Travel and study Chinese in China on a wheelchair

[Andrea Vh]

Hello,

 

i'm Andrea i'm 29, i'm from Italy and i'm on a wheelchair (i think this detail it's important to have more accurate advices ).

 

I like to travel solo, and this year i thought it would be amazing to visit China for one o two months on jan-feb-march 2019.

I also thought that a good way to spend my time there, and know more about China, could be taking chinese lessons (i'm a complete beginner).

 

So, i started my research, looking for short courses in Beijing and i found out that most of private schools are more expansive than i expected (That's Mandarin, LTL).

Universities may be the right choise for me, also because i would like to live a real chinese-student routine in a real chinese-student place and make friends with chinese students!

 

I know that private schools are the easiest way but i'm looking for the most authentic chinese experience i can find spending less money as possible

 

Anyone of you have some particular advice for me?

 

Like:

Universities in which is more probably they accept my application?

City that is more wheelchair friendly?

Cheaper way to find accomodation that fits my needs? (like distance from school, easy access to subway..)

 

I traveled solo many times, and did 2 months in Thailand last year, so keep in mind that wheelchair is not a insurmountable problem!

 

 

 

Thank you in advance for your replies, i will have some more question for sure!

 

Andrea

 

 

 

 

 

 

[abcdefg]

China is just starting to embrace the concept of being wheelchair friendly. For example, subway stations now usually have an elevator as well as stairs and escalators. And city busses usually have a small section for one or two wheelchairs. Having said that, lots of public buildings only have stairs at the street entrance, especially if they were not recently built. (Newer ones have a ramp.)

 

I live in Kunming in an inexpensive, older apartment. Most such buildings were constructed under a code that lets them be up to six stories tall without an elevator. I live on the 4th floor, and must climb those stairs several times a day. 

 

I think you will find more modern first-tier cities to have more accommodations for people in wheelchairs, but I cannot swear to it. There will for sure be challenges. Traveling to a place for a week or ten days is different, and not as difficult, as living there for longer. 

 

Are you aware that landlords seldom will rent a room for less than six months? (They prefer 12 months.) I know nothing about university dorms, but doubt they make short-term arrangements (a month or two) either. You might wind up in a shared apartment or a cheap hotel. 

 

Universities typically offer enrollment for a semester, not a month or two. The exception is some summer programs, but you talked about coming this winter. 

 

This won't be easy. (But I imagine you knew that already.) Welcome to the forum.

[889]

Lots of people ride bikes and electric bikes in China, so walkways at least are generally pretty accommodating to two-wheeled transport.

 

In metros and similar places, you'll want to look for signs pointing to 无障碍 routes. This is the term -- meaning "barrier free" -- used to mark disabled accessways.

[大肚男]

I second abcdefg's points.

 

I was just in China for couple of weeks, and I visited Beijing, Changsha, Chengdu, and Suzhou.

 

It was actually disturbing how wheelchair unfriendly China is.

 

If language is the main motivator,May I suggest looking into Taiwan, rather than China.  I did not pay attention last time I have been, but I do believe that the island is a little more forward thinking than the mainland.

 

[mungouk]

Welcome to the forums @Andrea Vh!

 

I've not checked it out, but Lonely Planet have a free e-book Accessible Travel Online Resources which may have some handy China stuff in it.

 

If you plan on travelling on the bullet trains you should be fine... the stations are very modern and have elevators as well as escalators.  See here for a wheelchair user's review.

 

[anonymoose]

Another thing to bear in mind is that Chinese new year falls sometime during January/February. Language schools and universities will almost certainly be closed during this period. I think it will be difficult to find a 2-month language course that covers exactly this time period.

[Bibu]

make the barrier as a new way.

 

China is a place full of population and a helping hand is always around. My suggestion is not to dig in the online wheelchair guide , but spent some minutes to learn how to ask for help and chatting with locals, even in the case you booked a hotel without elevator....,

 

Wish you have funs, and focus on the place, things and people, not wheelchair accessible infors...

 

BTW, do not expect the authentic experience of China. For Italian the GEO size and history, you people are SO different from city to city. With this in mind ,just imagine China with such a GEO and history....Anyhow, Mandarin could be authentic, that maybe the only one....

[AaronUK]

I live in Ningbo, it’s a ‘new first tier city’ (2nd tier)

Like some other cities in China that have been designated to grow in a very short space of time a lot of the cities infrastructure is very recently built; so the roads are very wide and there is a lot of space for moving around. Actually the population is so spread out that it’s not crowded.

 

I noticed in downtown there are specific designated ramps for wheelchairs in some places but this is quite a new feature of urban planning. The subway lines are all recently built here so have lifts/elevators (although the network is not so extensive at present).

 

I would say it’s difficult to judge how a city will be because they are not consistent throughout; there is no law for planning that I’m aware of that would require buildings to be upgraded to be more access friendly like we have in my home country. Even with wide paths, because locals don’t think about issues like access; you could find shared bikes etc blocking you way sometimes, and in order to stop bikes cluttering malls(which do usually have elevators) they put up path blocks to stop bikes which could be a barrier for you. As long as you are anticipating these issues I think you can find ways around them.

 

i noticed in shanghai where the pathways are more narrow the police patrol to make sure that shops don’t take up space in the street to keep it clear and I think they actively remove bikes too. I keep mentioning bikes because everywhere in china has hundreds of bikes parked in different places. So much so they can block pathways frequently, even at annoying places like crossings it can be difficult to get around them sometimes.

 

For the Chinese version of Uber - didi, the drivers may not be used to assisting people, but the app lets you send messages in text, so it could be very easy for you to explain your requirement in chinese and copy and paste the message to the driver so they are aware on arrival to maybe help you. It could be luck based on how well the drivers respond, you can also pick different ‘tiers’ of service, although the availability varies by city. While does not have access friendly cars option like I see in my hometown on Uber, if you picked a ‘select’ or ‘premier’ tier then you may end up with more helpful drivers. In my opinion although the price may be 1/3 higher it’s still extremely cheap to the western equivalent.

 

If you are going to a building with elevators but difficult to access the door you could try to get dropped off in a parking area with elevator access. 

 

For universities I think you can ask directly about classroom access.