Tourism, 16 nights in China, how much money?

[Igor Antunov]

Me and my best friend are coming over in june. Will spend 8 nights in beijing, 8 nights in shanghai.

How much should we expect to spend on touristy stuff (food, transport, tourist entrance fees)?

We have already prepaid accomodation so no need to include that. I just need to know the rest.

I am bringing over 11,000 yuan, but my friend thinks 3,000 yuan will be enough for 16 days. Is he in for a rude shock? I don't want to have to pay for him becaus he decided to cheap out.

We are staying in a hutong hostel in beijing and a cheap hostel in shanghai, our standards are fairly low. I know how to use beijing/shanghai metros, and taxis are fairly cheap. I don't know how to use buses.

What worries me is food, I do know that hostel prices are inflated. I don't want to pay more than 30 yuan for a meal including drinks-minimum price at a hostel for a small lunch and drink. I don't know how safe hutong street food is.

Sightseeing and entrance fees could be expensive, especially in summer because it's peak season, right?

[HedgePig]

Everyone has different standards but to me RMB3,000 for 17 days does sound on the low side - that's about RMB 180 per day. Beijing and Shanghai are relatively expensive cities While one can easily live on that amount, it may curtail what you can do and doesn't leave much room for splashing out occasionally.

- street food: RMB 5-15, depending on how hungry you are. I have no problem with the street food and think it's actually tastier than many of the cheap restaurants.

- cheap, basic restaurant RMB 15-RMB 50 or more

- entrance fees: I'm out of touch but think you are looking at RMB 40 or (much) more for popular sites. I don't think prices by season for most places.

- subway and buses are cheap. Taxis are also cheap relative to many parts of the world but even then you could easily be spending RMB 30+ each way for a 6 or 7 km trip.

On the other hand, RMB11,000 sounds like plenty unless you get caught up in tea-house scams :-)

[icebear]

While residing in Beijing, as recently as a few months last summer, I typically spend about 1000 RMB a week on living expenses (excluding rent). That normally includes at 1 or 2 nights of drinking, and a few more of eating out.

Dinners range in price from around 15-100 RMB per person, depending on where you are at; I'd guess the average in my circle is around 30-40RMB per person - very reasonable.

As mentioned above, 3000 is doable but probably slightly low if you are really going for a lot of sites with admittances, plan on eating at fancy restaurants, etc. 11000 is overkill - I think if you take around 6000-8000 (~1000 $/€) you definitely will be fine and probably have a bit left over.

[fanglu]

Living expenses are different when you're traveling. You don't generally buy overpriced entry tickets to tourist attractions when you're just living somewhere, for example.

I think 300 RMB / day is a good budget.

[Scandinavian]

Consider not bringing all the cash you expect to use. If you have an international credit card then just bring cash for the first days and then you can get more. It would be very bad for your vacation if your money was lost or stolen.

I agree with the above prices for food. I would however suggest also to try more upscale restaurants, to get the full taste of China. The food may be good and tasty in the cheap places, but the slightly fancier places may be worth a try or two, if not for the food, then for the experience.

[anonymoose]

As others have mentioned, your biggest outlay will probably be on entrance tickets. So, how much you spend really depends on which sites you will be going to. I don't know about Beijing, but a lot of the tourist centres in Shanghai are actually just city locations, rather than specific sites requiring entry, for example The Bund, City God Temple (the temple itself requires a ticket, for 10 yuan if I remember correctly, but the surrounding area is free), Shanghai Museum, Nanjing Road, Qibao and so on. Of course, there are also many specific sites, such as the Oriental Pearl Tower, Shanghai Aquarium, Madame Tussauds etc., but in my opinion, these aren't particularly representative of China, so you wouldn't lose much by not going to them. To be honest, whilst Shanghai is very convenient for living in, it is actually rather a boring city for tourism. If you have time, I suggest you take day trips to Suzhou and Hangzhou.

[roddy]

In Beijing the main attractions are stuff you'll have to pay to get into. Great Wall, Forbidden City, Lama Temple, Summer Palace. But even so, if you're watching what you spend and not buying anything to take home I can't see you spending more than 200 a day after accommodation and travel.

If you WANT to spend all 11,000 though, both Beijing and Shanghai will happily give you stuff to spend it on.

As for street food safety - I would say avoid meat, and avoid anything that's been sitting out in the sun covered with flies. Stuff like a 鸡蛋灌饼 and a 煎饼果子 is cooked in front of you, and as long as the egg's cooked through I can't see you've got anything to worry about. Anything with meat in - well, I'd wonder both about the quality of the stuff in the first place, and the conditions it'd been stored in.

God I could murder a 煎饼. Double egg. Twice.

[Igor Antunov]

Thanks guys. I've convinced my friend to up his budget to 4,000 yuan, and i've worked out that what we want to see will set us back around 2,000 yuan all up (including transport), so he will have 2,000 left over for food and other stuff. As I said accomodation is taken care of.

I've deliberately over-estimated and inflated entrance fees, I know that in peak season you can still get shit cheaper by buying combination tickets and avoiding useless tourist traps. Don't worry, tea scams don't bother me, there is nothing they could do to make me pay for their crummy tea, I would kung fu my way out of that tea house, it would take 8 strong chinese men to stop me.

[skylee]

To be honest, whilst Shanghai is very convenient for living in, it is actually rather a boring city for tourism.

I fully agree. Thank you.

[Ludens]

Just for your information, I stayed in Beijing and other cities as a tourist with an average daily budget of 150 kuai, including accommodation, food, entrance fees, transportation and nights out. I think most budgets stated here are really overkill. The only way I can imagine to spend that much money is to eat at western (or very fancy Chinese) restaurants all the time, go to multiple expensive tourist attractions each day, and go shopping.

In my opinion, the best way to experience China is to just walk around, which is free.

[jbradfor]

As was mentioned in #5, bring a credit card. [bUT DON'T USE IT TO GET CASH, use an ATM card instead.]

In general, the expensive places take credit cards, the cheap places don't. This actually works out quite well, as it limits the amount of cash you need to bring. e.g. Admission to the Oriental Pearl is 180 yuan, IIRC, which is above the daily budget some have recommended -- but they take credit cards, so you don't need to use cash. OTOH, street vendor food is all cash, but it's cheap, so you won't be spending much cash.

To be honest, whilst Shanghai is very convenient for living in, it is actually rather a boring city for tourism. If you have time, I suggest you take day trips to Suzhou and Hangzhou.

YES YES YES.

If it's not too late to change your hotel, I would recommend reducing the time in Beijing and Shanghai, and spending 3-ish days in each of those places.

[icebear]

If it's not too late to change your hotel, I would recommend reducing the time in Beijing and Shanghai, and spending 3-ish days in each of those places.

As much as I've loved living in Beijing and visiting Shanghai (to see friends), I'd have to agree. As a complete stranger with tourism in mind both cities are worth seeing, but probably not for longer than 3-4 days. Suzhou and Hangzhou are indeed good options nearby that often get rave reviews.

[Igor Antunov]

I've been to beijing and shanghai before as part of a very flexible tour group. I spent 3 nights in beijing, 2 nights in shanghai.

Needless to say, it all felt horribly rushed and I was sad to leave these places having missed so much, shanghai especially so. I'm not going in like some kind of die hard tourist, intending to rush past the major attractions with my camera in hand.

No, I want to just enjoy the cityscape and casually stroll to places of interests without a care for time. In 2 nights all we managed in shanghai was to prance on the bund quickly and then visit the site of the worlds fair and enter that saudi pavilion. We didn't even get to see the world famous shopping street. The rest of the time was spent being indecisive and spending hours deciding on where we would go which always ended in the group being split and going their own ways and having to wait on others afterward to do something else. It was shit in retrospect. I believe the city is composed of more than this.

Beijing...I find beijing fascinating. We saw many things in 3 nights but as I said it was all rushed, I couldn't just stop inside the forbidden city and admire things, I coudln't visit a single other building near tiannanmen, etc. I want to go into side streets and visit other hutongs. I want to see the CBD, see the military museum, ming tombs, I want to eat at more places than just the one single restaurant we were lured into every night by our guide.

[yaokong]

I live in Changping, short biking distance from the Ming Tombs. I could not imagine a more boring "tourist attraction". What makes them so interesting for you?

[WestTexas]

Aside from the Great Wall most of the Beijing stuff is pretty cheap. Entrance to the Forbidden city is only 80 yuan. National Museum is free, as is the art district. Most of the other, smaller tourist attractions are 40 yuan or less. Beijing subway is 2 yuan and goes to many different places in the city (though not everywhere). There are expensive restaurants in Beijing but cheaper options as well. Two people can eat in a decent restaurant in Beijing for 100 yuan or less. If you know where to go, you could spend 50 or less on a dinner.

I think 4k is a reasonable budget for 16 days if you already paid for accommodation and transport. 11k is overkill. Even if you want to spend that much, it's stupid to bring that much cash anywhere except to a bank, IMO.

I live in Changping, short biking distance from the Ming Tombs. I could not imagine a more boring "tourist attraction". What makes them so interesting for you?

I definitely wouldn't classify them as a 'must-see'.

[msittig]

It has been said but it should be emphasized: bring a little cash, and an ATM card. The UnionPay network is pretty well integrated with international banking networks. When I went on my last round-China trip in 2004, an ATM card plus a Bank of China was always enough. In big cities like Shanghai, pretty much 100% of ATM machines take foreign cards.

[Igor Antunov]

I have heard bad things about the ming tombs. It was just an example. There are literally scores of places in cities this large worth seeing. We will have to be adventurous, and for that one needs time. Keep in mind that Beijing and Shanghai both feature more people than Australia in it's entirety. Sometimes the most fascinating thing is conversing with the widely varied locals, had my fare share of that on cross-country hard sleeper trains last time.

I think 4k is a reasonable budget for 16 days if you already paid for accommodation and transport. 11k is overkill. Even if you want to spend that much, it's stupid to bring that much cash anywhere except to a bank, IMO.

Keep in mind, I will have the cash spread out among two people in money belts, and deep within four individual pieces of luggage, among other secret compartments sown into my clothes.. Cash is king, whatever the scenario.

In big cities like Shanghai, pretty much 100% of ATM machines take foreign cards.

I will be bringing a visa debit card with around $1,000 on it in case all my luggage gets stolen and we both get robbed, all on the same holiday. But chances are the visa card would get taken too in such a worst case scenario.

I saw what happens to people who rely too much on their cards last time I was there. We wasted a good number of hours every few days trying to find compatible ATM's in Beijing/Shanghai so that they could take out a paltry 500 yuan for the day, being hit with hefty conversion fees each time, while I was shaking my head in frustration trying to give them reason to take out more cash. There is careful and then there is impractical.

Besides, losing a few hundred yuan here and there is of little relevance (didn't happen last time and we were sleeping in 6 person train compartments with total strangers) if it means maximum utility and practicality.

Also, it's alot easier to lose a single card and be up shit creek without a paddle, than it is to have all your cash taken from you, especially when it's spread out all over the place. I have all options open to me, but as I said, cash is king at all times. It allows you to bribe yourself out of serious trouble, it allows you to commit to large transactions on the fly, it allows you maximum power. As a regular traveller to south eastern europe with thousands of euros stashed in my pockets and luggage, trust me, that place is corruption/crime hell compared to china, and I've never had issues in southern europe.

One is far more likely to have ones shit stolen by fellow travellers than the locals, unless one is visiting parts of Sydney, miami, washington, moscow or LA....from personal experience. I'm well travelled and well versed in the art of breaking thieving people's legs.

[icebear]

I saw what happens to people who rely too much on their cards last time I was there. We wasted a good number of hours every few days trying to find compatible ATM's in Beijing/Shanghai so that they could take out a paltry 500 yuan for the day, being hit with hefty conversion fees each time, while I was shaking my head in frustration trying to give them reason to take out more cash. There is careful and then there is impractical.

You are misinformed. Essentially any card with a Visa/Mastercard symbol can be used at most ATMs in Beijing and Shanghai, with daily limits between 2000-5000 RMB depending on the bank and particular ATM, as well as your home bank. I'm not sure what bank you are with, but with a small, state bank I was charged very modestly, generally a dollar more on top of ATM fees for maybe a total of $4 per withdrawal. If you're pulling 2000 RMB that isn't a huge deal for the convenience as well as much lower chance of losing your stash of cash and being screwed. But to each their own.

[Igor Antunov]

You lose card you lose ability to pay for anything anyway. Screwed as well. And of course my cash isn't kept in a singular 'stash'.

But enough ;)

So All up 15,000 should about do it for 16 days eh?

I intend to spend money.

[icebear]

So All up 15,000 should about do it for 16 days eh?

I intend to spend money.

They'll be happy to take it.