Image Source: Soldiers

Are you a foreigner or planning to work in China? Mark at mytropicalescape.com post “Why its Important to Visit a Country Before you Move Overseas” a while ago. It’s a great idea to visit other countries before you move. Especially for moving to county like China, you will experience great culture shock and need to survive in the totally different environment.

A friend of mine Stephen at More Than Scratch The Surface has lived and worked in China for over three years. He recently started a new blog JobsInChina.com. It’s designed to share working experience in China to foreigners.

Can you survive in the crowded China? How to find a job and live better in China as a foreigners?

Personally, it’s a great idea to share life experience in China from a foreigner’s points of view. It’s also a great resource for Chinese to understand what foreigners see about China. I believe this blog will soon be one of the best resources for people who want to know more about real life in China. Regardless you like of dislike about China. Take a look and see what others think about China.

Would you like to work, travel, have fun, live and survive in China a foreigners? I encourage you to subscribe to this blog and get notified when there is new post coming.

Few days ago, I post the photos of the number one mountain in China. I totally suggest everyone to visit Yellow Mountain in China at least once in their life time. It’s just like going to heaven type of experience. I think it will be a good idea to share how I did it. Thus, many of you can plan ahead.

Why it is the number one mountain in China? First of all, the weather in the mountain changes four times a day. So it’s like four seasons in one day. Second of all, the view is so dramatic; you can’t expect what to see next. Third, I don’t know how Chinese build that trail. It’s like walking in the sky. If you would like to know more, please read on!

You can see the rest of photos here or view slide show here.

Is once in your life time enough? NO. I want to go back to Yellow Mountain again in different season. I went there in August 2006, which is the best time to climb the mountain. However, if you can do early April or late November, the view is even prettier. Think about yourself as Santa, who walks between pine trees and with white snow on them. You also see the cloud sea cover the mountain. You are walking in the heaven. I am not kidding.

Few years ago, China gov opened the “West Sea Trail” to public. However, if you are with the tour guide, they will not take you to the West Sea Trail. It’s too danger to old people and young kids. For healthy adult, you should give it a try in your life time. It took me and my wife 9 hours to finish the trail. The trail is a U shape. You go down 600M to the bottom of the canyon and climb up 600M again. It’s not a very long trail (10 miles), but it’s definitely tough one for city people like us.

So what about other trail? The east and north trail are just way too easy. It’s like walking in the central park in New York. That’s where the tour guide takes you to. You will see crowded Chinese line up on the spot waiting for taking photos. You need to go, but don’t spent too much time on those two trails. The best part is “West Sea Tail“.

What about Yellow Mountain?

If you have ever seen Chinese painting, you know that the mountain is always looking weird with cloud around the summit. The stone looks so weird with pine trees on the cliff. That’s how Yellow Mountain looks like. It’s ranked the number one mountain in China! You really need to keep your appreciation to those hard working people who give you the chance to enjoy your once in a life time experience. Every hand made stuff you see in the mountain is hand carried to the mountain by human. The tile, chair, bed, foods, step stone, the material to build the hotel, metal, even the parts to build the cable cart are carried by human labor. There is no car or any transportation available in the mountain. Many visitors carry too much stuff. So they pay YMB $20 (US$3.00) to have their bags carried by cheap labor. Think about all those step stone you step on! You basically appreciate the nature and the people who build those facilities!

So what do you need to know before go to Yellow Mountain for the life time experience?

• Check up your body condition. If you have knee problem or heart problem. DON’T TRY the West Sea Trail!
• Check the weather before deciding to stay in the mountain. There is no reason to stay at very expensive hotel if you can NOT see the sun rise and cloud sea the next morning.
• Carry only spare cloth and energy bar and lots water with you. Nothing else. Leave all your luggage at the hotel in the village. The hotel in the mountain won’t let you to refill your bottle unless you pay for it. You will dehydrate a lot. Water will save you! Don’t carry can foods or heavy fruits. Would you carry your luggage to climb the mountain like the folks in the photo? Don’t be stupid and ruin your trip.
  
• Carry only digital camera with a lot of disk space. You will take so many photos. Get spare batteries too. The mountain is so beautiful. Everyone becomes a professional photographer.
• Bring one light winter jacket in case of temperature drop. The weather change four seasons in one day.
• No shower! There will be no shower available. Water resource is so limited!

So what do I do to climb the west sea trail?

In our case, we decided not to stay over night. The weather was not great. So we will not be able to see sun rise and cloud sea. We plan to go back sometimes. Remember that you need at least 9 hours for the west sea trail. My wife and I are both healthy adult. We climb and take break. You will need more time if you plan to take a longer break.

My suggestion to you is to get on to the mountain with cable cart and back down with cable cart. It costs more, but there is not much to see in between for climbers. 5 minutes cable cart ride will cost your 4-6 hours one way to climb. You will be so tired to visit the west trail. Save your energy for the best part. Check the weather before you go up. If the weather is not so good, don’t stay over night, you will not be able to see the sun rise and cloud sea. That’s the main reason that people stay over night.

If you want to finish the trail in one day, you will need to get up at 4:30AM and take bus from the hotel in the village to the cable station. Take the first cable cart to the mountain at 7:00AM. Go to the easiest trail (East and North). Don’t spend too much time there. It’s crowded with all visitors. Take some photos and go straight to west sea trail. Trust me! You will see less than 10 people on west trail. We were the only two for the first 4 hours. So we pretty much owned the whole mountain. It’s our heaven! Isn’t that great! You need to reserve 9 hours for the whole trail.

Notes: There is no rescue person. No phone. No ring bell. So you are on your own in the West Sea Trail.

Be sure to get back to the cable station before 6:00PM. It will get dark faster than you can image and there will be no bus after 7:00PM. So you will need to start west trail before 09:00AM. In case you can’t make it back to the village, you probably end up paying a lot more to share room with other people in the hotel. In most of case, you will need to stay outside of the hotel over night, because the hotel is full. So a winter jacket is very much necessary!

If you decide to stay over night, Just bring some energy bar and a lot of water. I carried four 2 litter bottles. Don’t carry whole lot of foods. Prepare some dry t-shirt to change. The weather could get very cold.

Are you ready for your life time experience?

It will take me 10 days to describe what I have seen in the Yellow Mountain. It’s wordless. You have to see it yourself.

Can you use one word to describe 7000 photos? I know I can’t. I have spent few days put up some of my travel photos on flickr.com. I just realize that uploading almost 7000 photos is not an easy job. I have been asked by many blog friends about me and my life. I have traveled a lot of place. I still have a lot of places to visit. I just hope to travel around the entire world before the end of my life.

I don’t usually look back. It’s just unbelievable that I have taken so many photos. Before I upgrade my Flick.com account to a pro, I met a photographer, who has taken more than 150K photos on his Canon 30D digital camera. Now his 30D is in shop for repair. So he is using the newer Canon 40D. Well. I have not taken more than 20K photos on my Nikon D70 yet. I got a long way to go.

Now. If you are still interested in who I am, how I look like and where I have been, you can simply visit my flick.com photo pages. Do I look like a millionaire?

Take your time to watch all the pictures! Drop me a comment, add photos to your favorite photos or add me as your contact. I will love to see your photos as well.

Currently. I have 5 collections and 66 sets listed under my profile. It will take me a while to get all photos organized. I have list few photos that I took while I climbed to the number 1 mountain in China.

The photos were taken at the number one Yellow Mountain in China. It took me and my wife 9 hours to finish the west-sea trail. There are 4 other tails, which are much easier.

I was hoping to lift up the rock on my back. The trail is danger as you can see below.

The trail is breath-taking. The air is so fresh. I just couldn’t believe how people build the trail.

My heart was pumping very fast when I walked on it.

Ok. the challenge is even greater.

Well. For more photos about this backpack trip to Yellow Mountain. You can visit my flickr.com album. Enjoy!

So! Can you describe 7000 photos in one simple word?

If you really want to see the beauty of YangShuo, you need to stay in YangShuo. You get the best view in the early morning after raining. You see the smog and cloud mix together between the mountains.

Two of the most famous local foods that you have to try are the beer fish and Guilin Rice Noodle. The beer fish is mixed with beer source, tomato, garlic, onion and most important piece. – FISH. It’s so good that you have to try it. There are many restaurants that serve beer fish. You have to try many of them and find the best you like. They are all cooked differently.

The other most famous foods are the Guilin Rice Noodle. It’s just a special rice noodle with many different ingredients and seasonings to choose from. However, you have to put yourself into local folk’s shoes. I mean that you just need to enjoy the foods and not to pay attention about the cooking environment. In many cases, you are sitting on a very small bench and eating the noodle next to the trash can.

Even that the condition is not very good for tour, Guilin rice noodle does taste so good. Again, every noodle stand use different ingredients. So you have to try different one. Last year, I stayed for about two weeks and tried almost every single place I can find. This year, I only stay for about a week. I am so satisfied.

As you all know that China is a huge country. Even YangShou is the most well known place for seeing China’s beauty. There are many poor people and farmers between cities and tour spot. You often have to take a small bus traveling between tour spots. You will see many farmers doing their work in very old fashion ways. You also see some houses without windows. Many farmers took over 10 years to finish their dream house. They have limited money to build part of the house. So you can see the 2nd and 3rd floor without windows.

If you travel between tour spots quite a bit, you will see this picture more often. Whenever you visit a place in China, you are expected by many local tour guides or hotel brokers. It was a sunny day, many girl tour guides and hotel brokers are waiting for us. It’s very funny to see this the first time. It’s very annoying when you try to pass the crowd. All you hear is “Hotel? Bus? Map? ….” They follow you everywhere. This is one way local people survival.

The reality is this. They follow you to the hotel you booked earlier, you check in the hotel. They get the referral fee. Even they are not the one take you to the hotel, they get something out from the hotel as commission. If you decide to take their offer for a tour or hotel deal, they get paid too. Be aware of the pickpocket. So hold your valuable belongings closer.

Now. When you leave a tour spot by train. You usually see a huge crowd sitting in the waiting room. In many case, the train will leave the station in 10 minutes. You have to fight with thousands traveler to get on the train. So there is one unique service for people who doesn’t want to fight for their seat. A music-tea-waiting-room service charges your RMB$5.00/hour. You have the privilege to get to the train platform earlier. You also have better music, tv and foods station. They are all about $$. However, you will still need to fight for the seat.

You will not surprise that many traveler got no seat in the hard-seat section. They stand 30 hours from the beginning to the end of their journey. Well. You have to know how to survive in China. As a frequent traveler, I always make sure to buy the train ticket earlier. I have never buy hard-seat ticket. I always buy hard-bed ticket.

After all, if you want to try Chinese life in one day, you can just visit YangShou and stay there for few days. You won’t regret!

“Made in China“ used to link cheap and quality together. Now, people hated products made in China. It’s an ugly fact that some made in China products are really damaging the reputation of “Made in China“ symbol. However, I believe China government is trying their best to recover from the damage. This makes me believe that “Quality control” is one of the most important tasks in manufacture business.

I do find something interesting while I travel in Guangzhou.

I went to a place where many manufacture display their products in showrooms. I found one thing very interesting and caught my eyes. The elevator doesn’t have the number buttons. So you can not control which floor the elevator is going. There are only three buttons and once small screen in the elevator. Two open door and close buttons. One emergency stop button and one screen show you the floor you are at.

In the lobby, there is a number panel on the wall. It controls 8 elevators. The visitor will need to punch the floor they want to go on the panel on the wall in the lobby. The LED screen will then display which elevator the visitor should take. In my case, I am going to floor 27th. It shows me that elevator C is the right one. When C is full, it will direct visitor to the other elevators which is available. What a great ways to control the elevators. I have never seen that kind of elevator before. It’s very good idea and it’s made in China. In this case, “Made in China” rocks!

Well. If you are frequent traveler in China, You will agree with me on this. The hotel rating system in China is the worst things for traveler. As a backpack traveler, I like to stay in clean and cheap hotel. I try not to stay in hostel. The quality of hostel is usually really bad. In most of case, I find three stars hotel. However, many three stars rated hotel have very good and fancy decorated lobby and sweet lady at the registration desk. Well. The room is so bad and so dirty, which is not even worth to stay.

One thing interested me in the nice three stars hotel I stay is the guest book. In the US, the hotel will provide you a guest guide book, which shows you the room services and some information about the city and hotel. When I open the guest book, I saw a list of items and their cost in RMB. And nothing else. There is no room service at all. The list is telling you how much you have to pay to the hotel, if any of the items are missing. If you can read Chinese, you can see the list in the attached photos. I will give you some example, which make no sense and make me laugh so hard.

The first one on the left is the color TV, which costs $1600 RMB. The second one is air condition, which costs $2000 RMB. The last one is shower room which cost $1500 RMB. Yes. Shower Room! My question is this. What in the world that people steal or damage the shower room? Believe me! It happened! The shower room is in Chinese size. If you have football player, you can easily break the shower room door. I can hardly turn around in the shower room.

Also, you can find that the seat of the toilet is usually smaller than the toilet. So when you sit on the toilet, you are sitting on the rim of the toilet. You feel cold. I guess they are trying to save money. Again. It’s make in China.

My advice to all travelers in China is this. You should always look at the room before checking in. In China, you have the right to check the room first. If you don’t like it you can check other available room before pick the one you want to stay.

What does made in China means to you?

Ever since China opened the door to western world. KFC and Macdonald became two of the favorite fast restaurants in China. In the USA, Macdonald and KFC are most likely treated as cheap fast food restaurants. What about that in China?

In contrast, eating fast food at Macdonald and KFC is a big thing. The price is equally the same in USA based on the living cost and average earning. It’s quite expensive to eat at Macdonald and KFC. However, if you like traditional Chinese food, you can find it very cheap at some places.

You can clearly see Macdonald, KFC, Papa John and many other Chinese fast food restaurants right next to each others. You can also see a bank near by. Chinese pay cash in most of the case.

In Guangzhou, many small traditional Chinese food stations or vendors are making big money by selling fish ball and pig blood cake. As you can see, people are buying some traditional fish ball bowl and eat just right on the street.

In some traditional Chinese restaurants, you can have two huge BBQ pork rice bowls, soup and vegetable dishes for just US$2.00. You heard it right. Two US dollars for two hungry travelers like my wife and me. Or you can get fish ball rice noodle bowl and spicy rice noodle for just under US$3.00.

There are some many traditional Chinese food restaurants you can choose from. It’s almost like a food paradise to me. One thing you just need to be aware of, if you want to eat in China. Pick the restaurant that looks clean. It’s very expensive if you need to buy medicine or see doctor to fix your sick stomach. So get some over the counter medicine for your stomach while packing your luggage.

Do you like Chinese foods? Come to the food paradise in Guangzhou!

This year, my wife and I decide to do it again. We decided to visit some famous Jewelry wholesale mall to find the interesting stuff that we can bring back and sell on eBay or my own e-commerce sites. It’s our 2007 treasure hunting tour.

Guangzhou is well known as the wholesale city of everything “Made In China.” There are many huge plazas or malls that are occupied by different manufactures. Many of them are just for Jewelry, cloths, shoes and so on. We are specifically interested in the Jewelry that is unique and good quality.

There are so many types of Jewelry stores. Some of them are huge. They have over 100K items for you to choose from. It took us two days to visit every single store in just one of the building. You can negotiate the price with the store. That’s why you have to visit as many stores as you can to find the best deal.

It’s amazing that how many foreigners came to Guangzhou to find the treasures. Would you like to find some of the treasure by yourself? If you want to sell on eBay and import items by yourself, you need to visit Guangzhou as your staring point. You can get very good deal without the drop shipper middle man.

So what do I get? I have to keep it as a secret for now.

If you are interested in make money online with eBay or your own e-commerce store, feel free to contact me. It’s time to take a rest for tomorrow. After all, I have walked a lot in the past few days. It’s a good exercise to lose some weight.

The picture shows the tallest building in Hong Kong. It looks like a big razor from the distance. The hotel in Hong Kong is very expensive. I am so glad that I can stay at one of my family member’s house. I found the Wi-Fi signal from one of the neighbors. So I can update this post.

This is not my first time visited Hong Kong. I have been here for over 8 times. Every time I visited, I can feel the economic is going down. Everything is more expensive now. Foods, cloths and living cost are raising. So I don’t think Hong Kong is shopping heaven for much longer.

Anyway, I am glad that I finally stop at Hong Kong and take a break. After 28 hours travel from US to Hong Kong. I am tired and need a good night sleep. I will keep you all updated!

We took the EVA flight from LA to Taipei. I was not sleep very well, because I can’t even finish all new release movies on the flight. I was four movies in 12.5 hours. Had two meals. Many cups of water and many chocolate cookies. Not a bad flight. The new 777-300 airplane is very comfortable and roomy. I think I will recommend you to take EVA airline. If you ever flight between Taiwan and other countries.

I will keep you all updated when even I have chance.

I think life is so short. I want to travel as much as I can while I can still afford and do it. Two days ago I post “Prepare my backpack journey to China 2007.” I am so exciting about this trip to China.

Here comes my last update!

I am flying from Phoenix to LA, and then take 16 hours flight to Taiwan. I will take two hours break and transfer flight to Hong Kong. We will arrival at Hong Kong on August 9th, 2007. The total flight time will be very close to 24 hours. I will stay in Hong Kong for few days and head to China after that. I don’t know where I will be going in China. That’s the fun part. We stay at one place as long as we desired. No plan!

I will carry the following stuff as you can see in the pictures.

1. Two empty luggage. I bet I will bring much more Travel Souvenirs back. I will leave the luggage in Hong Kong.
2. Backpack for two – Just one backpack for two. We try to carry as less as possible. Make it very light weight. So we can move fast when we need. It’s tough to carry a lot to catch the crowed train.
3. One computer backpack – I hope I can get online and update my photos and blog. Or I can just work on my blog off-line, and upload them when I get Internet access.
4. One light weight backpack - Carry my Nikon D70S digital camera, fresh light, Garmin GPS, batteries, cell phone charger and water, etc.
5. Some gifts – Some gifts for my friends in China.
6. Nikon D70S digital camera and fresh light – I can’t travel without taking photos.
7. Gadgets – Cell phone, charger, Garmin GPS and many other gadgets. However, I am not going to take my iPod with me. It’s too heavy. What’s the point to listen to it while I want to enjoy my trip?
8. Tripod – I am still not sure if I will bring the tripod for my Nikon D70s. I will know at the last minute.
9. Cloths – We only bring three pairs of easy dry shirt and pants. One pare of hiking shoes. Some disposable underwear. It has to be light weight.
10. Lots of cash – That’s why I have to work so hard. It’s time to enjoy my souvenir shopping. It’s a treasure hunting trip!
11. Passport – Can’t really travel without it.

So what else do I have beside the travel?

1. Alexa Traffic Ranking – The most current Alexa Traffic Ranking is 143,085.
2. RSS feed subscriber - The most current number of my RSS subscriber is 53.
3. Fixed some broken house items – There is no surprise that something went broke before my travel. My toilet was broken; my backyard sprinkler system was broken. I have to fix those at last minutes. Well. It better broke now that later.
4. Vacation Watch - I have the local police department aware of my long vacation. They will watch my house every week.
5. Friend Watch – I have my friend come over and check the water system, electric system everyday. So I don’t really worry about my house.
6. Empty refrigerator – I have been eating a lot for the past week. I have to clean all the left-over. I guess! I have to give away some nice fruits to my friends.
7. Discountinue cable and Internet – Call Qwest to disconnect cable TV and Internet. So we don’t have to pay full amount of monthly fee while we are away. Just leave the phone on.

I have been traveled a lot in the past few years. It’s always something come up before we take off. There is just tons stuff to do before travel. I think I got everything under my control.

Now! I just need to relax and have a nice wonderful trip to China! See you all soon!