China may be one of the world's best bargains for U.S. travelers

 

The Moon & Chalice boutique hotel, Kunming

China is one of the best value countries in the world for U.S. travelers.

My husband, Tom, and I are wrapping up three weeks of independent travel in five cities, not luxury travel but travel at a high standard - boutique or high-rise hotels, sit-down dinners, first-class train travel, a few day trips with private guides - for a rough cost of $2,500 each not including our visa and air fare to and from Seattle.

Hardly anyone thinks about taking a vacation to China the way they do to Thailand. Japan or Vietnam, but why not? It‘s easier than ever, given most everything can be booked and paid for online, or by using apps while there. Train and subway transportation beats anything in Europe, let alone the U.S. Ride shares (like Uber but called DIDI) appear in minutes after being ordered.

There is a significant language barrier outside the main tourist areas, but local English-speaking guides are easy to find and important signs and announcements are in English. Gestures, smiles, a few basic Chinese words and translation apps can fill in the rest.

Unless you love the idea of following a group of 30 trailing behind a guide carrying a flag, I can see no reason not to come here on your own, the way you might think about traveling to Japan, Thailand, Vietnam or South Korea.

Here's rough break-down on our costs.

Hotels:

We stayed in six hotels in Shanghai, Chendgu, Chongqing, Dali and Kunming. Prices ranged from a high of $140 with breakfast for a junior suite in a historic inn in Shanghai to $55 for a modern room in a boutique hotel in Dali.  

Raffles City, home to three hotels in Chongqing

The living room in our  Raffles suite

The best value was our room on the 42nd floor of the Ascott Raffles City in Chongqing, a five-star quality apartment hotel on the 20th floor of a building housing two other hotels and a shopping mall overlooking the Yangtze River.  We paid $115 per night for an apartment with, kitchen, washer-dryer and free Western and Chinese buffet breakfast. 

Breakfast the Wenjun Courtyard Hotel

The second-best value was a $100-per-night suite in the Wenjun Courtyard Hotel in a historic section of Chengdu. The hotel offered free airport pick-up, free laundry service, a free buffet breakfast, and free hot milk delivered to your room between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m.

Most unusual was the Moon & Chalice boutique hotel in Kunming, a university town near the border with Vietnam. Our $115 a night executive suite overlooked the night action in Old Kunming.when the lights come on and the street vendors hawk everything from tofu to cakes flavored with rose petals. The hotel was built after World War II in a European style to commemorate the Allied forces defeat of the Japanese which occupied China.

The view outside our hotel in Kunming

I booked all the hotels except one at refundable rates on Booking.com which did a good job at providing me with all the info I needed including Chinese translations of the locations for DIDI or taxi drivers.

Transportation:

With the exception of one flight between Shanghai and Chengdu in Central China, we traveled between cities by high-speed train with tickets purchased online from Trip.com, a Chinese -owned booking site.

Train tickets in China cannot be purchased more than 15 days ahead of departure, but they can be reserved on Trip.com which will buy them on the date you select, or issue a refund if they are not available. Since we were not traveling at a busy time, we opted to buy tickets within the 15-day window on the web site, traveling first class on all but one of the legs for a total of $850 for two.

Subway travel ran around 40 cents per ride in most cities, with three-day unlimited ride passes available for around $6.50. China’s big-city subway systems are clean, efficient and well-signed. There‘s full employment in China, so we saw workers out early and late,  polishing the handrails and mopping the floors. 

DIDI, China‘s ride share system similar to Uber, is super-efficient with electric cars usually arriving within minutes. Fares range from around $1.50 for local trip around town to $12-$15 for longer trips 

Meals:

Street food is everywhere. The Chinese eat and snack at all times of the day or night. We did our share of this, but preferred more relaxing sit-down meals in a restaurant in the evening.

Fresh tofu for sale in Kunming

Dinner in Dali, home to Bai minority group

Our most expensive meal for two was $34 in a beautiful courtyard restaurant in Dali. Dail is home to the Bai, one of 50 ethnic minority groups in China. We ordered a Bai dish of pork with plums, a five-flower salad and fried rice with mushrooms. Our least expensive meal was $6 for two at a vegetarian restaurant in Kunming. Everyone gets a plate, bowl and chopsticks when paying at the register, then helps themselves to a buffet of about three dozen items, plus soups, fruit and sweets. 

Lunch in Kunming with our guide and new walking tour friends

Best value: A meal for five members of a GuruWalk walking tour group we met in Kunming. We ate at a Dai restaurant near Yunnan University. The Dai people are an ethnic minority group with ties to Laos and Thailand. We shared eight dishes including pumpkin cakes, rice with pineapple, pork belly, chicken, noodles with beef, mushrooms and two kinds of potatoes. Total bill: $33.

A few restaurants specialize in Western food. We tried a few when we needed a break from trying to translate Chinese menus. A steak dinner with all the trimmings was $24 for two. inside a shopping mall in Chengdu. The bill for a tuna pizza, salad and drinks was $22 at Salvador’s, a favorite among Chinese people in Kunming, 

Coffee in Chongqing

Coffee has taken China by storm. A few years ago there was only Starbucks. Then the local chain Luckin came along, followed by several other local chains and hundreds of independent storefront shops with cozy seating and large menus of exotic coffee and tea drinks. A standard drip is around $1.50. Fancier drinks, such as lattes, are around $3.50, high compared to food prices, but considered a necessary luxury.

Guides:

We relied on English-speaking local guides from FreeTour.com and GuruWalk.com for six walking tours around Shanghai, Chengdu, Chongqing and Kunming. The guides are well-educated English-speaking men and women anxious to share what they love about their city with travelers. They rely on tips which average about $15 per person, sometimes more. 

The group size depends on who signs up. Our Shanghai walk drew eight people, but three times we were the only ones to show up which meant we had a personal tour.  More than the sites visited on the walks themselves, we greatly enjoyed spending a few hours with a local person, learning about them and their families and sharing things about us and life in the United States. 

Getting ready for a bike ride in Chengdu

Our evening with Siri Yang, 33, a guide for GuruWalk in Chengdu, began by meeting at a subway stop next to a night market in the downtown financial district.

After sampling food from the street stalls, Siri unlocked three blue city bikes available for a few cents per minute. We road along a paved path skirting the Jinjiang riverfront. It was there where we got our first glimpse of the Chengdu Twin Towers, a pair of 720-feet-tall skyscrapers that light up at night like giant media screens.

Tea in Chengdu with Luna Lu

Luna Lu, 33, a guide for FreeTour.com, introduced us to Chengdu on our first morning in town. We walked with her People’s Park, a gathering spot since 1911, offering a peaceful escape from the traffic and crowds outside. Luna studied in Indiana and lived in New York before returning to Chengdu to start her own tour company. Like a half-dozen or so young people we met, marriage and children are not in the cards to the regret of the government which has lifted its one child policy. “Now they encourage you to have children,” Luna said. But economics and a sense of not wanting to be tied down are getting the way.  Total cost for our six walks was around $225.

Much more expensive were day trips by car to far-off sites we booked through GetYourGuide, a third-party booking service which lists tours offered by various local travel agencies. GetYourGuide charges your credit card, (all bookings refundable up to one day in advance) and provides you all the information on the itinerary and pick-up times. 

Leshan Buddha near Chengdu

Dongchuan Red Lands near Kunming

We spent around $885 on four private excursions, including a high-tech tour of Shanghai, a car trip in Chengdu to see the Leshan Buddha, and an all-day car rip to the Dongchuan Red Lands, two hours by car from Kunming. Three out of the four were good value, but the fourth fell short due to a poor English-speaking guide.

Face-changing opera performance

We did many close-in excursions on our own, including riding the subway to the entrance of Chengdu‘s Panda breeding research center where admission for seniors was free. Those over 60 who show their passport get free or reduced admission at most museums and cultural attractions. 

Tickets to a performance at a small theater in Chongqing were $12.50 each, including tea and a small bowl of sunflower seeds. It was our chance to catch a glimpse of Chinese face-changing opera in which the performers switch painted masks in the blink of an eye using hidden silk threads, fans, head turns, or body movements.

How to pay 

We withdrew a little cash in Chinese Yuan from a bank machine in Shanghai, but ended up not needing any.

Everyone pays for everything with a digital payment system called Alipay.  We downloaded the app on our phones before leaving Seattle, tied two credit cards to the account and notified our banks. WeChat also can be used for payments as well as conversations akin to using WhatsApp. 

Everyone, from the smallest street vendor, to DIDI ride share drivers and restaurants take AliPay for any amount. There‘s no tipping in China, so the price posted is the price you pay, and AliPay keeps track of all your charges on its app. There‘s a 3 percent service charge for payments over 200 Yuan (about $30), so people often ask the vendor to spit the bill into two separate charges. 

Two things to never leave home without in China: Your passport and your phone.

The Chinese government keeps track of who you are, whether through facial recognition when entering or leaving the subway, to knowing it was really you who bought a theater ticket or train ticket in advance. Your passport is your proof. Your phone is your wallet. Hang onto them both.

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