A first: Venturing into China as a tourist for the weekend

I will start with this disclaimer “I do not know a word of Chinese” and traveling in China without a Chinese speaking native seemed like a huge challenge.

However, with a weekend in between the meetings, it seemed like a waste of time in a country of such depth and culture like China, to not explore. So here I was with a few of my colleagues (who I had managed to convince) all set to sightseeing.

Now there were two main issues to be resolved, where should we go and how? The where part was easy.. Leshan Buddha, Panda Park and Local Market, seemed the right amount of things to do at the right pace…why would I miss out on seeing the world's biggest Buddha and the world's cutest living slobs! Yay! the agenda seemed right.. 

Now the biggest question for non native, non-chinese speaking folks is "how to see the sights at your pace, all by yourself". Well, turns out when you work with China team, it can be resolved rather simply (I call it cheating.. but hey! whatever it takes)... I simply asked one of our Chinese colleagues to help book a air conditioned taxi for us.. and one lesson I learned while she was booking our Taxi was “always haggle in China” . It was pretty amazing how well that worked… the price started from 1200RMB and ended at 340RMB … So, if in China, haggle away!!

Armed with a few English to Chinese translations (thanks to our Hotel concierge, I was all set with most important things like “Toilet”, “How Much”, “What Time” etc.. you get the flow… ) I was ready to see the sights..

The driver was amazing.. did not speak much, spoke no english, did not play Chinese music.. just drove at an even pace (probably slow for China) and the whole trip was a breeze.

We spend 9 hours with him and he waited for us patiently at each spot and took us from one place to another, all our communication was done via sign language and at the end of the day the total cost of the taxi, gas, driver’s food was just 650RMB.. Not bad for a private tour, done at your own pace.. with the cost being shared equally amongst the 3 people.. it was barely a burp..I would do it again in a heartbeat..

The bottom line, traveling in China can be reasonably cheap, provided you have haggled the right way and have some good references..

For timebeing, after my first taste of China as a tourist... I am dying to explore China at leisure with my other half and the baby….. it should be fun…