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 02/23/2008 08:30:23 PM · #1
I'm heading to China on business (Beijing and surrounding area) March 4-16th. Any tips on travelling there? This will be my first trip and I plan to take my camera, lenses and accessories (except tripod).
 02/23/2008 08:45:08 PM · #2
Bring your tripod. Bring backup drives, laptop is possible, shoot shoot shoot.
 02/23/2008 08:46:29 PM · #3
Get a Lonely Planet language translation book for Mandarin Chinese.
 02/23/2008 08:52:56 PM · #4
I would have thought that you could get alot of your equipment alot cheaper there, I could be wrong. Oh and if you need a luggage carrier adn camera holder,,,, I'm your gal@@@!!!!!##^^%&#*(!
 02/23/2008 08:59:54 PM · #5
I took the family there a couple of years ago. On of the best trips we ever had.

Take the standard tours, Great Wall, Forbidden City. I'm not usually a tour group type, but these were good. Also, take the Hutan tour (not positive on the spelling)

It's a rickshaw tour through the old part of Beijing. Some tours even set up a visit with a local family in their house.

Go to the Temple of Heaven in the morning to see lots of people doing various forms of Tai Chi.

Here's a link to some of the photos we took.

//web.mac.com/scarbrd/iWeb/Scarbroughs/China.html

Shopping - Go to the Pearl Market. Upper floors have great prices on pearls and other jewelry. Lower floors is where you find the knock-off Gucci, Coach bags, watches, etc. type of things. The vendors on the lower floors can be very aggressive.

I recommend the Peninsula Hotel. They had some great package deals there when we went. Top notch and walking distance to Tiananmen Square.

Have a great trip!
 02/23/2008 09:03:30 PM · #6
I should have mentioned that a co-worker will be with me. He is Chinese and has setup the hotel arrangements. I'm just worried about becoming a human pack mule between taking enough clothes for 12 days, my camera bag and my laptop. Thats one reason I'll probably opt not to take the tripod.
 02/23/2008 09:09:41 PM · #7
Originally posted by scarbrd:
I took the family there a couple of years ago. On of the best trips we ever had.

Take the standard tours, Great Wall, Forbidden City. I'm not usually a tour group type, but these were good. Also, take the Hutan tour (not positive on the spelling)

It's a rickshaw tour through the old part of Beijing. Some tours even set up a visit with a local family in their house.

Go to the Temple of Heaven in the morning to see lots of people doing various forms of Tai Chi.

Here's a link to some of the photos we took.

//web.mac.com/scarbrd/iWeb/Scarbroughs/China.html

Shopping - Go to the Pearl Market. Upper floors have great prices on pearls and other jewelry. Lower floors is where you find the knock-off Gucci, Coach bags, watches, etc. type of things. The vendors on the lower floors can be very aggressive.

I recommend the Peninsula Hotel. They had some great package deals there when we went. Top notch and walking distance to Tiananmen Square.

Have a great trip!


Great Pics. Glad to see I'll not be the only Rodney to visit Beijing!
 02/23/2008 09:34:21 PM · #8
Dude, you only need one set of clothes, the rest is for equipment!!! heheh
 02/23/2008 09:44:07 PM · #9
Originally posted by rodneyg:


Great Pics. Glad to see I'll not be the only Rodney to visit Beijing!


Thanks, his favorite place was "The Great Big Wall of China" ;-)
 02/23/2008 09:55:45 PM · #10
Many years ago, I traveled to China on a three week tour. You will have the time of your life, but my recommendations are practical:

1. Bring an incredibly comfy pair of walking shoes.
2. If you can't carry it yourself...don't bring it.
3. If you can't use chopsticks...bring your own fork. Many places do not have forks for Westerners outside the touristy areas.
4. If you don't like sand paper on your tush, bring a roll of your favorite all American TP.
5. Drink only bottled water or Chinese Beer (yummy!)
6. Bring cash in small denominations in addition to your travelers checques.
7. Bring an empty bag to carry souvenirs home

Too bad you are not going to Kweilin...Photography Heaven! ;-)

Go with an open heart and an BIG smile...and I promise you will have the time of your life.

Message edited by author 2008-02-23 22:06:57.
 02/23/2008 10:14:26 PM · #11
I went their a couple of years ago and loved it.... may take you a few days to get use to the food... if you have time check out Victoria Peak in Hong Kong its an awesome mountain overlooking the city where you can get get beautiful night shots. Also if you get to check out hong kong go shopping their and use their train system to get around in your free time its really easy to figure out and pretty awesome. Their street stands and shopping area is amazing.... when I went pretty much everyone I spoke to spoke english and I could understand, I had a great time their.

Just a tip dont live anything like camera or computer out in the open in the hotel or anywhere when you are not their or looking.....

Message edited by author 2008-02-23 22:16:47.
 02/23/2008 10:54:41 PM · #12
I don't know about the walking shorts. My brother and sister in law live over there and it snowed a couple weeks ago.
 02/23/2008 11:01:34 PM · #13
I spent over three weeks there in 2006 and there is quite a bit to see in the Beijing area. The first 35-40 photos in this portfolio are from that part of the trip:

My Smugmug

I'm glad I made went as it is a very different culture. As a matter of fact I would go back to the south but do some things on my own, especially in the Guilin area. As for Beijing I was torn on it. The Forbidden City, the Great Wall and the rest are a must see. But the city is very polluted and dirty. Bring eye drops and if you have nasal problems some nasal spray (or at least some saline solution). I was in Beijing for five days and never saw the sun. One night we watched a large orange ball drop in the sky. We could look right at it without problem. I realized it was the sun setting! They are making headway to clean it up for the Olympics but most of that will be temporary and only for that year.
 02/23/2008 11:20:17 PM · #14
If you are traveling high-dollar, you might not have problems with pickpockets, but if not and you are planning on being in public/busy areas, make sure every pocket has a zipper or is empty. Likewise, be aware of pockets on your backpack that can be easily opened.

This advice is frequently heard in Taiwan and I've not found any trouble with pickpockets, even in the heavy congestion of the night markets. On the other hand, a few people I know that have been to mainland china have reported getting those little touches on their pockets...

Put just a few moments of thought into where you are going before you set out and you will have a great time.
 02/24/2008 12:16:15 AM · #15
Take clothes for 4 or 5 days, and have them cleaned while you are there to wear again.
If you can contact your guide beforehand by email, see if he will set up a side trip to a place where you can buy a tripod, then sell it or give it to him when you are ready to return. Even a cheap tripod or good monopod is much better than nothing at all. You may think about bringing a monopod which travels much easier than a tripod, and can also be used for a walking stick on rough terrain.
I haven't been there, but these things came to mind while reading the original post.
02/24/2008 12:19:08 AM · #16
if u d not want to take a tripod at least take an ipod or a gorilla pod.
both are reasonable
 02/24/2008 08:38:51 AM · #17
Originally posted by jbsmithana:
I spent over three weeks there in 2006 and there is quite a bit to see in the Beijing area. The first 35-40 photos in this portfolio are from that part of the trip:

My Smugmug

I'm glad I made went as it is a very different culture. As a matter of fact I would go back to the south but do some things on my own, especially in the Guilin area. As for Beijing I was torn on it. The Forbidden City, the Great Wall and the rest are a must see. But the city is very polluted and dirty. Bring eye drops and if you have nasal problems some nasal spray (or at least some saline solution). I was in Beijing for five days and never saw the sun. One night we watched a large orange ball drop in the sky. We could look right at it without problem. I realized it was the sun setting! They are making headway to clean it up for the Olympics but most of that will be temporary and only for that year.


Thanks for the link, very nice pictures. Makes me almost look forward to the 17 hour flight.
 02/24/2008 10:17:14 AM · #18
I'm jealous. I went with a teacher's group last summer and had a blast. We were lucky enough to be able to visit 4 different school and also had two family visits. We went to Beijing, Xian and Shanghai - Beijing had a great deal of construction going on due to the Olympics. Traffic was horrible.

I highly recommend going to a show or two. We went to the Red Theatre and saw Kung Fu (which is coming to Broadway)and of course saw an Acrobatics show and Chinese Opera.

We also visited a couple of active Temples - very interesting - some of my favorite pictures came from these places.

I took several lens, but only ended up using a zoom. I got tired of carrying more than one around and decided I really didn't need the others - wish I had left them at home. Took a cheap tripod as well, but never used it. It was actually left behind due to an over abundance of stuff coming back (Silk Alley and the Pearl Market are fun shopping experiences). Also left the laptop at home and purchased a 60gb Wolverine portable hardrive to store the pictures on. We had internet access at all the hotels.

I ended up with over 8,000 pictures during the two weeks! Here are just a few if you're interested China 2007

Have a great time!!
 02/24/2008 10:23:16 AM · #19
You only need to take a weeks worth of clothes, China is famous for their landry skills.

Originally posted by rodneyg:
I should have mentioned that a co-worker will be with me. He is Chinese and has setup the hotel arrangements. I'm just worried about becoming a human pack mule between taking enough clothes for 12 days, my camera bag and my laptop. Thats one reason I'll probably opt not to take the tripod.
02/24/2008 11:31:54 AM · #20
I read "fish's" blog a lot and there are lots of extreme traveling tips from a photg who does a couple of miles each year :-). Wish I could have done his New Years trip a couple of weeks ago.... work takes up too much time & no $ is limiting :-/
 02/24/2008 01:27:17 PM · #21
My family and I were in China Starting January 1, 2000. BE REAL CAREFUL TAKING PHOTS IN TIENEMEN SQUARE. The Chinese having plain clothed special agents in the square and if you try to take photos of military personnel that are usually there in big numbers, they wilo take your film and or camera. This nearly happened to a woman in our tour group.
 02/24/2008 01:49:38 PM · #22
Originally posted by dfstevenson:
My family and I were in China Starting January 1, 2000. BE REAL CAREFUL TAKING PHOTS IN TIENEMEN SQUARE. The Chinese having plain clothed special agents in the square and if you try to take photos of military personnel that are usually there in big numbers, they wilo take your film and or camera. This nearly happened to a woman in our tour group.


I don't think this is so much of a problem any more, they may still have plain cloths officers (I don't know) but they're somewhat more relaxed about photography and tourists in general.
 02/24/2008 04:28:09 PM · #23
I read something about this, They have relaxed several laws related to photography and video taping due to the upcoming Olympic Games.

Originally posted by bfox2:
Originally posted by dfstevenson:
My family and I were in China Starting January 1, 2000. BE REAL CAREFUL TAKING PHOTS IN TIENEMEN SQUARE. The Chinese having plain clothed special agents in the square and if you try to take photos of military personnel that are usually there in big numbers, they wilo take your film and or camera. This nearly happened to a woman in our tour group.


I don't think this is so much of a problem any more, they may still have plain cloths officers (I don't know) but they're somewhat more relaxed about photography and tourists in general.
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