China Travel Forum

[Nathan]

I will be traveling with 3 Adults. 2 will carry 1 carry each. One person will be carrying a camcorder. I've read on different websites (inc. Beijing airport) that you have to declare your cameras/camcorders. Plus there's a limit of one per person. I'm confused. Do you have to declare it if you have more than one camera per person, or do you declare it no matter what? Is this a lot of trouble? Sorry if this question sounds stupid. I've never traveled overseas before. I'm not sure what declaring means. Or what duty free means. If anyone would like to explain to me, that would be great.

I heard that it would be roasting hot in the summer time. Is there any hints that anyone can give me so we don't pass out somewhere? I can't handle extreme heat very well. I plan to bring lots of water with me on day trips. I will be going on a tour. Should I bring an umbrella and foldable seat for my Mom if we go to the Great Wall? I don't expect her to walk much of it.

Is it cheaper to buy tickets for HK-Beijing from the US or from Hong kong? Or is the prices about the same?

How much do food at food court/malls cost? How much should we expect to spend per day on food?

Internet cafes- Is it possible to upload pictures from you digital camera and burn it on a CD? If so, how much does that cost? Thanks for any info.

[Donald]

welcome to BJ!
about declare, I only did this when I departed from BJ customs, the only thing you need to do is just to fill a form which can prove that this camcorder is bought early. but I dont know how it goes in US. according to my experience in Europe, the customs cares nothing about this at all.

It is really hot in summer, esp. in June and July, the temps will go to around 35c or even higher in daytime, and go down to 22c during night. but all the hotels have air conditioning system, so you can get a good sleep. but the temps varies a lot betweend different years, such as last year, the temps is rather good(still a little over 30c). and since this winter is quite cold, to our experience, this summer will not be very hot. whatever, bring water is necessary, you can buy from the local supermarket, very low price with good quality(around 1 yuan, that is 10 cents, for 600ml).

about tickets price, I know nothing, sorry . but booking it in advanced is a good choice.

You can bring YOur memory devices of the digital camera to the picture developing shops(Kodak or Fuji chains), they can burn CD for you, one CD is about 10RMB(1.25USD) if you burn very little pictures. but if you burn more, such as 128M, I dont know the exact price, but I don't think it will be very expensive. another good choice is if you get a device named digi-camera partner, which is just like a movable hard disc and can read most of memory devices, inc. memory stick, SD card, CF card, etc.