How I planned my family travel to China
Shaping Cultural Experiences
Travel has been an integral part of my life since I was a young child. I grew up in a multicultural, bilingual home in the Netherlands with a Polish mother and a Dutch father. My
Update & BBC News Link
A brief update: One interview video will be uploaded tomorrow evening. I believe the BBC News One-Minute World News provides well-balanced reporting of news, hence why I wanted to share it. Top stories on May
From Nigeria to Boston
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VNkCazT_T4&feature=youtu.be
When you first meet Oluwagbeminiyi Osidipe, you encounter a very vibrant, friendly, and unique personality. Oluwagbeminiyi or Niyi – as she shortened her name for simplicity – was named by her mother, who had a “very personal experience” when she had her, Niyi explained. Niyi is a Yoruba Nigerian transplant who arrived in the U.S. in 2006. As one of the most densely populated (West) African countries, Nigeria derives its name from the river that spans its land. To the South, it borders the Gulf of Guinea to the Atlantic Ocean. Originally colonized by the British, Nigeria gained independence in 1960. Its main ethnic groups are the Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba, who speak English and their own respective languages, while major religions include Islam, Christianity and indigenous beliefs. Niyi shares her story, her views on politics, cultural differences she’s embraced with humor, and what we can learn from each other by expressing curiosity. Her message is simple: travel enriches us through its exposure to new cultures, and enables us to grow.
Mark Twain on Travel
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.” (American author Mark Twain, Innocents Abroad).
Have you had the opportunity to travel (extensively, within your country, or even once abroad)? Can you relate to Twain’s sentiments? How does travel enrich us?
Pleasing The Taste Palate
Food has the wonderful quality of uniting us no matter where we are. There is nothing partisan or narrow-minded about food. It simply invites us to indulge, create recipes, and share with others. Two of my favorite Polish dishes (included in collage) are pierogies and barszcz czerwony – a beetroot soup – served on Christmas Eve in Poland. How does food bring us together? What are some of your favorite dishes and why? Can food trigger memories?
Stereotypes: Truth or Fiction?
DEFINING STEREOTYPES: “An idea or statement about all of the members of a group or all the instances of a situation.” (Merriam-Webster). Stereotypes enable bias and preconceived notions to perpetuate, but can also reveal valid
Annual Human Rights Report
“The world changed immeasurably over the course of 2011. Across the Middle East, North Africa, and far beyond, citizens stood up to demand respect for human dignity, more promising economic opportunities, greater political liberties, and
Euro Crisis & Emerging Stereotypes
Brief Crisis Breakdown Since the onset of the global financial crisis, or Great Recession, in 2007, the Eurozone has feared impending growing global debt levels, as well as sovereign debt within European countries themselves. In
Remembering Tiananmen
Today marks the 23rd anniversary of Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests in Beijing, China. Inflation, a lack of career prospects, the fall of Eastern European communism, and political corruption, are all said to have fueled anger
Coffee's Uniting Power
A cup of coffee can bridge cultural gaps. At least, that’s what Gizem Salgicil White, founder of Turkayfe.org, believes. Her organization aims to create awareness of Turkish culture, particularly within America. Gizem is a Turkish native,
Today’s Culture with Travel post is by Sarah Kearns
Getting my whole family to China seemed like an easy task when I started. Of course, there were lots of moving parts. By the time I’d made sure that all three of my daughters weren’t going to be missing school or important social events during the dates I’d picked, there was a lot to get started on. Here’s how I planned everything out, so it would all run smoothly.
Leave room
The first thing I did – and this is something I’ve learned over many family trips – is to leave room for the unexpected. You can always count on the unexpected to show up! Whether it’s a disaster that means you have to change your plans, or the fantastic discovery of something you hadn’t found in your research that needs exploring, it can come from anywhere. I tried to keep this in mind when planning. I booked things with flexible dates if I could, and if I had to choose a date, I opted for booking when we got there. It’s safe to get on the internet and book things with your credit card so long as you use a VPN while you’re there.
Decide on priorities
It’s important to know your top priorities when you visit a new place. What are the landmarks you absolutely must see, or the experiences you just can’t miss? If you keep these top of mind, you won’t be disappointed and end up missing them. We were visiting Beijing, so there were some highlights to focus on: the Great Wall of China, the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven, and a meal of roast Peking duck which is famous here. With those in mind, I could check the opening times and travel options to make sure everything else fitted around them.
Look up travel requirements
This was a trick I learned: if you travel from Hong Kong into China, you can do it without a visa. Well, visas are hard to get and tough to keep track of, so I opted for travelling into Hong Kong on our way in. We stayed there overnight in a hotel, which allowed us to see some of the city’s charms, before we then travelled on to our destination the next day. Make sure you check what visas you need as well as the other documents that may be required, and keep copies – I held the originals while my husband held another set just in case.
Plan tours
I don’t like going on tourist-centric tours, because they tend to be far too fast and only focused on getting your money. That’s why I decided to plan my own tours. It takes a bit more research, but it’s really worth it. You can read guidebooks and see what other visitors have said on sites like TripAdvisor if you want advice on where to go, how long you should stay there, and what to do. This is how I arranged our trip to the Great Wall of China, for example, so that we would have time to walk around instead of being rushed back to a coach. I also got in touch with a local family, who are used to showing tourists around and explaining the real highlights of Beijing from an insider point of view. They were so kind when we arrived and it really made the experience unforgettable!
Even though you have a lot of research to do and work before you’re ready to go, I always think that planning a holiday carefully is really useful. It makes all the difference to your enjoyment when you finally get there!
Sarah Kearns is a hard working mother of three daughters. She is a Senior Communications Manager for BizDb, an online resource with information about businesses in the UK. She loves cooking, reading history books and writing about green living.
Hi! I'm the founder of Culture With Travel and #CultureTrav. Please chat with us on social media and contribute in the comments! Follow @Nicolette_O
