Travel China and Beyond

Travel to Fenghua, Zhejiang Province — Off the beaten track

Most visitors to China spend certain amount of time in Zhejiang Province, but that is usually in the city of Hangzhou - a beautiful place famous for both its natural scenery as well as tea plantations.  If you want to get to a less travelled location after visiting Hangzhou, you could head to Fenghua located near Ningbo city (south of Hangzhou).
Fenghua is the hometown of Chiang Kai-Shek, a Chinese figure who has influenced China and Taiwan’s history to a large extent (Chiang Kai-Shek fled with Kuomintang troops to Taiwan in 1949)

Fenghua is famous for both natural scenery as well as great fruit, yellow-fin tuna (from the Eastern Sea), tea — yes there are tea plantations in the hills around the city.

The notable sites around Fenghua are Xikou Xuedou Hill (northwest of Ningbo city) together with the ancient town of Xikou (here you can find Chiang Kai-Shek’s house and the tomb of his mother — apparently a tunnel 668 meters long) Xuedou Temple located on Xuedou Hill, is one of the famous Buddhist temples in China.  The temple (rebuilt in the late 1980s / early 1990s) has also a Sheng School (associated with Chan Buddhism). 
Near by is also the Tingxia lake — a man-made lake on the Shanxi River (south of Xuedou Hill) - which offers some good opportunity for relaxing away from large crowds.

Overall a visit to Fenghua will give you the chance to see some old Chinese towns and architecture and step away from the rapid development in the big cities of China.

Air Travel in China

Over the past 2 weeks I had the interesting experience of having a bunch of flights between Shenzhen, Shanghai and Beijing.  The reason I call them interesting is that I heard again the strange explanation of why flights get delayed.  Over the years of living and working in China I saw the country’s air travel network being stressed more and more.  At the same time I also saw the masterful capability by the various airlines (Air China, Eastern, Southern….) not to answer your question when flights get messed up.

There are many ways to let the passengers know that they will not get on time to their destination, but the “best” one I hear all the time in China is “We regret to inform you that the flight is delayed due to aircraft delay”

Does this statement really provide any information?  No, it just tells you “the flight is delayed” Why is it delayed?  No plane… Duh…But why is the plane not on time? Well that is a whole different question isnt’t and no, we will not tell you why

So, that is about it.  Don’t worry when you travel — you flight could be delayed, and you will not know why, but on the other hand, does it matter ?  You just sit back and relax.

Oh, and by the way, my flight from Hangzhou to Beijing earlier today left about 10 minutes ahead of schedule.  You better not be late for your flight

Over the past 2 weeks I had the interesting experience of having a bunch of flights between Shenzhen, Shanghai and Beijing.  The reason I call them interesting is that I heard again the strange explanation of why flights get delayed.  Over the years of living and working in China I saw the country’s air travel network being stressed more and more.  At the same time I also saw the masterful capability by the various airlines (Air China, Eastern, Southern….) not to answer your question when flights get messed up.

There are many ways to let the passengers know that they will not get on time to their destination, but the “best” one I hear all the time in China is “We regret to inform you that the flight is delayed due to aircraft delay”

Does this statement really provide any information?  No, it just tells you “the flight is delayed” Why is it delayed?  No plane… Duh…But why is the plane not on time? Well that is a whole different question isnt’t and no, we will not tell you why

So, that is about it.  Don’t worry when you travel — you flight could be delayed, and you will not know why, but on the other hand, does it matter ?  You just sit back and relax.

Oh, and by the way, my flight from Hangzhou to Beijing earlier today left about 10 minutes ahead of schedule.  You better not be late for your flight

Travel to Hangzhou - sites, shopping, places to see

I have travelled to Hangzhou on numerous occasions over the past 19 years.  My first trip there was in 1988 (while I was a student in Shanghai).  Friends of mine were studying in the Hangzhou Fine Arts Institute.  At that time the city was a very nice escape from the overcrowding and smog of Shanghai.  Plus you could not miss the beautiful hills and tea growing areas.

Over the years Hangzhou has changed as the rest of China.  It has grown and become modernized.

The famous sites remain pretty much the same though:

•  The West Lake — with many scenic pagodas and temples as well as the natural beauty of the surrounding hills  (I used to love the beer made in Hangzhou with the same name XiHu PiJiu)
• The Buddhist carvings at the Feilai Feng Caves
• Multiple Tea plantations

If you like Tea, Hangzhou is the place to enjoy fresh picked tea — the famous Long Jing (Dragon Well) variety of green tea.

In the early Spring (April timeframe) you can visit some of the small restaurants on the outskirts of Hangzhou in the hills and both have very nice dinner or lunch as well as enjoy some very aromatic tea and also see and smell the freshly picked tea.

At that time of the year you will find tea leaves drying in woven baskets everywhere infront of the houses in the hills.

Shopping related:
Tea -  You can also purchase the fresh green tea at a very reasonable prices — read Cheap…

 The famous Long Jing teas are:
  XiHu Long Jing
  Lion Xi Hu Long Jing
  Emperor Long Jing  / Emperor Lung Ching
Silk Umbrellas
  Hangzhou silk and Zhejiang Bamboo
  Hangzhou is also famous for silk — the other famous silk city in China is Suzhou.

Shopping street:
   Hubin street (near Hyatt)
   Qing Hefang Street   
   XuHu TianDi — a bar and restaurant / tea house street.  Does this remind you of the name sake in Shanghai ?
Some Museum sites:

• The China Tea Museum located in Shuangfeng, Longjing Road ,Hangzhou
• China Silk Museum (on bus number 38) - located at the bottom of YuHuang Hill near the West Lake.
• West Lake Museum — a nice place to relax and enjoy the scenery — located near XiHu Tiandi

Other places to visit:
  Chenghuang Temple
  Leifeng pagoda
  Dragon Well Village
  Su Causeway
  JingCi Temple
  Yue Temple

With regards to places to stay, here are some options:

• If you would like to be located at a really nice spot - near the West lake — essentially across the street from the paths around the lake — you should consider the Shangri-La hotel; Rates are around RMB1100
• The Radisson Plaza Hotel — also a nice one. Rates are in the range of RMB1000
• Hangzhou International Holiday Inn — you can get a nice room for about RMB600

In terms of getting to the city, you probably should consider travel via train to Shanghai. The train ride is very comfortable and relatively fast (make sure you get on an express train).  Otherwise if you are travelling by plane keep in mind that the airport is a good distance away from town and a taxi ride to the airport will run you around RMB120.

I have heard also about a new service of Air China.  If you are traveling via Air China and you need to get from Hangzhou to Pudong Int’l Airport you can use the Free Shuttle.  The bus leaves from Hangzhou Tourist Center and goes to Shanghai Pudong International Airport.

Well, this is a quick summary.  Enjoy your trip!

Driving in China

Well, last year I wrote several postings on driving in Beijing, and taking road trips outside of the city.  Driving yourself certainly gives you the ability to see more and experience sites and people that you might not otherwise so it is something to consider.  However, I also underlined that driving in China could be rather challenging for the fact that many drivers are really inexperienced and do not give much thought to road regulations.  It is not unlikely to see drivers that are taking the access road of a highway BUT driving in the opposite direction of a one way road (which most access roads are).  Or seeing a driver backing on an exit ramp because he/she took the wrong exit from a highway so rather than taking the exit completely and getting back on the highway again later down the street, they put in reverse and drive back onto the highway…..(Believe me I have been in a car where the driver did JUST that - it was very scary…)

So having driven a car in China for a year (after getting a local drivers license via Fesco - you can see my post on how to do that on this blog), I was glad to see an article in Chinanews.cn that the Ministry of Public Safety is putting in place much stricter rules / exams for granting drivers licenses.  The new focus will be on “safety awareness” (per the Ministry) — i.e. road behaviour — instill in drivers the need for “road etiquette”….

I cannot wait for this to happen this will be a great goal and will bring huge improvement as long as the plan gets implemented.