Red Hat Traveler

Five Days in Beijing: Day 1 For the first day in Beijing, I recommend that you stay close to the center of the city there is a lot to see.   In terms of hotels, I have recommended a number on another post that you can find here.   Take your pick or search for something that is more your style.   I would still stay close to the center as it’s easy to get to and you are bound to find several people who speak English in the area.   Another possible location is in Chaoyang which is where all of the embassies are in Beijing, so you know that the people around there are already used to dealing with foreigners. Breakfast One of the most common breakfasts in China is what is called baozi.   What is it?   It is a steamed bun with meat and vegetables inside it.   They are easy enough to find and cheap as well.   Maybe only a 1-3 RMB. Morning The first stop in your trip should be the Forbidden City in the middle of Bejing.   It’s one...

I am currently the holder of a Q2 visa in China, this means that I have to leave the country every 60 days.  Generally, I leave earlier than that.  Since I live in Guangzhou, I mainly go to Hong Kong for my visa runs which means I am in and out of SAR every three months give or take.  I normally take a bus from where I live in Guangzhou down to the border, then I go through customs. Now a lot of people will just turn right around and then come back up to Guangzhou.  For that just sounds horrible.  If I'm going to spend three hours on a bus then I want to be able to at least walk around and see something.  So what do I do when I'm down there?  Is it possible to make the most of one day in Hong Kong and see several sites? Well, it really sort of depends on when you come in and how much time you have.  Some places like some of the islands or Disneyland will probably take you all day.  However, if all you want do is maybe go sho...

How to travel to China is not that difficult.   When we think of China in America we may think of the Communist regime, but that has changed.   Travel to China can be very relaxing now and a great experience for solo travelers, those who will travel to China with a friend as well as people coming with families.   Here are tips on travel to China. 1. Visa The type visa that you are looking to get for travel to China, that is if you are not married or have family living here is going to be a Z visa.   That is the tourist visa.   For some countries, primarily western countries and some European countries as well it lasts ten years.   Don’t get too excited though because you will have to exit the country every 60 days.   How do you get a Z visa is also fairly simple, a search done line will find you several different services that will help you to obtain your visa.   All you have to do is fill out the form, get the picture, and...

At this point a lot of people probably know what life is like with Corvid 9 being in most countries.  China is no longer the center of attention and if it is then people are just not hearing about Italy.  Where I live in Guangzhou the outbreak is getting contained.  That being said they keep pushing the opening day of schools back.  It was March 23rd now it is March 30th. All of that being said this really sucks. It has been about 45 days.  The only times I go outside is take out trash, pick up deliveries, buy water and that's it.  I'm outside for maybe 20 to 30 minutes at best and only then maybe two or three times a week.  Yesterday was the first time my daughter had been outside in over a month, she's two years old if you're wondering.  My wife still refuses to go outside but keeps on wanting to talk about how bad the virus is around the world.  That seems to be all the Chinese media talks about. I hear about prevent measures in the US...

Here are ten tips to make your next visit to China as awesome as possible.  Most of the tips come from six years of living here, so you can bet I have a good idea of what I am talking about. 1. Phone is king When I first started traveling people would tell me that in some countries cash was king and in other card was king. While in China it's all about the phone now.  Most Chinese will use Wechat Pay or Alibaba to pay for things.  The problem this raises for most travelers is you need a Chinese bank account to use either.  Apply pay works here as well as I think What's app but I don't have it so I don't really know, no one uses What's app in China.  Trying either is a great idea though as I have had experiences were store clerks got very angry at me that I wanted to use money and not my phone.  I have also had a few experiences where people had forgotten how to use money. Another to mention about money in China is the whole change thing is very weird f...

When people think about going to Indonesia they automatically think about going to Bali, which conjures up images of beaches, roast pork, Buddhist temples, roast port, coffee, roast pork. To be honest though the minute you go to Bali you will quickly find that the only thing on the menu there is chicken.  All of that being said I know of a few people who regularly go to Indonesia for travel, and it's not Bali they are going too, it's the Gili Islands. Photo by Oliver Sjöström from Pexels Where are the Gili Islands? Located in the Lombok region of Indonesia, there are three Gili Islands, Trawangan, Meno, and Air.  Trawangan is the largest of the three islands.  It is the most cosmopolitan and is known for it's nightlife. The second is Meno which is the smallest of the three islands.  It has the most traditional culture and is more laid back than the other two.  If you are looking for the tropical desert island paradise, this is your spot.  White s...

With the threat of a pandemic fast become a reality a lot of people are probably looking at staying in there homes and hunkering down to wait out the worst of it.  Other's on the other hand might begin to feel stir crazy.  But where can you go? North America  Photo by Jose Espinal from Pexels Recently America has seen a number of cases rise up in San Francisco and other areas.  Canada as also had a few cases as well.  However for those who live in North America you have a number of options in the Caribbean.  Jamaica , the Bahamas , and Puerto Rico all of which are wonder vacation destinations have cases reported at the time of this posting.   Listen to some reggae, tour old San Juan or just be beach bum for a while, dusty of your bikini or board shorts and get out there. Asia  Photo by icon0.com from Pexels Now Asia is where the virus originally came from, but that is in China.  There are a number of great locations that c...