traveling to China.

[Dim Sim]

Hi all, I need some advice and suggestion on where to eat and stay when we are are in china, places we plan to visit are Guangzhou, Guilin, yunnan and kunming, Lijiang and Chengdu ( keen to try some real Sichuan cuisine ).

Bear in mind we are on a low budget, thanks in advance

[XiaoLing]

Oh wow! I'm soooo jealous!

Food in China are relatively cheap. You can get a really good meal at a restaurant for 10 people around $400RMB which is roughly $60 US dollars.

My suggestions if you are really on a budget is to try the street food. Whether or not you are on a budget, street food is the way to go. It's tasty, cheap and fast. I love Chinese "Fast Food"!

Here are some sites that might answer some of your questions:

http://www.travelchinaguide.com/

http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Asia/...uide-China.html

[Ben Hong]

If you are spending U$D, the affordable hotel selection should be very large. As for places to eat, things change so fast in certain cities of China, that what's hot one week may not be so a week later.

Speaking of hot, if you are to eat street food (preferred) make sure that the food you buy comes right out of the cooker, or is really piping hot. Stay away from food that's been sitting too long, don't eat salads or drink any tap water.

Read up on precautions before you go.

[XiaoLing]

Ditto on Ben's suggestions.

Make sure the street vendor is clean and the food is fresh. And always buy bottled water.

[Pan]

Ditto on Ben's suggestions. 

Make sure the street vendor is clean and the food is fresh.  And always buy bottled water.

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Right. Or drink tea. There's a good reason why Chinese people have drunk hot tea for so long. It's a lot safer than contaminated cold water!

[Kent Wang]

I have some photos from my visit to Guilin, Yunnan, Kunming and Lijiang.

I can't remember the names of any of the restaurants but hopefully the photos will give you an idea on what to order.

[insomniac]

Don't stay in the King World Hotel in Kunming.

there are lots of 'international' type hotels in the city centre

I second the mushroom restaurants...there is a whole street of them to choose from

Hole in the wall cafes provide ridiculously cheap food. The muslim ones are delicious, we asked locals, stressing that we didn't want westernised food. Luckily our daughter is a fluent putonghua speaker, plus can read and write.

Lijiang is a tad like Disneyland, beware touristy restaurants

We actually preferred Dali which was not so contrived.

p.s if you are flying it is a good idea to book morning flights...as the day goes on the delays pile up until if you have a late evening flight it is likely to be severely delayed, in our experience of several trips to Yunnan.

p.p.s. give the website 'virtual tourist' a look.....it's where budget etc travellers post their ideas and is quite helpful

Edited January 24, 2007 by insomniac (log)

[nakedsushi]

Piggy backing off of this. I'm also visiting China sometime this October. I will be mainly visiting Shanghai, Hanzhou, Suzhou, and maybe Beijing. I can eat just about anything there and I'm salivating just thinking about the shenjianbao's, but the BF is a vegan. Will he be able to eat anything other than stinky tofu and rice there?

[Pan]

When I was in Hangzhou (quite a long time ago: 1987), I was traveling with three other people, one of whom was on a macrobiotic diet. We had Buddha's Delight two days in a row, and it was terrific! What you have to watch out for is that "vegetable" dishes can have pork in them. There was one time when the four of us had lunch in a cheap restaurant downtown and ordered two vegetable dishes, one of which seemed to be really vegetarian, and the other of which had pork or ham in it, in addition to the vegetables.

[liuzhou]

Also, many vegetable dishes are fried in pig fat.

[ratgirlny]

Can I piggyback too?

We're going to be in Beijing, Chongqing, and Guangzhou for a few weeks, in late Feb/early March. I'm particularly interested in where to go in Chongqing. I know that spicy hotpot is the specialty, and I want to make sure I partake. Bring on the chiles! So, does anyone know the best places for hotpot in Chongqing?

I'm going to have a couple of small kids with me, but they are very good about trying interesting food too. But I don't want to go anywhere too formal or business-traveler oriented because of them.

Thanks!

[insomniac]

Hey ratgirlny, in Chongqing I really recommend a visit to the 18 Steps Teahouse near the antique market. It is one of the most charming teahouses I have ever visited...on several levels with lots of nooks and crannies and decorated from top to toe with antiques and curios....there is a small stream on the ground floor and several little balconies with wonderful views across an old part of the city to the skyscrapers.

whatever you do DON'T take the kids to the zoo as it is one of the most disturbing sights I have seen in a while (notwithstanding pandas).i.e. mentally ill animals with running sores in horrible cages... (the funniest zoo I've been to in China was the Dog Zoo in Beijing in the days when dog owning was banned)

there are some fried ice cream booths in a few of the malls, called Fritto, red colour...the kids would love that I'm sure

don't worry about the kids, we took ours anywhere, they are a great icebreaker whether at formal or street food level, anyway 'formal' isn't quite what the west is used to in China I saw the inside of a lot of kitchens cos that was where the kids often were, or else playing cards out back with the staff, normally in clouds of strong Chinese ciggie smoke

Edited February 2, 2007 by insomniac (log)

[ratgirlny]

OK, I'll have to check the 18 Steps Teahouse out. It sounds very pretty. And I know the kids will want to try the fried ice cream. Uh-oh on the zoo - my kids heard they have pandas and badly want to go. We from NYC too, so they are used to that level of zoo.

[insomniac]

Believe me, you are NOT used to that level of zoo

[Gastro888]

Bring hand sanitizer and handi-wipes for you and your kids. Plus carry scads of pocket tissues wherever you go. You could carry your own chopsticks with you (I'm sure you can find a cute little set in the kitchenware department of most Asian supermarkets).

[hzrt8w]

Feb/early March. I'm particularly interested in where to go in Chongqing. I know that spicy hotpot is the specialty, and I want to make sure I partake. Bring on the chiles!

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Hotpot for 2 small kids? *cough* *cough* Hope you would order something else too...

[Fengyi]

(off topic) If you decide to go to Beijing zoo area- the aquarium is brilliant and perfect to bring kids to! My 4 year old niece loved it (as did her parents!).

For food - the world's your oyster in Beijing - and for "nakedsushi" here's a review for one of the good veggie restaurants here:

Pure Lotus

Pure Lotus’ ambience, mission statement, and mock-meat dishes make it the best vegetarian restaurant in Beijing,” says one reader about this unique eatery run by Buddhist monks. “My friends and I often go there and order a self-created fat-free menu. Even with its higher prices, I can’t resist.” Recommended dishes include the tieban heijiao (iron skillet black peppers), vegetarian hand rolls and pumpkin soup – a truly purifying experience!

1) Daily Daily 11am-11pm. Inside Zhongguo Wenlianyuan, 10 Nongzhanguan Nanlu, Chaoyang District. (6592 3627, 8703 6668, 6437 6288)

2) Daily 9.30am-10pm. 3/F, Holiday Inn Lido, Jiangtai Road. (6437 6688 ext 3812)

[insomniac]

Have to say that Pure Lotus is stunnning and my kids preferred it to the Li Family restaurant...I loved them both, especially as old Mr Li came out and sat with us for a long time and enthralled us with his story. My son (chef) was desperate to find out which knives were used in the kitchen and came away a happy boy

ps. the hand wipes are important....they are easy to buy most places

Edited February 3, 2007 by insomniac (log)

[herbacidal]

Oh wow! I'm soooo jealous! 

Food in China are relatively cheap.  You can get a really good meal at a restaurant for 10 people around $400RMB which is roughly $60 US dollars. 

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I'm pretty sure that's not really true anymore.

Just got back from Guangzhou. I think at least half the meals we had, for 3-5 people, were well over $200 RMB. At most, probably around $700 RMB.

But we weren't paying for anything, so I can't recall specifics.

Also wish I could recall more about the specific locations of the restaurants.

You'll want to carry tissues everywhere. Most places don't have towels/napkins in the restrooms for instance.

But they are easily purchased on the street, or at one of the stores you'll see.

[liuzhou]

I think at least half the meals we had, for 3-5 people, were well over $200 RMB.  At most, probably around $700 RMB.

Where were you eating? You can eat much more cheaply than that. I had dinner last night with two friends. We ate a lot of excellent Sichuan food and the bill was only ¥65 (including beers).

Edited February 5, 2007 by liuzhou (log)

[insomniac]

Guangzhou's prices often reflect its proximity to Hong Kong.

We ate at a superb buffet (normally avoid them) in Xixuanbanna (sp?)southern Yunnan province and it was RMB20 per person including all the beer you could drink......they were obviously not used to seeing many NZ/Ozzies

Edited February 5, 2007 by insomniac (log)

[liuzhou]

Xishuangbanna

[insomniac]

Xishuangbanna

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cheers Liuzhou, I knew there was a 'sh' in there somewhere well, I can't spell it but it's a gorgeous place as a base to explore the area, which is quite wonderful, along with its people and local food

[ratgirlny]

Believe me, you are NOT used to that level of zoo

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ha-ha!, I meant to say that we are used to pretty state of the art zoos - what I wrote didn't make that clear.

[ratgirlny]