It appears that I'm going to be stuck on Guangzhou Airtport for 5-6 hours in early March. Is there anything I can do there to make time pass by? Like massages, good tax-free shopping, good restaurants (i hate the fast food places in Airports)? Anything?

Not only fast food in GZ's airport...but a meal from a non fast food place will be like $18...pretty expensive compared to taking a taxi 30 minutes into the city..

But for 5 hrs man, Id prob just stay at the airport..No taxi driver speaks English here, so if you decide to venture make sure you have airport written down in Chinese. You d think they'd know "airport", but they won't.

It is a new airport there and pretty big, so who knows, I seriously wouldn't be surprised if you could find a massage at the airport.

Also, there is a hotel right next to the airport. They prob have some type of Spa, and who knows maybe that different type of massage, if thats what your referring to.

A quick advice:

When you're in China, put your wallets in your front pocket and place your hand inside that pocket. Thief is a big industry there.

I would also advise to put stuff in your front pocket, but I seem to forget all the time...and Im carrying my wallet and a $500 blackberry.

Never once have I been ripped off here, not even the taxis here would rip you off by "taking the Long way"...okay, there are some times when you'll be given a higher price for something (Just because your a foreigner), but you can bargain. And this only applies to material stuff, not food and such.

Chinese people seem more honest and friendly then any other people I've ever met..

You would never catch me hanging around shady parts of New Haven, Bridgeport, the Bronx, late at night, but I feel completely comfortable walking down shady alley ways in Guangzhou..

This place, like many other places, is much safer then USA.

wat





... I totally disagree and I have been to Guangzhou a lot of times

lol. i'm chinese and I must tell you, we're not the most honest people.

I'm curious where these "bad areas" are in gz where there are drive bys and crack dealers? and from my experiences everyone has been exceptionally friendly and they seem to go out of there way to help you with something. Also, your not the chinese I was referin too, an abc if ur an american born chinese, and I see that as totally different, not being brought up the same.

Sorry, I reread my last post and wasn't tryin to sound like a dick, was just saying if your brought up in America within American culture its a lot different then a C hinese person growing up in China.

No offense taken.

I was raised in the US, but I feel like I'm still qualify to comment about safety in China. My parents (who were raised in China) have told me repeated to be careful etc. Some of my friends who study in American and were from HK all travel to Guangzhou/ShenZhen regularly have told me to ignore everyone and be extremely careful with my belongings.

I'm sure there are nice people as well as thieves in china as there are anywhere else. However, I am sure the scamming/thief rate is def higher than it is in europe/america.

What is/are the best place/places to shop for casual clothes, silk and consumer electronics (in order of appearence) in Guangzhou?

Clothes- look around anywhere in smaller shops, you can bargain down at least 25 percent of what they charge lao wai's. Around tian he and the world trade center you ll find many smaller shops with lots of good fake stuff and even real stuff for bargain prices. For electronics they have two real good markets, one computer market in tian he and there is another one with any electronic u can think of! I pay 80 cents for my wii and xbox 360 games here. It is somewhat close to beijing lu, don't know the exact address.

Guys, how about any live SNGs or regular scheduled tourneys going on in Macau? Or are they available only with the POKERPRO tables? Planning on a trip there so hope to get more info.

I havent heard or read anything about sng. Ill be there in a few weeks and will check for you

Just wanted to hop in here and say my buddy and I are taking a 40 day trip to China to all the places in the thread title and more starting April 2nd. Here's an itinerary that my friend put together:

http://travel.yahoo.com/trip-view-14...W3fhQPEB5SfMgF

Slightly out of date already as some plans have changed and yahoo trip planner is a pain in the ass to update.

Just answered a PM, figured I would post this here:

Macau:

The only place with real live poker was the Grand Lisboa. While I was there, they played 10-20NL (Hong Kong Dollar) starting fairly early in the day, would usually get up to like 3 or 4 tables of 10-20NL, and would bring in one table of 25-50NL

This happened on both the Thursday and Friday I was there

rake is 5% capped at 100, so that kinda sucks

Also They list 10-20NL as "20 40" because of some weird rule that preflop and flop the minimum bet is 20, but the turn and river the min bet is 40. So to be clear just ask the floor what the blinds are, that's all that matters

min buy in was 20 big blinds, max was 100 big blinds

There's apparently some electronic tables at StarWorld but I didn't check it out

Location:

There's one main area with the Grand Lisboa, MGM, Wynn, Starworld and some other smaller casinos. Then about a 10 min taxi ride (cost about 40 HKD one way) to where the Grand Waldo and Venetian are

From the look of it, the Venetian was the nicest looking place. I stayed there one night, it was the best hotel room I've ever stayed at (though I'm 26), and nicest casino I've ever seen and I've been to Vegas. From memory it was nicer than the Venetian in Vegas

Next come the Wynn and MGM, they are fairly similar to their counterparts in Vegas (in both places I prefer the Wynn, it looks more classy)

Then next come all the older "non-Vegas" casinos, which weren't quite as aesthetically pleasing to me.

Oh and if you are looking for some women of the naked variety everything shuts at like 2 or 3 am. Me and my girlfriend were casino hopping on my birthday night at 3am and there wasn't really much to do besides gamble. We found a few bars, but they were like dodgy, without all the sin (fully clothed pole dancers surrounded by ugly dodgey looking patrons)

Oh also there isn't much entertainment in general like there is in Vegas, like shows and stuff

edit: also I forgot to check out the Sands, there's that one too

edit2: also would like to say that apart from the Venetian hotel room prices, everything in Macau seems to be like half the price of Vegas (room service, restaurants, drinks, shopping)

From Australia (though US citizen lived half my life their too), 26

Me and my girlfriend want to move somewhere new, I might make a thread about it, and Macau sounds pretty good for like 2 weeks up to like a year on the way to some where else

I'm not too sure about mainland China though, what is there for entertainment?

fwiw the way it "felt" to me was I was more likely to get something stolen in China, but the equivalent places in America I'd be more likely to get hurt

Haven't been to too many of those places, but wow that's a lot of stuff planned, hope you aren't lazy

I think you'll be bored in Hong Kong if you stay more than 3-4 days. But that is just my opinion man.

Originally Posted by thehabit 420
Where u from HP? how old are you?

I def thought Id only live here a few months or so, and just go back and work from the USA. I had a bad view of what China was like, like alot of westerners. But its truly awesome, and I dont have any plans soon to move back home, since I already feel like I'm somewhat home. My friends think im crazy, but they've never been here so they dont have the same perspective.

Ill prob make a trip to Macau early March is your still around."


Your trip better be the end of march Habit, you know im not gonna be around till mid/late march, we can tear up macau, and the local guangzhou games as soon as i head there buddy....

thats funny, I saw the screen name Beaster and knew it was u right away, Ill see u in a few weeks. You get your ticket yet or what?

Never been to HK but our schedule is flexible. Or might just hit the casinos hard to pass the time. lol.

We took a trip 3 years ago to Japan with a packed schedule but that was only for 10 days. I was exhausted after 7 days. I keep telling my friend that too but he assures me it'll be ok!

A pretty basic question:
Will you be able to get around HK talking Mandarin?
As far as I know it's Cantonese territory, but what I'd like to know is if most HK residents are able to speak Mandarin, too?

yes