Taking a trip to China?

[MantisFistMonk]

Hey everyone.

I'm taking a trip to China next year and I just got done researching travel costs for tonight.

An interesting note that I think anyone who travels, or plans to travel to China should jot down...

Now this may be common knowledge, but it's new to me so anyways.

I originally planned to just fly from Bradley International Airport to Zhengzhou's airport, for the fat price of like 1,300. I don't travel... well... at all. So I thought fly from point A to point B and that's it. But...

So far, I found the absolute cheapest way to get there and back is...

Via Air Canada...

JFK to Shanghai (SHA) = 811
Train from Shanghai to Zhengzhou (Hard Seat) = 32

So that's it. After comparing Bradley International, JFK, LaGuardia, Newark International, Beijing, Shanghai and Zhengzhou's airports with eachother in every combination etc. This is the cheapest I found.

NYC to Zhengzhou, and Zhengzhou to NYC, for a total of 843.

421.50 for a one way ticket into Zhengzhou.

Not too shabby.

Anyways, I hope this helps anyone planning to take a trip to China in anyways, for any reason.

Also, Gene, thanks for all the help.

[MantisFistMonk]

oh yea... I also found these to be the best two websites to look for cheap flights...

http://edit.travel.yahoo.com/flights.html?source=YG

http://www.mobissimo.com/search_airfare.php

[wall]

Beijing - ZZ train make sure you book overnight tickets (it's a long & boring trip otherwise) and get a 'soft sleeper'. It's still really cheap by US / EU standards (about $30-40) but you get a really comfortable and clean bed in 4 people cabins. The 'hard sleeper' is smallish and reasonably uncomfortable, and you are packed in with lots of people and no room (cost about $20). The 'seat' is really cheap (I think about $5) but it's just that, a hard uncomfortable, very packed-in seat.

Happy travels,

W

[18elders]

i would spend the extra money and fly to zhengzhou, boring train ride.

Also, try this website:
www.flychina.com

[MantisFistMonk]

i would spend the extra money and fly to zhengzhou, boring train ride.

Also, try this website:
www.flychina.com

If you would also spend the extra money on me so I can fly directly to Zhengzhou than I would gladly skip the boring train ride!

:P

I'm a broke college student, I'll probably be going into debt for the first time in my life to take this trip.

I'm not worried though, because the debt will be here in America, and I will be in China.

[wall]

i would spend the extra money and fly to zhengzhou, boring train ride.

Also, try this website:
www.flychina.com


Actually the train that leaves Beijing at about 9pm and arrives in ZZ at 7am or so is really good. Dinner in Beijing, get on the train, soft sleeper all the way (very comfortable) and you wake up in ZZ. No boredom, good night sleep, you are in Deng Feng by 8am if you get a taxi / car in ZZ ... and the cost of the soft sleeper is less than an average hotel night in Beijing before you catch the morning flight to ZZ.

W

[18elders]

Where are u staying in zhengzhou?


Try the university, they have a hotel for foreign guest, very cheap.


Train ride-
after spendin long hours flying, i prefer to get to zhengzhou as quickly as possible.

My wife just came back from ZZ, her ticket was $40 from ZZ to beijing. She said she got a discount but regular price is less than $100 US.
Still think it is worth the extra $, also save a day in travel so u have more time to do what you want.

[g0pher]

I'm not worried though, because the debt will be here in America, and I will be in China.

Good attitude. I'm also in college, and I use my loan money to fund my CMA training being that I am dirt poor. But to me there is nothing worth more than my kung fu.

BTW: Good luck with your trip.

[GeneChing]

This is kinda funny.


http://image5.sixthtone.com/image/5/11/160.jpg

$540,000 Zhengzhou Tourism Video Features Wrong City (http://www.sixthtone.com/news/1002408/%24540%2C000-zhengzhou-tourism-video-features-wrong-city)
Six-minute promo left residents unimpressed and incredulous at the high price tag.
Fan Liya
Jun 04, 2018 3-min read

An official promotional video for Zhengzhou — the capital of central China’s Henan province and home to Shaolin-style kung fu — has come under fire for questionable quality at a phenomenal price.

The six-minute video was released on social platform Weibo last Tuesday, but eagle-eyed locals quickly spotted a blooper: A scene identified as Zhengzhou Garden Expo Park in fact showed Millennium City Park, a famous tourist attraction in the neighboring city of Kaifeng.

The Zhengzhou Municipal Tourism Administration said in a statement Friday that it would demand an explanation from the production team.

Though the two parks feature similar traditional architecture, netizens were especially flabbergasted when they found out that the video had cost millions of yuan. According to Beijing Youth Daily, Zhengzhou’s tourism administration invited bids in March, and the following month private media company SinoMedia Holding Limited won with a 3.48 million-yuan ($540,00) offer.

http://image5.sixthtone.com/image/5/11/164.jpg
Above: A screenshot from the promotional video shows Millennium City Park in Kaifeng incorrectly labeled as Zhengzhou Garden Expo Park; below: An aerial view of Zhengzhou Garden Expo Park. From Weibo, VCG

“A promotional video costs over 3 million yuan? I must come from the countryside,” commented one netizen in surprise. In a reply to Beijing Youth Daily on Friday, a SinoMedia employee acknowledged the mistake but said that the budget for the project also covered three other short videos.

Financial newspaper National Business Daily found that Zhengzhou boasted the country’s second-largest budget for tourism promotional videos, based on figures made public in the last six months. Shanxi province was the biggest spender at 7.8 million yuan.

As cities around the country compete for tourists, talent, and investment, promotional videos are an important way for them to show off their strengths and specialties. Some Chinese provinces and cities have even screened their promos as far afield as New York’s Times Square, following the lead of a national tourism promo that aired there in 2011.

An agent at Chinese company Gen Media, which has made videos for the city of Hangzhou in eastern China, told Sixth Tone that promos are often criticized for ****geneous content and for showing too little of ordinary people’s lives. But with costs ranging from several hundred thousand yuan into the millions, he said, the most common gripes have to do with their price tags.

Last year, officials in Shenmu, a city in Shaanxi province, were forced to answer to the public after netizens questioned why the government had spent nearly one-third of its spending in 2015 on just two promotional videos. But the deputy director of the city’s tourism administration simply said that the city needed higher-quality videos to help boost tourism.

In response to questions about its budget, the Zhengzhou tourism administration said in Friday’s statement that the bidding for the project had been handled by a third party, in accordance with laws and regulations.

Editor: Qian Jinghua.

(Header image: People enjoy a light show at Qianxi Plaza in Zhengdong New Area, Zhengzhou, Henan province, Dec. 30, 2017. VCG)