That’s right - it is finally time for another "Chlidonias Goes To Asia" trip thread.
If you are new here, or if it has simply been so long that you have forgotten their very existence, or maybe you weren't even born when they started, there have been six previous instalments in the series. The original thread, way back in 2009, was just five pages long while the second one in 2011 was three pages long. The third one, over 2013 to 2014, somehow turned into a fifty-four page thread. The fourth one in 2015 managed five pages, which was fairly remarkable given that the trip was less than a month long. The fifth one, between 2016 to 2017, was twenty-two pages. And the sixth one – just a five week trip in 2019 – was six pages long.
Previous threads:
Chlidonias goes to Asia, 2009
Chlidonias Goes To Asia, part two: 2011
Chlidonias Goes To Asia, part three: 2013-2014
Doucs And Dong: Chlidonias Goes To Asia, part four (2015)
Chlidonias Goes To Asia, part five: 2016-2017
Chlidonias Goes To Asia, part six: 2019
The reason there has been so long between part six and part seven is, of course, because of covid. That short 2019 trip was supposed to just be a quick break to tide me over between longer trips while saving, but little did I know that I had just squeaked in before the world starting shutting down. Even after lockdowns had become a thing of the past there was still a certain complexity about multi-country travel, with different restrictions in different countries making things much more complicated than normal, and some countries (like China) took much longer to reopen than others. So I held off on it for a while longer, and that kind of stretched into a lot longer because flight prices remained high (being in New Zealand means going anywhere requires long flights) and time apparently moves differently now so one doesn’t even realise how much of it is passing by unnoticed. I did get to do a couple of small trips within New Zealand, and last year managed to make it out of the country for the first time in four years, with a bit of a failure of an attempt at Vanuatu in the Pacific islands (see here Chlidonias versus Vanuatu).
Most of my trips have been in the tropics of southeast or southern Asia, but this one is instead an east Asian trip and will be focused on China and Japan. That’s why I’m starting the trip at this time of year, because I want to be able to see cranes and other such winter wildlife. I have been to China before (that’s in the 2013-2014 thread) but it will be my first time in Japan.
Initially my plan was to start in December or January in the northern islands of Japan for winter birding, then head across to eastern China for a bit more winter, followed by not-so-much-winter in Yunnan, and then come back into Japan in the far south via Taiwan. That plan was partly due to having to juggle wintering cranes in Japan with wintering cranes in China, and partly because I have to get the Chinese visa from an embassy within New Zealand and it then only has three months of validity once approved (i.e. it needs to be used close to the start of a trip), so this seemed like the best route to fit in winter in both countries. But after further contemplation I decided it would work just as well if I start a bit earlier in Yunnan, work my way eastwards across China, and then do Japan all in one go rather than as two visits.
Once that was decided I figured I’d better begin planning out the China part of the trip properly. I had been concentrating on the Japan side of things because that’s where I was going first, and so the China part was still just a rough outline. I’d been to China before, albeit ten years ago, so I knew where I wanted to go (broadly speaking) and I also thought I knew how to travel in China. Turned out I was woefully out of date. In the last few years China has transformed almost completely from a cash-based society to an app-based society. Everything is done through phones now. Annually over 80% of transactions in China are contactless. I’m glad I changed my plan to start in China, because otherwise I wouldn’t have realised this until I arrived in the country, and then I’d have been in trouble!
First things first - I am not a technologically-minded person. I have never had a phone with me on any of my trips. Never needed one, never wanted one. It’s just another thing to carry. The phone I had at home was capable of just two things, texting and calling. That’s it. Now I’ve had to get one of those smart phone things that all the kids have when they won’t get off my lawn. Worse than just having to get one, I’ve also had to learn how to use it which mostly involves angrily shaking my fist at it.
I quickly read up on the latest information on a bunch of travel forums. The most important app for tourists in China is called AliPay, which is tied to your bank card and is used for paying for stuff by scanning QR codes. WePay is the other app for buying stuff but from what I was reading a lot of foreigners can’t get it to work. I even read about a couple who both had AliPay and WePay on their phones, and for one person Alipay worked and WePay wouldn’t, and vice versa for the other person. The thing with all the Chinese apps is that they are designed for Chinese people with Chinese ID cards and Chinese bank accounts. The foreign versions of the apps are like patch-up jobs which have all sorts of problems; and you have to get them installed before going to China because only the Chinese versions are available once you’re in China (and so you can only register with them if you have a Chinese ID and bank account).
From reading a whole lot of posts on travel forums, there is no consistency in how well the foreign versions work from one person to the next. I think AliPay works perfectly well for most people, but for some it just doesn’t, or it works to begin with and then doesn’t, or it sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t. Some people have no choice but to use cash for their whole time in China - apparently you can still get around in China using cash but it is really awkward, not because people won’t accept cash but because they won’t have change (because nobody uses cash any more). You also can’t test these apps out to see if they are working beforehand, because they only work in China. Then it also needs to be “Real ID verified” which for a foreigner means it is tied to your passport. You can still use AliPay initially without doing this but once your spending reaches a certain limit it will no longer work until verified. Again, this is something that most people manage to accomplish, but not everybody. Mine won’t verify. I have read some posts from travellers saying that their accounts wouldn’t verify outside China, but once they were in the country the verification kicked in - so I’m hoping that will be the case with mine. Luckily the amount before verification is needed just went up this year, to US$2000, so even without verification I’ll be able to get most of the way through China before being restricted to cash (so long as AliPay actually works to start with).
WePay is a bit of a mystery to me currently. From forum posts it seemed like registering with WeChat was difficult because it required you to already know a WeChat user to scan a code they send you; and then once registered with WeChat you could register (usually with great difficulty) with WePay by adding your bank card and passport for verification. I don’t know anyone on WeChat but I installed the app anyway and managed to register immediately with just my phone number and a security code they texted me. Easy as that. Then I went to the services section in the app and added my bank card details and now apparently I’m all set up to use WePay. There was no part where I needed to add my passport details and nowhere is there a section for verifying identity. I will find out when I get to China if it has actually worked or not!
AliPay has a bunch of handy mini-apps within it too, including Trip (like booking .com but more useful in China), Didi (Chinese Uber), local metro and bus passes, and the 12306 Chinese railway app. The metro passes will be particularly useful for saving time when in cities - just scan and go rather than having to queue to buy tickets or tokens - although, again, some people can’t get them to work.
The railway system in China is now full-integrated into Real ID verification - you literally can’t catch a train without it because there are no longer physical tickets. Your passport (or ID card if a local) effectively is the ticket. You get scanned to enter the station, scanned at the security points, scanned to get on the train. The stations are like airports now. I registered on the foreign version of Railway 12306 - you have to do it initially on a laptop because the mobile version eventually ends at a white page from which you can go no further. On a laptop when it gets to the part for Real ID verification you have to upload a photo of your passport and then a photo of yourself holding the passport - and then you just get a message saying the system is busy. Doesn’t matter how many times you try, or which photos you use, or whether you try it on the laptop or on the phone app, you just get a busy message. Apparently this is a standard stalling point for foreigners trying to register. Instead you have to actually go into a train station in China and get yourself verified in person, which takes forever. If you can’t get verified then you’re restricted to buses - and strangely enough foreigners can only get bus tickets in person at a bus station, they aren’t allowed to purchase them online as they can for train tickets. Having to rely solely on buses for the longer distances, if it comes to that, will really put a strangle-hold on some of my plans. There are bullet trains all over China now. One route I took in 2013 between Chengdu and Guiyang took 12.5 hours by train - now it takes three or four hours. By bus it will be over twenty hours.
Back in the old days the only thing that was an actual issue when travelling around China was the language barrier, and there are ways around that. The reliance on phones is going to add a whole other layer of aggravation on top. If the apps work then great, but if they don’t then it’s going to make everything so much more difficult, and there’s going to be the constant worry that they will fail to work at some point. And if your phone goes flat it is then about as much use as a rock. I’m really not sure if I’m at a major disadvantage by being a technological dullard, or at an advantage because I’ve got old man experience to know how to get around without it when it fails. Fingers crossed but honestly I’m not going to be surprised if I can’t get anything to work.
Nevertheless, it is time to get back in the travel saddle and see what happens. To quote Jack London, as I am wont to do: “The function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.”
If you are new here, or if it has simply been so long that you have forgotten their very existence, or maybe you weren't even born when they started, there have been six previous instalments in the series. The original thread, way back in 2009, was just five pages long while the second one in 2011 was three pages long. The third one, over 2013 to 2014, somehow turned into a fifty-four page thread. The fourth one in 2015 managed five pages, which was fairly remarkable given that the trip was less than a month long. The fifth one, between 2016 to 2017, was twenty-two pages. And the sixth one – just a five week trip in 2019 – was six pages long.
Previous threads:
Chlidonias goes to Asia, 2009
Chlidonias Goes To Asia, part two: 2011
Chlidonias Goes To Asia, part three: 2013-2014
Doucs And Dong: Chlidonias Goes To Asia, part four (2015)
Chlidonias Goes To Asia, part five: 2016-2017
Chlidonias Goes To Asia, part six: 2019
The reason there has been so long between part six and part seven is, of course, because of covid. That short 2019 trip was supposed to just be a quick break to tide me over between longer trips while saving, but little did I know that I had just squeaked in before the world starting shutting down. Even after lockdowns had become a thing of the past there was still a certain complexity about multi-country travel, with different restrictions in different countries making things much more complicated than normal, and some countries (like China) took much longer to reopen than others. So I held off on it for a while longer, and that kind of stretched into a lot longer because flight prices remained high (being in New Zealand means going anywhere requires long flights) and time apparently moves differently now so one doesn’t even realise how much of it is passing by unnoticed. I did get to do a couple of small trips within New Zealand, and last year managed to make it out of the country for the first time in four years, with a bit of a failure of an attempt at Vanuatu in the Pacific islands (see here Chlidonias versus Vanuatu).
Most of my trips have been in the tropics of southeast or southern Asia, but this one is instead an east Asian trip and will be focused on China and Japan. That’s why I’m starting the trip at this time of year, because I want to be able to see cranes and other such winter wildlife. I have been to China before (that’s in the 2013-2014 thread) but it will be my first time in Japan.
Initially my plan was to start in December or January in the northern islands of Japan for winter birding, then head across to eastern China for a bit more winter, followed by not-so-much-winter in Yunnan, and then come back into Japan in the far south via Taiwan. That plan was partly due to having to juggle wintering cranes in Japan with wintering cranes in China, and partly because I have to get the Chinese visa from an embassy within New Zealand and it then only has three months of validity once approved (i.e. it needs to be used close to the start of a trip), so this seemed like the best route to fit in winter in both countries. But after further contemplation I decided it would work just as well if I start a bit earlier in Yunnan, work my way eastwards across China, and then do Japan all in one go rather than as two visits.
Once that was decided I figured I’d better begin planning out the China part of the trip properly. I had been concentrating on the Japan side of things because that’s where I was going first, and so the China part was still just a rough outline. I’d been to China before, albeit ten years ago, so I knew where I wanted to go (broadly speaking) and I also thought I knew how to travel in China. Turned out I was woefully out of date. In the last few years China has transformed almost completely from a cash-based society to an app-based society. Everything is done through phones now. Annually over 80% of transactions in China are contactless. I’m glad I changed my plan to start in China, because otherwise I wouldn’t have realised this until I arrived in the country, and then I’d have been in trouble!
First things first - I am not a technologically-minded person. I have never had a phone with me on any of my trips. Never needed one, never wanted one. It’s just another thing to carry. The phone I had at home was capable of just two things, texting and calling. That’s it. Now I’ve had to get one of those smart phone things that all the kids have when they won’t get off my lawn. Worse than just having to get one, I’ve also had to learn how to use it which mostly involves angrily shaking my fist at it.
I quickly read up on the latest information on a bunch of travel forums. The most important app for tourists in China is called AliPay, which is tied to your bank card and is used for paying for stuff by scanning QR codes. WePay is the other app for buying stuff but from what I was reading a lot of foreigners can’t get it to work. I even read about a couple who both had AliPay and WePay on their phones, and for one person Alipay worked and WePay wouldn’t, and vice versa for the other person. The thing with all the Chinese apps is that they are designed for Chinese people with Chinese ID cards and Chinese bank accounts. The foreign versions of the apps are like patch-up jobs which have all sorts of problems; and you have to get them installed before going to China because only the Chinese versions are available once you’re in China (and so you can only register with them if you have a Chinese ID and bank account).
From reading a whole lot of posts on travel forums, there is no consistency in how well the foreign versions work from one person to the next. I think AliPay works perfectly well for most people, but for some it just doesn’t, or it works to begin with and then doesn’t, or it sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t. Some people have no choice but to use cash for their whole time in China - apparently you can still get around in China using cash but it is really awkward, not because people won’t accept cash but because they won’t have change (because nobody uses cash any more). You also can’t test these apps out to see if they are working beforehand, because they only work in China. Then it also needs to be “Real ID verified” which for a foreigner means it is tied to your passport. You can still use AliPay initially without doing this but once your spending reaches a certain limit it will no longer work until verified. Again, this is something that most people manage to accomplish, but not everybody. Mine won’t verify. I have read some posts from travellers saying that their accounts wouldn’t verify outside China, but once they were in the country the verification kicked in - so I’m hoping that will be the case with mine. Luckily the amount before verification is needed just went up this year, to US$2000, so even without verification I’ll be able to get most of the way through China before being restricted to cash (so long as AliPay actually works to start with).
WePay is a bit of a mystery to me currently. From forum posts it seemed like registering with WeChat was difficult because it required you to already know a WeChat user to scan a code they send you; and then once registered with WeChat you could register (usually with great difficulty) with WePay by adding your bank card and passport for verification. I don’t know anyone on WeChat but I installed the app anyway and managed to register immediately with just my phone number and a security code they texted me. Easy as that. Then I went to the services section in the app and added my bank card details and now apparently I’m all set up to use WePay. There was no part where I needed to add my passport details and nowhere is there a section for verifying identity. I will find out when I get to China if it has actually worked or not!
AliPay has a bunch of handy mini-apps within it too, including Trip (like booking .com but more useful in China), Didi (Chinese Uber), local metro and bus passes, and the 12306 Chinese railway app. The metro passes will be particularly useful for saving time when in cities - just scan and go rather than having to queue to buy tickets or tokens - although, again, some people can’t get them to work.
The railway system in China is now full-integrated into Real ID verification - you literally can’t catch a train without it because there are no longer physical tickets. Your passport (or ID card if a local) effectively is the ticket. You get scanned to enter the station, scanned at the security points, scanned to get on the train. The stations are like airports now. I registered on the foreign version of Railway 12306 - you have to do it initially on a laptop because the mobile version eventually ends at a white page from which you can go no further. On a laptop when it gets to the part for Real ID verification you have to upload a photo of your passport and then a photo of yourself holding the passport - and then you just get a message saying the system is busy. Doesn’t matter how many times you try, or which photos you use, or whether you try it on the laptop or on the phone app, you just get a busy message. Apparently this is a standard stalling point for foreigners trying to register. Instead you have to actually go into a train station in China and get yourself verified in person, which takes forever. If you can’t get verified then you’re restricted to buses - and strangely enough foreigners can only get bus tickets in person at a bus station, they aren’t allowed to purchase them online as they can for train tickets. Having to rely solely on buses for the longer distances, if it comes to that, will really put a strangle-hold on some of my plans. There are bullet trains all over China now. One route I took in 2013 between Chengdu and Guiyang took 12.5 hours by train - now it takes three or four hours. By bus it will be over twenty hours.
Back in the old days the only thing that was an actual issue when travelling around China was the language barrier, and there are ways around that. The reliance on phones is going to add a whole other layer of aggravation on top. If the apps work then great, but if they don’t then it’s going to make everything so much more difficult, and there’s going to be the constant worry that they will fail to work at some point. And if your phone goes flat it is then about as much use as a rock. I’m really not sure if I’m at a major disadvantage by being a technological dullard, or at an advantage because I’ve got old man experience to know how to get around without it when it fails. Fingers crossed but honestly I’m not going to be surprised if I can’t get anything to work.
Nevertheless, it is time to get back in the travel saddle and see what happens. To quote Jack London, as I am wont to do: “The function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.”
partially due to....
. This thread already has all the ingredients for fantastic species and even more fantastic hickups along the way 
