From: jidai@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Jihong Dai)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.china
Subject:soc.culture.china FAQ(1)--Travel
Summary: This posting contains a list of frequently-asked-questions (and their answers) about the newsgroup "soc.culture.china". The first part covers the travel issues and is written by Wuchun Wu < wuwu@cs.ksu.edu > , with assistance from Mark Swofford < mswofford@aardvark.ucs.uoknor.edu > .
Organization: The Ohio State university

Archive-name:cultures/china/travel
Posting-Frequency: approximately biweekly
Last-modified: 1995/07/15


TRAVEL


Written by Wuchun Wu < wuwu@phys.ksu.edu >

For comments and suggestions, please send your ideas to the author or to
scc-faq@saavik.cem.msu.edu

TABLE OF CONTENTS


Travel

1. For Chinese with PRC passport

1.1. Going Home or Coming Here

1.1.1 US consulate generals in China:

                 Phone            Fax
Beijing        10-532-3831      10-532-3178
Guangzhou      20-88808911      20-886-2341
Shanghai       21-433-6880      21-433-4122
Shenyang       24-282-0000      24-282-0074
Chengdu        28-558-9642      28-558-8352

1.1.2 Travel agencies and tickets

You'll probably be better off going to a travel agency specializing in Asia/China travel. Since most of these businesses come and go quickly, it is recommended that you check your local Chinese newspapers for phone numbers of these travel specialists. If you know which airline you are going to take, you can get a list of phone numbers for "all" airlines through anonymous FTP. It is at

ftp.cc.umanitoba.ca under directory /pub/rec-travel

1.1.3 Hong Kong transit

It is said that a PRC passport holder does not need an advanced transit visa anymore if he/she has a valid ticket. Call 312-346-1810 (British Consulate General in Chicago, fax: 312-346-7021) to be sure. People from Taiwan can get a 48-hour transit visa through British consulates.

The Hong Kong tourism office in the US can be reached at: 212-869-5008 (voice), or 212-730-2606 (fax). For online information try the following www sites:

http://www.hongkong.org AND
http://www.ceas.rochester.edu:8080/ee/users/yeung/hk.html

There are several ways to enter the Mainland from Hong Kong: by plane, train, or by ferry. Trains are available to Shenzhen/Guangzhou. The train ride from Kowloon to Lofo customs at Shenzhen costs about HK$36. Ferries are available to Zhuhai (for about HK$40), Guangzhou, Xiamen and some other places.

1.1.4 Bringing things home

The regulations change quite often. Please contact the Chinese consulates for the latest details.

1.2 Traveling around the world

1.2.1 Visas

If you hold a PRC passport, you need a visa for almost all the countries you want to visit. To visit European countries, information as recent as summer 1994 indicates that you will need visas for each individual country you plan to visit. There are, however, some recent posts in SCC saying that one now can get the so called Schengen Visa which is valid for seven European countries (not all the EU countries).

Make sure you have a valid visa/travel document (e.g. multi-entry visa, or green card) to go back to your residence country. Otherwise, you need to renew your visa to return there. There has been both good news and bad news about renewing visas in a third country. My limited experience has been all positive so far. But I remember one case in Turkey and another in Belgium. In both cases someone ran into trouble for re-entry to the US. It is a good idea to check with your international student office before leaving.

For those with US green cards, it is possible to travel with a "white paper" issued by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), in place of your PRC passport. Contact the international student office and INS for details.

For the addresses of the consulate generals of the country you are planning to visit, inquire at your international student office. (Mine has never asked me if I am a student or not.) I am not sure if the reference book they used is available in bookstore or not. Alternately, you may call the nearest immigration lawyer; s/he might help you out.

1.2.2 Tourist information

You can get most general travel information, including country and city maps by calling that country's tourism office. You can get a list of tourism offices for almost any country through anonymous FTP to

ftp.cc.umanitoba.ca in /pub/rec-travel or
ftp-manager.mit.edu in /pub/usenet/news.answers/travel

For information about cheap but nice hotels, exotic places and other practical tricks, you may want to post your question in one of the rec.travel groups, such as rec.travel.asia or rec.travel.europe. Check rec.travel.air for information about airline tickets.

Here is a list of tourism offices in the USA for countries most asked about in SCC.

                    Phone           Fax
Australia        212-994-6880    212-730-4568
Austria          312-644-8029
Belgium          212-758-8130    212-355-7675
Canada           212-757-3583
France           212-757-1125    212-247-6468
Germany          212-661-7200
Hong Kong        212-869-5008    212-730-2605
Italy            312-644-0990    312-644-3019
Japan            415-989-7140    415-398-5461
Korea            201-585-0909    201-585-9041
Holland          213-370-7367    212-379-9507
Russia           212-757-3884    212-459-0031
All Scandinavian Countries
		 212-757-3884    212-459-0031

2. For non-PRC citizens going to China

2.1 Visas

If you do not want to call a Chinese consulate first, rec.travel.asia is perhaps a better place to start. You can get visas either at a Chinese consulate in your country, or, as quite a few people have done, go to Hong Kong first and get a visa there. It is very easy and fast to get a tourist visa in Hong Kong. Some travel agencies also provide visa service (to get the visa for you). People from Taiwan may obtain entry permits from the New China News Agency in Hong Kong.

2.1.1 Chinese consulate generals in the U.S.

Embassy of the People's Republic of China
2300 Connecticut Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20008
Tel. (202) 328-2500.

Consulate General of the People's Republic of China New York
520 - 12th Avenue
New York, New York  10036
Tel. (212) 279-4275.

Consulate General of the People's Republic of China San Francisco
1450 Laguna Street
San Francisco, California  94115
Tel. (415) 563-4885.

Consulate General of the People's Republic of China Houston
3417 Montrose Blvd.
Houston, Texas  77006
Tel. (713) 524-4311.

Consulate General of the People's Republic of China Chicago
100 W. Erie St.
Chicago, Illinois  60610
Tel. (312) 573-3070.

Consulate General of the People's Republic of China Los Angeles
502 Shto Place, Suite 300
Los Angeles, California  90020
Tel. (213) 380-2507.

2.2 General information

The CIA World Factbook for China is available online through telnet at:

info.rutgers.edu (128.6.26.25)

or by anonymous FTP at

cnd.org under directory /pub/InfoBase/China-Intro/Basic-Data.txt

or via WWW at

http://www.research.att.com/cgi-wald/dbaccess/411

Other online information, including high-resolution scenery pictures, about China can be obtained at the following WWW sites:

http://www.cnc.ac.cn/china/china.html
http://unkvx1.utk.edu/~xurs/china.html (mirror of the above site)
http://www.cernet.edu.cn
http://www.cnd.org/Other/Chinese.html
http://www.ihep.ac.cn/tour
http://www.ceas.rochester.edu:8080/ee/users/yeung/china.html

or by anonymous FTP at:

cnd.org under directory /pub/InfoBase/

2.3 Tourist information

For online information, check the WWW and FTP sites listed in the previous section. You may want to call the Chinese national tourism office in your country. In the US, the address is

China National Tourist Office(USA)
333 W. Broadway #201
Glendale, CA 91204
phone: 818-545-7505   FAX: 818-545-7506

Another place to check is rec.travel.asia .

2.4 Electricity

The electric power in China is 220V, 50Hz as in most European countries. Please pay attention to the plug pattern. Although it supposedly has been standardized now, there are still quite a few places where old, non-standard outlets are still used.

2.5 Credit cards and traveler's cheques

You can use credit cards or traveler's cheques in China. Most starred hotels, restaurants and big departments stores accept credit cards, although they are not as widely accepted as in European countries, and certainly not as in North America. Also, China has abolished the so called "Foreign Exchange Certificate", and the exchange rates the government posts are close to the real market values (the proof is that there is now no black market for foreign exchange).

You can also purchase international money orders or traveler's cheques at the Bank of China and other Chinese banks. The minimum value per purchase is US$10. Most financial institutions in the world accept the traveler's cheques issued by these banks. Since several foreign banks already operate in China, you can also purchase traveler's cheques from them if you do not trust the Chinese banks :) (This item is adapted from a post by Xiaogning Deng [72946@brahms.udel.edu] in alt.chinese.text)


written by: Wuchun Wu < wuwu@cs.ksu.edu >

with editorial assistance from: Mark Swofford < mswofford@aardvark.ucs.uoknor.edu >


List of soc.culture.china FAQ authors and contributors (in alphabetical order)

Jihong Cole-Dai < jidai@magnus.acs.ohio-sate.edu >
Bo Peng < bpeng@chelsea.ios.com >
Ray Zhan Su < raysu@hphkae0.hkg.hp.com >
Mark Swofford < mswofford@aardvark.ucs.uoknor.edu >
Wuchun Wu < wuwu@phys.ksu.edu >
Tung-Chiang Yang < tcyang@netcom.com >

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