Traveling advice over Spring Festival
Most standard ESL teaching contracts in China offer between a week and a month of vacation time over the winter break (January/February depending on when spring festival falls). So what do you do during this break? Some will go home, some will teach an ESL winter camp, and some will go traveling.
Traveling on or around Spring Festival can be a nightmare in China! With 1.3 billion people all on vacation at the same time you can imagine the chaos that ensues. I have a few travel tips taken from my own experience as well as the experience of foreigners around me.
1. Watch your things – Theft in China always skyrockets during January and February. People are desperate to buy their son the new action figure with the kung fu grip.
2. Don’t go to a mountain – Yes, the natural beauty of China can be breath taking, but the famous mountains in China (e.g. Tai Shan, Huang Shan) are an absolute mob-scene over Spring Festival. When you take this mob and put them on a narrow mountain path it makes things even worse. If you don’t mind walking shoulder-to-shoulder up endless steps for hours on end then make your way to the nearest mountain.
3. If you take a train, don’t get a seat, get a bed – The competition for getting on the train first and securing a seat is downright dangerous. Don’t feel safe because you have a seat number on your ticket. People just don’t care about your worthless seat number. Even if you do somehow manage to get in your seat there will be so many other people packed like sardines on the train that you won’t be able to move. Not to mention the horrible smells and smoke that’s likely to surround you.
If you can handle these three things then I can promise your trip will end up better than it would be otherwise. Happy travels!