China – Part 2
Quick Reads.
Happy retirement!
Today, July 1, I begin my 25th year of retirement. Honestly, I’ve never looked back for one second. I have enjoyed retirement every day since I stopped working. Frankly, I was built for retirement. I’ve been fortunate to have good health, a great family, and good friends. I have ardently practiced “Randy’s Financial Plan of a Lifetime.” I still feel as good as the day I retired at age 52.
The first half of 2026 is now finished. I traveled somewhere overnight during this timeframe for 96 nights. What do I have to say to that? I always had somewhere to go!
Carol and I are planning a trip to Sweden in late July. I booked all of my hotels on Hotels.com. There were no Hyatts to book. I got a smoking-hot points-and-miles deal to book this way.
For the most part, we are in our Swedish hotels/motels for just one night. I ended up mistakenly booking four of those nights in June rather than July. I only noticed my mistake when Hotels.com sent an email (in June!) asking how I enjoyed my check-in. That message told me the reservation was made a month early! I hate it when I do stuff like this. Nevertheless, I was able to claw back all four nights of nonrefundable expenses, one hotel at a time, even after two of the reservation dates had passed. That saved me $800 and proved, “If you don’t ask, you don’t get.”
Today, I start my 25th year of retirement by flying to Seattle to see the World Cup football match between Belgium and Senegal. Getting a ticket to the World Cup at a reasonable price is dramatically more difficult than taking the law school admissions test! Thanks to J.J. for all of his help.
China – Part 2
Did you know this?
Do you know how many U.S. citizens aged 18 and above hold a valid U.S. passport? 48%. I would wager that another sizable percentage of people who do have a passport have never used it or have used it only rarely. Lots of people don’t travel, or they don’t travel very far. There’s nothing wrong with that. Nothing at all.
On the other hand, I travel quite a bit. Why? I want to see new things and meet new people. I want to encounter situations that give me stories to remember for the rest of my life. I want to experience things that will become stories I can tell my friends. That’s why I travel.
If you’ve been a reader of mine for very long, you would probably agree that I do encounter some rather unusual circumstances. Probably 99% of the people in America will never get these experiences.
Make some mental notes.
As you read through this “China – Part 2” newsletter, try to make a mental note of every circumstance that we encountered on this trip that the normal individual would never experience.
Of course, to be fair, a person who travels as much as I do is never going to have the lifestyle or the experiences of a person who doesn’t travel. There’s really not enough time to be a world traveler and a homebody at the same time. That’s fine. Everyone gets to choose how they want to live their life.
Yes! This is true.
I am a trackchaser. One of my major hobbies is traveling, which takes me around the world as I try to see car racing at as many different tracks as possible. Our China trip was a “trackchasing trip.”
Did that mean that we went over to China, and all we did was watch cars race around in a circle? No, it doesn’t mean that. As a matter of fact, this was a 13-day trip to China, and we spent one day devoted to trackchasing, probably less than three hours at the racetrack. Wanna see how this “trackchasing trip” turned out? Let’s get started.
Today, the last day, was race day.
On our last full day of the trip, I decided that we would see the China Touring Car Championship series at the Ningbo International Circuit in Bellun, Ningbo, China. That was the goal of the trackchasing part of this trip. I would come to learn that saying you are going to do something is not as easy as actually doing it!
We needed both a car and a driver.
The racing circuit was located three hours south of the Grand Hyatt Shanghai (our suite above), where we were staying. I could rent a car like I usually do on my domestic trips, but that didn’t seem like a good choice in China.
I decided I would hire a driver. The driver would take us on a six-hour round-trip car ride. He would stay with us for four or five hours while we “trackchased.”
Carol is the World’s #2 Trackchaser!
Did you know that Carol is a trackchaser as well? Yes! She’s seen racing at more than 750 tracks in 53 countries. Those 53 countries give her the rank of World’s #2 Trackchaser. By the way, she is a ture American “bad ass!” She has actually raced!! Here, she is pictured in New Zealand racing in a sprint car.
As a matter of fact, she is the only female trackchaser in the history of trackchasing who has ever gone to an event by herself. What was her experience like in Hagerstown, Maryland? Somebody tried to hit on her!
China is inexpensive.
Most things in China are very cheap. The average item in China probably costs 30 to 40% of what something would cost in the United States. How much could hiring a driver for the day possibly cost me?
Oh my!
I met with the Grand Hyatt Concierge and explained my situation about hiring a car and driver. I asked what a situation like this might cost me. He asked a few clarifying questions, told me that I would have the best car in the Grand Hyatt chauffeur stable, and we could do the deal for $1,350.
Folks, I follow my own financial plan, which I have shared with you for years. I’ve done pretty well. I also follow the Die with Zero financial personal lifestyle strategy.
Nonetheless, $1,350 seemed a little “out there“ to get a ride down to a racetrack. We discussed other options and ultimately agreed that the concierge’s friend, a DiDi driver, would be our chauffeur for the day for only $330 US. I thought that was fair.
I love it when a plan comes together.
So what kind of car would we get at the bargain-basement price, and what kind of driver would we get? The answer was that we got a great car. Our driver, Mr. Zhang was driving a huge electric SUV. Mr. Zhang didn’t speak much English, but he spoke enough, and, importantly, he spoke Chinese and could therefore act as our translator as well.
I was traveling a little bit blind.
Our driver showed up on time at 7 a.m. on Sunday morning. I was never able to confirm with anyone in advance what time the race actually started. A race like this just about anywhere else in the world would start at about 1 p.m. This was road racing. They rarely race at night or early in the morning. I tried to contact people in advance, but I couldn’t reach anyone. I didn’t know that was going to be as big a deal as it was.
Off we went with me sitting in the front passenger seat so I could take pictures and Carol relaxing in the spacious bucket seats in the row behind.
You should experience roads in China!
I was unprepared for the condition of the Chinese roads. Folks, I’ve driven all over Bulgaria and Angola, and those have to be some of the worst roads that I have ever experienced.
On the other hand, the roads in China were like riding around in a golf cart in the middle of Disneyland. After more than six hours of driving on Chinese “interstates,” I don’t know that I saw a single patch, blemish, or even an oil stain. China’s roads were as smooth as a baby’s bottom. I never saw a single piece of trash on the side of the road, or a piece of a truck tire, or somebody’s fender and license plate.
I live in California. We have really good roads. I think they are the best in the country. Our roads are like driving through a farmer’s cornfield compared to the roads in China. These were the most magnificent roads I have ever seen in my life. You didn’t expect me to say that after reading the headline, did you?
Rest stops, good or bad?
A couple of times, we stopped in highway rest areas. These were outstanding as well. Each of the rest areas had modern restrooms, a slew of retail establishments, and several eateries.
Once, when we were trying to purchase something with my phone, I didn’t have an internet/cellular connection. That meant we couldn’t make our purchase. We carried no Chinese cash.
The Chinese lady behind us in line told us she would pay for our $6 purchase and I could pay her back when my phone got an internet connection. When was the last time that kind of thing happened to you in the States?
Not much, well not any, diversity.
During the entire day, just like pretty much during the entire trip, I never saw any white people or Black people or Hispanic people, only Asian people. Why mention that? Because it just seemed so unusual.
Found the track, then chaos ensued.
We found the Ningbo International Circuit easily. We arrived at about 10:30 a.m. I thought for sure we would be early for the race. My plan was to buy a couple of tickets, go in, sit down in the grandstand, watch the race for a couple of hours, and check the box for my third racetrack in China, where I’ve seen racing.
This started out well, but….
It didn’t work out that way. We found a trio of young men in a shaded area handing out credentials and race tickets. I told them, through my driver translator, that we wanted to get two tickets and watch the races.
They seemed friendly enough, but they couldn’t sell us a ticket. They would have to contact their superiors and ask me if that was “OK.” Er, what?
No soup for you.
I thought this would create only a slight delay, but it was bigger than that. Soon, the young men’s supervisor came along. He spoke a little bit of English and was about 35 years old. I explained that we had come all the way from Los Angeles. We were interested in seeing their racing and asked if he could approve our tickets. I wasn’t trying to get a free ticket. I was willing to pay the 200 Chinese Yuan ticket fee, which was about $30 U.S. each.
What?
The man looked at us, listened to our story, and told me that the event was “private.” Folks, this was the frigging China Touring Car Championship series. In China, that’s pretty much the same thing as NASCAR. You can go to just about any race featuring NASCAR on the day of the event and buy a ticket. No problem.
I tried to reason with the supervisor, but even with my sales skills, he wasn’t buying what I was selling. He was not going to let us see the race.
Not a problem in my world. Just a delay.
This really wasn’t a problem with the way I think about things. If I run into somebody who won’t do what I want them to do and won’t change their mind, I will try to go around them or under them or over them; not a problem. I don’t mind ruffling feathers if need be. This just created a little bit more of a delay.
Superwoman to the rescue!
During my discussion with the supervisor, a young Chinese civilian woman somehow got involved. She was talking a mile a minute in Chinese. I had no idea she was even advocating on our behalf. Folks, this gal was relentless.
I would later learn that she was a kindergarten teacher in China. She spoke her native Chinese very well and enough English to get by.
Yes, she had overheard our issue, and she was busy advocating on our behalf! The woman was 26 years old and not the least bit shy.
If my newsletter allowed video, I could share her conversation with you. Soon, she and the guys who were managing the tickets reached an agreement. We would wait for the supervisor to leave, and they would sell us the tickets. That’s exactly the way it went down!
Mini Tree.
The young lady told me her name, and it sounded to me like “Mini Tree.” For the rest of the day, I referred to her as Mini Tree, and she seemed to accept it.
This DID concern me.
By the time we got our tickets, we saw most of the crowd leaving the grandstand and flowing into the parking lot. To be honest, that did concern me. Maybe they had a morning race, and by nearly noon, everything was finished, and we had missed the race? No, they were just breaking for lunch. Racing would begin at about 1 p.m.
How about some lunch…with Ms. Mini Tree?
We were now under the control and direction of Mini Tree. She suggested that Carol and I join her for lunch. She had a restaurant in mind that was about a ¾-mile walk from the track. Off we went, walking. There were no sidewalks. We were walking on the road with a good deal of traffic! Folks, I was grinning like a Cheshire cat! Mini Tree was creating the story for us, and I do this for the story.
Mini Tree told me that she had never eaten here, but it came highly recommended. I don’t know who recommended this place, but it didn’t meet my tastes.
The restaurant was crowded. It was primarily an outdoor restaurant with several shade trees. You placed your order, and then they delivered the food to you wherever you could find a seat under the trees. Whatever you are imagining from my description, it wasn’t like that.
This was not what I wanted for lunch.
The food selections were “local.” I’m talking fish with heads and eyes! I selected the pork ribs, and they were decent.
They didn’t offer Coke Zero. If a restaurant doesn’t have Coke Zero, it can probably only get a three-star rating from me. They did have water, which they delivered to us. But this was HOT water. Who gives you hot drinking water? It was already 85°; we hadn’t had anything to drink for a while, and hot water really wasn’t going to ring a bell for me.
Somewhere along the line, we found some folks selling some Corona beer. It wasn’t cold beer, but it was beer, and given the alternatives, that would work.
Spending time with Mini Tree truly was a highlight of the entire trip.
So here Carol and I were, having lunch in the shade, with all the hot water we could drink, and talking for nearly an hour with a 26-year-old Chinese kindergarten teacher. I come on these trips for the experience and the story. Not many people have the story I just told you.
For the rest of the afternoon, Mini Tree, Carol, and I sat in the grandstand and enjoyed the race. This was the first race Mini Tree had ever seen, even though she lived in the same city, Ningbo, as the track. What were the odds?
Circuit details.
The Ningbo International Circuit was built in 2017 and is owned by the automotive conglomerate, Geeley. It’s a 23-turn 4.015 km asphalt road circuit.
The track has very good sight lines, although at some points the cars were a long way from the grandstands. The crowd was small, maybe 400-500 people. The announcing was all in Chinese, so we didn’t understand anything. They had two 40-minute races with two different classes of touring cars. Refreshments were nearly non-existent, and souvenirs were non-existent.
When the race was over, we found our driver. He had declined my offer to join us for the race so he could charge the car. Mini Tree invited us to see a local attraction in her hometown, but with a three-hour-plus drive looming, we didn’t have time. I wanted us to join her, but didn’t want to impose on our driver.
I was striking out on edible food.
The ride back to Shanghai would take us into the darkness. For dinner, we stopped at one of the highway rest areas. Our driver recommended a restaurant. This was a buffet that served mainly things that I wouldn’t eat in a million years. I selected a couple of less offensive items and bought a Coke Zero at the convenience store next door.
We continued our conversation with our driver as best we could and soon arrived safely back at the Grand Hyatt in Shanghai at about 10 p.m. I gave the driver a nice tip. He had done an excellent job. Maybe I’ll get a chance to employ him again in a similar circumstance.
More unusual encounters made the trip a major success.
We had a number of other very unusual experiences in the second half of our China trip. We rode the Chinese high-speed bullet train twice. Each ride was about four hours long.
I recommend business class on the bullet train.
I bought business-class seats for our trips. I rode these trains in China last summer, so I knew the drill.
On these Chinese trains, business class is the best, and most expensive, seat you can buy. This is followed by first class, second class, and standing.
The business class car has only five seats. These are lie-flat seats like those you would find in a business or first-class airline cabin. Business class comes with a private lounge in the train station and a meal that isn’t very good in my opinion. Business class seats book up fast because there are so few of them. They aren’t that expensive, and how often are you going to ride a Chinese bullet train? Die with Zero, baby.
Carol sat next to Brad Pitt on the train!
O.K. Not THAT Brad Pitt. On the train, with only five seats in our entire car, Carol sat next to one of the most famous actors in all of China, Tan Jianci. O.K., I had never heard of Mr. Jianci, but every Chinese person I talked with after this train ride thought that Tan Jianci was cooler than Brad Pitt!
We didn’t exactly know what we were getting ourselves into with this movie star encounter. When we boarded the train, we saw a number of onlookers photographing a passenger who had just boarded. I thought it was just family members seeing their loved one off on a big trip.
It turned out it was Mr. Tan Jianci! In the business-class section of our Chinese bullet train, there were three seats in the front row and two in the back.
Beyond bizarre.
When we sat down in our two seats in the front row, there might’ve been a dozen people inside our train car. Everyone was speaking rapidly and somewhat bizarrely in Chinese. It appeared that some other folks thought they had the seats that we had, and maybe things had been double-booked. They weren’t. We were in the right seats. They asked if we would trade seats and move into another car. I said no.
Domestic abuse?
As we waited for the train to depart, a young woman, rather tall by Chinese standards, boarded our car, trailed by a man dressed all in black. The man was shoving the woman in a rather hostile manner. This looked like some kind of domestic abuse situation to me. I thought about summoning the authorities, but I didn’t understand the situation.
I would come to find out this woman had been detained for taking unauthorized photos of the movie star. Her companion, dressed all in black, was either a cop or a member of the movie actor’s security team.
For the next two hours, two guys dressed in black sat the woman down in the second row. They stood with their backs to us and just stared, from a distance of three feet, at the woman.
When the movie star got up to use the bathroom, two more security people walked with him for maybe 12 feet and never left his side until he disappeared behind the bathroom door.
The train had a couple of stops before the movie star was going to get off. When we pulled into those two stations, and the train slowed, I could see a horde of people running up to our car’s windows and taking photographs of the movie star. How did they know THIS guy was in THIS train car?
Fan stands for fanatical.
When the woman who had been detained needed to use the bathroom on the way back to her seat, she pulled out her phone and tried to take more photos of the movie star. This did not go over well with the security folks. No doubt about it, she was a diehard fan who was probably going to have a little bit of trouble with the Chinese legal system for her behavior.
Given that the entire discussion was in Chinese, I was simply trying to piece together what was really happening in our car. The young female train attendant explained things to me by showing me a photo of Mr. Jianci. What an unusual experience for us! When Mr. Jianci got off the train, there was more chaos.
A beautiful Chinese countryside.
One of the best reasons for riding the train is to see the Chinese countryside. Although it was a cloudy day, the scenery and the rice fields made our choice of the train a good one.
This is one of my more unusual hobbies.
One of my hobbies, which I just began, is getting haircuts in foreign countries. I’ve done that in South Africa and Sweden, and on this trip I did it in China.
The Park Hyatt staff in Changsha, China, recommended a nearby barber in a very upscale shopping mall.
We would end up in a number of these malls. I, like you, have been in my share of shopping malls. Some in the United States are getting a little worse for wear nowadays. We might’ve been in five or six malls on this trip, and every one of them was spectacular. More than half of the retailers were brands that I had never heard of in my life. I was a little surprised by that. There’s a lot of money in China.
My haircut experience was great. I instructed Carol to take photos, and she did. First, I got a shampoo, then I got a cut, and then I got a shampoo. The entire experience took at least an hour. The price? 23 bucks. I pay 23 bucks at home, and I don’t get the upscale experience. I got it today in Changsha.
Meeting more very unique people.
When we were in the mall, we decided to have lunch there. While we were making our selections, a young Chinese woman approached and began conversing with Carol. She was 24 years old and an English student.
She was just about the most upbeat and inquisitive young lady I’ve ever seen. Soon, Carol, I, this woman, and her friend were all having lunch together. I think she was just practicing her English. Anyway, for the next hour, we learned about her dreams and expectations.
Dustin Hoffman!
Another unusual “hobby” I have is watching movies in foreign countries. That’s always a unique experience.
The Park Hyatt front desk told us we could see the movie, “The Graduate,” in English. That movie first came out in 1967, the year I graduated from high school. Since this was the only film available in English, I thought it would be fun to see.
When we showed up at the movie theatre, we were told The Graduate was NOT playing. I was disappointed. In its place in English were Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu. Oh my goodness. I have never been a Star Wars fan. I would not walk across the street to see a Star Wars film. To me, it was just a big cartoon, and I never watched cartoons as a kid. I thought about asking Carol if we could leave early. She actually enjoyed this movie just a little bit.
The last eight or nine days of the trip, which I am calling China – Part 2, were spent in Changsha and Shanghai, China. I visited these two locations last year. I wanted to show Carol what it was all about.
Top-notch accommodations.
We stayed at the Park Hyatt in Changsha (above) and the Grand Hyatt in Shanghai. Each of the hotels is tremendously upscale. We had a guaranteed suite upgrade with each of our reservations, just like we had at the Hyatt Regency outside of Macau.
These hotels were spectacular. I’ve never had better hotels for one trip. Each included very high-end breakfasts at no extra charge. Our suite at the Park Hyatt was on the 62nd floor, and our suite at the Grand Hyatt (above) in Shanghai was on the 82nd floor overlooking the Huangpu River and the outstanding Shanghai skyline.
Recommended.
We did a number of tourist things that I would highly recommend. In Shanghai, we went to the Shanghai Circus, which I also saw last year. This is a one-hour show that probably seats 4,000-5000 people. They attract a large number of tour bus clientele. We arrived by DiDi.
A trip highlight.
The Shanghai Circus features a variety of acrobatic acts and other astounding performances. Being a sports guy, I was impressed when they had a motorcycle rider drive around inside a large steel cage. If you’ve ever been to your state fair, you’ve probably seen something like this.
When I say “something like this,” I mean only something like this. At the Shanghai circus, they have a NUMBER of motorcyclists going in circles inside that steel cage. How many motorcycles? SEVEN. Can you imagine seven different motorcycles traveling at 30 or 40 miles an hour inside, upside down, inside out at one time? This is one of the most amazing feats of daredevilry that I’ve ever seen.
Food tours are fun.
We also did a Chinese food tour in Shanghai. Food tours are fun. You have a guide who will take you to five or six eateries over about three hours so you can sample appetizers, entrées, and more.
We’ve done these in Tokyo, New York City, New Orleans, and Miami, as far as I can remember. Our tour group was only four people. We met a man from Melbourne, Australia, and a young lady from Dallas, Texas. They were fun.
Our guide was a young Chinese woman and was more than delightful. The tour included not only food stops at places we never ever would’ve experienced on our own, but also walks through Chinese urban neighborhoods that we never would’ve found on our own.
Never an unsafe moment.
We were in China for 13 days. Almost all of our travel was inside major urban areas. I never felt unsafe for a single moment. As I mentioned, there were no people who looked like us. I think it would be pretty difficult to find a place where you could tour for 13 days and end up being so unique.
Don’t miss the nighttime skyline cruises.
We took a nighttime cruise in Changsha, China. Last year, I did that kind of cruise in Shanghai. Shanghai was better, but the cruise in Changsha was very good. The boat we used had live musical entertainment, and at night, the weather is much more comfortable than during the daytime. The high-rises of Changsha were lit in all kinds of rotating, beautiful colors. As our boat turned around at the midpoint in the Xiang River, we saw the massive sculpture of young Mao Zedong. It’s 105 feet tall.
Ride the trains at least once.
The bullet trains were a highlight. They travel at a bit over 300 km/h, which is a little over 200 mph. The trains are super smooth. When I rode Amtrak from Los Angeles to Chicago at 70 mph this winter, it felt like the train was going to jump off the tracks.
Old vs. new.
I’m a little embarrassed to say this, but America seems “old” compared to China. Being objective, so many things from the routine to the spectacular are better in China. No, I don’t want to move to China. I’m just saying that China is better than the U.S.A. in a lot of ways. I didn’t really expect that when I first started traveling to China 25 years ago.
We will be back.
I told you that I travel to see new things and meet new people. I told you that I travel so that I can have experiences that few folks that I know have ever had.
China delivered on all of the above. Carol and I have 10-year visas for China that allow unlimited visits. We hope to come back soon.
A 15-hour time zone difference.
The time zone difference between China, which has only one time zone despite being such a big country, and Los Angeles is 15 hours. I won’t mislead you. A 15-hour time zone difference is substantial.
They say it takes about one day to adjust to each hour of time zone difference you are experiencing. By the end of our trip, we were pretty well accustomed to the Chinese time zone. When we landed back in Southern California on a nonstop United Airlines flight from Shanghai to Los Angeles, we were immediately thrust back into being “15 hours off.”
I pretty much ignore any of the challenging aspects of a trip like this. I ignore them because those are requirements for the enjoyment that the rest of the trip is going to provide.
That’s about it. China was a wonderful place to visit. Except during Shanghai’s rush hour, there was virtually no traffic in China, and we had our hired drivers with us everywhere we went.
If you go to China, you won’t see anyone who looks like you. If you go to China, virtually no Chinese locals will speak any English. But your phone has a translator, so that drawback can be overcome.
The cost of touring and living in China is low. Really low. The people that we met were all nice and friendly. They couldn’t have been any friendlier.
Next up?
Sweden will probably be the subject of my next newsletter. I’ve been traveling every weekend. I went to South Africa for a week. I was all set to go to Argentina, but my race was rained out, so I postponed the trip.
Sweden will be next month. We will be traveling in rural Sweden and staying in very basic Swedish hotels. People speak pretty good English there. Sweden will be a much different trip from China. A Lexus is a lot different than a Tesla, and a Rolex is quite a bit different than a Timex. It’s all good.
Randy…and the World’s #2 Trackchaser, Carol.