travelling for "practice" - where can I understand and be understood?

[Huina]

I'm planning on travelling during break for two weeks ish (before Spring Festival). I'm thinking of going to Wuhan, Yichang, Chengdu an maybe somewhere else to make a big circle back to Nanjing. Are there any areas I should avoid where I won't understand the dialect? I have capable-enough putonghua (testin my flashcards my vocab is like 1k words now yay!).I really want to use this travel time to improve my speaking and increase my confidence, so I'll be going solo. 

 

I want to live out  of a backpack. I've heard that packing for two weeks is just ike packing for a few days if you do laundry. Is that accurate? 

 

Edit: i'll also be taking a sleeper train for the first time! Any tips? In general, are there any things I should be watching for as a female travelling alone besides the usual common sense?

[tooironic]

You'll be fine. Everyone under 50 in China can speak standard Mandarin, albeit with varying degrees of regional accents. Either way, the practice will do you good.

 

Packing light is always a good rule of thumb. If you're desperate you can always do laundry by hand in your hotel room.

[Silent]

 

I want to live out  of a backpack. I've heard that packing for two weeks is just ike packing for a few days if you do laundry. Is that accurate?

If you'ld say 2 weeks or two months I'ld say yes. In principle it is also true for 2 days versus 2 weeks, but it also depends on locations, activities and your preferences. For me there are quite some differences, basically for every trip I consider what I might need. If needed most essentials can easily be bought during the trip with the exception of prescription drugs. So if in doubt you might leave it out.

 

Some examples of differences: a dumb-phone, a camera etc can survive a couple of days without charging however for a couple of weeks you might want to pack a charger. When just traveling a couple of days you can often adjust the clothing you pack based on the weather forecast,  For a few weeks you should pack for a wider range of weather and perhaps also more varied activities.  You might also want to change the amount of perishables to prevent you've to buy new (and get stuck with big/clumsy packaging)

[liuzhou]

 

Everyone under 50 in China can speak standard Mandarin

 

In cities perhaps. 

[Huina]

@TooIronic - haha I already wash a lot by hand in my dorm room... so I guess in the sink will be fine xD

 

@Silent - Thanks, I will definitely look into that. It seems like since I'm travelling through the middle of the country the temps should be slightly similar, right? I think the most active thing I do would be light hiking. Part of my trip is following the livehouses!

 

@Liuzhou - I love your icon! I would really love to travel to more rural areas but I don't think I can without a friend who knows the dialect xD My friend's dad is from Hunan and I can't understand him though apparently he's a hoot. 

[tysond]

@liuzhou I think Guangdong is one of the tougher places, and in Kaiping, which is not a big city, I certainly found plenty of young people with Putonghua, although plenty of old people with none!  Even in a small village I imagine it's gonna be a small issue sometimes that you can get past by moving along.  I can't imagine that nobody in the village can speak Putonghua better than a foreigner.  If you need to speak to a specific person sure it might be an issue.  But if you just need to find someone who will sell you noodles and a room for the night, I can't imagine much of a problem.  In Xinjiang even with Uyghers I could use putonghua, although their tones were all over the place.  Anyone actually had a practical problem?

 

@Huina I've backpacked across India for a month.  Some tips: Consider packing a sleeping bag liner (like a super light silky sleeping bag) that you sleep inside, then dirty beds are not a problem.  You can wrap a t-shirt around nasty pillows.   In moderate weather you should be able to wear a lot of clothes a few times before washing (unless you are a clean freak!).  Layers are the best way to approach for weather - t-shirt, light sweater, windproof jacket is quite a warm combination.  Pack a smaller bag for day trips (I had a zip-off day-pack).  A plastic poncho can be a very light approach to deal with rain (lots of chinese ladies also use a poncho to avoid sun).  

 

Have fun!

[roddy]

You might want to have a look at a couple of topics posted by Ruben von Zwack a couple of years back - she had similar questions, female travelling for two weeks. 

If you had two weeks in China (I'm not sure Yichang and Wuhan are top choices)

Travelling in China as a woman. 

[Huina]

@tysond Cool, it's pretty mild here right now so I think I'll be able to rewear most things. I'll bank on my quick dry synthetic stuff and try to spot clean my jeans haha. Where do I get a bag liner? Taobao? @___@ The kuaidi guys love to hit on me... it's so annoying

 

@roddy Thanks!! Those are really helpful. I am visiting Wuhan for the music scene and I'll be hitting up Yichang because it's sort of on the way to Chengdu (which also has a cool music scene) and I'm really interested in politics of the environment so I want to see the Three Gorges Dam for myself. PS; I have that notebook. I do feel like writing in it all the time. It is actually pretty comfortable for a lefty.

 

Also I'm going to go on more trips when the weather is warmer, working my way north from Nanjing, through Qingdao, Beijing (music scene only haha), Rural Beijing, Inner Mongolia, and maybe some other places too on a rail loop back down. I also want to visit Changsha, Zhejangjie and Huangshan on a separate jaunt (closer, anyway). If anyone has good recommendations for off the beaten path stuff, please tell me! My Chinese will be even better when I go on these trips

[Shelley]

If it was me I would take on board all the good advice already given but i would find the space for 14 pairs of undies. Can be the most important thing in warmer climates and saves trying to find some where to wash and dry.

 

Have a great time.

[tysond]

I bought mine in Australia at Kathmandu, but you can try 丝睡袋内胆 online.  Can't do anything about the kuaidi guys, they don't try to hit on me :-)

[Silent]

 

 

 I would really love to travel to more rural areas but I don't think I can without a friend who knows the dialect xD

Don't doubt, you can! The first time I traveled in China I got around quite well without knowing any Chinese. Admitedly, I had it fairly easy as I was travelling by bicycle and had barely to deal with bus/train schedules. Only every once in a while I had to ask for directions.

 

If you enter a hotel or restaurant they tend to have a pretty good clue of what you want/need. In the supermarket you just present what you want and in the market and foodstall you point at what you want. For a bus/train you just name or present in written form the place you want to go. You will get presented with option and just point out what you want. For the bare essentials language skills may make it much easier, but they are not essential. Don't worry too much and just go to the countryside if that's what you want to do. 

[新墨西哥人]

Definitely take as little as possible to keep your pack light! My husband, 3-year-old and myself traveled in Italy for 3 weeks this summer and took only carry-ons. I took something like 2 tanks, 2 t-shirts, LBD, jeans, and two skirts (one of which I ddin't wear as it was too big ugh), a couple scarves, two pairs of sandals. Everything should go with everything else.

 

You will be washing clothes often. Merino wool if you have it, is good as it doesn't need to be washed very often (Icebreaker and smartwool make great clothes). Same goes for jeans.

 

There are a lot of posts on the internet about packing ultra-light. I think I packed more clothes for my daughter than for me (3-year-olds are messy!). Underwear - you might get a couple of the high-tech exofficio, they dry overnight (but take two in case it's super humid and doesn't dry overnight). Of course women's underwear don't take up a lot of room, so you could just take 5 pairs or so of your quickest drying ones. (ie not cotton). If you wash your own clothes, take a travel clothesline - you won't regret the couple of cubic inches it takes up in your pack. But I imagine you can have laundry done cheaply. And see how little you can take in terms of toiletries. I see these kind of trips as fun challenges in packing and seeing what you can do without.

[Huina]

@西哥人, thanks for the tip! If I take a longer trip I think I'll invest in some fancy undies haha. Two pants, two shirts, leggings, a sweater and my LBD (the best--synthetic and dries very fast) and all my underpants. apparently as two people have heavily emphasized them... 

[Huina]

Ok, Roddy said to keep the thread updated a bit because people might find it interesting/useful! So here we go!

 

I'm buying my tickets today. All my plans really hinge on availability because some trains on my route have fairly limited runs.

 

My final itinerary is:

Wuhan (3 days) -> Yichang (2 days)  -> Chengdu (6 days) -> Kaifeng (Two to three days, depending)-> Nanjing -> USA (omg!)

 

I picked Kaifeng because it's on the way back to Nanjing and it seems like an interesting, chill city where I can relax after my trip. It's not far from Nanjing so I can choose to chill an extra day if I want. Of course with this timing... looks like I am going to board my plane to the USA just a day or two after getting back haha!

 

Edit to say... taking advice... I got a sleeping sack  

[Huina]

An update:

Been on the road for 5 days so far! It's been really awesome so far. Wuhan is a city that's modernizing really rapidly, and yichang is beautiful and hasn't reached Wuhans level of wealth yet. It's quite small so it would be weird if it did, anyway.

Wuhan people have a slight accent, but it's barely noticeable.

People in Yichang are hard to understand at sometimes. The local accent slurs si and shi, as well as l and n sou ds. Yi (as in 1) sounds like "you" sometimes. However I can sort of understand and people can understand me fine. Yichang is more rural and rougher (take a ferry across the river and end up in a small village holdout) than other cities I've visited. However it's very interesting place.

Backpacking is just fine, i wish i had my ultralight pack but heh, making due i guess. Anyway, knock on wood, but this trip is real cool.

Ps, my conversation is getting better really fast, I'm so happy!,

[edelweis]

not sure if it helps but in Mandarin 1 has an alternate reading as yao1. Used especially when reading phone numbers and bus/train numbers perhaps...

[Huina]

Edelweis thanks! Yeah it was for a phone number.

 

I am done with my trip and I'm going back to the USA tomorrow. I've had the time of my life (literally, life changing experiences) and I'm gonna post some photos soon.

 

Also wanna say, tooironic, you're totally right. I was in a small town and I was tryng to get directions and I asked a lady who started speaking to me in sichuanese, but she was able to switch to putonghua when I was like, 不明白。And old Tibetan people in Sichuan could speak putonghua too!