Airplane tickets to Taiwan/China?

don't go in the summer time. wait til sept or so. i've been in june for ~$1150 and in october for ~$550.

 

I saw some advertisement for around 500 round trip from some travel agency that advertised in a Chinese paper (world daily?) I am sure someone will be able to provide links to some of the agencies.

 

MM, one easy way is to ask a couple of Chinese friends of yours (I assume you have a few, uh?) to call up several travel agencies of their choices to inquire cheaper airfare for you, since I would imagine the people working there may have a hard time to communicate with you in English. I also heard Korean (or even Japanese) Airline can offer pretty good deals to China from time to time. You may want to give that a try.

 

Prepare yourself for more than 12 hours of tiresome flight, dude.

There are at least a couple of things you need to consider.

- Food/Drink. IMO, food is definitely better (type, quantity, and variety) on Chinese airlines than on US airlines. I heard good things about Korean airlines too. Not sure about Japanese airlines. I can't comment on alcoholic drinks, since I usually don't drink that on airplane. But I doubt Chinese airlines would be inferior to others in this regard.

- Route, including total travel time and number of stops. There could be some pretty big differences. I know many US flights and certainly Japanese fights have a stop in Japan, and Korean flights stop in either Korea or Japan. But if you don't mind visiting Tokoyo along the way, for instance, this may even be a bonus to you. I think all Chinese airlines offer direct fights to either Beijing or Shanghai.

That said, you don't necessarily get the best deal by booking Chinese airlines, since the price may be substantially higher. That's why getting a good (Chinese) travel agency is quite important. Still you may be lucky enough to find a cheap one on the internet using the typical travel related sites. A friend of mine did that two years ago.

BTW, if you don't mind paying extra and would like superb service, try Singapore airline - the best in the world, bar none. It probably has a stop in Hong Kong, a place you might want to visit anyway.

 

China Airlines and Cathay Pacific have some of the most horrible food and service.

I do agree that Singapore Airlines has one of the best service for coach. There's LCD screens with movies on demand, and the food is decent.

For an insomniac and movie freak, it went a long way.

 

Glad you brought this up. Gotta make distinction here. China Airline is owned and operated by Taiwan, and it doesn't NOT fly to Mainland China! I used the term "Chinese airlines" loosely to refer to the two main airlines operated by Mainland, they are Air China (based in Beijing) and China Eastern Airline (based in Shanghai). Both these airlines offer direct fights to Mainland China.

Lots of people, Chinese (from Mainland and Taiwan) and non-Chinese alike, are confusing the heck of China Airline and Air China. You should be alerting yourself when you ask for direction in a major airport, because even many airport workers don't have a clue what they are telling you. I had first-hand experience in one NYC airport a few years back, received incorrect direction from some airport employees there and almost missed the fight!

 

Shanghai may look modern, and have tall buildings etc. but those buildings are built by foreigners... and are 80% vacant.

I think Cathay is pretty good... JAL is good too. But, do not fly United... United is the worst airline I've ever flown.

 

Cathay is based out of Hong Kong. They used to be pretty good about 10 yrs ago. Heard their service has gone down since. Singapore and Asiana (Korean) are both good. JAL is decent. Don't know about the Chinese mainland airlines.

 

I flew to Taiwan about 3 years ago on EVA AIR and had a great experience. No problems whatsoever.

 

If you wanna do a tour of the Mainland, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, I would recommend you to follow the Taipei-Hong Kong-Shanghai-Beijing route or the other way around... that's up to you if you want some experience in developed areas before you want to witness the results on Chinese modernization so far

how long are you planning to stay over on the other side of the Pacific?

 

I'm in Taiwan now after spending a week in Japan.

Tokyo is definitely a city everyone should visit. If any of you guys are fans of New York then Tokyo trumps that city. Japan is unbelievably clean (air, litter) and the people are the most polite and courteous people I've ever come across. If you have a girlfriend/wife take her with you -- she'll definitely love Tokyo (any women would). All the people do here is shop shop shop. There are malls stacked on top of malls stacked on top of malls and then stuffed with more malls. Some of the places that I enjoyed the most in Tokyo was:

Ginza, which is sort of like the equivalent of Times Square I guess. To lease in Ginza is the most expensive in the world. The Sony building in the area is pretty cool.

Also Shinjuku is the most crowded area in Tokyo -- it's by the Tokyo city hall (check out the observation floor inside). It's sort of like the entertainment district of Tokyo. It's more geared towards teenagers. The electric street was neat.

Japanese women are seriously the hottest oriental race (there is a difference between chinese/japanese/korean/flip women despite everyone lumping them together ) but they all have messed up teeth, its like genetic or something. Alot of people like to go see the Imperial Palace while in Japan ... trust me it's not that great but it's one of those things people just have to see shrug. You should definitely try to explore for yourself though, I spent a week in Japan and felt like I missed out on alot. If you really like to eat seafood then you'll love japanese food. Japanese rice is really good and of course there's sushi. I would recommend staying in Tokyo though it's definitely the most exciting part of Japan. If you goto the southern cities (towars Mt Fuji) it's alot of shrines, temples, castles and stuff. So if you're into the scenic stuff then check that out too. I'm more of a city person

In my opinion China and Taiwan are redundant. I'm in Taipei now .. it's alot like Tokyo but dirtier but ALOT cheaper. The food here is unbelievably cheap and sooo delicious -- I want to stay here forever. You can get alot of bootleg stuff here for cheap (again gf/wife would appreciate this). Taipei is my second home so I'm bias but alot of my friends love the city and always have a fun time here. The night markets are cool and definitely a culture shock. You'll probably get the same experience in China but more expensive. Only downside is that it's too hot and humid, I hate the weather.

 

Oh to follow up on what Faos said .. EVA AIR is legit. It's Taiwan based and I always fly it cause it's the cheapest and I never have any problems hahaha. If you go in the fall it might be rain alot, so I guess do a little research about yearly weather patterns before you book your flight .. I always go in the summer so I dunno.

About the women ... native girls are hot simply put. All the asian countries are getting into the whole western hip-hop/pop culture (hand in hand with the modernization). So the girls are all into mini-skirts, piercings, makeup etc .. basically what Britney Spears did for our teenage girl culture in America. The girls all dress up here so if you're into asian girls you'll definitely love it. I don't know if youre an ABC (american born chinese) or if youre white, but if you can speak english here you're basically a commodity. Most asian girls here fantasize about having a western boyfriend. The whole club scene is developing here, but it's mainly like the techno/trance crap. I dunno if you're into that but they do have some hip-hop clubs too. I've never really been into clubbing in the first place though.

 

Hard for me to say ... Like I said Taipei is my second home, so I don't have to worry about hotels and whatnot. I will tell you that Taipei is cheap. No one will ever starve in this country because loose change will buy you dinner and the subway system is simple/cheap so you can travel all over the city easily.

You'll definitely spend a lot of money in Tokyo, but I've been to the cities on your wishlist and Tokyo is by far the most exciting and interesting. I guess I should ask: Do you plan on traveling with a Japanese friend, or can you speak Japanese? If not you should probably look into a tour package. In my mind it would be pretty difficult to just transplant yourself in Japan and try to get around, especially if you want to see all that Japan as to offer. If you spend some time with google you can get a good package including airfare.

Taiwan+China should be easier to get around without speaking the language (mandarin chinese). Personally I've never had that much fun in China cause it's nothing new to me (I think Taipei is better). I think it's filthy and the people over there smoke too much. For someone who hasn't travelled Asia before though, it should be a great experience.

For the most part, the people in asian countries can utter a few sentences in English (youre required to pass an english test to graduate, its mainly written and not oral) so youll somewhat be able to communicate but dont depend on it cause conversation is still hard. I guess if you want to try to learn a bit of the language - learn how to order food. That's always my favorite part of travelling -- food food food -- and Jap/Chinese food is seriously the best. I mean what do Americans eat? hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken fried steak? yuck

Keeping in mind that I always travel to Asia in the summer, I guess 3 G's is feasible, but it all depends on, of course, what kind of hotels youre staying at. What places you want to see etc etc..

 

When we flew to Taiwan, it was at the height of the SARS scare. We were able to get a great deal on a nice hotel in Taipei. We stayed all over Taiwan. Our vacation started off on the beaches of Kenting, which is far south. Taipei is a great, modern city. I look forward to going back someday.