|
Brunei
Cambodia
China
India
Indonesia
Japan
Laos
Malaysia
Nepal
Philippines
Singapore
Thailand
vietnam
travel tips
Free Consumer
Reports
|
CHINA
Money
& Cost
Given the extreme regional variations, it's hard to make exact predictions
of how much China costs on a daily basis. Wherever you are in mainland
China , you should be able to keep your average daily budget for
food and travel to a minimum £10/US$15 or so by eating in
cheap and mid-range restaurants, and travelling on local buses or
hard train classes. What really separates the east coast (including
the whole of Dongbei) from the interior provinces, however, is the
cost of accommodation.
While budget travellers can find beds in Sichuan for as little as
£1/US$1.5 a night, on the east coast it's hard to find anything
for less than £30/US$45. Fast or comfortable travel also comes
at a premium - flights and soft-sleeper berths are double the price
of a hard-sleeper train berth and at least five times as expensive
as covering the same route by bus. In general, by doing everything
cheaply and sticking mostly to the interior provinces you can survive
on £15/US$23 a day; travel a bit more widely and in better
comfort from time to time and you're looking at £30/US$45
a day; while travelling in style and visiting only key places along
the east coast you're looking at daily expenses of £50/US$75
and above.
There's also a certain level of price tiering in China, with foreigners
and Overseas Chinese paying more than locals for some services.
This used to include train travel, airfares and hotels, but now
mainly applies to entry fees for museums and famous sites. One way
around the latter is to get hold of a Chinese Student Card , which
nets you substantial reductions at these places - they are vaguely
official-looking documents, adorned with your photograph and folded
into a small, red plastic wallet. You can get one officially by
studying, however briefly, in China; unofficially, tour agents geared
up to foreign needs can often supply them for about ¥40 and
you can usually get them in the areas around backpacker hotels and
restaurants. Bargaining is common practice throughout the land,
at least in private dealings such as at markets, but isn't generally
pursued with the same enthusiasm as in other Asian countries. Barter
hard as foreigners are often charged more than ten times the local
price.
Costs in Hong Kong and Macau are much higher for comparable services
than on the mainland, particularly for upmarket accommodation -
though food and drink are again pretty reasonable and transport
expenses negligible. The cheapest dorm beds will set you back £6/US$9,
while it's hard to come by a decent double room for under £60/US$90.
Staying at cheap lodgings and eating simply from noodle stalls will
cost you about £20/US$30 a day, up to £23/US$35 with
a mid-range restaurant meal thrown in. For more comfort and classier
food, budget from £80/US$120 and up.
Chinese
currency is formally called yuan (¥), more colloquially
known as kuai , and breaks down into units of ten mao or jiao ,
and one hundred fen - though these latter are effectively worthless
and you'll only ever be given them in official currency transactions,
or see the tiny yellow and green notes folded up into little twists
and used to build model dragons or boats. Paper money was invented
in China and is still the main form of exchange, available in ¥100,
¥50, ¥20, ¥10, ¥5, and ¥1 notes, with a similar
selection of mao. You occasionally come across tinny mao or fen
coins , and rare brass ¥1 pieces. Be aware that at present China
is suffering from a rash of counterfeiting . Fake notes are usually
produced with colour photocopiers and are easy to tell as the paper
feels different. A few years ago you were only likely to see fake
¥100 notes, but these days there are even fake ¥5 notes
in circulation.
Hong Kong's unit of currency is the Hong Kong dollar (HK$), divided
into one hundred cents, while in Macau they use pataca (usually
written M$ or ptca), in turn broken down into 100 avos . Both currencies
are roughly equivalent to the yuan, but while Hong Kong dollars
are accepted in Macau and southern China's Special Economic Zones,
neither yuan or pataca are any use outside China or Macau respectively.
Tourist hotels in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou also sometimes
accept - even insist on - payment in Hong Kong or US dollars. Hong
Kong dollars are available overseas, yuan and patacas are not, though
both can be obtained in Hong Kong if you're going there first, and
converted back at a bank before you leave the country. |
|
|
