Lets go to China

[Cowlitz]

Lets do this. My calendar is wide open. Come on boys and girls. Early planning stages. I may have a few connections for lodging...

Thank you for including girls. I have a small travel trailer and if March is not too snowy, could head south.

 

[Taylor57]

75 degrees outside and I am watching golf on TV. 7 more days,,,

 

[WattsUpDude]

Nine years ago I did a Taipei, Hong Kong, Shenzhen trip with a couple of good friends. It was a really wonderful time. Some culture shock but it was mostly a very, very positive experience. I'm definitely doing it again at some point.

 

[Nova Haibike]

I went on a bicycle tour of China in 1986, and visited the Golden Lion bicycle factory. It had a pretty modern automated painting operation, but it also had workers welding stuff literally on the floor. I would post a photo, but all my pictures are in transparency form. Someday I will have them digitized.

 

[Mr. Coffee]

How do we fly our e-bikes to China? Honestly no point going if I can't take the bike.

Bucket list rides:

Climbing Beartooth Pass North, MT by bike - cycling data and info

Cycling Beartooth Pass is one of the greatest bike climbs in the United States - Bucket List! This climb is has been hailed for the past 50 years as “The most beautiful road in the United States.” View route map, streetviews, images, slideshows, videos and more for this cycling route to the top...

pjammcycling.com

Or this (although part of it is singed):

McKenzie Pass Scenic Bikeway - Travel Oregon

How many rides take you somewhere that’s like nothing you’ve ever seen (really, no hype)? McKenzie Pass is not only the most spectacular ride in Central

traveloregon.com

 

[BigNerd]

How do we fly our e-bikes to China? Honestly no point going if I can't take the bike.

You can buy them there for cents on the dollar.

 

[Redsrider]

You can buy them there for cents on the dollar.

For cents on the dollar? so cheap?

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Guys. I was to China around 2000/2001, on business. My special experience was...
Typically, a Westerner lives in so-called "Western" hotel. There, you can exchange your dollars to yuans. People around you speak English, and different notices and marks are in English. You can even take an opportunity to get the "full body massage" there if you're interested. And, the most important: you get a fork for your meals.

My experience was the Chinese company that invited me was placing me in "Western Chinese" hotels. These are meant for people from, for instance, Hong Kong. Such hotel has no money exchange facility so how will you exchange your dollars to yuan?! The answer is:

1. Take your Western Chinese hotel business card with you, otherwise you won't get back to your hotel
2. Ask the reception to give you written address of the next "Western" hotel in the neighbourhood. But how can you ask the reception if they don't speak English?! (Find a hotel guest who can speak both English and Mandarin).
3. Ask for a cab. Of course, you don't have yuan on you yet. Let's ride to the "Western" hotel and ask the driver to wait for you. Of course the guy doesn't speak English, and the Chinese body-language is different from ours...
4. Once inside the "Western" hotel, go to the cashier. You will be asked "What room do you live in?" A-ha! If the hotel has more storeys than three, say "three-oh-three". You might be lucky. Exchange your money.
5. Go back to the taxi-driver. (Don't even try to use the hotel massage parlour because you'd be asked in what room you lived...)
6. So better show the taxi-driver the business card of your hotel and just return there.

The food. If you eat out, forget you'd get a knife or a fork in a restaurant. Also, don't think the Chinese food in China is the Chinese food as found in North America. It is not. The more disgusting food you'll get, the more exquisite it is in Chinese cuisine. Think of eating fish-head, whole frogs, snakes, pork artificially stuffed with shards of bone, whole duck baked in soya sauce, jelly-fish looking like algae or algae looking like a jelly-fish. Don't expect you'd get rice. Nobody eats rice in a restaurant. Rice is served as the last meal, and if you dare taste it, it will mean you're hungry, and the whole dinner will start over... Did I mention the rice soup that looks like, smells and tastes like male bodily fluid?

How can you read the menu if it's in Mandarin only? (You'd be safe if you don't leave your "Western" hotel at all).

Beverages. 55% clear sorghum vodka is OK. Not the 50+% vodka made with sugar syrup and laced with anise.

Never ever again!!! I was hungry for 10 days and when I got a meal aboard Russian Aeroflot Boeing 777, I was crying from happiness...