From Grits to Chopsticks

Here are some boring and dry details that you can skip if you never plan to come to China.  But for the rest of you adventurous types, two quick learnings to share:

1) When flying on airlines in China, passengers are limited to a single checked suitcase of 20kg or less.  But a friend told us that this limitation can be waived if your inbound flight from the US arrives less than 24 hours before leaving on a domestic airline.  Just keep your boarding passes and be ready to clarify that you are continuing an international trip but had to stopover due to scheduling limitations.   Thanks to this bit of advice, we were able to avoid the high fees for bringing our 4 checked bags (which each weighed 49 lbs!) to our final destination (thanks Brian G.!)

2) A good place to book domestic transportation and hotels is www.Ctrip.com.  We have used this for our past few trips, and it provides good global interfaces and on-line payment processes.  The hotel rates on Ctrip are much better than the ones you’ll get at the front desk.  Our recent stay in Beijing (which included all taxes, service charges, efficient hotel shuttles, a “deluxe room,” and breakfast for two) was only $63.  That sounds relatively pricey compared to our current hotel in Kunming ($17/night), but things in the capital city are much more expensive.