Going to China

[Bangkok Black]

Febuary my wife and I will be going to China for 5 days.

It is a paid-for trip with flights, hotels and tours and part of a group trip.

I have applied and had my visa application approved.I just have to collect it on the 10th of Feb in Bangkok.

 

Has anyone here been to China recently? i have a few questions.

Did you change money in Thailand at Super rich or in China?

I have a Wise card, did you use your Wise card in China? Does it work?

Mobile phone, Does AISor DTAC work there? Or did you rely on Wi-FI ?

I am a UK passport holder and have a thai work permit, did you have any problems with immigration going/coming back to Thailand and in China?

 

Any tips and advice are welcome.

 

 

[Doctor Tom]

My advice, cancel the trip and go somewhere else. China is a sxxt hole, peopled by those with no social graces. If you go, good luck. 

[Yellowtail]

I used my no fees credit card for most everything the times I was there, and just changed a bit of cash (USD) at the airport. 

 

I have post-pay AIS and they sell travel packages with call and data that were pretty reasonable. Without the package. it's pretty pricy, 

 

I had no issues either direction with immigration. 

 

 

[connda]

20 minutes ago, Doctor Tom said:

My advice, cancel the trip and go somewhere else. China is a sxxt hole, peopled by those with no social graces. If you go, good luck. 

Translated:
"Doctor Tom personally hates all Chinese and China.  But he's in good company.  Hating China and Chinese is in vogue in Western nations and is expected of their citizens, especially Western expats living a few hundred KM from China!"

OP!  Go, enjoy the culture, learn, observe, have fun.  That will do one of two things: It will 1) reinforce everything the China-haters say, or 2) it will completely dispel everything the China haters say. 

Let us know when you get back.  But personally I think you'll be in the latter camp when you return.

[Yellowtail]

1 minute ago, connda said:

Translated:
"Doctor Tom personally hates all Chinese and China.  But he's in good company.  Hating China and Chinese is in vogue in Western nations and is expected of their citizens!"

OP!  Go, enjoy, learn, observe, have fun.  That will do one of two things: It will 1) reinforce everything the China-haters say, or 2) it will completely dispel everything the China haters say. 

Let us know when you get back.  But personally I think you'll be in the latter camp when you return.

I'm not a big fan of China, but it was okay the times I was there for work.

 

Did not seem very friendly, and the food kind of blows. 

[Bangkok Black]

6 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

I used my no fees credit card for most everything the times I was there, and just changed a bit of cash (USD) at the airport. 

 

I have post-pay AIS and they sell travel packages with call and data that were pretty reasonable. Without the package. it's pretty pricy, 

 

I had no issues either direction with immigration. 

 

 

Thanks I will check out AIS

[PomPolo]

39 minutes ago, Bangkok Black said:

Febuary my wife and I will be going to China for 5 days.

It is a paid-for trip with flights, hotels and tours and part of a group trip.

I have applied and had my visa application approved.I just have to collect it on the 10th of Feb in Bangkok.

 

Has anyone here been to China recently? i have a few questions.

Did you change money in Thailand at Super rich or in China?

I have a Wise card, did you use your Wise card in China? Does it work?

Mobile phone, Does AISor DTAC work there? Or did you rely on Wi-FI ?

I am a UK passport holder and have a thai work permit, did you have any problems with immigration going/coming back to Thailand and in China?

 

Any tips and advice are welcome.

 

 

What is the particular reason you are going to China? I really haven't heard of many foreigners going there for a holiday, Hong Kong is probably a better bet if it is just that part of Asia you want to experience.

[BritManToo]

I had a great solo trip to China a few years back.

2,500bht for a return flight Chiang Mai to Changsha, then a train journey to Zangjiajie.

Immigration waved me through, zero interest, police ignored me, and were difficult to spot. Had to show my passport to get on the train. Walking in the mountains for 10 days was great, long deserted paved trails, only saw 3 white people after boarding the all Chinese people flight at CM.

 

Food was difficult, couldn't tell a family home from a restaurant out in the rural areas, everyone very polite and friendly, but no English anywhere, signs or language so quite hard to get around. Train full of peasant farmer types, all with big bags of food, which they insisted I shared on the train journey.

 

Download an offline map like maps.me so you can use your phone to get around, expect nothing online to work.

 

Money, Think I just used my Thai debit card in ATMs.

Great, but strange place for a holiday.

[save the frogs]

seem to be a lot of china haters on AN.

there's a lot of interesting stuff to see there. and just absorbing the culture is fascinating. 

go for it. but no practical advice from me, sorry. 

 

[PomPolo]

You can absorb the Chinese culture in any shopping mall in BKK, or join a day-trip and just follow the red flag, again probably not very practical advice from me either.

[Bangkok Black]

8 minutes ago, PomPolo said:

What is the particular reason you are going to China? I really haven't heard of many foreigners going there for a holiday, Hong Kong is probably a better bet if it is just that part of Asia you want to experience.

As I said its a paid trip. All I need is some spending money.

[PomPolo]

Just now, Bangkok Black said:

As I said its a paid trip. All I need is some spending money.

Recommend setting up a gofundme account it seems to be quite popular these days - who paid for your trip and had the gall not to give you any spending money?
Conversation not to had on AN 🤣

[liddelljohn]

My Thai wife and daughter went for a  week long trip to Chengdu in 2018  they absolutely  loved it , the attractions , the spicy food   ,, they seemed to be able to get by with English

[still kicking]

1 hour ago, PomPolo said:

Recommend setting up a gofundme account it seems to be quite popular these days - who paid for your trip and had the gall not to give you any spending money?
Conversation not to had on AN 🤣

Another nasty comment from you I just paid to gofundme which saved a baby's life for an operation in the US.