hey all,
my husband and I have daily battles on whether or not we shd travel in china during the CNY holidays. some friends we met strongly advised us against it, saying that every place will be overbooked, crowded, overpriced, etc. this is apparently since ppl from the cities go back to their hometowns. basically that its the worse time to travel within china. that plus the cold at this time of the year.

Is that a fact??

If not, then where do you suggest we go? btw, we are practically vegetarians (from India) and have been in shanghai for just about 2 months, and although are learning mandarin, we know very little. so if we travel, i'd like places that are traveller savvy.
personally i'd like to go out of the country, to a warmer place like Bali. but someone at home is all excited about 'The discovery of China'.

It's a fact.

I travelled last CNY and met with exactly what your friends have advised you against. Everyone does everything at exactly the same time here, making it nightmarish to travel during regular holidays. Couple that with the not so well organized transportation system, a population of 1.3 billion, and everyone knowing that Chinese people MUST travel to their hometowns so they can scalp and people WILL pay, and you have a recipe for a horrible time.

Try to get your company to let you work through the holidays and give you time off a week before or a week after if possible.

My 2 fen,

K-9

I agree with Chaosknign.
Have in mind that increased travelling takes place more or less 2 weeks before and after CNY with the peak around CNY. I suggest you explore China later.

I have a question too... we were going to go to Xian, but got told the Terracotta Warriors, and all the museums were going to be closed. Is this also standard for CNY?

My 6th CNY here and I would not travel, the roads are even worse these days if you have a car. Air and rail travel ticket prices all go up and so do hotel prices. Anywhere of interest is a sea of people. Better to get out of China if you are wanting a break and leave internal travel until after the CNY when the weather gets warmer anyway.

i hear tons of things are closed in shanghai during CNY. is this true? what do all the foreigners do in SH usually during those 7-10 days?...

We go back to our own countries or we stay at home enjoying the fact that there are six million less people in Shanghai at that time.

well, i wouldnt be queuing for any rail ticket anytime soon,

but i heard if u get to sanya, theres massive over-capacity and they r still way under-booked even in chinese new year

like 58rmb 3 star hotels even at chinese new year

NEVER, NEVER travel in China during CNY - you will wish you had a shotgun handy.

I am planning my CNY too. How about places like Vietnam/Cambodia/Philippines? Safe to go there without being mauled by 1million Chinese?

Is going to Guangzhou and Shenzhen a good idea? I am planning to do this from 28th - 31st Jan. moreover its not very cold there.

I travelled during May holiday to Guilin en Yangshuo, expected it would be chaotic... FACT, not really... It's crowded for sure, but not as I would imagine... MAYBE I am getting used with these millions of people around me, even think Shanghai railway station in daily basis is still more crowded than Guilin/Yangshuo at that time.

Travelling along Yangtze river on NY's eve, EXPECT it shouldnt be crowded, it's winter so supposedly there would be less tourists... FACT still there're hundreds of people.

It's tru that during the holiday, the airlines and hotels increase the price ridigilously, pretending they're overbooked while some of them actually half empty. Nevertheless, it's still cool to go around... thou staying at home, catching up with sleep or going back to wherever you come from could be a better option.

Going other places, like Thai for example... you would still find there long Chinese Parade everywhere, looking cute in their bathing suits... reminded me back to 70s or 80s.

Heaven earth - why are you getting paranoid to travel together with millions of people, trix?? I was in India en even the worst season I went, I still banged to tonnes of people everywhere.

ONLY my joke... Lock yourself inside the toilet to avoid the crowd...

Oh Dragonass, we Indians (especially those from Bombay) are very used to crowds. its not the teeming millions i'm scared of... its the overpricing and the inability to get tickets, etc.
but yeah, when its holiday time and you do want to see some sights, i certainly don't want to stand in a long Q for everything. I'm done with long Qs in India and the Vatican city!
Maybe we should go to New Zealand! haha.

We are going home for CNY but not until two days into it - does anyone know, are the first two nights of CNY the craziest? And what does CNY really entail - I heard that this year there is a law that fireworks can only be set off from the hours of like 6pm to 6am (can't remember exactly but it was something scary like that all night.) SOme people told us that it's unbearable and the whole city smells like gunpowder and it's super loud.

DOes anyone know what it might be like this year?

Also, as for the people thinking of traveling, we found that a lot of flights are already booked to places like Cambodia and Vietnam when we tried booking them last week.

How about places like Vietnam/Cambodia/Philippines?

I think you better hurry because we contacted tour operators before Christmas and most packages vacation including flights + hotels were fully booked to those destinations. Maybe you have more chances if you buy flight + hotel as separate package but it is more expensive...
good luck

Hey Trix... NZ is worth the thought, thou not the best season rite now. Going on winter for skiing and enjoying Queenstown... it's just way to beautiful, truly jaw dropping. I went to Switzerland, I still love Queenstown in comparison.

En staying with the sheeps... en smelling like the sheeps...

AlliX wrote:We are going home for CNY but not until two days into it - does anyone know, are the first two nights of CNY the craziest? And what does CNY really entail - I heard that this year there is a law that fireworks can only be set off from the hours of like 6pm to 6am (can't remember exactly but it was something scary like that all night.) SOme people told us that it's unbearable and the whole city smells like gunpowder and it's super loud.

Tell me about that, I was cursing like sailors all 7 days... It was fun in the beginning, but no longer fun when I walked and suddenly the fire crackers exploded 1 metre from me. It happened again en again, gave some kind of phobia.

Traveling in China during Chinese New Year is the absolute nightmare. Make sure you are gone well before and back in China well after. If you want to enjoy Chinese New Year, go to chinatown in Sydney. The fireworks are better, the parade is cool, and the food and weather are better anyway.

fox007 wrote:

How about places like Vietnam/Cambodia/Philippines?

I think you better hurry because we contacted tour operators before Christmas and most packages vacation including flights + hotels were fully booked to those destinations. Maybe you have more chances if you buy flight + hotel as separate package but it is more expensive...
good luck

Thanks for the tip!

Hmm... is HK as bad as China (with the firecrackers and all?) I am running out of ideas on where to go for CNY..

Trix77/DragonAss

Being a Kiwi, yes NZ is beautiful in Winter, but the Summer is just as gorgeous and in fact, end of Jan/Feb is best if you would to escape the drab weather here.

So it's still a good option if you were being serious. Auckland's Viaduct Basin and the like buzz in good weather, and there are beautiful wineries to adventure around, beaches to laze on, or mountains to climb!

If you're saying that it's at the ass end of the world, that's not far from the truth either but well worth the journey! And we are civilised despite this geographical distance from the rest of the world!

I know NZ has been a fantasy for a while... well actually after LOTR!
but we dont have a visa to the place and dunno how hard it would be to get one from here. also wouldn't it be pretty expensive to get to the ass-end of the world?

Hey Kiwi.... hang on, I have been there on X'mas holiday... I guess, yeah that'z rite. The weather was good, without snow thou...

As a matter of fact, the weather in NZ is just much better compared to Australia at this time. I was being asked to go back to Melbourne, but the thought of 43 degrees stings... euw...

Trix77 wrote:I know NZ has been a fantasy for a while... well actually after LOTR!
but we dont have a visa to the place and dunno how hard it would be to get one from here. also wouldn't it be pretty expensive to get to the ass-end of the world?

It depends on what country you're from. Some countries citizens don't need a visa to enter for tourism (like Canadians) and others do. I found a couple of websites that may help:

http://www.immigration.govt.nz/nzis/ope ... .htm#o7504 gives a list of all the countries that are exempt from needing a visa.
http://www.immigration.govt.nz/
main page just in case my first link doesn't load.
You can also check out the NZ Embassy page for the country you live in . Just type "New Zealand Embassy (Your Home Country Here)" into google, and it will pop up.

hope that helped a little bit. As for how expensive... no idea. But they do want you to have 1000$NZ with you per month that you'll be staying in the country. Expensive depends on exchange rate I suppose.

For Indian passport I would imagine the visa issue applied differently, thou I dont think it's really that hard to obtain

Where can I get cheap ticket to Christchurch. I am planning to go after CNY

This is a reply more to the original topic.

I and my family have now travelled around China practically every national holiday. We have been to Xinjiang, Yunnan, Xian/Shaolin, Beihai, Harbin (2006 CNY). We enjoyed every single one of them. Sure its a bit more expensive than usual but thats about the only downside. Since I have not travelled around China at other times I cannot compare. But weekend trips to Hangzhou or other nearby places are no different in terms of crowds. This is a country of billion people. There will be people everywhere all the time.

My experience is similar to Dragonass. People are everywhere but it does not affect you. I remember going to Disney in Anaheim and queues were backed up everywhere - for entry and for every popular rides. Not so in China. In all my holidays here despite the number of tourists around, I dont recall waiting in any queue anywhere. The most you may have to queue up for is the airport security check. And even that is not too bad.

We have done these holidays with our kids - with strollers and bags and camera cases and jackets and haversacks full of drinking water and diapers etc. and still have no complaints.

If you love life, planet earth and exploration go for it. ask me a thousand times and I will recommend with equal enthisasm each time.