China - never a dull moment!

[mushez]

In that link above of Cruiser Elite's - there is this picture:



This is the most common outlet you will find in China to plug into and how you will view it standing on your feet.

The bottom 3 way plug, is our Australian 3 pin plug, and fits nicely, but you often will find you cannot insert 2 pin plugs into it due to earth security.

The top options however, will allow you to insert your 2 pin plugs into, but they are a little wider - and cannot push your plug flush without damage, but can just sit it in a little and have connection to get the job done.

Below it is this picture:



Which is a 3 way multi plug that I was talking about, costs 10-30 RMB at most convenience stores and all supermarkets - all have 3 pin Australia plug on them, and allows you to plug any 2 prong device in without any issues in any of the options in it.

 

[seanpodge]

Looks like the Beijing-Shanghai HSR line is getting a nice new set of trains. https://www.thatsmags.com/beijing/p...gh-speed-trains-have-free-wifi-and-more-space

 

[Cossie]

For those that deal with China a lot, is there set periods for holidays, apart from Chinese New Year. Are there school holidays at the moment?
I'm sure that over 80%of the tourists in Nara and Kyoto at the moment are mainland Chinese.

 

[mushez]

For those that deal with China a lot, is there set periods for holidays, apart from Chinese New Year. Are there school holidays at the moment?
I'm sure that over 80%of the tourists in Nara and Kyoto at the moment are mainland Chinese.

Officially - No - next big one will be National Day Holiday, which is a big one for first 7 days of October.

However - School has finished in China roughly 7 days or so ago, and is out for 6 weeks. The Chinese School Year Starts in August, and ends in June the following year.

Other than Chinese New Year, now is the ONLY time a Chinese school age child gets to travel abroad without bunking school. You will find millions of school age children traveling abroad now for cultural exchanges for a week or two - inc to Australia.

It is common for mothers who work, to take time off work to be with their children during the whole summer holiday, and often in factories they are replaced by university students which impacts quality of goods produced during this time - that and the peak heat of summer. So it is not that much for Dad to also take a few weeks off to make a family vacation.

(Majority of) Chinese however absolutely hate Japan, so would challenge the observation to if it was persons from Mainland China vrs the likes of Hong Kong or Taiwan. A Japaneses person honestly has a death wish walking alone randomly in China. Of all the Chinese people I know - which is a few - a couple would assault someone from Japan if they saw them walking in China & none of them that I have asked - would dare to step foot in Japan.

Forget North vrs South Korea - next big war in the world will be China vrs Japan - and China will start it.

 

[TheEmu]

Despite the diplomatic animosity, and protests and anti-Japanese declarations from the Chinese "public" from time to time (these are always government-sponsored), China is Japan's single biggest source of tourists.

This is just another of those cognitive dissonances that the Chinese do very well - they say they hate the Japanese but the shopping is too good so off they go...

 

[Cossie]

There have been quite a few Filipino people, a lot of Asians speaking English, some with thick North American accents, others I'm guessing from Hong Kong, the ones from Taiwan, I couldn't tell, but I can hear a difference in some of the talk, Cantonese or Mandarin, I don't know.
Some we have spoken to, kimono wearing girls said they were from Beijing, other from Shandong and their english was quite good. There were also a group from Indonesia, some wearing kimonos.

Anyway, we are off to Tokyo tomorrow and will see if that is any different.

just as an aside, we spoke to some Germans yesterday that had been in Nara and missed the Octoberfest.......

 

[boomy]

http://loyaltylobby.com/2017/06/27/...-airplane-engines-it-doesnt-work/?omhide=true

 

[mushez]

Public Service Announcement: Don't Throw Your Good Luck Coins Into Airplane Engines - It Doesn't Work! | LoyaltyLobby

8 coins - 8 being the most lucky number - in this case 8th was the one that did the job.

Doesn't surprise me. All those in management who thing remote stand boarding is cool in China, raise your hands!

 

[woodyren]

There is only one place in the world where you can find these on a cruise ship lol.

Just returned from the second of two short cruises Tianjin-Japan on Ovation of the Seas. Enjoyed myself but the buffet is not for the faint hearted. never stand between a new box of Dragon Fruit and a scrum of locals.

 

[mushez]

never stand between a new box of Dragon Fruit and a scrum of locals.

Never stand between me and the Dragon Fruit stand in the supermarket. Jokes aside, the hotel restaurant full of Chinese for buffet breakfast is an experience to be had for the mad rush, and hording that occurs.

 

[Atleastonce]

We are currently sitting here in the SilverKris lounge at Changi. We are on SQ836, to Shanghai with a scheduled departure 5:25pm. We boarded and sat at the gate for 2 hours and then off loaded and told to go back to the lounge for a meal. Apparently bad weather over Hong Kong and air traffic control at Shanghai pushing everyone back. Now scheduled to depart at 1:00am local time. Very very tired now.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Dining' best Burgers

 

[straitman]

This might explain why Simon has been tardy in responding to work related queries - he posted this on WeChat:

View attachment 99253

Cruiser,
Greetings from coughet.
I haven't forgotten your advice for our trip. Just haven't got back to you. We are doing most of your recommendations so we can blame you if it doesn't work!
Simon has proven to be a gem thanks. He can only do one day but has a mate organised for day 2.
A great big thanks.

As of yesterday baby Simon was 25 days old.

Simon was awesome in every aspect yesterday and fortunately very flexible. Walking the Great Wall yesterday in near 40C temps and Sue got heat stroke and I wasn't far behind. The shop operator at the top of the cable car gave us water and ice and even rang Simon who came up to give us a hand. They then let him drive all the way to the cable car base.

Unfortunately we have had to cancel most of today as Sue is still not really over it. Simon's offsider 'Henry' is coming to pick us up at 6pm for a little sightseeing, (hopefully) dinner and to the airport for out 2345 flight.

Like Simon, Henry is proving to be very flexible as is the Hilton Wangfujing which offered a 6pm checkout without issue.

 

[straitman]

After the dramas of yesterday a quiet day was needed today. Sue was still not really ready to face the world for most of the day. The Hilton Wangfujing was very accommodating with a 6pm checkout. The biggest problem hotel wise is that it has it's a/c set to go not below 25C which isn't a lot of help when you are trying to cool down.

Anyway we finally checked out at 1800 and Simon's offsider Henry took us to a Peking Duck restaurant and some how we managed to order and consume the correct type and quantity of food. After that we drove to the Olympic complex which is simply amazing. After spending about 30 min wandering around the Birds Nest and associated areas it was back to the car for the 45 min drive to the airport for our 2345 QF108..

Arriving at the airport about 100 min before flight time and checked in with one small issue. The checkin guy mentioned we could be delayed a little due to some rain that was due. I laughed at/with him as there wasn't a cloud to be seen (through the smog). We arrived at the CX lounge about 60 min before flight time and for the last 40 min we have had thunder, lightening, rain and hail continuously.

WE have no idea now when we'll depart but living up to the thread title 'China - never a dull moment'

 

[Atleastonce]

Hi straitman we stayed at the Hilton last week and it was amazing. We got upgraded to a suite with HHonors and staff could not have been better.

 

[mushez]

The biggest problem hotel wise is that it has it's a/c set to go not below 25C which isn't a lot of help when you are trying to cool down.

One of the main reasons I will elect for a cheaper hotel where each room has its own split system air con system - rather than the central systems most 4 & 5 star hotels use in China. During peak summer, you will struggle to get below 27 degrees in your room with most of the central air con systems as they lack the redundancy to work for everyone in peak summer.

 

[Lendav Orav]

Was on the same flight, there was quite the delay in the end. Oh and also stayed at Hilton Wangfujing. But we got charged for the late check out!

 

[Atleastonce]

One of the main reasons I will elect for a cheaper hotel where each room has its own split system air con system - rather than the central systems most 4 & 5 star hotels use in China. During peak summer, you will struggle to get below 27 degrees in your room with most of the central air con systems as they lack the redundancy to work for everyone in peak summer.

When we were at this Hilton a week ago we were in a suite and the aircon was set at 19 and we struggled to get it up to 23 degrees.

 

[Atleastonce]

We tried something different in China, and there were not many western tourist, (mostly Chinese tourists) and visited the stone forest gorge and glass bottom viewing platform.

 

[straitman]

Hi straitman we stayed at the Hilton last week and it was amazing. We got upgraded to a suite with HHonors and staff could not have been better.

Which Hilton as there are several? Oops just read further down that it was the same Hilton. Love the hotel but that a/c setup is really not acceptable IMHO.

One of the main reasons I will elect for a cheaper hotel where each room has its own split system air con system - rather than the central systems most 4 & 5 star hotels use in China. During peak summer, you will struggle to get below 27 degrees in your room with most of the central air con systems as they lack the redundancy to work for everyone in peak summer.

This hotel has individual controllers but they do not appear to work. Simply not good enough when someone is suffering heat stroke.

Was on the same flight, there was quite the delay in the end. Oh and also stayed at Hilton Wangfujing. But we got charged for the late check out!

Agh what?

As a HH Diamond they automatically gave us 4pm and with Sue being sick they offered the 6pm.

Where were you on the a/c? J I hope, as we were in 3AB. I also forgot to mention my inflight meal out of Beijing was one of the best meals I have ever had anywhere. Spicy Pork something or other... (Don't tell QF management)