In autumn 2009 I came with my wife Ewelina to China (Shandong Province), to work as an English teacher. During the winter school holiday I went away from the Shandong coldness to the Southern China. During the school year I made several short trips around the region. The following general observations I described in detailed reports on the following pages – you can choose from above.
In 2001, during my first visit to China I visited Yungang Caves and the Hanging Monasteries near Datong, the city of Beijing, Terracotta Army near Xi'an and the Stone Forest near Kunming.
highlights - China is so big and diverse country that it's hard to get bored here. You can always find something for yourself. However, in recent years authorities have discovered that they can make good money on tourism. And unfortunately they do it in a very strange way - above all they try to make nature more beautiful than it is, making kitsch artificial waterfalls, restored temples, concrete lookouts, etc. Admission fees compare to Chinese reality are considerably high, particularly in relation to the accommodation and food (even after student 
discounts it doesn't look cheap). In this case most Chinese people cannot afford travelling, but someone doesn't care about the ordinary citizens, only about the rich people - that is around 200-300 million people who mostly don't have passports and have no choice, so they are visiting the own country. Prices are rising in impossibly high pace. The Chinese built ticket offices practically everywhere where could have a chance for mass tourism, but it looks like that money going to the capital, not for locals.
If you are using Lonely Planet 2005 edition, the southern provinces are badly written by reporter Katja Gaskell. She has mixed names, directions, etc. sometimes I was sure that she didn't visit the describing site.
accommodation – the first time in my life during the travel I hardly used a tent. In China cheap hostels selection is huge, virtually in every small town there are several options to choose from. Almost always we paid between 20 and 30 Y (2 to 3 €) per person for a double room or for a bed in dormitory. Sometimes it may happen that the owners do not want to (or can't) accept a foreigner, but in the end we found someone who accommodated us. We had no trouble finding a bed, even during the Chinese New Year, which we paid much less than the tourists who booked in advance. You can find cheap accommodation even on the popular trekking trails, carrying our tent and sleeping bags turned out to be unnecessary weight. Although we travelled during the winter we didn't complain for cold. Maybe some rooms were not the warmest, but in most cases there was electric blanket.
When entering the hotel don't look on the price list - just ask how much is the room, sometimes the written price had no connection with the reality. We bargained almost always and usually bit the price down by 10-20 Y, going to the level of 30-60 Y per room. When checking-in you will be asked for a passport. After filling the application you will get a key, for which owner collects a deposit - usually 10 Y for standard key, up to 50 Y for a plastic card. Check out is at noon. All rooms have TV's, in most cases with Chinese channels only. There are clean sheets - what a change compare to African spartan rooms. For a hot water it's better to ask, but usually there is an electric boiler. As for the toilet, if isn't in the room, it's better to see them – it's a standard that in common one it often does not have a doors.
transport – an organization of Chinese railway is admirable. Everything is perfectly prepared. Actually looks like a check-in at the airport. You can buy a ticket only outside the station, and you can enter inside only with it. Then follows the luggage x-ray - which unfortunately, is pretty stupid in this case - often the guards go for a break, they do not even look at the monitor, it's simply just fill the job vacancies. Then you are going to proper designated waiting room for your train number. In the waiting room about 10-30 minutes before departure the passengers are allowed to go on the platform. You can plan your itinerary using Google maps . When you select two different cities in "get directions”, the program will show you trains schedule (trains numbers, departing and arriving times).
But there is one problem - too many people. Normally it is hard to buy a train ticket for a seat or a bed on the departure day. Sometimes we can get only stand ticket, but than really can be crowded and you might be crushed in the crowd for all night. I also admit that the Chinese are polite - people are not yelling on each other, but helping. Standing tickets 
are selling only when train has no more seats available (not in all trains), but the number is limited and have specific number of the carriage. Hard seat - it's not really hard but soft seat, but there is a crowd, dirt, cigarette smog and noise. Soft seats are very comfortable and exist only in the better train class. Hard sleeper - the hardest to get because they are convenient and relatively cheap. Soft sleeper - it's a comfortable four-bed compartment with air conditioning (hard-sleeper is a open carriage for all passengers), power sockets, etc.
The buses are often a good alternative - it is easier to get tickets on the departure day, and though they are more expensive, they are not so comfortable as trains. For longer distances runs sleeper-buses, I think it's worthwhile to try such a new experience. The biggest problem however is that you usually cannot buy tickets in advance, sometimes only one day before the purchase is allowed. Also, in most cases the last departures are at 6 pm. Often after visiting a site we were stuck in some small village due to lack of transport. Another problem is that most of Chinese cities has several bus stations - it irritating when you don't know from which terminal bus is leaving to your destination? Unfortunately during the national holidays (the first week in May and October and the period of Chinese New Year) many buses are canceled or becoming more expensive for around 50%.
Urban buses cost usually between 1 and 2 Y (up to 0.2 €). I do not know whether this is the rule, but I noticed that in all visited cities a bus No. 1 was running to the long-distance bus station.
You can not drive without a Chinese driver's license. If you do not have one, you can only rent a car with a driver.
At first glance, the Chinese traffic looks dangerous. I think it is not as bad as it seems. First of all, speeding isn't the problem, but overtaking (on a turn, on a double line, etc). However, the difference in driving in Europe lies in the fact that no one expects someone on your lane moving towards you, and in China, yes. The driver knows that here are no rules and as soon as he sees someone riding towards a collision, slow down or make him a space, they all expecting abnormal driving and they are all careful at all times.
food – more than one book has already been written about Chinese food. So I won't write what you should eat, because anyway it is almost everything here. In the Guangdong Province is a saying "You can eat everything that has four legs except the table, and everything what flies except an airplane". Therefore, I only order the meat when I see it in raw form before preparing. The street shops present dead animals ready for consumption in various forms: in fur, with hooves, teeth, occasionally even half alive scorpions on the stick. But I didn't let myself to try eat dog, fried small bird, butterfly larvae, etc. Only once I was tempted to try cicada insect. That fried cicada with eyes and legs tasted like chips, just wings were hard to chew. In China food selection is huge, you will always find something to meet your taste. In addition, you should experiment, because theoretically ordered the same dish, even in a bar next door, can taste completely different.
I also do not understand why turning table idea has not adopted anywhere else in the world. The idea is brilliant. We sit together with friends around the table, we have our plate in front of us, and the middle part is rotating. There are various dishes circulating among guests - if you wish to eat something, then stop the dish in front of your face, then load it on your plate and in a moment someone else will twist the table. 
In European restaurant you are usually ordering only one dish - if you order something that you that you don't like well, you are unhappy. If you eat only the tested food, than how come you will discover something new? Here more dishes are ordered than the number of guests, so you might try at least a little of everything.
We were invited to school banquets. Overall, the party is for government money. It's surprised that there is too much food (just 50 years ago China was dying of starvation, and now throws tons of food to the rubbish). The event host all the time makes sure that your plate isn't empty. This is a good opportunity to try unknown meals. Unfortunately these banquets carry a certain risk – we were pushed to drink alcohol. Actually, sometimes I would be happy to drink, but not when I'm forced. 
They believe that the more you drink, the more respect you are showing. They did not want to understand my excuses. You don't drink at your pace, but only when toast with speech is on. Note – when toasting, your glass should go as low possible, not up. Some drinks are called “Chinese wine”, but this alcohol based on rice has no connection with real wine.
The good alternative to the restaurants is street food - cheap and delicious. But interesting thing we noticed that rice is seldom served. For example in our Shandong Province, in most restaurants there is no rice at all (in Southern China it was everywhere). Unfortunately in whole China (except a few big cities with western supermarkets with a 
foreign section) there is not cream, cheese, butter, regular wheat bread (there is only sweet bread). Chocolate made in China tastes like a soap, and from Western brands only Snickers, Dove and M & Ms can be purchased. In our village there is not western supermarket, and we do not even have grilled dishes, so popular in other regions - in Yishui everything is in deep fried oil. One last note - in the West, MSG (sodium glutamines) is classified as "dangerous" product, some people may have a low tolerance to the acid and its consumption may have side effects. Here it is added to almost everything - we're trying to say that we do not want to "weijing”.
Wherever and whatever you eat in China, you must be able to handle chopsticks. No one uses fork and knife, but the spoon sometimes is used for soups consumption - from which the noodles are eaten with chopsticks and liquid soup with a spoon. But using two wooden chopsticks is not hard to learn.
weather – in winter there was only one logic direction to travel - the South. This is obviously due to the freezing temperatures in the northern part of the country. In the South temperatures are much nicer, and in addition the winter is a period with almost no rainfall. The only downside was gray sky in most of the time, but I'm not sure whether it would be better in summer.
currency - ATMs are located in almost every village. Cash can be safely exchanged in Bank of China. It's hard to exchange yuans into dollars or euros.
internet - internet cafes are everywhere. They are cheap, usually 3 Y per hour. However, printing and scanning is not so popular in smaller towns. In regions such as Xinjiang the authorities suspended the internet and long distance calls for around half a year.
visa - here are two recent procedures in the Chinese embassy in Kazakhstan and Mongolia:
If you want to obtain a Chinese tourist visa in Almaty - I recommend Bridge Tour Agency (Tel: (727) 296 95 60, Zenkov St. 13). Very nice girl (embassy employee) will arrange a visa support for you (letter of invitation) and it is relatively cheap - the whole visa for 9000 Tenge (42 €), 5-7 days of waiting. You could also do a priority processing (3 days) for 16,500 Tenge (77 €).
In Ulaan Bataar the Chinese Embassy is open on the same days and similar hours as embassy in Almaty - Mon, Wed and Fri, from 9.30 to 12; receiving the documents between 4-5 pm. You need to have two photos, a passport photo copy, an entry ticket to China (first time I've seen such a nonsense, are they afraid to give you a visa to China, and you won't go there?), hotel booking (that one is not always required). Everything depends on the person in the window (exp. whether can be just a reservation or original ticket).