A few of my favorite places in China include:

Longji Rice Terraces - cool looking terraced rice fields, best in early summer just after planting season, close to Yangshuo so you can check out the Li River while you are there

Hutiaoxia - Tiger Leaping Gorge, cliffside hiking trail above one of the largest gorges in the world

Dunhuang - old Silk Road town in Gansu, go ride a camel and camp out in the middle of the sand dunes

Still on my to do list:

Jiuzhaigou
Zhangzhajie

Ok like 3 people have asked me about duck in beijing. Here is a list of my favorite duck places.

Background: ive eaten at least 1 duck a week for probably the past 3 years (a lot of times 2 ducks a week). Probably my favorite food on the planet. I have eaten at probably over 100 different Peking duck restaurants. Here is a list of my top 5, you cant go wrong with any of them, ill also put my **** list there too.

Note: When you go to a peking duck restaurant try to order as little as possible besides duck. Usually the other dishes are god awful and a waste of money and stomach space. Its a little difficult as the ducks take a while to roast and you will be sitting there for a while without food (pro tip: call in advance and order your duck).

5. Quanjude (wang fu jing)
Cab directions: 王府井的全聚德
Subway: line 1 exit wangfujing, ask people.

Pros: Duck meat is very tender, pancakes nice and steamy. Can order hot peppers too (which i love with my duck). They speak some english.
Cons: Crowded as ****, expensive (relatively) a meal will run you about 30-40 USD/person. Service is slow as hell AND they force a 10-15% service charge (cant remember which).

There are like 1 billion different quanjude's in beijing. The only one i didnt like was in an area called 望京. the adress i put up there is the biggest and most famous one

4. Da Dong Roasted duck sore 大董烤鸭店
Cab directions: 团结湖的大董烤鸭店
Subway directions: Line 10 exit tuanjiehu. Walk for like a billion miles, just take a goddamn cab.

Pros: Very good duck and decent dumplings. Cheaper than Quanjude Probably closer to $20 a person. Close to 三里屯 (san li tun) which is the big expat hangout area with the best clubs and bars.
Cons: Impossible to get a seat anytime pass 6. Call and make a reservation. Really Really ****ty service.

3. Da Ya Li 大鸭梨
Address: all over beijing, never been to a bad one
Pros: Cheap, <$15 a person. Very very good skin. Duck tongues are also very good. THEY DELIVER.
Cons: The worst service of all restaurants ever ever ever. Some locations i will refuse to go back to. If your going to go to one, fine one in west beijing.

2. Guo lin 郭林
Address: 丽泽桥的郭林
Subway: take a cab
Pros: Cheapest place, 88RMB for a full duck (11 USD). They make a mighty fine duck soup too. Meat is absolutely excellent here and i usually can clear a whole duck by myself.
Cons: The side dishes are the worst of all the restaurants. Really when you go here only order duck. There are like 4 million guolins in beijing. The address listed is what i consider to be the best one (also very large place)

1. Made in china 长安壹号
Pros: Very good service. Skin and meat cooked and cut perfectly (there will be 0 fat on your skin pieces. The duck is really just absolutely fantastic. Any of their side dishes are also very good as many of their chefs have traveled the world and tasted other countries food (a rarity with chinese chefs).
Cons: Expensive ($40-50 USD/person). Need reservation. Cabs are usually unwilling to go to this area as there is a lot of traffic.

So relatively how does this list stack up? Made in china takes the cake easily, the duck is just that good and it is a must try on any trip to beijing. Guo lin is where i usually go cause im cheap and Jewish and eating out is usually a last minute thing for me when im too tired to cook. Guo lin is much better than #3,4 and 5.

so it looks something like this 1>>>2>>>3>4>5.

Most people usually just go to quanjude when the come to beijing cause it has some history crap for being the oldest restaurant in beijing whatever and it has a giant 5 floor resturant in the center of beijing that serves 2000 ducks a day. "real" beijing people dont eat duck there, they go to guolin.

The only restaurant i really need to put on the **** list is a place called 便宜坊 Bianyifang. It also has some history crap to it for being really old, but the duck there has been steadily declining in quality since it opened in 1416 or whenever the hell it did. It really isnt good duck. The chefs who fry it arent competent enough to make sure the skin is the same color throughout the entire duck. I ordered duck soup which immediately arrived at my table (usually what they do is use the left over bones and stuff from the duck you ordered and make it fresh, takes a while but is worth it) and i ended up yelling at the management who told me he used my bones to make it (which is a lie, it cant be done in like 3 minutes). Duck flat out tastes bad, no matter what "flavor“ you order (they have a few different ones, all bad).

Enjoy

try metropole hotel. its close to grand lisboa less than 5 minute walk and senado square (main touristy area). 10 min walk to starwold and wynn. Look to stay on the main island and most things are quite close since macau is a small place.

My gf and I have evenly pre-bought $14k HKD from a friend. We have been discussing how we should allocate the money when we travel together to HK. We've already came to a conclusion, but I would just like to hear some other people's opinions. Generally neither of us are anal about money with myself paying roughly 65/35 when we go out in Sydney (hometown)

Option 1.
We both share the money when we go out, it doesn't matter who pays because all money that is spent going out is shared. Personal items such as shopping or (possibly) if one person is spending considerably more, are deducted from the share or is accounted for at the end of the day or our one week trip. Personal items are accounted for and will be worked out at the end of the trip in a reasonable way at the end (which won't be a problem, both logical fair people).

Option 2.
We both keep $6k HKD to ourselves and each pool $1k HKD into a 'kitty'. When we go out 'together' we use money from the kitty. We both retop the kitty at an equal amount each if the kitty runs out. All other expenses are paid individually. One person (her) keeps the kitty because she has seperate sections in her purse.

Option 3.
We both individually have $7k HKD. This is exactly like we do in our home country. We pay as we go and take turns paying, generally I would pay more but that's not an issue to me.

cool....

how far does 2k get you in hk?

Consider that you've not only discussed this with your girlfriend, but now just posted on 2p2 for advice, and reconsider this statement.

Not very far. A round in LKF cost me $500 (USD) one time :\

I'm planning on coming to Macau for a month from the end of this month. The thing is I was just there for 10 days or so like 2 weeks ago. Would this be a problem when they stamp my passport ? Would I get another 30 days no problem ? Am Australian if that makes a difference.

Also does anyone have a contact or website where you could find a cheapish apartment for a month rent ? I'm sure there must be some out there if you know where to look, but I guess speaking Chinese would help there.

anyone looking for hotels accomodation during the event ? i gonna sell it off cheap because something comes up and i can't going to macau that time.

Check-In: 22/11/2011 Check-Out: 28/11/2011

-Distance to the main event: 15 minute walking/ 3 minutes by car

Hotel Name : Mandarin Oriental

PM me for more info.

Go to C's Bar in Shanghai if you want the best dive bar in Shanghai or go to one of the many places on the Bund if you want to be impressed by the view and the beautiful people (M on the Bund is a good one, or Mint)

When you're in Beijing, check out this place


it's an art district where you'll see cool stuff like this


and this....( *note pollution in beijing is problem)






Of course go see tiananmen square, summer palace, great wall (you can skip the forbidden city in my opinion its not worth it)

ive always thought 798 had some of the most godawful art on the planet.

Also that place is a magnet for art student scams. Just dont go anywhere with anyone.

Pretty good recommendations! My best mate's Dad is one of the majority shareholders in M1NT and we go there from time to time, going there on Saturday for dinner/cocktails and then have a table/bottles afterwards, super ballerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr (its my friend's birthday so his Dad is picking up the bill, I'd go busto pretty quickly otherwise!)

C's can be a pretty fun place if you go with a decent crowd, you know what you're getting with a dive bar.

Other recommendations would be Geisha/Apartment/Zeal, they can all be pretty pricey, good drinks though and all of them packed with foreigners if that's what you're looking for. Best "Chinese" club is probably 88, has a really funky layout and is a cool change of scene.

If you're looking for a pub, the best in Shanghai right now has to be "The Camel" on Yueyang Lu, great atmosphere/decor, good food/drinks specials and has tons of sport coverage (ranging from premier league/NFL/NHL, ncaa games etc). They also have a quiz night every Tuesday which I go to with friends that is free to enter and they do 2 for 1 pizza's/pastas/drinks.

Any other Shanghai questions feel free to ask.

Definitely don't go anywhere with anyone, there are a lot of scammers, but I didn't encounter any at 798.

Most godawful art? I dunno, I thought it was pretty unique and kind of a cool little district but to each his own

Anyone play poker in China and have found a way to get something better than the standard Wifi that is notoriously slow? Anyone try out satellite internet in China.. if so what company did you go through? I'm living in Chengdu trying to play pokerz... and its becoming a miserable experience with all the disconnects.

Last time i went was about a year ago. Took some sloot out there for a date (she said she liked art and wasnt from beijing).

Didnt go so well.

I remembered one masterpiece was a painted statue of a man getting a circumcision on an operating table.

I live in Gubei in Shanghai and my internet is horrific, I can play during the day but past 5pm I just get nothing. Sooo tilting.

I haven't been to Shanghai in a while, but one of my favourite spots has always been Barbarossa in Renmin Guangchang. Also obviously City Diner

Edit: 88 is godawful - don't listen to this man unless you like a faux "Western" (like - cowboys and stuff Western) atmosphere mixed with horrendous 90s pop / Chinese pop. I'm not sure if they still do this, but they also have this incredibly annoying "happy birthday" song that they play while flashing the lights whenever a customer is having a birthday... which is sometimes several times a night.

But where else can you find a watermelon tree?!

Usually i just go to Ai Wei Wei's gallery out here, but im guessing thats probably shut down by now (lol government)

That watermelon tree isnt terrible though

Any 2+2ers in Hangzhou?

you need a wired connection, not a wireless one to play poker online

What are you using now?

I think your best option is China Telecom (ChinaNet), as all the other ones are pretty horrible from what I've heard. They're also upgrading their speeds and now offer (not everywhere yet):

4M: 168 RMB/month
8M: 199 RMB
12M: 269 RMB
20M: 349 RMB?

Can't wait for the 20MBps line to be available at my place.

WTF rigged as ****.

The HIGHEST i get here is 4M and it costs me 210 a month

You are getting scammed sir