Traveling internationally can be exciting, but often expensive or requires months of preparation to pull off. This November I was able to plan a trip to China, from buying the tickets to boarding the plane, in one month! Tickets were cheap also, roundtrip for less than 500$. To be honest, the process is actually a lot easier then one would think. Here is how I did it:
The motivation for this trip was to find a popular climbing destination where the weather was better than the PNW in November and cheap airline tickets round trip. Yangshuo, China came on the radar as a great destination in Asia. Yangshuo's prime climbing weather is in the fall when the temps are moderate and there is little rainfall.
Yangshuo, China Has become a poplar climbing destination in recent years. There is said to be over 400 routes in the local area, many crags accessible by bike or scooter from the city.
1. Find Cheap Round Trip Tickets
I will introduce to a great website that was the key to finding tickets for this trip: Matrix ITA Software by Google
This website is a flight search engine where you can find all the lowest fares in many different airlines. Keep in mind, you may want to keep your travel dates flexible for the cheapest rates. Also prices change on a day by day basis, so get em while they’re cheap!
To buy the tickets go on the airliners website and search using the flight number. Sometimes the prices aren't exact but they are pretty close.
3. Visa/Passports
Check the expiration date on your passport. Get a new passport well before six months left before expiration. The next important item is getting a visa. Many countries require a visa, China requires one for everyone including tourists. Make sure there is two blank pages in your passport for the visa.
For the fastest and easiest way to get a visa for China is to go through a visa service. It may cost more money but its less paperwork headache with more guaranteed results. Most visa services charge around 99$ for their services, plus the fee for the visas depending on how fast you want it processed. (Here is a site with a list of well reviewed visa services. There are some out there that are cheaper, but I couldn't find much information or reviews on them. I decided to pay it safe and go with a well reviewed site.)
The site I used was VisaHQ, which was super easy because they had a printable application that you could fill out online. The Chinese Embassy has very specific regulations, so make sure to read all of these for the application and the picture for the visa.
In getting a picture for the Chinese visa, the size requirements are different than for the US passport. (Chinese visa requirements are 33mm x 48mm, US passport are 51mmx51mm) So if you are going to Walgreens or RiteAid make sure that they can print a different sizing. I went to a professional photography studio that was able to do the picture exactly according to the requirements. It cost a little extra but sometimes the smaller stories aren't able to get it right.
Will have to send in your passport, typed application, flight information, lodging information, proof of residency, two pictures at least to the visa service who will work with the Chinese Embassy. The whole process took about two weeks from sending everything in to getting my visa. This was with two day shipping through UPS.
Once I got my visa, I was officially set for travel in China. On to packing...
If you have any questions on the process, email me on the contact page.
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