China Travel 2.0

Roy is my friend from facebook.

I registered the facebook in the late of 2007 just to developing my Travel business, and created a group too, called China Travel and Hotel. It is a new way to advertise my company and my service, or So-called Web 2.0. In my point of view, Social Media Marketing is a brand-new self advertising means. We must do it with our heart and soul. Let the people know you are a true and nice man. Actually, I am. I tell my feeling of china, the introduction of China (including Beijing of course) and what happened in China in English with my own words. Now I have some friends, Roy is one of them. And Roy is one of the closed one. Recently, He told me the story of his trip in China. From Today,  you can enjoy it with me….                           Winser

Did you visit China before? what’s your comments about travel in China,and whats your feeling about China and her people? welcome to leave your comments here and it is open. No worry, I will not delete any comments(not for the spammers). Am doing some work to let the people know the real China and her people.Now let’s read Roy’s China trip togehter.

Cindy and Roy’s Trip to China In 2006
Roy

 In this version of my report I have changed all the names except my own to protect the privacy of the other people mentioned here.  I also corrected a couple of mistakes I found in my English grammar.  I have not otherwise changed it at all from when I originally wrote this shortly after returning from China and Korea. I’m going to begin this with a note of caution taken from the 8^th Edition of Lonely Planet’s guidebook to China.

 With the exception of our trip to the Great Wall, Cindy and I passed our time only in Beijing without seeing the rest of China.

Having said that, would I go back to China?  Yes, in a heartbeat.  Seeing Beijing has only whet my appetite to see more.

 The story of our trip begins in 1996 when I first met Betsy through work.  Until then I had never thought too much about Asia.  Betsy and I began a friendship which rapidly grew to include both her family and mine. Then in April of 2001 Wendy and I went to Paris. In a laundromat near our hotel we met another American who had been traveling the world.  We asked him which country he liked best. He replied emphatically and without hesitation “Red China!”.  The reply startled me, but also started me on a train of thought which culminated in this trip.  Then in February of 2002 Wendy, Cindy and I visited Betsy and her family at their home in Seoul.
Conversations with her husband Sam piqued my interest in China even more.  There will be more about Betsy and her family later on when I get to the Korean part of my trip. As of this writing in September of 2006 you can’t just walk in to China on your U.S. passport alone.  You need a visa and for tourists the visa is only good to enter China within 90 days of its issuance.  Accordingly on a hot morning in July I went over by ferry and on foot to the Chinese consulate at 42^nd Street and 12^th Avenue in New York, arriving there about 8:25.  It wasn’t hard to identify the consulate that morning because they were being picketed by the Falun Gong (this organization is also called the Falun  Dafa).  I got on the short line and a few minutes later at 8:30 the door opened and we were admitted to the waiting room passing through a security check and being issued a ticket, bakery counter style, on the way.  I was number 11.

Promptly at 9:00 the application windows opened in unison and an electronic sign directed ticket holder number 1 – 4 each to specifically numbered windows.  It must have been 30 seconds later when ticket number 5 was called and within three minutes I found myself standing at a window handing in my one page application, my passport, and a passport photo.  The clerk examined my application in about 10 seconds then looked at me.  I stood there stupidly waiting for a question or problem.  She just said, “OK, we’re done.”  I found myself back on the street slightly dazed by the speed and efficiency of the process.  It was less than five minutes from the time the windows opened.

 to be continued…

Tags: China travel, great wall, Lonely Planet, Red China, Roy's Trip