Arranging a trip to china

[tombio5]

Ok, Im looking to arrange a trip to china. The bottom line is i have never traveled before and have absoluty no idea how to go about organising this (please try not to pay out on me ot much if i ask a question that seems dumb or obviouse). I am living in australia and looking to travel to the city of Xiamen to visit a friend of mine

I havent decided a time yet, i was kind of hoping it could happen middle of next year (june - july 2007). How earlie should i start organising and booking air tickets to get a good price and try and make it all run smootly with no last minute rush or panic. Should i use a travel agent?

Also how much money will i need for this trip, not just the air fair but accomidation, food and travel once i am there. I am looking to stay for about 4 weeks. I dont plan to do a lot of shopping or buying and im not looking for luxuray. just a fairly cheap hotel and basic food is fine

hopefully ive covered everything. any help is much apreciated. Remeber i have never traveled before in my life so its not a understatment when i say i have no clue where to begin

[Junior]

Hi, I went to Xiamen about a month ago on my travels around China. I will dig up the business card of the hotel I stayed at and stuff for you. I don't have time to do it right now cos i'm about to go to work but I will post it here later....

[imron]

1-2 months in advance is usually enough time to sort out tickets. In Australia I've found that travel agents typically are able to find better deals than what you can get on the internet, assuming of course you find a good travel agent (it's usually a good idea to speak to a few). Try to find one that caters to Chinese people travelling to/from China/Australia (a short walk around your local Chinatown should do the trick :-) ). The one exception I've found to this is http://www.bestflights.com.au which seem to be able to provide decently priced flights (if anyone else knows of a good site, I'd love to hear it).

If you've never travelled before, don't forget you will also need to apply for a passport and visa (maybe that's obvious, but just thought I'd mention it anyway). You can apply for a passport at any time and it's valid for 10 years, so you could even get that straight away if you wanted. Your local post-office should have the forms you require. You can also check out this page for info on applying for an Australian passport.

If you're staying in China for a month to visit friends/travel, the visa you will need is an L visa. You can get this from your nearest Chinese embassy/consulate. You can't get the visa before you've got your passport, and you can't get them any earlier than 3 months before you need to enter China. Getting the visa only takes a few days, so leaving it until about month before hand shouldn't be problem.

Regarding airfare, I would guess it to be somewhere in the region of about AUD$1000-$1500, including all airport taxes - though you might be able to find better deals if you hunt around. When I've been travelling around China, I've found that my costs averaged about 200RMB (~AUD$33) a day, including all transportation/accomodation/living expenses. If you're only going to be staying in and around Xiamen, I imagine that figure will be reduced quite a bit as you won't have too much in the way of transportation expenses.

[tombio5]

Yes, i was aware of the passport, but not the visa, so looks like i will have to arrange that sometime to

Im attempting to fill out the passport forms now, it ask to sedn it 2 identical photos of a particular size and under particular conditions (square on the face, uniform lighting etc). How would be the best way to obtain these? im considering taking them myself with my digital camera then taking them into a photo place and hoping i can get the properly printed to the correct size there

Also how to travel agents work exactly? do they only take there cut of commision if you actually book the flight through them? or do they cahrge a bit just for to seach and quote you?

thanx all

[adrianlondon]

Digital camera, stand in front of somthing uniform in colour (e.g. blue curtains or a grey wall), then print them out onto a colour inkjet (or laser) printer. Perfectly acceptable as a passport/visa photo.

[imron]

Just remember that Australia is very picky when it comes to passport photos and not only do they have to be the specified size, the head/proporptions also need to be a specific size relative to the photo. The passport form probably has the correct sizes listed on it and if you can take a digital photo with those proportions then go for it.

Alternatively you could go to probably just about any photo shop. They can do passport photos in a couple of minutes, and they will make sure everything is the correct size/proportion. Last time I had it done, it was AUD$10 for 6 photos. Not really a huge cost, plus you can be guaranteed that the photo will be accepted (just make sure to tell the photo place that you need it for a passport).

When I got my Australian passport (I have dual Australian/British citizenship), the photos I had used 1 week earlier to get my British passport weren't good enough and I had to take a bunch of new ones.

[imron]

Oh, and a travel agent shouldn't charge you anything when providing you with a quote, so don't be afraid to pay them a visit, or to give them a call. Before you do that though, check out that website I linked to above so you'll have a rough idea about what the price range will be. That way you can better ascertain whether the agent is giving you a good deal or not.

[tombio5]

yes, i looked at that site and tried quite a few dates, i was a bit in shock to find it was quoting me prices between 3 and 8 grand to the return trip

i had done reseacrh recently (not on this site tho) and i found the cost to fly form a main city in australia to xiaman to be only about AUD$1500. I dont live in a main city with a international airport so i am aware i will have to travel to a main city first which will endure some extra cost, however i didnt quite expect that much.

i was wondering if maybe it was quoting me so high because i was being a bit picky with the dates since it will only alow me to select exact dates for my departure and return. However i will have decent lewage for choosing the departure and return dates when the time comes

i hope its not that expensive, tho it doestn deture me form going ( i am determined indeed ) it means my hope to go mid next year may not be possible

oh and thanx a lot imron for all your advive, u have been most helpful and pretty much answered all my querys, u rock !!!

[roddy]

What routes is it giving you? Any internal Chinese flights quoted by an agent abroad will be much more expensive than buying the same ticket in China - even if you buy on the day you fly, usually.

[tombio5]

the most common routes it gives me are

Townsville ----> Brisbane ------> Beijing ------> Xiamen

Townsville ----> Brisbane ------> Bangkok ------> Xiamen

or

Townsville ------> Brisbane ------- > Sydney -------> Xiamen

I get a few other variations, but all along those lines for the forward trip

[roddy]

A look at a map will show you why going via Beijing isn't necessary. If money is an issue getting a flight into HK, and then onto Xiamen, or into HK and then crossing the border into China and taking an internal flight from Shenzhen or Guangzhou to Xiamen. Or even a train.

[imron]

Just look at the flight prices from major city-major city. That site I gave lists the cheapest return flight from 1 June 2007 - 1 July 2007 for Sydney-Xiamen at AUD$1004 (not including taxes), flying with Malaysian Air (who are quite good to fly with). A VirginBlue flight from Townsville to Sydney is only about AUD$150 each way, giving you a total of AUD$1304. Taxes on top of that will probably be around $200, bringing the grand total to ~AUD$1500.