Anyone been to Pingxiang (萍乡)?

[jbradfor]

Seems we have to go to Pingxiang this summer, and I'm finding next to no information about it in English [1]. I'm wondering if anyone's been there, and can get me started on where to look for information on getting from the airport to the "downtown", advice on trains, hotels, things to do, places to eat, shopping, general advice, etc.

Failing that (which I expect....bit of a long shot), can anyone help me with suggestions on good Chinese-language travel websites to start looking? For other trips, I have a basic system down (wikitravel for basic information, trip advisor for hotels, find tours to get suggestions of the highlights), but I'm not sure how to start searching in Chinese. How about good search keywords to try (e.g. 萍乡火车站 seemed to at least get me the train schedule)? Popular travel websites? I'm thinking of treating this as my reading practice for the next couple of months, and maybe help me pick up some good travel words/phrases. This is also doing wonders for my geography!

[1] And what limited information is there seems to be copied verbatim on at least a dozen different sites -- seems to be a lot of copyright violations going on!

[freshysauce]

白度一下，你就知道！Check out the "旅游资源“.

E-long is a good site to look at as well.

Here's one where you can look up the bus routes. If you know the names of the stops you can figure out the busess to take between them. There might be a better site for this though.

Another option is just to type in whatever question you have into baidu zhidao.

Hope these help.

[animal world]

Oh, jbradfor, remember my post from a few weeks ago about the largest freshwater lake in China? That is in the province of Jiangxi and ...., if I'm not mistaken, that's also where Pingxiang is. Are you traveling there to see this lake? As you pointed out, things are changing a bit there. Here's a current picture:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jan/31/china-freshwater-lake-dries-up

So, better don't plan on skinny dipping in this spectacular lake!

[jbradfor]

Yes, I do remember that.... and, IIRC, I even commented on that in your thread. ["Large lake?!", I thought, "cool!" Not that we don't have any in Minnesota.... So I went to look, and found the same thing.] Wasn't planning on skinny dipping anyway, probably get me on ChinaSmack for a foreigner being arrested....

freshysauce, I'll start there, thanks. [bTW, it's 百度.]

[animal world]

I was joking about the lake but apologize for coming across as flippant by joking about the magnitude of this drought that has placed an enormous toll on the environment and on the lives of many people.

I just googled Pingxiang and actually came up with quite a few sites in English. Pingxiang seems like a pleasant city of about 1.8 million with nice views on the mountains. The best seasons to visit is spring and autumn. It has 3-stars up to 5-stars hotels. I just quickly glanced over the information on some of these sites. There was even a site that offered the prayer times at the mosque. So, even in English plenty of information.

[skylee]

jbradfor, you mentioned at #1 about going from the airport to downtown. Which airport are you going to use? I know nothing about Pingxiang, but your question has reminded me that when I went to visit Pingyao, I had an inn there sent a car to pick me up at the Taiyuan airport. The whole trip from the airport to the inn took about 1.5 hours and cost RMB300. And I kept thinking that it was a good deal if I were in a party of three or four people. Perhaps you could consider asking the hotel/inn at Pingxiang to pick you up.

Sorry I am not sure if the above is relevant to your case, or if people would think that RMB300 was a rip-off.

[jbradfor]

RMB300 is quite a deal to me if the alternative is taking a train from the airport to the main train station, then getting on a different train to Pingxiang, then taking a taxi to the hotel, with all our luggage (we don't travel light...) and a child..... I've used car services before, and they sure are convenient.

animal world, I guess your google-fu surpasses mine. I found some basic information, but nothing at all detailed. [e.g. to go see Nielong cave, how does one get there? Prices? is it a tour, or self-guided? If a tour, how often does it run? When is it open?] All these things I guess I could ask at the hotel; but when traveling, I'm a bit of a control-freak and I need to know all these things before I go.

What I haven't been able to find, in English or Chinese, is information on any tours of the areas. And suggestions on search terms? I tried 萍乡旅行社, but that seems to find travel agencies located in Pingxiang that sell tours to other places.

I did learn, however, that for some reason tripadvisor in China is at www.daodao.com, rather than the expected www.tripadvisor.com.cn. Not sure why, maybe they wanted a domain outside China for firewall reasons?

Pingxiang seems like a pleasant city of about 1.8 million with nice views on the mountains.

From what I've found, Pingxiang is a huge area; the main urban area (安源) is only about 400,000 people. By China standards, that's nothing.