Useful Travel Information for Volunteers

This page contains information volunteers may find useful in planning travel while in China. Most of the information was written by former volunteers who have been kind enough to share their experience with future volunteers.

Travel Tips for Shanghai, Edd, UK, Feb-June, 2006

In Shanghai we spent about £50 a week because we went to Windows (restaurant/bar) during the week and restaurants/nightclubs at the weekend, but if you are going to be in a rural area where there are less shops then you should be able to spend less. Add at least £20 per week for any travelling around China after your teaching. This is for hostels, meals out, taxis, tickets to tourist sites etc. Below is a list you can send to anyone coming to China, there's probably loads more I could add but this is all I could think of at the moment.

For anyone coming from UK, the following list of suggestions may prove useful:

	£50 a week if you're in a central area with tourist sights, bars/clubs etc.
	unlocked phone for China simcard (very useful, calls are cheap in China, but you don't want to have to buy a local phone when you get there)
	Visa or Mastercard Debit, I'm not sure about credit cards, I didn't have 1. (Only use Bank of China ATM's if you can, others threaten to eat foreign cards or just don't work with them. Btw, Nationwide are the only bank that don't charge commision on foreign withdrawels.
	2 or 3 photocopies of your passport always seem to come in useful for visas/hostels etc.
	A couple of plug adapters..
	music, books, magazines (China has cheap DVDs but very few/little books, music...
	spray deodrant, plasters, paracetamol and suncream are all very difficult to find/expensive.
	You can buy towels really cheaply so don't take any. If it's summer and you like wearing shorts, bring them with you because they don't really sell them (they're not popular).
	For teaching - don't take any stationery, it's very cheap in China - go to an international supermarket (Carrefore, Metro), Bring postcards of UK/home town, pictures of your family, pets, house, school, famous celebrities...
	Dress code for teaching: A few of us tried wearing flip flops in the summer but they thought we were wearing slippers and they didn't like it. Other than that, it depends on your school, most of us wore t-shirts and jeans.
	For any travelling buy Lonely Planet (better pics and easier to dip into) or Rough Guide - more like a novel with long descriptions of everything but fewer pics.
	Any malaria tablets, bed nets or repellents (e.g. with DEET in) are very difficult to find in China, so if you're planning on visiting a malaria zone buy stuff in the UK.
	Add at least £20 a week to your budget whilst travelling for hostels, meals out, taxis, tourist tickets etc. Not including train tickets: (Shanghai to Beijing cost us £70 return soft sleeper but hard sleeper is around half the price).
	If you're not Chinese you can only stay in international hostels and you have to show them your passport when you check in.
	Hard sleeper is fine on the trains and saves loads of money.
	Leave some space in your bag for souvenirs and don't take too many nice clothes because you'll have to carry them everywhere with you and it's possible to buy some cheap ones out there and just dump them when you leave.
	P.S. I'm so jealous of anyone going!! Enjoy :-)

Return to Top

Obtaining a Chinese Visa in USA

The embassy in New York City is pretty efficient and not too crowded if you know when to go. Mondays are usually very crowded and you can spend all day waiting but if you go on a Wednesday, Thursday or Friday it's much, much better. They open at 9AM, and we both found that arriving at about 8:AM gives you a short wait outside the building but then you will be one of the first people called to the window and can out by 9:10AM!.

You will need to make two trips to the embassy - the first time you will submit your application and supporting documentation. If they are happy with your application, they will tell you when you can come back to get the visa - on that day you will pay the fee.

Details about what you need to apply for the visa are available on this website. While the information there is useful, they don't tell you everything you might need to provide. One of us (Zoe) found that they required the following additional documents:

   bank statement(s) proving that you can support yourself while in China

   a letter from your employer excusing you from your job for the
     duration of your stay in China (this one is odd, but they settle for
     rather unofficial documents, honestly)

The other of us (John) did not have to provide these additional documents.

For an extra $30 you can have your application processed in one day, which would mean only traveling to NYC once rather than making two trips.

Please note that the rules for visas are always changing. The information provided here was useful during the time period we applied for visas (summer and fall, 2008). It may not be valid when you apply for yours.

Return to Top

Weekend Guide to Shaolin Temple, Henry, Canada, Apr/May, 2008

I backpacked through Asia for almost half a year in total, spending a spectacular three months in China. I taught English in Shanghai towards the end of my trip, and by then I thought I had already seen every type of temple imaginable. However, I was incredibly impressed with the remarkable architecture of the temples I visited at Shaolin, placing them at the top of my list out of hundreds I had seen in my travels. Nestled deep within China's lush mountains, there is a strange sense of tranquility and peace contrasting the hustle and bustle of Shanghai. As this is the birthplace of Chinese kung fu, a very rich history lies behind Shaolin. Unfortunately, modernization is quickly replacing traditional culture in China, and every day it gets harder to see traditional aspects of China that you envision from watching television. Watching hundreds of Shaolin monks practicing Kung Fu is one of the rare treats where you can truly see an aspect of Chinese culture that has remained unchanged for centuries.

Overview

To get to the Shaolin Temple, you will first have to arrive in Zhengzhou by ~10hr sleeper train ride. Zhengzhou is the capital of the Henan province, from where you will then take a two hour bus to the Shaolin Scenic Spot.

Itinerary

  - leave for Zhengzhou on Friday night
  - spend Saturday morning and afternoon at Shaolin
  - leave for Shanghai on Saturday night
  - return on Sunday morning

Budget

  - round trip tickets to Zhengzhou from Shanghai ~200RMB, (check with your volunteer coordinator)
  - One-way bus ticket to the Shaolin Scenic Spot - 25RMB
  - Shaolin Scenic Spot entry pass (includes return trip ticket)- 180RMB
  - Transportation within the Shaolin grounds (recommended, it's a pretty big place) 20RMB
  - Food ???

Total ~425rmb + food

The Scenic Spot entry pass includes:
  - entry to three temples
  - bus transportation between the three temples
  - Chinese kung fu show

Getting to Zhengzhou

You will want to buy your round-trip tickets ahead of time; contact your volunteer coordinator to help you out with this. To maximize your time at Shaolin, I recommend purchasing a ticket to arrive in Zhengzhou before 7:30am, and leaving at around 8 or 9 pm.

Getting to Shaolin

There is a long-distance bus station across the street from the train station. There is no opportunity for breakfast once you hop on the bus to Shaolin, so I recommend grabbing some breakfast in Zhengzhou. There is also a supermarket nearby where you can grab snacks, the prices will be much lower than in Shanghai! You will have to buy a ticket to Shaolin from the bus station ticket office for about 25rmb. Once you find the Shaolin bus, there will be a tour guide from whom you buy the entry pass for the scenic area (180rmb). This will include a return trip ticket to Zhengzhou with flexible boarding times.

The Morning

You will be following a preplanned tour, but unfortunately the tour guides only speak Chinese. If you're lucky, you might find a fellow tourist who is happy to help you translate, or you can drag along a volunteer coordinator or Jessie :-). You don't want to wander off too far from the group, or you might get lost. They will take you to two really cool temples near the Shaolin Temple which was an added bonus for me because I didn't expect this.

Shaolin Temple Area

The surrounding area of Shaolin Temple has been very well developed for tourism, with many souvenir shops and even English-speaking tour guides and staff.

Return to Top

(Animated flags provided by www.3DFlags.com)