Five Tips on Traveling in China

1) Many sites in China advertised as idyllic and historic have long since been “touristified.”

This fact first hit me when I traveled to the town of Lijiang, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in southern China touted as a well-preserved ancient Chinese city. It was foolish of me to take the terms “well-preserved” and “ancient” to mean “authentic.” Most parts of Lijiang bear no resemblance to what I imagine Chinese life resembled a century ago: Hundreds of vendors and knick-knack stores line the rickety-cobbled streets, while tens of thousands of camera-wielding tourists bob through the crowd from one shop to another, browsing through scarves, figurines, drums, and playing cards. When they tire of shopping, they rest in one of many overpriced coffee shops, where the owner may charge them a fee to take a picture of the outstanding scenery through the window (I know all of this through experience). Once evening falls, the streets around Lijiang’s Main Square explode with the full force of touristic night life, complete with blue-lit clubs, amplified music, and hundreds of bouncers keen to drag you into their establishment for a pricey taste of the local cuisine. During my travels I encountered several places which follow Lijiang’s model of tourist heaven. The upside is that there are usually bright spots amid all of the clutter. For example, the countryside around Lijiang is outstandingly beautiful.

2) Buy domestic Chinese flights through a Chinese website or travel agent.

Even with booking fees, they will likely be much cheaper than the prices offered by Expedia, Priceline, or any of the other booking services we treasure in the United States.

3) Never underestimate the capacity of Chinese locals to be helpful, often well beyond the realm of common courtesy. While traveling in the southern Chinese provinces, our overnight train departed an hour late, guaranteeing that we would miss our flight the next morning to Lijiang. Irritated and feeling like a victim, I tracked down a crew member and made my displeasure evident. She promptly led me eight cars down the train to the crew’s quarters, where five of them spent a good part of their evening trying to call my airline, re-book my flight, discuss strategies to be reimbursed or take an alternate route, and in general take far more trouble than I could ever have expected. I certainly left that experience with a lingering sense of guilt at my initial agitation. Everyone who spends time in China has a story like this; for my parents, it was the young couple who went to great lengths to help my dad extract his debit card from an ATM which had swallowed it. With very few exceptions, the level of concern and interest which Chinese people showed me throughout my travels was incredible.

4) Try as much local food as you can. From mutton and yak in the western plains to 3.8 meter-long noodles in Xi’an to dishes covered in mala (a Chinese spice almost too bizarre to describe) China’s gastronomy is extremely varied. I like Chinese take-out as much as the next student, but none of it comes close to fare from the motherland.

5) Be willing to put aside preconceptions about China. No matter how many times you read that China is overcrowded, developing, stable, unstable, largely undeveloped, a currency manipulator, political trainwreck, Communist stronghold, Capitalist nation, or ancient kingdom, this country will surprise you. The truth, as usual, is far too complex to be neatly summed up by a news article or sound byte. In fact, a good first step is to put aside pre-conceived bias from sources such as this one.