How to get to the Great Wall.

10.10.2020

"What do you want to go alone in China, without a group of tourists?" The Khabarovsk Travel agency worker looked at me with undisguised horror. "- You will be lost there, if only because you do not know the language!" "I assure you, everything will be fine, just help me make a visa!" - I insisted.

The desire to see the imminent thing was so strong that the instinct of self-preservation was stuck, and the inner voice persuaded to fly, because "there is so much interesting!" At the same time, I wanted to move around the country alone, without a standard-tourist "look left, see right." It turned out that it was not at all difficult. Moreover, in my opinion, this is the most correct way to see the country in all its diversity. Of course, it would be not bad to have acquaintances in China - so automatically solved the most difficult question - with the language. In addition, the knowledge of the local flavor and the Tips of Insiders can significantly reduce not only your transport costs, but also insure money from money losses, and in some cases save your stomach.

To the language barrier!

Before the trip, it is necessary to make aware that in China everyone speaks only in Chinese. English is used very little, mainly in large cities - Beijing, Shanghai or Hong Kong. At first, of course, it is difficult to get used to: all signs, ads, schedules and menus consist of hieroglyphs that are rarely duplicated in English. At first I was saved by a phrasebook, in which there was not only the transcription of Chinese words, but also writing them. After long training, I, of course, learned to correctly pronounce the basic expressions of the "Hello" and "how much", but for myself I was understanding that more complex phrases are better to show with a finger in a book. The fact is that the adverbs in Chinese so much that the Chinese from the north will not understand Southerner, and vice versa. For example, the "forty-four" in Northern will be "Si Si", and the residents of the South say "si si" - approximately as "Schork Sachet". Official is considered to be the language of Putunhua - translated "Common Language". To teach their citizens to speak the same, the government is making a lot of effort. Include some radio, and there instead of music all the way only conversations on Putunhua.

Where and how to go

South China is good at any time of the year. In the winter, it is better not to ride in the winter - the weather is practically no different from our Mediumness. When choosing a route, you need to take into account your financial capabilities and the duration of the visa. For those who want to start a journey from Beijing, it makes sense to take a ticket for a direct flight (about five hundred fifty dollars in both ends), and from there you can already move around the country by train. If you are limited in time, then you can fly from the city to the city and on airplanes - good, in China they are available at a price. About the railway message will tell more. Tickets for any direction can only be bought in the bail office. The only problem is to explain what a ticket and where you need. Moreover, this is preferably in Chinese, as even if there is a window with a table "Foreigners" ("foreigners") - not yet the fact that the Cassiere girl speaks English.

You need to come to the station for 20-30 minutes before the train is being deposited - you will relatively calmly pass control. The train will go on a minute in a minute, and you should get to the "tube" from those who want to go along with you the Chinese - writing gone.

There are several classes of Chinese cars:

Cams cheap - without places. In them, passengers stand or lie on the floor - on the newspapers, on which it fell; Cident. It is better not to risk if you go far, and the spin is fiercely; Hard-slippers resembling our departors, only shelves in three tiers, the bed is already shining, and there are no side seats; Coupe, which looks like Russian, only cars are much cleaner, beds with Ryushkami, on the floor carpet tracks. Each train has a restaurant car - after all, the Chinese are constantly eating something. In all trains, the washbasins are located in front of the toilet, and, thus, the morning turn to the closet is rare phenomenon. But you can, for example, enjoy the spectacle of the morning washing of a plug-in jaw, which the unfamiliar Chinese grandmother does with a special care.

I was driving from Beijing to Jinan in Hard Slipper (about 6 hours), and I cost me 73 yuan - about 200 rubles in our money. The price of a ticket from Beijing to Shanghai (night on the road) - 250 yuan, that is, about 685 rubles. Inexpensive, but I, for example, it was difficult to get used to Chinese trains. Basically, due to the fact that the passengers are constantly smoking, eat "Dashirak" noodles, talk loudly and without constraints - and men, and women are walking along the car in the pants.

Where to live and what to take with you

A breakfast room in a four-star hotel in the center of Harbin cost me 300 yuan a day (eight hundred and twenty rubles). The hotel was not bad, but some Chinese lived in it, and the staff did not understand the words in English. Attempts to ask where they have a gym, looked like helpless melting with hands - with the goal of gestures show the "simulator", and requests to wake up at a certain time caused confusion from the receptionist.

Hostels - youth hostels can become a more economical accommodation for young people. One bed in a double room at International Youth Hostel, which is right at the Central Station in Beijing, can do in 70 yuan (200 rubles) per day. All you need for life, there is: a shower, a 24-hour bar and an Internet cafe. By the way, you can save even more if you settle in Dorma - a room with 3-12 beds and amenities in the corridor. Depending on the city, such a housing is 20-60 yuan (55-175 rubles) per night.

To this standard setting of the search funds, I will add another one - Toutes - option to stay in a private apartment. People offering "cheap apartments in the center of Beijing" are interpreted at the stations and request completely small money. I did not try myself, but the knowledgeable travelers assure that they should not be afraid - here, in contrast, for example, from India, there is no danger that there will be some problems with these apartments.

On a trip, I advise you to take a comfortable backpack, good sports shoes - for long walking walks, a thermos (boiling water is available everywhere and free of charge) and more some small souvenirs such as Matryoshek - Chinese love to receive gifts and may even somehow help you help inappraight.

What in China watch

Of all the cities, the most impression produces, of course, Beijing. Or, as foreigners are called, Baidzin. After I visited him, it was easy to understand Quentin Tarantino, which came here to shoot my film "Kill Bill", and I could not leave. I bought apartments in Beijing and, by rumors, over time plans to completely move to the Middle Kingdom. The city shook me with his monumentality. I expected to see the crowds carrying somewhere Chinese with crazy eyes, thrust on the streets, traffic jams. But nothing was it. The human flow moved smoothly and without hysterical louds, as in Moscow.

In the architecture, two main directions are connected here: East and West. The first is represented by pagodes, with easily recognizable, bent up the roofs and mandatory dragons as an element of design. The second is the skyscrapers that the space is not blocked at all.

All those who first come to Beijing are starting to inspect the city with the famous Tiananiman - Square of Heavenly Calm. She is the biggest in the world, accommodates one million people! It is always crowded - not only because of foreign tourists, but also because of the Chinese, residents of distant provinces that come to be able to take pictures from Mausoleum Mao Zedong. And adults, and children on the square are launched by air coils. Immediately you can buy your snake - in the form of shark, butterflies or other messengers.

On the square, I noticed a little child - about 3 years old, from which there was a hole in the pants and a naked ass was blown away by the wind. I, it was, thought that this is notading parents. But then I saw several more kids with the same strange Crowe of the pants. It turned out that the economical Chinese do not like to spend money on diapers. I wanted a child to the toilet, sat down - and ready!

In the mornings, at six hours, the Chinese overlook the square and are engaged in a group Taijitzian - a melancholic charge, the meaning of which consists in sluggish passes with hands and cautious stirs from side to side.

Not far from Mausoleum Mao is the entrance to the Forbidden City - a huge complex of palace buildings, where the great emperors of the Qing dynasties and mines lived. Hundreds of pagodas, thousands of courtyards - the spectacle is striking with its scale. Previously, simple mortal was forbidden to go here, and now it is possible - in just 10 yuan (27 rubles).

Coming out of the Forbidden City, you get to the wonderful park of Beihai (the North Sea Park), where the venance of the person rested, indulging, apparently, thoughts about the fatherland. What to say - the Chinese know a lot in landscape architecture. Half Square occupies a lake around which the crazy beauty is growing. This park adore in love couples and calligraphists. The first is because it is allowed to kill calmly on benches, the second - because you can draw hieroglyphs with water right on the asphalt.

From the park you can walk to the famous Sky Temple. This is now China, probably, the most unbelieving country in the world (ninety-five percent of atheists). And before they believed in the sky and other deities. The road to the temple is already a test. Approximately half an hour should be followed by a narrow stone path. It was very requested when I was chipping and hoarse, at the last stage of the rise overtook a sudden Chinese old woman, which overcame the path easily and easily.

On the territory of the temple there is a wall of a whisper. She is a semicircular shape, and it allows you to hear the interlocutor, even if he stands in a hundred meters from you and will burst something under his breath. The Chinese love to have fun, standing at the wall in the distance from each other and talking.

Less discovery was waiting for me in Shanghai. Maybe because it is very modern, and maybe, because I stayed there for long. As soon as this city was not called at different times: and the "Paris of the East", and the "Chinese Bludnica" ... This is a city of adventurers, players, sailors, traders in opium and opium drug addicts, the city of children's prostitution and slavish child labor, the city of socialists, communists and revolutionaries , the birthplace of the Chinese Communist Party, the cradle of the revolution and the birthplace of the Shanghai commune. It lives 6.5 million people - settlement density is one of the highest in the world. There is a huge number of skyscrapers. And they, in contrast to Peking, pressure. Fashionable buildings are easily adjacent to the old buildings, from which the ropes are drawn with the liner-strung on them. It is not at all tolerant to post all the heads of old lines and coordinates.

In the city center - a wide asphalted space of the People's Square. Here we arranged processions and demonstrations. In 1969, 2.5 million people gathered on the square for a protest rally against the Soviet Union. And now the walking peacefully feed pigeons.

On the streets you can see both young Yappets and informals. During the walk, it was challenged to meet real Chinese punks. They had a very tracked look, despite the traditional Hedgehog Haiter, jackets with spikes, grinders and guitars behind the backs. Ourselves are skinny and neglected. When they tried to play something from "Sex Pistols" in front of the department store, I wanted to approach and feed them with a hot lunch.

Walking in Shanghai is just necessary. Better - on Nanjing Lou, the main street. Bright showcases, everywhere neon advertising. And shops, shops, shops. Nanjing Lu leads to the Huangpu River Embankment. Once in colonial times here at the entrance hung the famous sign: "Dogs and the Chinese entry is prohibited." Today, the crowds of Chinese and foreigners who are admorable by the view of the night gang are roaming here.

Dumpy eggs and duck skins

About Chinese often joke that they consume everything that flies other than aircraft, everything that moves on land, except for the tractor, and everything that floats in water, except for a submarine.

Chinese cooks confess the principles of culinary art, which have developed another five thousand years ago. They love unexpected combinations of products: meat with sugar and fruit, algae - with nuts, flower petals - with burning peppers, heels - with spices. In order to cook broth, for example, can take both beef, bird and fish simultaneously.

In China, there are about 14 culinary schools, the most famous of which are Shandong, Sichuan, Jiangsu-Zhejiang, Peking and Guangdong. The latter is the most "extreme". It uses snakes, wild mice, wild cats, dogs, sea seals, crocodiles, bear paws, monkey brains, bird languages. Technology of some dishes are just a rat. When cooking dishes "Fried carp from Lake Cunming" scraping scales, cutting, roasting and serving are only four minutes. When the fish is fed on the table, it still opens the mouth, and the gills move for thirty minutes. This agony continues even when the fish is eaten before the bones. The secret of such a survivability is that the head of fish is not frying and the central nervous system is preserved. In general, Greenpeace rests.

"Queen of the Chinese table" - Duck in Peking. Instead of a duck, though you bring duck skins, which tourists are very surprised. But if you come to a fish restaurant, it's hard to be mistaken here: everything floats in the aquariums. Come on, choose - and ten minutes you are already carrying a dish. True, it was difficult for me to accept the fact that the chosen fish in my eyes is killed by a shoe, which is why its insides will fly away throughout the restaurant.

Even the Chinese adore rotten duck eggs. To cook such an egg, it needs to hold it in lime 30 days! Yolk has black and insensitive taste. Protein - as if rubber, almost transparent.

In the mid-level restaurant and below the Chinese "mid-level and below" behave perfectly from a European point of view, swine: blow the root and spit directly to the floor, they throw off the napkins, bones and smoke, yell on the entire room, especially when Let's drink By the way, they are expectorated on the streets - loud, wiping her nose and mouth with hand. Even women.

The Chinese love to put each other in a plate of food. And when they bring an account, there is a serious argument between them: who will pay. Everyone strives to do it for everyone to prove its privileged position. Our compatriots are happy to go with the Chinese on restaurants ...

Monitoring behavior

The Chinese are very shrieking people. Their gentle voices are the only one in its kind. Once in the United States occurred an anecdotic case. Two people from the province of Guangdong led a peaceful conversation, but the Americans passed by the people thought that they were about to divide, and called the police. The police demanded clarification, but two interlocutors answered that they spoke "whisper".

Why do they scream? Chinese believes that the stronger and above his voice, the more convincing is his arguments.

In a country with a population without a small 1.3 billion people in sports regularly engaged in more than a quarter of the population. Mass physical education covers all educational institutions, enterprises and institutions, villages, divisions of the People's Liberation Army of China, old men and disabled. Chinese habit of making group charging is known for the whole world. And they make it at different times of the day. Many are engaged in groups and music, but there are individuals. There are fittings with sticks. They wack them on the manner of Shaolin monks right on the streets.

Very often you can see people going back in advance. Probably, this is an exercise for the development of the vestibular apparatus. Each city has courtyards equipped with sheeping shells available for each willing, and for free. The old mans like the foot on the tall railing, and sometimes sit on the twine. And since millions of Chinese are driving daily pedals of bicycles on the way to work and back, they have pumped legs.

Against the background of the cooking hobby, the Chinese smoke a lot and drink. Vodka and cigarettes are sold everywhere, although their quality is terrible. China 320 million smokers, of which are twenty million women. Hence the large number of "nicotine deaths". But no one indulges a detrimental habit on the streets - the Chinese prefer to do this in a relaxed atmosphere: in a restaurant or bar.

In general, I am pleased with my journey. Maybe I saw this country not from the most romantic-glossy side, but, in any case, impressions and memories the trip left the lot.

Yes. I agree with the previous comment that Beijing flashes in front of Shanghai and Hong Kong long ago, and reminds Moscow for 80 years, where the author saw so much unusual, it is not clear, for me, Beijing is always the opposite, only the transshipment base is much more interesting, other Chinese cities, in this case I do not have In view of cultural monuments, koi in Beijing a lot.
25.07.11 Natalia.

indeed, the comment is very deployed. But it seems that the author visited China 10 years ago (a description of Shanghai - exactly 10 years ago, the spirit of communism is not twisted there, definitely). Although it is possible if ride around the country in a second-class car, it also will not seem.
05.06.10 Olga

Good day, thank you so much for such a detailed comment, because I myself plan to go without a guide and it was important for me to understand how much it was possible and your feedback was more than deciding in favor of a trip without a guide, thanks again!
01.03.10 Yana

They drove the Chinese, lost eggs. Girls thought - Raspberry, bit off half (folk chastushka)

Moscow region electric train Yaroslavl direction. Seli. One brow has a window. Noses in phones, headphones, respectively, in the ears. Everything as usual. Now the full carriage of us - the heads, working in the capital of the country-Hero city in Moscow. Somehow suddenly the train jerked and slowly, squinting and swaying on the arrows, began movement to the area. I look around: the people are surprising a little, sit, sleepily looking around, and, habitually encountering eyes with fellow travelers, do not even dismiss eyes, but just look through; So watch all the inhabitants of big cities on themselves like. Apparently, for this indifferent look and does not like Muscovites all the rest of our immense homeland, even without giving himself a report, for which. Well, what to do, forcibly mil victims will not ... But we love you, really love, right with all my heart. We have such an adaptive reaction to a forced daily dealers in countless human mass. Survive how we can do not blame.

So, we are familiar to home, so that tomorrow morning in the same train, pushing and kneading, look at each other "Through" ... drive up to the "Moscow 3" platform. And here my attention is attracted by a group of passengers, compactly, but with a huge baggage from the checkered "shuttle" bags located in one of the six-bed "coupe." The guys are not our asians, GalDyat is somehow anxious, in the window fingers are twisted, phrases intonationally questional, although, maybe on "their" language "and not questioning at all, but affirmative or even imperative. I look after them and even listen somewhere. And the guys are increasingly excited, they begin to sprinkle with helplessly, looking for a retaliatory look. "Help Mi, pliz!" I read in their rickened eyes the only foreign phrase familiar to me. I get up, I fell closer, loud and with an emphasis, so that it was clear, I ask that, they say, it happened how to help? In Russian, the stump is clear, I ask. Since other languages \u200b\u200bdo not speak. And with their nationality, not everything is clear. Would it be clear that the sense? There is one of my visa, the most hooked, I became a paper to poke into my nose. Watching paper in Russian. Well, thank God! Tickets! Beijing! Yes, and this, Bashkin, burst something like "Xiao, Liao, we are Chinese, Xiao, Liao, we are Beijing." And the gestures will ask: why Beijing, they say, now it became completely different? Illumination has come over! This, it became, a team of Chinese migrant workers or how there are there, worked out their change on the sewing "branded" clips of local spill somewhere in the near Moscow region, returns to their homeland, judging by the ticket, to Beijing. I, by and large, with great respect I treat the Eastern mentality, but these guys, the campaign, bad people scored somewhere in the deaf villages of the Middle Kingdom, Looking at Nemeless money for work in Russia, but, having stuck on their gullibility and cheap labor, planted At the train to Moscow and join the Moscow-Beijing tickets, not bothering to explain that in Moscow it is necessary to transfer long-distance train. The train, driving up to Moscow, was moving by short fers, stopping at each pillar, then by standing for a few minutes at the Yaroslavl railway station, went back to the region, Toli in Alexandrov, Toli to Zagorsk, or rather - in Sergiev Posad. I am alone fucking, past my native Mytishchi for anyone will not slip, but I can't get to the house on this Shaitan-Arbe. But they did not know that! Well, they did not tell them the benefactors-employers about the transplant, forgot, their mother is so ... I look at the tickets, then on the clock, it turns out that until the departure of their train remains 20 minutes. The train left the electric train. The doors opened, and opposite the oncoming, too, with open doors. We grab the checkered bags and tast of the exit, throwing out onto the platform. Kitaesam shout: "Quickly go there, Kuli!". Language barrier collapsed himself. The boys who smirded in the Tambour of the counter train quickly realized what was keen on the "stop-crane", which, by the way, at all, not "stop", but blocks the closure of the doors, and began to drag numerous bags along with numerous Chinese in their car . Screaming to them in the same time, so that the "checkered" planted on Yaroslavka and spent the first ways, from where the trains go to the Far East. But, I probably, no one hears, our and their doors closed and trains went to their side.

I am going home in Mytishchi. Northeast. The Chinese are also going home, but in the other direction, to the southwest, although China is in the East, even much east of the sootching ... Paradox, however ... I will come home and look at the geographical atlas, I must dust somewhere on the shelf. In the meantime, you can minutes forty, clinging to the forehead to the rattling glass, to rise. Yes, not, all by way, all the rules ... Earth is round ... I hope, the Chinese will have time for their train. Then to Beijing in a week, another will get ... Probably ...

In the early 2000s, China's citizens committed only 10.5 million travels. By 2017, the number of such travel increased to 145 million - on incredible 1,380%!

In less than 20 years, China's international tourism market has achieved the highest positions in the world, ahead of even the United States. According to the World Tourism Organization, for 2016, Chinese tourists spent $ 261.1 billion in other countries; In 2000, this amount was about 10 billion dollars. According to preliminary data, in 2017 their spending amounted to about 300 billion dollars. The American tourists in 2016 spent relatively small 123.6 billion dollars.

It is noteworthy that only 7% of the Chinese are actively traveled - 99 million people. For comparison: the proportion of such citizens among the US population is 40%, and in the UK - 76%. Thus, the potential for the growth of the tourist market of China at a population of 1.4 billion amazes. In China, it predicts that by 2030 there will be more than 400 million Chinese.

According to the Institute, this means that of 600 million travels, which by 2030 will be added to current quantities (now 1.2 billion people travel, after 12 years their number will grow to 1.8 billion) almost half will perform the Chinese. The Chinese international tourism market will be almost a quarter of the world.

It is not surprising that already now tourist departments of various countries try to attract the growing army of Chinese tourists. For example, the advertising campaign site Visit Britain started back in 2014. Tour operators, hotels and landmarks have obliged to provide information on Cantonese or Mandarin dialects, as well as adapt products to the Chinese market and culture.

Where do Chinese tourists go?

The number of 145 million foreign trips may be misleading: during estimates, special administrative regions of China - Hong Kong and Macau, as well as Taiwan Island, which the state considers its territory. In 2017, these regions visited 69.5 million tourists.

Domestic tourism is also very popular among the Chinese. Mass of tourists rides in Beijing and Shanghai. Because of the influx of guests on weekends, there are even overlapped the movement of cars on the main streets. According to the expert Telegraph Travel Sally Pekk, who in the past lived in China, are also popular areas related to the newest history of the country. For example, many attend the "Three Gorges" dam in the poor industrial region of China. Young tourists who are looking for acute sensations, go to the Mountain Province Yunnan, which borders on Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam and is one of the most ethnically diverse regions of China.

The Great Wall Sometimes looks like that

Other Asian countries also benefit from tourism growth among Chinese. The top ten most popular areas include Thailand, Japan, Vietnam, South Korea and Singapore. Circuit US rating and Italy.

Growth of the tourist industry in Thailand

1990 - 5.3 million tourists annually
1995 - 7 million tourists annually
1998 - 7.8 million tourists annually
2005 - 11.6 million tourists annually
2010 - 15.9 million tourists annually
2014 - 24.8 million tourists annually
2015 - 29.9 million tourists annually
2016 - 32.6 million tourists annually
2017 - 35.4 million tourists annually

The most popular such locations like Phuket in the south of the country and Chiang Mai in the north.

With the growing popularity of tourism in China, indicators of travelers in neighboring countries increased.

Thailand, Leader after Hong Kong and Macau, last year adopted 35.4 million foreign tourists - 668% more than in 1990 (5.3 million tourists). In 2017, 28.4 million tourists arrived in Japan (887% more than in 1990 - 3.2 million). In 1990, only 250 thousand travelers arrived in Vietnam; In 2017, 12.9 million people visited the country - the growth was 5 160%! All these indicators would be impossible without Chinese tourists.

Development of airports in China

The tourist activity of the Chinese provoked the rapid expansion of the country's airports. In 2017, nine of them hit the list of the 50 most loaded airports of the world, and three to the top ten. In 2010, these indicators were, respectively, six airports in Long-leaf and one in the top ten.

Guangzhou Baiyun Airport, for example, belongs to the fastest growing transplant nodes in the world. In 2017, he accepted 65.8 million passengers, whereas in 2000 - only 12.8 million.

What do Chinese tourists look like and behave?

The European Commission's recent report says that for the Chinese "the most expensive resource is time." They prefer to travel effectively - do not linger in the sights for a long time. Chinese tourists in Europe are most interested in its art and culture, as well as small cities. They save on food, housing and transport, but willingly do shopping.

According to Sally Pekk, when the Chinese come to Europe, they try to visit each of the largest capitals and go shopping there. British boutique town Bister Village, almost fully consisting of shops, no less popular among Chinese tourists than the Buckingham Palace.

"The Chinese prefer popular attractions - Big Ben in London or vineyards in Bordeaux," Pekk notes. Little-known places are not too interested.

As for the appearance, the Chinese prefer baseball caps or visors with the logo of their tour operator, and also invariably carry a noticeable photo equipment, says Pekk. Also, according to her, many Chinese chief chosen on the trips are completely inappropriate shoes. For example, in the mountains you can often meet tourists in high heels.

Risks of excessive tourism

Cities such as Venice, Barcelona and Dubrovnik, are currently suffering from the influx of tourists. Experts fear that the growth of Chinese tourism can make stay in them and unbearable.

How to organize an independent trip to China in 2020! Visa, tickets, hotels, food, transport, security. How much is worth going to China? Calculation of value, tips and observation.

The material was prepared on the basis of personal experience of an independent travel to China author of the text: three months of life in Schuckhenka, as well as trips to Hong Kong and Guangzhou.

China is huge and very diverse, so clearly to say where what prices and conditions are impossible. I will be repelled from Shenychya - the center of all electronics, a young and fast growing city in the very south of China, which borders with Hong Kong. I will tell you how to use the tourist when planning a self-trip to China in 2020, and also give your own observations about the country and tips of travelers.

How to make a visa to China yourself

Visa to China for Russians is needed, with the exception of rare cases. The usual one-time costs 1500 rubles, double - 3000, multiple - 4500 rubles. Plus, the banking commission is charged 2.5% per person.

The urgent one-time - 2400, urgent double - 3900, urgent multiple - 5400. There is still an express consideration, it is more expensive.

It is better to stop in network hotels, as they care about their reputation. The day in this hotel is worth from $ 30-40 per double room. Network hotels in Shenzhena: GreenRee Inn, Sheraton, Novotel, etc.

Advice:

Look for a hotel with good sound insulation - the Chinese are noisy.
Hotel photos are not always true.
Sometimes the number may be clean and cozy, but have extraneous smells, for example, dampness. Or windows go to the courtyard, where the dump or the Chinese street cafes (which produces odors no better).

Rent. If you want personal comfortable housing, look for a room, an apartment or a house on the Airbnb. The choice of housing is huge. For rent apartments in Beijing costs about $ 30-50 per day, in Shenzhena - from $ 27. For a month on Airbnb, you can rent an apartment for $ 600-1500 (rooms - $ 500-900). The price depends on the city, the area and state of the house. For example, in Shenzhenya near the beach in the resort area, a great apartment was handed over $ 600. With long lease there are discounts.

Entrance to Shenzhen Novotel Watergate (Photo © Booking.com / Shenzhen Novotel Watergate)

Chinese food and kitchen

Another difficulty you will come across during an independent trip to China in 2020 is the food. It is very specific here, so problems arise with a campaign in the cafe, especially if you do not know the language. But the McDonald "S and KFC will come to the rescue. There are also many European well-known networks, in which you can book food in pictures. However, prices are significantly higher in them - for example, a garnish with meat costs from $ 6. Sometimes tea is included. In McDonald "S Big Mac (Potato, Cola, Double Cheeseburger) will cost about $ 5.

In general, the cafe can be eaten by $ 5 and more, in restaurants a simple dish costs from $ 10.

Where you can cheap and delicious food in China:

Cafe for local. They can eat for $ 1.5 to eat, but no one guarantees the quality of products and compliance with sanitary standards. Minus - it is difficult to order dishes, as there are no more pictures or few them, and if there is, it is not clear that it is.
"Muslims" - These are local cafes that keep the Chinese Muslims. Food is prepared in compliance with all the rules and really very tasty. I love their noodles and advise you to try. They prepare it with you, and after this process it is interesting to observe. Cost from $ 1.5 for a huge portion.
Supermarket. Banana kilograms costs $ 1-2, 2-3 $ apples, 1-2 $ tangerines. I do not advise you to buy sausages. This is not at all what we expect: Chinese sausages are made of soybeans with a bunch of spices and additives. They taste sweet and with a specific smell, but for the sake of curiosity you can try.

(Photo ©. [Email Protected] / Flickr.com / License CC BY 2.0)

Internet and cellular communication in China

All SIM cards are sold only on a passport in specialized places. The cost of mobile communication is high enough - from $ 20 per month, plus for buying a card and the choice of the tariff plan takes the same. To acquire a normal tariff and understand everything, you need to know Chinese. If you need the Internet in China, it is easier to use Wi-Fi on a trip - in big cities it can be found everywhere.

There is another trouble with which many faced is blocking all Google services, YouTube, Instagram. To access them, you need to establish a special VPN program.

China Mobile - the largest mobile operator in the world (photo © Open Grid Scheduler Grid Engine / Flickr.com)

Transport in China

With transport in China, everything is fine. The infrastructure is very developed. Airplanes, ferries, trains (including speed), buses, metro and taxis. You can get anywhere without problems. Freshes in buses - from $ 0.3, in the subway - from $ 0.5.

If you are going to go to China for a month, buy travel. Plastic card can be replenished and used in the subway and buses, and then return and get money back. Cost $ 4. It is very convenient: no need to learn the cost of tickets, buy tokens, stand in queues. Accordingly, the problem of language disappears. On a trip within one city enough 10-30 $ a month.

Very common type of movement - electromopy. In essence, this taxi, only less comfortable, more extreme and cheap - from $ 2. The main advantage is the lack of traffic jams, as mopeds are driving where they want. The only minus is a language. It is necessary to agree on price and destination.

ATMs and maps

Be prepared that in many stores your Visa or MasterCard card may not accept, as in China another payment system - UnianPay. This card can be issued in any bank for free. If you need to remove money with your, that is, a lot of ATMs for this.

Mentality Chinese

Do not be surprised if in China you will feel like a monkey, with which everyone wants to take a picture. For the Chinese, having a photo with a Europeans is a sharpness, status, so that you will always be in the spotlight. You will always be turned on and, not embarrassed, look at the focus. In addition to increased interest, the Chinese will try to make money on the "white man." For them we are walking money, so trap in all stores. For example, once we shot down the price of a shirt from $ 35 to $ 5.

You can talk about the culture and upbringing of most Chinese people long. Save the place to the girl, skip it forward, skip out of transport, rubbed the garbage into the urn - it's not about them. Also, they have no feeling of tact. Do not be surprised if at the first meeting you will ask about personal life, salary and health. The Chinese themselves are very cunning and enterprising, but at the same time good-natured.

Useful words on Chinese for traveler:

Safety in China

You know, where did the tradition go from a backpack in front? From China. Small stealing is very common there. In big cities, you can meet a policeman everywhere who will gladly help in any situation. Also in all buses, metro, shopping centers, and just on the street hang cameras, so in big cities there are nothing fear, walking in the evening. From personal experience: I walked with phototechnics, and never once tried to stick.

Also in China there is a checked rule that animals, children and lasyom (Foreigners) can be all.

How much is an independent trip to China from Russia

Let's consider how much a trip to China for two for 10 days when departing from Moscow:

One-time visa - $ 52.
Tickets from Moscow to Beijing and back - from $ 586. Find a ticket \u003e\u003e
Hotel in the center of Beijing to the low season is $ 130. Find hotel \u003e\u003e
Powered in eaters for local - $ 120.
Insurance - $ 23.
Transport and attractions - approximately $ 200.

So, how much does it cost to go to China yourself? Minimum trip cost if you are ready to save - about in 1111$ For two for 10 days.

If you are accustomed to living with comfort, the journey will cost approximately 1711$ For two (accommodation in the hotel 3 * - $ 250 and cafes and restaurants - $ 600). We per month for two spent $ 1,500.

Take advantage of our useful tips on a self-trip to China in 2020:

Look before the journey as the Chinese consider on the fingers. The coincidence with our account is only up to 4, then everything is different.
Be sure to download the translator into the phone.
Take the right medicines, as in Chinese pharmacies you can hardly find something familiar. Rather, meet the dried toad, rather than activated carbon.
Download the Baidu and Card Cards on the phone, where you are going to live. This program will help you choose the route, time and type of transport, determine the best way path. Will not be lost with her. Very advise!

I hope the overall idea of \u200b\u200bprices and conditions have been compiled. And the problem of the language, as you can see, not so terrible. Travel, because in the world so much interesting!

To visit China and do not visit the Great Wall of the Wall - a crime. True, here, as everywhere in China, there is a problem of choice: go to yourself or with an organized tour, but here it is still exacerbated by the question: where exactly go, on what section of the wall? Share your samples and mistakes in this matter.

How to go?

China is probably the only country from all of us visited, where I am ready to ratify organized excursions. For 2 months, conducted here, already fed up that nothing happens from the first time, and information in guidebooks is very often significantly different from what is really. But on the other hand, the excursions for foreigners in English have official travel agencies stand some cosmic money, and with a budget version there is a risk of riding a bus, a bit of chicks by the Chinese or to highlight most of the time not walking around the wall, but to visiting tea stores And Onyx.

In addition, an excursion to the Great Wall of China is one of the most popular wiring of Peking "Ostaps Bendery." It looks like this: on the street to you lipnets called, which convinces you to buy a tour of him to the Great Wall of China. It says that he works at this place since the time of his comrade Mao, his excursions are the best and cheap, demonstrates the photos of satisfied customers and argues that it is built by the turns from tourists, but he liked him and therefore he will be lucky with pleasure tomorrow.

It broads it is very eloquently and convincingly and you almost agree, especially since the good "guide" does not even ask you the entire cost of the excursion immediately, interest 20-30 to reserve you. He "Mom", "which will not deceive and tomorrow at the appointed time will take you straight from the hotel. But it comes tomorrow, and there is no bus, there is no guide on "his place", there is no money either.

About the possibility of such a wiring, as well as we were pre-warned in advance, and therefore immediately rejected such proposals, but I want to note, it was not enough. Compare all the "for" and "against" we once again chose an independent inspection, and never regretted, almost ...

Where to go?

Currently, several sections of the wall are open to inspection: Badalin, Mutyanyu, Symenha, Jinshanlyn, Huanghua, Tsyugulo. After studying travel guides, endless expanses of Internet and tourist forums, we came to the conclusion that one day can only be reached until the first two: Badalin and Mutyanyuy. Badalin is the most affordable part of the wall and therefore the most visited, so initially we decided to go to Mutyanuy.

Mutyanyu

So, in theory to get to Mutyanyu first you need to find bus terminal which is located at the metro station Dongzhimen . Everything is exacerbated by the fact that you need not the main terminal, which is located at the subway, but some extra. It is not easy to find it, as there are no signs, and all verbose descriptions on the Internet are actually little help. It is good that we try to always give the exact location of the desired objects on the map, and you have no such problems.

After you, with grief in half, found a bus station, you need to go to the deeder, there will be a bus that you need, and more precisely buses, since we found information that the Mutyanyu from this station go buses or 867 or 936. One is an important part, if you follow the information we found, the route 867 buses depart at 7:00 and 8:30 am, so you have to get up early. We came to the station somewhere 7:30 and the 867 bus (or more) stood at the bus stop, we showed the driver recorded in advance the hieroglyphs, to which he, as he could explain that he did not go to Mutyanyu, but rides to the place From where we should continue to go by taxi. OK, we decided, it means the 936th exactly go where we need. And they began to wait for it (by the way, the 867th bus went at 8:00).

In addition to us at the bus stop there were some Japanese, Chinese with cameras and European with a Lonely Planet guide. By the way, he twisted a bit between the buses and quickly retraced somewhere. Somewhere at 8:30 picked up a coveted bus and we had fun in a lot. And there was a real feeling that the baby is kept around you, in my memory it is so many times to change my place for schoolchildren. Before departing, the conductor approached us and asked where we were going, in Chinese, naturally. By the way, in Si'an, when we went to watch the terracotta army, the conductor perfectly spoke in English, which means.

In response to this, we, as in the case of the previous bus, have demonstrated pre-prepared hieroglyphs and prepared for departure. But it was not there. Our hieroglyphs did not suit her something, she, together with the driver, began to noise something, scream and actually poured us out of the bus. What it was and why, it remains a mystery to us, as well as all China)))
I get used to that we don't have anything from the first time in the subway, we decided to try happiness the next day, but for now, go to see the Olympic facilities. Since we did not want to once again experience fate with cordons and Mutyanyuy, and therefore decided to use the plan B, i.e. Go to Badalin.

Badalin

Of course, this is the most tourist of all possible wall options, but the train goes there. And the train for us is the best way to get to complex sights, which has repeatedly cut out us, for example, in Kunmin, when we.

So, the trains on Badalin are recovered with northern Railway Station , it is at the station Xinhimen . All trains of the directions we need have a 4-digit number, begin with "S2", and then 01-99. At the same time, the odd number ride in Badalin, and even in Beijing. By the way, this direction appeared not so long ago - it was built to the Summer Olympiad in Beijing.

Train timetable posted on the stand, but in China everything changes so quickly that I do not do it for its relevance. Tickets for sale day a day, that is, it will not be possible to buy them in advance. The procedure of the trip is that in the one way that is about the same one.

You buy a ticket at the ticket office (by the way there is only 6 CNY), you go inside the station and get in line. The Chinese have straight unrealistic love of the queues: they first create it from scratch, and then try to cheat everyone and turn around. But here they can not do anything - it is necessary to stand, since metal guides highly tightly regulate the sequence of the most hunted tourists. The platform is allowed for about 15 minutes before departure, and here it begins the fun ...

The fact is that the train costs far enough from the station building. Therefore, after going to the platform, all fun flee to the train, hoping to take places. The attraction is also, especially considering that the border tile on the platform is quite slippery and this jog can easily end with serious injury.
Interesting observation, the Chinese for some reason prefer to climb into the very first car closest to them, and then go further inside the train. If you do not be lazy and run until the end of the train, the probability of occupying places is significantly increasing.

One and a half - two hours in the train and we are in place. Further, the whole crowd fell out of the train and goes towards the wall, about 10-20 minutes, depending on the speed and number of pictures made on the road. It is important to remember that Badalin is not a finite station, but since the bulk of passengers is income here