigantic flea market where you can buy all sorts of cheap stuff for your relatives & friends back home.

Shanghai is just a huge, huge modern city. There are fewer sights than Beijing, though the Bund is really cool, especially at night - it was built in the 20s & 30s and the architecture is a great example of the period and is also well maintained. I think it's the Jing Mao tower that is like a bigger & more modern Empire State Building.

Next time, I definitely want to go to Hong Kong, and hope to get to Xi'An (terra cotta warriors) and I forget the other places.

Also - tap water is not potable in China. Buy bottled water as you go, or else boil some in your hotel room (they provide a teapot in every hotel room to do just that.) This is not a Montezuma's Revenge thing where the locals can drink the water - the locals boil the water, too!