Travelling in China as a woman - experiences and tips? (also for daily girly stuff)

[skylee]

Fun indeed.

[liuzhou]

My Lonely Planet has the itinerary and the prices!

Your Lonely Planet (even the latest edition) was probably written years ago, possible by people who never even visited the places in question.

[Ruben von Zwack]

Yeah, I know what you mean. I won't bet my life (or comfort) on them.

What I'll do is, I plan to get everywhere timely, and even though my Chinese is still pathetic, I hope it will be okayish enough so I can figure out and verify things like timetables for local buses, etc, a day in advance.

[skylee]

You mentioned Prague. I remember going on day trips from Prague to Kutna Hora （I did it twice, the first was a disaster. I blame it on the language. The second time was better）. Well at the end of my second trip I went back to the bus stop to take a bus back to Prague. I could not decipher the timetable bcos I know nothing about the language. So I went into the bus stop office and asked a woman at the ticket window the departure time of the next bus to Prague. The woman said I had to wait five hours. My jaw fell to the ground and I did not know what to do. Then a young white couple came up to me and told me that the next bus would depart in five minutes and took me to the bus stop. They said the woman at the ticket window was crazy. And then we got on the same bus and arrived in Prague some time later.

I guess when you travel you simply can't plan and prepare for everything and sometimes you have to rely on the kindness of strangers. And I am grateful for such help, and will offer help to other travellers if they need it.

[Kobayashi]

As a Japanese woman, I felt very safe in China during my trip.

[xiaocai]

Huangshan is in Anhui, far away from Xi'an. Huashan is close to Xi'an. I went there twice and really liked it. But avoid the time around early October as October 1st is National Day of PRC and it will get very crowded and you can get stuck half way. We started climbing 10pm. It takes about 7 hours to get to the top in average so you get to see the famous sunrise in the morning. There was no lighting in the mountains so many people brought torches. It can get quite cold on the peak so there were jackets to hire. You can bring your own if you don't like the idea of wearing a jacket worn by five million other people. It was tiring but good fun after all. Non of us really wore any sort of mountaineer gear at all. It's just not a Chinese thing to do. But this is completely up to your personal preference.

[Ruben von Zwack]

Thank you xiaocai!

I did notice my mistake over the past week, and I also found pictures of Huashan and was scared Did you really walk over these wobbly wooden planks that you see on photos, and using that iron chain? And in the dark?! Or are there different routes up?

Yeah, it seems the right thing to avoid National Day. I am currently looking for flights to China starting around the 7th or 8th.

[xiaocai]

Did you mean 长空栈道 also known as the plank walk? It will be closed at night for obvious reasons if I remember correctly. You can go there on the way down but it is completely optional.

[Ruben von Zwack]

Uwff, good to know it's optional. Yes that one! Are the other routes nearly as intimidating? I suspect they can't, how else would people get up in the dark and holding flash lights.

[xiaocai]

More intimidating than many other mountains I've climbed in China. But most of the paths are fairly well built so not hard to climb, either. We even brought our own drinking water and food because it was expensive to buy water and food up on the top for poor students like us. Anyway, Climbing at night to me was quite an experience and the views of thousands torchlights moving up and down on the trails were quite memorable.

[Ruben von Zwack]

So I'm in Beijing now, and I like it so much, even to my own surprise! I wasn't expecting that it would be so charming.

And I've already had more excitement than I asked for - got a free ride in a police van on my first evening...

What happened was, I was walking the street alone around 11pm-ish, I had not had any alcohol, it wasn't a bar street at all (just a regular street in Xinjiekou) and a guy helloed me quite persistently and for his life wouldn't let go of me. I suppose he was assuming he was being nice to me, but he was "nice" in the unwelcome way drunk people are. The funny thing is, he didn't look and sound like a guy desperate to molest strange women in the street, but rather handsome and well (expensive) dressed.

I didn't dare to walk back to my hostel with the guy clinging on, cause I thought, a dark hutong is not the right place to test just how safe China really is for women travellers.

So walked to a little 24/7 instead. I explained the situation to the girl there, and she asked him to leave, and he said apologies and yes, but instead, hid behind a phone booth. Even the girl seemed creeped out and wrote "dǎ 110" on a slip of paper to me.

So yeah, that's what happened.

The good thing is how non-fuss everything was. In Germany, it would have been a huge pain - they officers would have checked everyone involved's passport twice with Interpol and made each of us sign 12 pages of stuff. Now those Beijing cops just lectured the guy, then drove me to the hostel in their bumpy van. They even stopped in front of the door and did not walk inside. I said thank you, they said méi shrrrr, and that was it.

[anonymoose]

Weird. Glad you like Beijing and that you managed to deal with that situation.

[Ruben von Zwack]

Well "managed"... I was embarrassed to death. About being so stupid and walking a deserted street late, and my bad Chinese. So embarrassed I tried to get by with English the next morning after. But I noticed that will just embarrass the other person. (Who was it who said you can get by in Beijing with English? That's a factless rumour! Even pointing at what the guy at the next table is eating might not save you from starving, cause it can turn out to be fried green chilis, and not fresh beans like you thought).

Anyway, it healed me of any ambitions to do potentially risky things until I can really express myself with confidence - which is good. To have such a quick and dirty reality check, I mean.

How does one tell someone unmistakeably but without being aggressive to mind their own business/sod off, anyway?

What I said was, I would like to walk alone, and, thank you for your concern but I do not need your help. Guess that wasn't strong enough.

[abcdefg]

Quote: >>"How does one tell someone unmistakeably but without being aggressive to mind their own business/sod off, anyway?"

You were dealing with a drunk. In those situations language alone is usually not effective. You did the right thing, namely ducking into a store and seeking help, first informal help, then official help.

[Lu]

Well "managed"... I was embarrassed to death. About being so stupid and walking a deserted street late, and my bad Chinese.

 

Please please please, don't be embarrassed. An idiot drunk guy harrassed you and you dealt with the situation adequately and calmly, and all was resolved. Any stupidity on display was entirely that guy's. And if you managed to 1) explain your predicament to the shop lady and 2) got the police to help you, your Chinese is far from bad, and clearly it's good enough to get out of a problem like this.

 

How does one tell someone unmistakeably but without being aggressive to mind their own business/sod off, anyway?

 

You can try 走開. But in such a situation (creepy drunk guy), there's no telling what effect that would have.

 

I hope you enjoy the rest of your trip, with no further harrassment by idiots.

[roddy]

Seconded, and please do tell us how you're getting on. 

[Angelina]

How has the rest of your trip been?

I'm glad you made it to Beijing.

[tysond]

Well, Beijing has certainly turned on charm for you, it's chilly but clear yesterday and very blue blue skies today.  Good timing.

Sure you can survive in Beijing using English. Go to Sanlitun, find an American/Irish pub/café and enjoy your hamburger or sausages.  I don't enjoy it much because these places seem to be full of people who should be happy they can order in English but instead are angry at the staff for not speaking English perfectly.

Your encounter, while a bit disturbing, was a success more than a setback. I got hit (lightly) by a car one time here and completely lost the power of speaking Chinese. You did much better!  Enjoy the rest of your trip!
 

[Ruben von Zwack]

Thank you, everyone!

My trip has really just begun, and I am enjoying it immensely.

Compared to the amount of hassle you get in some German cities on a daily basis, this odd incident was rather harmless in the end, and there's no way I would take it personal, or hold it against Beijing. In fact I find the people here very pleasant.

That is a great way to see it, Tyson! I guess when you are stressed out, the brain temporarily shuts some parts down, and hence the feeling of speech loss? With the traffic here I can see how it's easy to get hit by a car.