China
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China is a country in Asia.
Contents |
Introduction - History
With a population of 1.3 billion, China is the most populated country in the world, and commonly considered as the 4th biggest country in the world (in some rankings surpassing the US, but this is a contentious issue (especially in pub quiz's!) revolving around Chinas more 'autonomous' areas such as Tibet, Xinjiang and Taiwan). Chinese people refer to themselves as from the 'Middle Kingdom', Zhong-Guo (Zhong=middle Guo=country or kingdom). For centuries the Chinese emperors have called themselves the 'Sons of Heaven' sent to earth to govern all the land under the sky. This "Land under the Sky" generally refers to China (or at least the imperial land conquered by each respective dynasties). It is generally said that China has over 5000 years of history, but hard-core historians prefer to say 3300 years since that's when real written accounts of history can be traced back to.
Geography
China has overall 23 provinces, 5 autonomous regions (including the famous Tibet and the predominantly Muslim and Uigur Xinjiang), 4 municipalities (Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Chongqing) and 2 special administrative regions (Hong-Kong and Macau. The island of Taiwan is officially (according to the PRC) a province of China, but for the Taiwanese government that's another story. (I will not discuss the issues regarding Tibet, Taiwan, Xinjiang..etc. for certain evident reasons...)
With the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau in the South West, the Gobi Desert in (Gansu and) Xinjiang bordering Kazakhstan in the West, the Mongolian Plains in the North, the Manchurian peninsula, mount Chang Bai in the North West bordering the Koreas, the China Eastern sea coast, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and Hainan island's in South East, shared border's with Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Bhutan in the south, China has a huge variety of landscapes and both natural and man-made wonders to explore. Be it skiing, diving, hiking, partying, working or tanning on the beach, all is possible in China!
Ethnicities, language and other tid-bits!
China has over 56 ethnic minorities (56 being the official figure, there are sub-groups within many of those minority groups), the Han being the most dominant one, mostly speaking Mandarin Chinese, which used to be the language of the imperial court (the Mandarins!). In China, Mandarin Chinese is referred as 'PuTongHua', meaning the 'the common language', since it is taught every where in China in all schools to all people alike. However, with the literacy rate in China being around 86% as of 2003 (most likely a bit more as of 2007; literacy rate is lower in Tibet, Xinjiang and most of the poor regions), plus the numerous regional languages/dialects being spoken everyday language people use (there are over thousands of them... the most famous ones being Cantonese, Shanghaiese, Sichuanese...etc), travellers with certain command of Putonghua will still often find themselves confronted with certain communication problems. Today Chinese people themselves still have problem communicating with each other verbally, a person from Heilongjiang (a Mandchurian province) will not necessarily understand the accent or dialect of a person from Sichuan Province.
The largest ethnic minorities are the Mongols, the Tibetans, the Mandchurians and the Hui (muslim) with these minorities mostly spread through out central and western China. There are many small minorities, colourful and rich in rituals, dance and clothing living in Guangxi, Guangdong and Guizhou provinces and especially in Yunnan province. Most minorities have their own spoken language, some of them even their own written language. So the best advice I can give to all travellers out there: once you're in China, try to quickly befriend a person to give you a written list of basic everyday words on paper (which will become your bible during your trip!), written in both English and Chinese (pinyin, the alphabet style, and hanzi, the characters, so that if you can't say it at least you can show it to someone!) so that you know how to ask people where the bathroom is; how much a standard room in your hotel costs; where the train station/airport/bus station's are (for taxi drivers!). Or at least be a mime world champion, the power of mime can get you along way!
Tourism
China has millions of touristic interests to share with the world, but some of the most famous ones can (just about) be packed in to 900 pages of a Lonely planet or Rough Guide guidebook (but us Couchsurfer's have the added bonus of local CS experience almost every where in China!). The currently most famous places (internationally let's say) are, in an disorderly fashion; Beijing, Shanghai, Xi'An, Chengdu (and the whole of Sichuan province), Tibet, Yunan Province (including Lijiang, Kunming, Shanghrila, Dali and many many more), Guilin, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Huang Shan (famous Yellow Mountain), Guangzhou, Hong-Kong and Macau.
Most of classical china tours will be focusing on those destinations, for a not completely authentic, not completely 'Couchsurfing-style' tour of China. (For a more Couchsurfing-style, take three years off, have a lot saved, then go back to work and get even more money for the inevitable return and second leg of your 'tour') There are millions of other beautiful, breath-taking, culturally unique, mind-blowing, astonishing, fantastic places to discover in China, like the Buddhist grotto's of Dunhuang and Maiji Shan in Gansu, the mountains of Zhang Jia Jie in Hunan and the old town of Huang Long Xi outside of Chengdu (and many other beautiful fairly well preserved old towns and villages throughout the country that are almost exclusively listed online.. in Chinese!) to name but a few.
Finding out about some of the more off-beat places takes time, acquaintances, friends in local communities, conversations with people who have been around the block so to speak and a fair bit of luck. But never be afraid to speak to someone, young or old, if you think it may lead you to that 'special place', most people you come across will be more than glad to help you even if their is a language barrier. And a wee bit of Chinese never hurt *nudge nudge* (Many westerners have achieved amazing command of Chinese, some of them achieving cult like status due to television and other media outlets, just don't mention that media tycoon 'Da Shan' to any China expat unless you want your ears taken off). Oh yes, also, you have your friendly CS community to help you, so my fellow Couchsurfer's: COUCHSURF AWAY!
Travelling
For booking flights and hotels, very convenient english website: www.ctrip.com. Here you'll find the lowest rates for flights and accomodations of your choice. (again i hate to promote a specific commercial company, but it is the best site out there widely used by the chinese themselves!) however you will not find the backpackers or youth hostels listed there...
Taking the train in China is the most convenient way to travel, it can be very long as distances are rather important from one big city to another. some provinces are bigger than the state of Texas or France! However, to buy yourself a train ticket is not the easiest task. If possible, ALWAYS buy your ticket one or two days in advance. if you go to the train station, the bigger the city, the more you have to be careful of pickpockets, harassers and stalkers who want to sell you all kinds of business (train tickets, hotels, transport, even maybe mei-mei (prostitutes!). The train tickets are the hottest commodity on the black market in China, although it's illegal to trade train tickets in China enforcement is scarce, so many black market traders or brokers will just go to queue the lines at the ticket counters and buy tickets in bulk, then sell them at black market price.
To buy tickets you can actually find official train tickets counters in specific shops in the city. at the train station the tickets counters are usually located in a special 'ticket sales hall' or 'center'. From what i remember, cities like Chengdu, Xi'an, Chongqing do not have english signs under the 'Shou Piao Ting' (ticket sales hall', so just look for a big hall that's not the departure nor the arrival hall with lots of people queueing. if you are travelling around the month of the Chinese New Year, the week of May 1st or the week of October 1st, do book your tickets at least weeks in advance. that's when the entire china is taking the train and public transportation to go on holidays, tourism, go home to visit family...etc
Phone and communication:
In China there are three mobile phone networks, all three of them owned by the China Telecom public company (don't ask me why, it'll require an entire economist conversation!) the two national operators, China Mobile and China Unicom both function on the normal bi-band frequency (i believe phones from all over the world except US are dual band). to purchase a sim card, the best advice would be to choose China Mobile, but careful sim cards are only local! buy the Shenzhouxing type (神州行）and make sure you ask the vendor (only go to China Telecom official shops!) that you can recharge it in other provinces!
The best way to make a phone call (do not confused with 'to be reached by phone!!'), is just to find any newstands on the streets, or any little shop around the corner that has one of those colourful telephones 'on display'. It means you can use the phone and call local or regional (within the province). if you need to phone home, you'd have to ask whether you can phone international (guo ji dian hua), same goes with long distance (chang tu dian hua). price is rather cheap even for international calls (compared to western standards of course... 12 RMB to call Paris for 3 minutes last time i checked!)
Couchsurfing
It is said that Couchsurfing has gained certain momentum in large cities over the past years in China. More and more Chinese with good command of english are signing up to CS due to good media coverage (Big Bravo, big thumbs up to local CSers who've done all that promotion!!) there's been good surfing and hosting in many large cities around china, although the CS system of locating where people are loging from in China is far from being acurate (I almost always got 'Beijing' when i logged on in Chongqing..!) It is relatively safe i would say to surf in China, but still do check a person's profile many times before surfing his/her couch, particularly in the big cities, there can be impostors and scammers out there.
Bejing and Shanghai are becoming fabulous couchsurfing destinations, cities like Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Chengdu are also catching up. Hopefully in the future there'll be just more and more sign-ups with genuine hosts and surfers out there! it is however often observed that Chinese people do not necessarily sign up on CS to actually host, surf or meet people. CS might have first appealed to them as a entertainment website to meet foreigners, and since they don't know that they'll have to invest time and effort in working on their profile, actually correspond with and meet with foreigners, they don't really get the instant rewards they get from other entertainment websites in china. (for how the chinese use the internet, that's another huge chapter!). So if you are out there surfing and meeting chinese CSers, spread the spirit, the right CS message, and make real good connections!!
Places
Easy couches
Off the beaten track
CouchSurfers
Tips and trivia
How to be a good guest
History of meetings
--Philtzou 05:02, 10 January 2008 (UTC)Couchsurfing Shanghai has been holding regular monthly meetings since September 07, there is currently no Shanghai city ambassador so i'm sort of doing what i can with my available resources (ie not a lot of time!!). irregular meetings have taken place throughout the years before spontaneously when people on the CS Shanghai group post a suggested meeting/dinner/drinks together..etc
On September 07: we had our first 'formal' coffee get-together at the Old Film Cafe on the pedestrian Duolun Road, near Sichuan North Road, where the old 1930s mansions nearby, the antique stores on the streets and the nice weather accompanied our good spirits! there was an impressive number of people (locals!!) who were new on CS or interested in CS.
October 07: we had a great dinner at the Mandchurian Restaurant (Dong Bei Ren) on Shanxi Nan Road 1, about 2 tables over 24 people! great turnout out, couple of surfers, a few hosts, also a few interested minds who then did sign up! then the party moved to the House of Jazz and Blues (Maoming Nan Lu 158, near Fuxin Middle Road) a must-go to all jazz lovers, and enjoyed the nice live music by the current house quintet.
November 07: a rather spontaneous but great party, less CS-focused because of the crowd in the bar, CS Shanghai gathered for the Too Dumb to Die trio who played at Piccone Bar, www.piccone-sh.com. this was a great concert by three travelling musicians going around Asia by bike, 2 of them are now officially CS TBMs (i'll post links to their profile later, CS website is down right now...)
On December 31st 2007 Couchsurfing Shanghai had a great New Year's Eve bash at the Beca Cafe in REd Town, next to the Shanghai Sculpture Museum. event page on FB. about 70 people showed up, among which maybe 50 or so were involved or related to couchsurfing. hopefully lots of new signup's subsequent to that.
also, a Couchsurfing in China group has been created on facebook
all those in china or coming to china or interested in china are welcome to join!
January 08: CS Shanghai started up the Chinese Olympic Year by having a fully energized evening of culture and fun. first we attended the Pecha Kucha [1][2] Shanghai event, at the Shanghai lifestyle center, then we had our couchsurfing shanghai first ever KTV party, where we had a beautiful mixture of cultures, from France, Togo, China (of course), US, Turkey, Finland, Korea, Canada. absolutely fabulous party at the Haoledi KTV near Xintiandi.
February 08: probably the first month when we actually had 2 great gatherings! Feb 16: we had a nice Brazilian dinner near China Eastern Normal University campus, then we took it further to the funky Shanghai Gecheng KTV (Song city), and then some hardcore people continued onwards to party and dance at Windows til the wee hours!! whatta amazing night!
Then on Feb 29th now that was a full house we had!! Couchsurfing Shanghai had a blast at the dinner gathering with two full tables (over 22 people!) at the yummy Sichuan restaurant You Jia Chuan Cai on Jiangsu Road 121, between Yuyuan road and Changning Road. We then moved the party to the Hut [3] a cool dive bar where we actually had an amazing full house party!! we fully used up this back-room special lounge in the back of the bar, and there were over 30 people!! because we were the biggest party in the bar, many of us actually ended up meeting others at the bar, brought them into our 'CS lounge', and competely converted them!!
March 08: in celebration of one of the surfers' birthday, we had our first full day event: St Patrick's Parade, then picnic in Fuxing Park, followed by a nice little drink in Taikang Lu (recommendable to all for a nice afternoon coffee in a traditional shanghaiese ally transformed into a trendy cafes and restaurants and gallery district!), a nice get-together dinner at Papa John's (not very chinese but fun atmosphere!) and finally, a gathering at Harley's to enjoy some cool cats playing nice French electrohouse.[4]
there will be more to come, Shanghai is gaining certain momentum, we meet more and
more Chinese sign-up's, it's a great and diverse goup that likes to get-together and greet the passing-by surfers, and sensibly and progressively the core people are forming a comunity that is now growing stronger and more connected!
end of meetings report, --Philtzou 17:00, 25 March 2008 (UTC)
Media mentions
--By Philtzou 04:36, 10 January 2008 (UTC)Couchsurfing was mentioned on December 3rd 2007 in the Shanghai Daily, the most widely read English-newspapers in Shanghai.
the article was written by Yao Min-G who then signed up on CS but dont think she surfed or posted that much since. I'm in touch with her everynow and then though, cool young journalist, very representative of a well-western educated (went to Wesley college!) white-collar, alternative-style local youth.
the problem (I have) with this article is that some of facts that the journalist wrote were wrong, even though she was of quite good will and keenly interested in our community. but overall it's good publicity for us i think, and hopefully would compell local expats and chinese alike to explore our wonderful world of couchsurfing by joining the Shanghai group!
here's the article in question: http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2007/200712/20071203/article_340204.htm
(unfortunately the entire article is no longer accessible online to the public -only to subscribers, but i will resolve the issue quickly by getting hold of a soft copy and publish it here!:))
--Philtzou 04:36, 10 January 2008 (UTC)
Couchsurfing (and myself!!) gets another media mentione by the local popular online mag, the Shanghaiist, thanks heap to [5] Andy Best for his great article here: link titlehttp://shanghaiist.com/2008/04/02/couchsurfing_sh.php#comments
--Philtzou 16:53, 2 April 2008 (UTC) Now this is a national newspapers printed in English and distributed all over western hotels all over China,
the China Daily, which did a story about me and Couchsurfing on April 21st 2008. the journalist was quite interested and interesting, story is quite okay. Page 10 of main section, quite large picture of myself, which does flatter certain ego there... :) http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2008-04/21/content_6630774.htm
--Philtzou 12:24, 24 April 2008 (UTC)csgroup:111 Wikipedia:China Wikitravel:China hitch:China
