China

Here is a list of places we stayed in China:

• Holiday In Harbin City Center  –  The Holiday in at Harbin is a decent hotel in a great location.  There are plenty of places to walk around and see near the hotel.  The breakfast is good, very western.  Hotel rooms are small but clean and nice.
• Days Inn Xi’an City Center  –  Hotel is in a great location, close to many things.  Easy walking distance to many of the downtown attractions including the market.  Try some of the street food in the market!
• Wenjun Mansion Hotel, Chengdu  –  Not the nicest hotel but its clean.  The room was alright and large.  Breakfast was small but decent.  Staff was friendly.  Location is great as there are restaurants, shows, and a market near by.
• Golden Summit Hotel  –  One of two hotel choices on the top of Mt Emei.  The hotel looks nice, and has heated floors (which during winter is amazing!)  The room was nice but smelled really bad.  The toilet wasn’t seated all the way and there was a sewer gas issue.  Sad as this hotel is nice and in a great location.
• Uchoice Hotel, Kunming  –  Great locatoin and nice rooms.  Right downtown near the temple, downtown park, and a river walk.  There is a lot going on in this town and it is very fun.
• Da Cheng Shanshui Hotel, Zhangjaijie  –  One of the largest hotels in Asia, this place is massive.  The rooms are nice and large with great windows for viewing the city.  Within walking distance for the gondola to Tianmen Mountain.
• International Splendid East Hotel, Jundiping  –  A very nice hotel located just outside of downtown.  Room was large and nice.  Withing walking distance of downtown and not far from the Zhangjaijie National Forest.  During the high season this hotel is extremely busy.
• Dong Fang Hotel, Beijing  –  Hotel is clean but not very nice.  Rooms are older but decent sized.  It isn’t a place where you are going to be wowed by the rooms but it works for a clean place to stay.  3 stars by American standards.  It is within walking distance of a couple of markets, Tieniman Square, The Forbidden City, The National Museum and many restaurants.

We had so much fun in China.  Here is a brief rundown of the things done:

• Harbin Ice Festal   –  This is one of the most amazing things you can see.  There are huge ice buildings, sledding hills, tubing hills, pinguin displays, food and much more.  Go in the evening when the lights come on and you’ll get a beautiful treat!
• Bicycle on the CIty wall in Xi’an  –  The wall of Xi’an is full of history.  As you cycle you can see so much of the old city, as well as read the different historical events.  They also have festivals on the south part of the wall, there was a spring lantern festival while we were there.
• Panda Keeper for a Day (and petting a panda!)  –  What an amazing experience!  Working with the keepers, learning about the pandas, feeding them, and even getting to pet one!  It is truly memorable!!
• Trekking Mt Emei  –  The trek up Mt Emei is very beautiful.  You will walk in the footsteps of hundreds of thousands of pilgrems before you as you ascend this holy Buddhist mountain.
• Stone Forest near Kunming  –  Massive stone spires shooting from the ground.  An odd geological formation that will keep your attention most of the day!  But be warned that this is a popular attraction!
• Zhangjiajie National Forest  –  The most amazing mountain range we’ve ever seen.  It is no wonder that this area inspired the movie Avatar.  Large spires covered with plants, low lying clouds make the look like they’re floating.  This area is simply breath taking!
• Trekking the Great Wall  –  WOW!  The single most memorable thing done in China.  There are restored sections and ‘wild’ sections.  Chose the wild section for an experience you’ll never forget.
• Tienanmen Square, Forbidden City, and Temple of Heaven  –  Beijing has so much to offer, and these are just a couple of examples.  The history of this massive Asian city can feel overwhelming at times.  But go see it and learn more about what makes the Chinese people special.

There are so many amazing places to visit in China.  Here are a few of the ones we saw:

• Harbin Snow Sculpture Festival 
• Saint Sophia Cathedral, Harbin
• Xi’an City wall and markets
• Terracotta Warriors
• Golden Summit of Mt Emei
• Qiongzhu Temple, Kunming
• Dujiangyan Panda Base
• Tianmen Mountain
• Zhangjiajie National Forest
• Temple of Heaven
• Tieniman Square and Forbidden City
• Great wall of China
• Temple Fair

China has so much to offer it is tough to narrow down the things that were amazing.  Here is a short list of things we think you should see while in China:

• Harbin Ice Festival
• Hot Pot in Chengdu
• Petting and feeding Pandas at Dujiangyan Panda Base
• Extra Wide noodles in Xi’an
• Terracotta warriors
• Visiting all the temples on the trek up Mt Emei
• Dan Dan Noodles in Changdu at Anyue Liangfen
• Tea Service with Pu’erh tea in Kunming
• Trekking the ‘wild’ Great Wall
• Zhangjiajie National Forest
• Street food at Wangfuking St in Beijing (its off on a small side street)
• Grocery stores – you never know what you’re going to find!!  Try some new things!!

As with every trip there are always things you wish you hadn’t wasted your time doing.  Here are a few:

• KFC – Its gross but desperate times call for desperate measures.
• HotPot in Harbin  –  It is ok but nothing compared to HotPot in Chengdu (the place where they do it best!)
• The Great wall Lake section (Huanghuacheng)  –  It is short and disappointing.  Only 2 hours and we were able to explore the whole thing.  There is no ‘wild’ part here.

A few parting thoughts:

• You MUST get a visa before going to China. Here is a link to the application. The visas come in different times but they are all the same cost.  Just get the 10 year one, you never know if you might want to go back!
• Sadly you have to have someone hand carry your application to the consulate. Here is the company we used.  It was $309 total and you need to submit a taped on passport photo with your application.
• Cynthia at Trip.Me helped us plan this trip, she did a great job and helped us change things as we went if needed.  We definitely recommend her.
• Google translate worked amazingly in China.  It isn’t perfect though.  The camera feature was very helpful at restaurants, and in museums.  However at one point a bar tender was asking about drinks and it read ‘maybe a few chicken butts instead of wine’ which was good for a great laugh.  You can learn more about google translate here.
• If you’re a wine drinker prepare to be disappointed.  You’re only going to find it by the bottle, and be careful of the small bottle with ‘white wine’ written on them.  Its rice wine and they love it.  Go to the grocery store, you can find smaller bottles of regular wine there.
• Visit the local grocery store.  You can find all sorts of fun snacks to try!  Don’t miss the dried peas that say ‘original flavor’ on them.  There is a picture of a guy on there with rows of pea plants behind him.  They are super good.
• Specify ‘half hot’ when you order until you figure out if you can handle it.  Some of their foods are extremely spicy.
• Get WeChat the app.  They use that for everything!  If you attach a credit card you can pay for everything from street food to grocierys and tours.  A good idea if you don’t want to carry lots of cash.