Mainland China…good or not?
I am headed to mainland China. I had never been to mainland China. I suspect most people reading this have never been to mainland China. Places like Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau are not mainland China. I’ve been to all of those places. Would mainland China be some sort of “boogieman” place where all kinds of nasty things were happening? Let’s go there and see.
I always have to watch out for Carol.
On Monday, Carol and I returned from Tokyo, Japan, to Los Angeles. On Tuesday, I rested. On Wednesday, I flew from Los Angeles to Shanghai, China. Why not just fly from Tokyo to Shanghai? I wanted to make sure that Carol got back home to our modest seaside cottage safely. Once that was done, I could head off to China.
Would you do it this way?
I was planning to fly standby using my airline’s flight-dependent benefits. When I fly standby, I might get an unsold seat. If the plane is full, I don’t go. If you had a big trip to China planned, would you want to show up at the airport, flying standby, and not have a guaranteed seat? I am an “adventure” traveler. Traveling like this doesn’t bother me. I actually prefer it.
In addition to flying non-stop, in case I didn’t make a non-stop flight, I considered connecting in more than ten cities to get to Shanghai. These connecting cities included San Francisco, Dallas, Detroit, Chicago, and several other cities that had non-stop flights to Shanghai. Helsinki and Vancouver were the leading candidates. They have the most open standby seats. I wouldn’t know until the night before departure which direction I would head.
I barely made the non-stop flight from Los Angeles to Shanghai! It was touch and go. With just a couple of minutes before the flight’s departure, I was given a boarding pass. Had I missed the flight, that would have caused all kinds of logistical problems. I was flying in coach. Flying in coach for 13 hours and 45 minutes is brutal. Not as brutal as going through Marine Corps Boot Camp, but brutal nonetheless.
The China visa.
To visit China, I would need a visa of sorts. China has introduced a special visa process for U.S. visitors and those from many other countries. A tourist can get a “transit without visa” for a 240-hour stay. It’s a visa without being a visa! This idea worked flawlessly. I completed the paperwork and presented a printed itinerary of my flight from Los Angeles to Shanghai and my subsequent departure from Shanghai to Hong Kong on Hong Kong Airlines at the end of my trip. Upon arrival in Shanghai, they gave me my TWOV.
What is a “transit without visa?”
Here are the rough highlights of the “transit without visa” program. You have to enter China from “country #1.” You have to leave China from “country #2.” Country #1 and country #2 cannot be the same. You can stay in mainland China for a maximum of 240 hours. The clock starts ticking at midnight of the day you arrive. That means you can actually stay for a bit more than 10 days. What happens if you don’t leave China within 240 hours? I wouldn’t want to find out. A single entry TWOV for one person costs 400 Chinese Yuan or about $55 U.S. Soon, I had cleared immigration and was in Mainland China!
This was noticeable during my first hour in China.
In the first hour that I was in Shanghai, China, I noticed that the Chinese are an aggressive bunch. I was in Japan last week. The difference in these two cultures is dramatic. At this point, I prefer the Japanese version.
Bad weather…but cheap stuff.
There was no air conditioning in the Shanghai airport. It was hot and humid. I stopped at a Lawson convenience store in the airport and bought a larger-than-normal cream-filled pastry and a larger-than-normal bottle of Coca-Cola Zero. Before I left Los Angeles, I paid $6.45 for a 16.9-ounce Coke Zero. Today in Shanghai, my larger Coke Zero and pastry came in at only $1.84. That’s pretty amazing right there. I would notice how inexpensive everything was (except luxury hotels) everywhere I went in mainland China. Until I reach Hong Kong, every time I mention China, I will be referring to mainland China.
Communication was going to be difficult.
Tonight, I was staying in a UR Cove by Hyatt hotel. The World of Hyatt rewards program has what they call a “Brand Explorer” program. Hyatt has about 35 different brands. Each time I stay at one of their various brands, they give me a badge. When I get five badges, Hyatt gives me a free night certificate that I can redeem for hotel rooms that are selling for $400 or more. I try to make the most of every advantage and circumstance I can with my travel partners.
I paid the princely sum of $58 U.S. to stay in this UR Cove property in Shanghai. I plan to stay in a Hyatt hotel every night of my trip in China. The UR Cove hotel would earn me my 18th Brand Explorer badge, giving me more than $2,000 in before-tax vacation expense reduction. It pays to pay attention.
Didi. Yes, Didi soon became my friend.
To get to my hotel from the airport, I used DiDi, which is what Uber is called in China. I bypassed the opportunity to take the subway from the airport to the hotel. I’ll figure that out later.
My first Didi experience was beyond terrible. The language barrier in China is going to be a significant obstacle. I would come to learn that China is one of the worst countries I have ever visited for locals speaking English.
At the airport, two women gave me advice on how to get my Didi ride. The woman at the Shanghai airport information center had to use her phone to translate what we were saying to each other. That was a bad sign!
One woman directed me one way, and the second woman said to go the other way. I ended up walking from Terminal 1 to Terminal 2. My Didi driver arrived at Terminal 1! At least they automatically refunded the charge when I missed the ride without my asking.
This was not going to be easy.
I ordered a second ride. Once in Terminal 2, my Didi driver called me when we didn’t match up. He spoke Chinese. I do not. Another observer heard my phone conversation and told me that I was on the wrong level in Terminal 2. They pick up on two levels. I was on the wrong level. To be clear, none of this stuff bothers me. I simply consider these “outages” to be part of the fun of travel.
I went to the new, correct level and once again couldn’t find my driver. A young woman observed my dilemma, took my phone, and explained things to my driver. Soon, I was in the car.
A winning solution when I get stuck in these situations is to hand my phone over to an English-speaking, Chinese civilian. Then I use the universal approach of throwing up my hands in frustration and go from there!
Didi is super cheap in China.
The one-way ride from the airport to the hotel was only about 70 Chinese yuan. Currently, one U.S. dollar will get you about seven Chinese yuan. That meant my 30-minute ride cost only about $10 US.
Here you go. Say what?
About 30 minutes into my ride, my driver pulled off and stopped on the side of a four-lane road. He essentially said, “Here you go.” There was no hotel in sight.
At that point, we spent the next 20 minutes trying to communicate with a phone translator. Whatever he was saying in Chinese did not make much sense in English. I’m not sure if my attempt to translate my words into his Chinese phone was any better. I had one advantage. I was in the car and wasn’t leaving until I reached my hotel!
I think he was expecting me to pay about 100 Chinese yuan for this “second” ride. I don’t think he was being dishonest. Perhaps the address I initially provided to get me to the hotel was incorrect. I don’t think it was, but it might’ve been.
He made a translation, asking me if I was going to pay the second charge. Since I figured that was the right thing to do, I told him I would. However, I also told him I had no idea how I would do that. He kept saying “pay” with my cell phone. I still had no idea how I could pay him.
When we finally reached the hotel, I noticed the lobby had a massive glass wall between the parking area and the check-in desk, where the driver dropped me off. While I checked in, I noticed my driver waiting. Then I noticed him taking a photograph of me at the check-in desk through the glass wall. Now I was probably in trouble with the Chinese mafia! As far as I know, there were no charges against me for the second ride. What did I learn from all of this? This is going to be a wild adventure! And you want to come to China on a guided tour and miss all this fun?
When I walked into my room, I saw a modern hotel suite. I could not have asked for more, even though the clerk did not mention anything about an upgrade. This upgrade probably came from my Hyatt Globalist status, but the desk clerk didn’t mention that.
The UR Cove was excellent.
I was eager to experience the complimentary breakfast at a UR Cove by Hyatt hotel. This was the least expensive Hyatt brand that I saw in China. I had paid just $58 for the night, and they upgraded me to a beautiful suite.
Breakfast was excellent. All kinds of choices, including several Chinese dim sum favorites. At home, I’m a big fan of Chinese food. Carol and I eat that often. The breakfast box was checked as being very good.
VPNs are important in China.
I’ve been able to use my VPN, virtual private network, on my phone, but not on my MacBook Pro. Without the Internet, I would be a dead man. It might be user error with the MacBook. I’ll continue to explore that. So right now, it’s all iPhone every hour. My battery runs down quickly, but I have several charging sources, so I should be OK.
Obstacles!
You’re going to read about several different obstacles I encountered in China trying to do some of the simplest things. “Obstacles” make the trip experience so much fun! Please don’t fall prey to the “easy solution” of how you do these things in Des Moines or Tallahassee. If it were that simple, I would have picked those solutions myself. This is China, folks!
Time to ride the famous long-distance Chinese trains.
Today, I planned to ride a Chinese train from Shanghai to Changsha, China. This would be a six-hour ride. I had only done a minimal amount of research on the train idea. My general overall travel strategy is to “play it by ear.” An equally adventuresome strategy follows that strategy, “Just figure it out.” These are not always good strategies, but they are strategies I enjoy.
I had done a little bit of research about the trains on YouTube. I learned how to ride the train and buy a ticket. What more could there be to this?
Let me introduce you to Alipay!
Today I used Alipay, a smartphone app, to order an Uber driver to take me to the Shanghai train station. The Road to Rio app told me that was the way to go. How was all of this done before smartphones?
One of the YouTube videos I watched told me that business class is the most expensive and most luxurious way to ride the train. That is followed by first class, second class, and “standing”. Standing didn’t sound like a good idea for a six-hour train ride.
I work hard to get savings and then I work even harder to spend and enjoy those savings.
I have a strategy that’s a little bit different than most other folks. I like to save money and create better value. But I don’t want to tuck those savings away. If I can achieve significant savings by buying one thing, I will immediately reinvest those funds into something else that I might not have done without that extra money. Understood?
China’s train stations are gigantic.
I learned that train stations in China are similar to major airports in many other countries. That is certainly true of the Shanghai train station. It’s massive, and the people being dropped off at the train station reminded me of catching an airplane at the Chicago O’Hare Airport.
Carol is my banker.
When I go on these trips, Carol goes to the bank or somewhere and gets me local currency. She gave me about $700 U.S. in Chinese yuan. I didn’t expect to need nearly that much, but it’s always good to have some local currency in reserve. I have no idea how many different foreign currencies she has stashed away in the house. Who knows? We may have $100,000 in leftover currency that she is saving for a “future trip.”
After arriving at the train station and asking a few questions, I found where I could buy a ticket. That’s winging it. It was 11:30 in the morning. I didn’t have a reservation. The earliest train I could catch would leave at 4:30 p.m. Given that the train departs every 30 minutes, it was clear there were many sold-out trains on this Friday.
It don’t cost much more to go business class.
I bought a business class ticket. Remember, business class is better than first class with the Chinese train system. The business class ticket for the six-hour ride was $214. The first-class ticket was about $100. Remember, I just paid $58 for a full-blown Hyatt hotel with a suite upgrade and a complimentary breakfast. Paying a couple of hundred bucks for the best train riding option possible supported my long-term financial strategy of buying good stuff cheap and not being interested in buying cheap stuff cheap.
Unbeknownst to me, my business class ticket also got me into the business class VIP lounge at the train station. That would be valuable considering I had five hours to wait for my train. The business class lounge was huge. The quality was comparable to a low-end Priority Pass lounge. Still, it was an improvement over being among the general public, and it provided some basic food and drink options.
I have switched to Google Translate as my go-to translation option. I’ve noticed that whenever I approach people and start speaking English, they immediately pull out their phone and use a translation app. That’s OK with me. Some communication is better than none.
A very pleasant surprise!
My train ride was excellent. I was seated in cabin number one, seat number one, in the business class section.
The trains are super modern and very smooth to ride. You wouldn’t even know that you were on a train. Being in business class gave me free non-alcoholic drinks, snacks, and a hot meal of very spicy beef and rice. The meal wasn’t gourmet, but it was better than nothing.
There were only five people and five seats in my car. Just opposite me was the CEO of a major silicon company located in Norway. We spent well over an hour talking about all manner of things, covering economics, politics, and life in general. I enjoyed that, and I think he did too. I don’t think he bought into my idea of carrying a home mortgage in retirement! Not everybody gets it the first time.
This part wasn’t easy.
I arrived at the Changsha train station at a little past 11 p.m. The place was a madhouse, primarily with younger people coming and going at the station for the weekend. I was the only guy in the place who looked like me. Now the challenge would be ordering a Didi ride-share and being picked up in the proper spot. This was very confusing. I had to ask one of the local policemen for directions.
This was Changsha. Why was I going there?
Why was I going to Changsha? I thought there might be a race happening in the area, but I wasn’t sure. Changsha is the 19th biggest city in China, boasting a population of over 10 million people!
Soon, I found myself out on the street, at nearly midnight, with several other Chinese people. There were no Americans in sight. As a matter of fact, I saw almost NO Americans during my entire trip. We were all waiting for our rideshare drivers. More than fifty rideshare cars came and went while I waited for mine. After waiting a long while, my driver appeared. That was a surprise to me!
My ride would be 38 minutes long and would cost only 26 Chinese yuan. That’s about $3.75 U.S. Most Uber rides in the states for 38 minutes would probably cost $30-$50, depending upon circumstances. In Japan, Uber was 10-20 times more expensive than the trains.
This was going to be a first-class hotel stay.
I like to stay in Hyatt hotels. For the next three nights in Changsha, I had a reservation at the Park Hyatt. For anyone not familiar with Hyatt, the Park Hyatt brand is the top of the line. That’s out of 35 Hyatt brands. The Changsha Park Hyatt was as nice as any I’ve been to.
I didn’t get an upgrade to a suite, but my room was as large as most suites that I’ve had. The pictures don’t do my room justice. The hotel lobby was located on the 62nd floor of the high-rise building. My room was on the 57th floor with a commanding view of Changsha’s downtown area and the Xiang River.
The room featured automatic blinds for blackout drapes activated from a push button near my bed. When I woke up the next morning, it was daylight outside. At the same time, it was pitch black inside my room. I found that pretty amazing.
I just needed to be patient.
Communication in China is 50 times more difficult than it was in my recent trip to Japan. Then, when I make my own mistakes, it becomes 100% more difficult.
As I have mentioned in the past, I try to walk more than four miles every day. With all of my international travel, I am constantly dealing with different time zones. To ensure comparability, I compare my results only when walking using the California time zone.
Last night, before I went to bed, I switched my iPhone’s time clock to California time to check on my walking results. Before I went to bed, I forgot to change it back to Chinese time.
When I woke up at the Park Hyatt this morning in a gorgeous room overlooking the Xiang River, I thought it was 7 a.m. China time. In reality, it was 7 PM California time. I lounged around until what I thought was 9 a.m. hotel time and headed down to breakfast. When I arrived, I was informed that it was 12 noon in China and breakfast had ended. Oh my. I hate it when that happens.
My plans constantly change as I think of a better one.
I planned to go out to the Zhuzhou International Circuit tomorrow to see a race. I figured I might go there today to get the lay of the land. There was always the possibility that they were racing today, Saturday. This plan would be easier said than done.
I thought I would finish breakfast at 9:30 a.m., but now it was 12 noon China time. I had no breakfast, and the day was flying by before I had a chance to see a race. Nevertheless, I had a great view of Changsha from my hotel room.
C’mon, man.
I then learned that my Didi ride-share driver cannot drive directly to the Park Hyatt hotel because of the Park Hyatt’s private location. That seemed odd, given that my Didi driver had gotten me from the train station to the Park Hyatt the night before.
When a Didi driver has a passenger, it’s okay to drive to the Park Hyatt. But when Didi is coming to pick up a passenger, it’s not OK to drive to the hotel. I discussed this at length with “Roy,” the doorman at the Park Hyatt. He spoke English much better than most Chinese. He was doing his best to help me despite my consternation with this unusual pickup/drop-off policy.
Using the meter.
Finally, at nearly 1 p.m., Roy made an arrangement where a taxi would drive me from the Park Hyatt to the racetrack using the meter. That’s never a good idea, but I was running out of options. Roy told me he would pay the driver via WeChat, which I don’t have. Then I could pay it back when I returned to the hotel. What a nice guy. We’ll see how all of that works!
We went to the Zhuzhou International Circuit, with me having no understanding whatsoever of whether they were racing today. If they were not, I would have ruined my only full day of touring in Changsha. I could live with that. I am a trackchaser. At the very minimum, I will learn enough today to make tomorrow’s outing better, knowing they are expected to race.
Not my best day.
Today was not going to be my best day in China. I arrived at the racetrack. It was huge and appeared nearly vacant. Upon further discovery, I did see the race cars that were advertised to be at the track tomorrow, the Hyundai Cup Racing Series.
I walked into the paddock area. There, I met a couple of young English-speaking Chinese people who told me that this weekend’s event was just a practice session. I showed the screenshot of the website that said they were racing today.
A third gentleman stepped in and told me this plan had been changed two weeks ago. This was not a complete shock to me. I had not been able to confirm on any other website or with any individual that today’s race was going to happen.
I’m sort of like a newspaper journalist. I don’t like to believe something unless I’ve got two independent, reliable sources. I didn’t have that for this event, but I went anyway. I’m not blaming anybody. It was worth the risk.
There was no race near Changsha! I would still get the experience of riding Chinese trains. I would be able to stay in a luxurious Park Hyatt at a fraction of the normal cost. I would have a full day of touring tomorrow in a place like Changsha, China. Until I started thinking about this trip, I had never heard of Changsha in my life. I was disappointed about the race, but I understand that this result comes with the territory.
I had attempted to get my four miles of walking in by 3 p.m. today (12 midnight California time). However, when I started talking to some of the Chinese racing people, they slowed me down. I only finished at 3.6 miles for the 24-hour California frame. That was disappointing and only added to my lack of results for today.
The biggest challenge of the trip!
It was now time to start thinking about getting back to the Park Hyatt from the Zhuzhou International Circuit. This was precisely when my phone’s cellular connection stopped working! Now, my phone wasn’t one of the best pieces of technology ever to hit this world; it was essentially a brick. I thought about throwing it in the river, but decided against that.
With my phone not working, I couldn’t translate with anyone. I couldn’t order a Didi ride-share car. After having missed breakfast this morning at the Park Hyatt, I hadn’t eaten or drunk anything since last night. I was facing some real issues!
What would you do?
What would you do if you were in a faraway place like China, amongst a group of people who didn’t speak your language, and with no technology whatsoever?
The Zhuzhou International Circuit is situated in a remote, lightly industrialized area. With this being Saturday, there was almost no traffic on the massive road system built by the Chinese. It was 4 p.m., so I had a little bit of time, but I didn’t have any resources.
On these four-lane roads, one car came by about every four or five minutes. Even if someone was willing to stop, I couldn’t communicate with them. I picked a direction and started walking. I walked for some time. After a while, I came upon a gas station. A gas station meant food and drink.
How would you spend your last Chinese yuan in this situation?
If you were on your last legs under the circumstances described above, and you had enough money to buy all of the food and drinks that you wanted at a gas station, what would you buy? I bought a bottle of orange juice and two packages of 10 cookies. One was Oreo vanilla and one was Oreo chocolate. If I were going to go down, I was going to go down with some high blood sugar. The only employee at the store, a woman running the cash register, could not help because of the language barrier.
A ray of sunlight!
This gas station also offered several charging spots for electric car owners. After striking out with the convenience store clerk, I saw a taxi driver charging his car at the gas station.
I approached him and we began the “dance.” What is the dance? It’s the process of me trying to speak to him in English and him trying to talk to me in Chinese. Neither one could understand a word of what the other was trying to say. Trust me. That’s a dance that you would best sit out if you have the option.
If my phone had been working, I could have easily translated what I needed. It took us about 15 to 20 minutes, and a bit of translation from his phone, for him to understand that I was headed to the Park Hyatt hotel. At least I thought he understood, but maybe he didn’t.
The Park Hyatt was about 60 km away. I hopped in the man’s taxi. I noticed him driving slowly along the road. Just a mile from where we started, he pulled up in front of a hotel. He gestured as if to say, “Is that your hotel?” We had only driven for one minute, and we needed to be driving for an hour.
Hallelujah!
It was about this time that my phone started working again. I have no idea why the connection stopped, nor why it began again. Once I had translation capability, we were in a much better position. Off we went to the Park Hyatt.
Nope. That’s not how I roll.
If you were to re-read the above paragraphs and remind yourself of all of the things that happened to me today, almost all of which were unsuccessful, you might say to yourself, “Randy, why don’t you get a tour bus and go see all of the popular museums in China and call it a day?” Sorry, folks. I don’t do life that way.
I’m in this for the story and the drama. Most of my experiences have both ups and downs. As long as I don’t get killed, there is no downside that I can’t accept. I have a very positive attitude toward this, and like I say, I’m in it for the drama!
As we drove along, I offered one package of my Oreo cookies to my driver. I did this for two reasons. First, I’m just a nice guy. Secondly, I figured if he accepted my cookies, he couldn’t complain about my eating and drinking in the backseat of his immaculately prepared and super clean electric vehicle. He rejected the cookies. Nevertheless, he didn’t mention anything about my eating and drinking during the ride.
I’m not proud of this moment.
I strive to be entirely truthful in all aspects of these reports. I ate 15 Oreo cookies and drank the bottle of orange juice. Remember, I hadn’t had any breakfast or lunch. I’m not proud of what I did, but I would do it again.
At one point during the trip, my driver made a phone call to what I assumed was his wife. I think he was telling her that with a two-hour round-trip drive into Changsha, he was going to be late for dinner. Although I couldn’t say for sure, I think he included something like, “You’re not going to believe the crazy SOB I’ve got in the back seat.” I could hear his wife laughing.
When my driver got me back to the hotel on this Saturday night, it was early, only about 6 p.m. The area was packed with young people dressed as young people are prone to dressing on a Saturday night.
Folks, China ain’t like you hear it described on the news.
If you listen to certain news channels, you might think that China is such a closed and controlling society that no one can go outside of their home or do anything on their own. I can only share my personal experience and observations from being deep into mainland China in a city that very few tourists visit, Changsha.
I wish everyone who thinks that China is a closed and controlling society could have been with me tonight. What I saw was a massive crowd of people just enjoying themselves, using their phones to have a night on the town with their friends. Everyone seemed happy. I wish everyone who has a closed view of China could base whatever views they have on their observations rather than what some “news” source peddles. I’m lucky to be able to do that.
This was the highlight of the day.
I ended up picking a local restaurant for dinner. I dined on spicy Szechuan chicken wings, a donut topped with vanilla ice cream, and a “B52” drink.
The menu defined the B52 as having “six shots.” I was only a block from my hotel. I figured I could handle six shots. When the drink was delivered to my table, they attempted to light each shot on fire. However, the wind near my table held them back. I drank every one of those shots. Each one made my bald spot tingle, and I don’t have a bald spot. My selections probably wouldn’t be high up on a health chart, but then I’m on vacation, right?
I spent the rest of the night enjoying the view from my Park Hyatt room in Changsha. Life was good.
It had been a long day. A lot of things didn’t go right. I did the best I could. In the end, I had a good time. I always have a good time.
Just kicking back.
Today was a laid-back day. The day was initially reserved to see a race in Hunan, China. However, after confirming they were only having a practice weekend at the track yesterday, I realized there was no need to come back today.
A highlight of the day was going to breakfast at the Park Hyatt. What an upscale experience. As a globalist, there’s no charge for me, but the regular price for hotel patrons was nearly $50 U.S.
I met the restaurant’s maître. We spent nearly an hour together talking about the logistics of navigating China. I learned a lot.
I took a brief walk this morning to complete my four-mile mandate and stopped at an independent convenience store. This was a small place, but I managed to pick up a couple of bottles of Pepsi Zero and a four-pack package of Oreo-like muffins. What would that three-item order cost at a convenience store in the United States? I’m guessing somewhere around $12. In Changsha, China, the bill came to 20 Chinese yuan or about $2.75 U.S. That’s a big difference.
It was nice to relax in my Park Hyatt in my corner room and catch up on some of my travel logistics. This stuff takes some time to stay on top of things. To ensure I didn’t miss any details, spending a couple of hours on trip planning was a valuable use of my time.
When the sun went down, I went out to find Huaagxing Road Pedestrian Street. If you Google things to do in Changsha, this street shows up as one of the top items. This is for people watching and restaurants.
Once again, I saw a populace just out and about enjoying their day, like one might see in any big city in the world. I saw people out doing their daily activities.
Walking around the city center of Changsha on a Sunday night was dramatically different than Saturday night. The crowds were much smaller.
When the pedestrian light turns green, that means pedestrians can cross the street. That doesn’t mean that you can necessarily cross safely. The green light means go for it at your own discretion, while the cross traffic and turning traffic may or may not give you a break. That was exciting.
There’s a lot of motorbike activity. Almost all of the motorbikes were electric. I saw a few Teslas, but not all that many.
I walked all over Changsha tonight. I never saw a single person who looked like me. There were no families with two kids from Des Moines. Nobody from Copenhagen, London, or Johannesburg. Nobody. The Chinese folks are not afraid to give you a good stare down. Some will look at you for ten seconds! I guess they don’t see too many folks like me.
I had the chance to try some street food. There were more than a dozen choices. I went with shrimp lo mein and a beer. The Chinese people were a bit amused that a guy like me ventured into their area to have some dinner.
China technology controls.
China does indeed prohibit its residents from using things like VPN‘s and accessing Google, Facebook, and Yahoo. Maybe that’s a good thing.
In the United States, we do our best to prohibit youngsters from accessing pornographic sites, smoking, and drinking, and those sorts of activities that we as an American society consider to be a poor choice. I’m thinking that’s how China views the social media sites they prohibit.
What did Chinese people tell me?
I asked a few Chinese people I could speak English with, and there weren’t many, about their thoughts on China having these restrictions. In every case, they told me it was no big deal.
They mentioned having access to other Chinese apps, including TikTok, which could replace the likes of Google and Facebook. They told me they commonly used VPNs to hide their identity so they could be members of Facebook and other sites! They didn’t see themselves as being restricted at all. It’s interesting how what’s considered a fact by one person can be viewed differently by another.
Saying good-bye to the Park Hyatt in Changsha.
The staff at the Park Hyatt was fantastic. One of the guys, Roy, paid for my taxi ride in advance. I didn’t get the chance to repay him for two days. Chen (pictured), the hotel maître d’, went out of his way to help with my trip. A great staff at a beautiful hotel.
Just two things to do for today.
I had two major items on the agenda today. First, I would have the opportunity to experience the famous Park Hyatt breakfast one more time. Recall I missed breakfast on day one of this trip when I got mixed up about what time it was in China. That was pretty dumb.
Secondly, I’ll be spending six hours riding the Chinese bullet train from Changsha back to Shanghai. I’ll be traveling in business class. I plan to relax on the train, maybe watch some Netflix programs, and do a little work on my laptop.
I’ll arrive in Shanghai at about 7 p.m. and stay at the Grand Hyatt for just one night. The reason I’m doing that is to get one more Brand Explorer badge in the Hyatt frequent stay program. After that one-night stay, I’ll have a five-night stay in the Alila Shanghai hotel with a guaranteed suite upgrade. I’m looking forward to that.
I liked the Chinese train system.
Once again, I rode the train, this time from Changsha to Shanghai, China, in business class. And yes, I am the most casual dresser in almost every situation you would ever meet. It is true that I wear a size 15 shoe. It is also true that for all of my adult life up until about ten years ago, I wore a size 12. I can’t explain it.
Business class seats are limited to just five per car. The train had only one business class car out of the 10-12 cars for the entire train. The business class seats are similar to lie-flat seats in first class on airlines.
First-class train seating is the next best option, offering two seats on each side of the aisle in the train car. There are probably 10 to 15 rows of this type of seating. Second-class seating on the train is two seats on one side of the aisle and three seats on the other. I wasn’t able to observe the “standing class” seating.
Chinese trains are the fastest in the world.
Our train reached a maximum speed of 307 km/h, which is nearly 200 mph. The ride is so smooth that I couldn’t detect a ripple in my glass of orange juice positioned next to my business class seat.
The view of the Chinese countryside was beautiful. I could see rice patties and other kinds of agricultural activity. Those views were worth the price of admission.
Do you have any suites?
Tonight, I was staying at the Grand Hyatt hotel in downtown Shanghai. When I checked in, the desk clerk told me that he was proud to have upgraded me from a regular room to a larger-than-normal-sized regular room. Although I was appreciative of that, I had to ask, “Do you have any suites?”
With that, he stepped into the back room for a moment and came out. At that point, he told me I was being upgraded to the “diplomat suite.” Folks, if you don’t ask, you don’t get.
I have stayed in my share of insanely large suites in my life. A diplomat suite at the Grand Hyatt Hotel might have been my most enormous hotel suite ever. The hotel lobby was on the 54th floor. My room was on the 81st floor of the Grand Hyatt. My room offered a commanding view of the outstanding skyline in Shanghai. The number of tall buildings visible for literally a mile dwarfs anything that might be seen in New York City.
Big is better in my world.
I measured off the room. It was roughly 70‘ x 40‘. That’s 2800 ft.² of hotel room space. I knew that when I arrived at room 8118 and it had double doors, I was in for something special. The room had four phones, two TVs, two bathrooms, and a large dressing closet. I wondered who might’ve stayed here in the past. I was only here for one night, but it was going to be a nice night.
My first week in China had me visiting a mostly unheard of city, Changsha. My second week will cover my time in Shanghai and then Hong Kong. Please join me when my week #2 travel review comes your way.