No News Is... Frustrating

When you travel or live abroad it's often difficult to stay abreast of current events both globally and locally.  Living in China, I've found that the media here is often censored to the point that even significant local events are more public to the global audience than they are on the ground here.  For example, I didn't hear about the riots in Kunming over the continually strained interactions between police forces and street vendors (read about it in The Economist) a couple months back until a friend in Boston asked me if I was okay.

While I use a paid VPN service to access the outside world without censorship, I still can't help but feel disconnected sometimes.  In college, I used to get up early on occasion and sit in a cafe, reading the NY Times or the Wall Street Journal.  There's just something about flipping through the news.  That's why, when I was in Cambodia earlier this year, I was so excited to see a vendor in a bus station in Phnom Penh selling print copies of The Cambodia Daily--an English and Khmer-language paper containing local and international articles taken from popular media sources.

Though there are several sources for English language news in China, including the China Daily, uncensored world and popular news is hard to come by.  For that reason, I've become partial to Google's FastFlip, which allows you to "flip" through images of different news articles and blogs, browsing the news almost like you'd tend to do with a newspaper.  You can browse different topic-themed "sections" or just read the popular news (which tends to be slightly tech oriented due to the types of people who probably know about and use the service).

Even if you're not as remote or starved for news as I am, FastFlip is still an innovative and effective way to absorb the news.  It's certainly worth a look!

[In other news, I'll be heading up to Luquan County, north of Kunming, this week to continue my research with the second target dialect of Yi.  I'll try to write a post when I get back about my trip and what my research entails.]

How I'm Flying Home For Next-to-Nothing (and you can too!)

[Updates in brown]

I recently booked my ticket back to the States for this upcoming September, and after chatting with several friends here in China, I was shocked to hear that none of them are members of any airline frequent flyer programs.  So, this post is a short description of how to take advantage of frequent flyer programs to get cheap or free flights, and why you should!

First of all, let me say that my understanding of the frequent flyer programs is fairly rudimentary, and the advice I'm giving here is basic-nothing a seasoned frequent flyer will find all that groundbreaking.  If you want to learn to really take advantage of the system, check out Chris Guillebeau's Blog "The Art of Non-Conformity.  (Thanks to Francine for referring me to his site!)  He goes into great detail about what he terms "travel hacking", and sells several eBooks on the topic.  His blog, however, contains plenty of free advice, including this article on frequent flyer miles.

Most people, it seems, are averse to the idea of frequent flyer miles because of legendary flight restrictions, difficulties earning and redeeming miles, and most of all ignorance.  It is not as difficult as one might think to earn and redeem miles.  You can sign up for most airlines' programs online for free.  Some airlines even give you free miles just for joining.  Below are several links to the various airlines' signup pages:

• American


• Alaska


• Continental


• Delta


• United


• U.S. Airways


• Virgin Atlantic


• British Airways


• Southwest


• JetBlue

(links compiled by The Art of Non-Conformity)

Once you've signed up, it's only a matter of reporting your account number when flying.  If you forget to report your account number before flying, it's no big deal.  You can report usually for up to a year after the fact online or by phone.

Since my experience has most recently been with United, a member of the Star Alliance, I'll use that as a reference.  Other airlines might vary in rules and rates.  My one-way ticket from Beijing back to Philadelphia in September was priced at around $1,200.  Instead of forking out the cash, I started investigating how to use the 23,000 miles I'd earned on United to fly home.  Using their website's "Redeem Miles" search feature, I found that a one-way flight home would run 32,500 miles.  Still 10,000 miles short, I referred to my Continental One-Pass account, and saw that I'd saved 9,000 miles with Continental.  Although both of these airlines are members of the Star Alliance, and they've now announced their merger, after consulting with both of them on the phone, it became clear that while I could use my miles from one airline on one or the other airline, I couldn't combine the two.

[While United and Continental have as of yet not announced the details of how their Frequent Flyer programs will be combined, we can make some assumptions based on the past merger of Delta and Northwestern.  It's likely that after the two airlines have officially completed their merger (probably sometime in 2011), that miles from the two airlines will then be combine-able.  Until then, it's either convert, use one airline's miles, or forget it.]

I considered converting my Continental miles to United miles (yes! it is possible), but I didn't feel like waiting and dealing with the resulting loss in mileage.  Most mileage and point programs can be converted through a sometimes circuitous process of first converting to a middle-man program like Amtrak or HiltonHonors.  The process often results in 10,000 miles from one account being converted to 4,000 miles in another account, just hypothetically speaking.  For details, check out WebFlyer.

So, I was in need of another 9,500 miles.  My parents offered to transfer me some of their miles, but the airlines discourage this by charging a transfer fee and a per mile charge.  Instead, I learned that I could make up the difference by purchasing miles from the airline.  Miles may be purchased by 1,000 mile increment, and rates start at around $50 for 1,000 miles.  I purchased 10,000 miles for $357.  With taxes and fees added in, I spent only $390 on my airfare, saving over $800.  What's more, if I had had time to wait (I was a bit anxious about the available dates running out), I could have flown for nothing!

In my research, I discovered that United has a program called "United College Plus", which offers students 10,000 free miles just for graduating college.  I signed up (in under 5 minutes), had my university send them a copy of my transcript for verification purposes, and within two weeks, they credited my account with an additional 10,000 free miles.  I should mention that in the fine print, it specifies that you have to join the College Plus program before graduating (which I don't believe I had), and must report your transcript within a year of graduating (which I may or may not have just managed to do).

Furthermore, I realized that I've flown several times on Air China in the past year, and didn't earn any miles for those flights.  Since Air China and United are both part of the same alliance, I reported the flights to United, giving them my ticket numbers, dates of travel, etc. and earning myself an extra 5,000 miles.

There are plenty of other ways to earn miles without flying, however.  Exploring each airline's Frequent Flyer website will tell you that you can earn miles by showing your Frequent Flyer card while staying in hotels, renting cars, shopping online, and even eating out at restaurants!

What's more, one of the most efficient ways to earn miles is by signing up for an airline's credit card.  It may sound risky or scary, but after reading the fine print thoroughly, it might not be as risky as you think.  United is currently offering their Chase Bank Visa Platinum card with a bonus of 30,000 miles online.  What I've taken from the fine print:

• there is a $69 annual fee


• that fee is waived for the first year


• you earn 30,000 miles only after spending $250


• it may take 4-6 weeks after spending the minimum to earn those miles


• you can only use those 30,000 miles if your account remains active until after you've used them


• that means that you can cancel your credit card after using the points, but only after you've redeemed the miles and flown with them

After calling home today, I found out I'd received another mailing from United offering the same card with a bonus of 50,000 miles instead of 30k.  An additional 50,000 miles on top of the 15,000 I earned by sending my college transcript and reporting my flights on their partner airline would give me 65,000 miles-enough to fly roundtrip anywhere in the world OR to fly roundtrip in the United States 2.5 times.  A free flight anywhere in the world, combined with some CouchSurfing (check out couchsurfing.org) or a visit to an international friend could mean an amazing adventure for next to nothing!  (Taxes, fees, and food not included.)

What are the risks of signing up for a credit card deal like this?

Every time your credit report is checked, your score goes down slightly, but once will not hurt significantly.  Just ask Chris Guillebeau who signed up for 13 (!) airline credit cards, earning 300,000 miles and various other bonuses, and only saw his credit score go down by 4% (after 13 credit cards, 4% is not bad)!!!

[If you're concerned about your credit history (and even if you're not), you should know that the US government allows you to check your credit report for FREE once each year.  To access your truly free credit report, go to AnnualCreditReport.com.  This website will allow you to access your credit report with each of the big credit reporting agencies:  Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian.  You can even dispute negative claims easily online, talking your way out of any major blemishes.  Just realize that these reports don't give you your credit score, just a listing of all positive and negative marks on your account.]

Annual fees!  While some credit cards offer $0 in annual fees,. the United card I'm looking at charges $69.  While this may seem like a lot, for a free roundtrip flight, the fee is worth it (especially if you plan on canceling your card in the first year).  Furthermore, United is currently offering to waive the first year's fee, which means that as long as I get the card, earn the points, redeem the points, fly with those points, and remember to cancel the card all in the first year, I'll be earning 50,000 miles for free!

Privacy:  Some of my friends have told me they've heard stories about signing up for credit cards like this and having their private information sold to third party companies.  Whether this is true or not, I don't know.  My advice:  read the fine print thoroughly.  Most airline credit cards are sponsored through major banks, and specify how secure your information is.  A good rule of thumb, if you've read through the fine print and it doesn't seem legit, it probably isn't.  That doesn't mean there isn't plenty of secure free mileage to be had.

If you choose to keep your airline credit card, using it to book additional flights with that airline will earn you even more miles.  I, on the other hand, am a proponent of bank reward credit cards, through which you can diversify your points and miles.

Well, that's a basic overview of how to finagle some free travel or travel hack.  If you're trying to travel quickly, it might not be the best option, but if you fly anywhere, anytime it is extremely worth it to sign up for the airline's Frequent Flyer program, and start saving your miles!

If you want to learn more, I do suggest you check out Chris Guillebeau's blog, which I referenced and cited several times in this entry, or just do some web surfing and googling of your own!

[I'll write again soon about my upcoming plans and recent exploits.  I'm having some summer clothes copied from major clothing brands' websites and custom made by my tailor, and I'm continually fighting a losing battle against being a night owl.  The weather has been unflinchingly sunny and warm as always, and I'm up to the usual.]

Cycling Around Lake Dian: The Roads Around Kunming's Polluted Heart

Two weekends ago was 5/1 (May Day), or International Workers' Day, and I had my plan in order:  sleep, watch some movies, enjoy the sunshine, and maybe get some work done.  That was until Friday evening when my friend Abby asked me if I wanted to spend the weekend with her and my other friend Lisa  cycling around Lake Dian (滇池), south of Kunming.  A little hesitant at first, she talked me into it, and I woke up early Saturday morning to go rent a bike.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="361" caption="{Photo of Lake Dian taken from XiShan (I didn't take this photo)}"][/caption]

Lake Dian, a highland freshwater lake, is the largest lake in Yunnan Province, and the eighth largest in China.  It was the model for the much smaller, man-made Lake Kunming at the Summer Palace in Beijing.  It is truly spectacular that such a vast lake is so close to Kunming City, and only makes it all the more depressing that the water is EXTREMELY polluted.  We're not talking just "don't drink the water" polluted.  We're talking "do not touch the water" polluted.  (I was even a little afraid to look at it.)   The water in Lake Dian has been classified Type V (the worst possible rating), meaning the water is unfit for agricultural and industrial uses.  The reason:  prior to the first wastewater treatment plant being constructed in Kunming in 1990, all of the city's bacteria- and disease-ridden wastewater was dumped untreated directly into the lake.  The factories and farms crowding the lake's eastern shore no doubt do not help the matter, and despite billions of dollars being spent to clean up the water, it's been estimated that over 55% of the lake's fish population has died.  It is even more worrisome to see locals out fishing in its depths.

Despite the pollution, I had yet to go down to the lake, and decided a weekend out exercising with friends was better than a weekend spent sleeping and being unproductive.  So, Saturday morning, we got a quick  breakfast at Salvador's, and then set out south down through the city by the canal, passing roadside tattoo artists, coca-cola sponsored police tents, and endless honking cars.  We made it past the airport, heading east (clockwise around the lake), and keeping to local roads.  The city quickly turned into farms and smaller towns, extensions of the city.  After a while, we stopped to ask directions from a few PSB officers, who pointed us towards Chenggong-the main extension zone for Kunming city and home to the new campuses of all the major universities in Kunming.

Past the town, construction was strewn in all directions, new high-rises stood looming over the surrounding agriculture, and the roads were covered with rocks and dirt.  Massive diesel trucks roared by us, sounding their loud air-horns obnoxiously as if their engines weren't enough warning of their approach.  They kicked up the dust in clouds, making it difficult to breathe, and knocking debris flying into the air at us.  When we eventually stopped for lunch, our faces were brown with sunglasses-shaped patches of skin, and our eyebrows were white with dust.  We rode out towards villages,  under bridges, and through the black smoke of slashed-and-burnt fields.  More than once, the trucks were backed up honking at each other, and we did our best to weave in and out between them, dismounting when necessary.  It was a rough ride, if only for the traffic and dust, and I huffed and puffed, climbing up the final set of hills for the day, thankful to be that much closer to our first night's destination.  We zoomed at top speed down towards the southernmost point of the lake, the town of Kunyang (昆阳), over 70 km around the lake from our starting point.

We rode into town, found a hotel, and washed the dirt off our faces.  Every part of me was sore, and it was difficult to walk through the town.  We found a public square honoring Zheng He (郑和)-the famed early 15^th century Hui mariner and explorer from this small corner of Yunnan, who commanded fleets of ships sailing as far as East Africa.  The square was alive with local families and old men flying kites, vendors grilling chuanr, and children delightedly bouncing up and down on small inflatable carnival rides.  Later, we returned to our hotel and played cribbage before calling it a night.  I was exhausted, and my arms had apparently been sunburnt during the ride.  Moreover, with all my muscles aching, I hastily decided to apply tiger balm to my legs, back, and shoulders, falling asleep at around 11pm.  Two hours later, I awoke in a cold sweat, my sheets soaked through, and a text message on my phone.  One of my friends in the adjacent room was very nauseous, and wanted to know if I had any medicine.  I gave her something, took a shower, and went back to sleep, noticing briefly that it was pouring outside.  The next day's ride wasn't looking too promising.

Fortunately, the morning brought a sufficient lack of rain, renewed energy, and easiness in my friend's stomach.  So, we settled our bill with the hotel, strapped our packs to our bike racks, and left the town of Kunyang heading Northwest back around the lake.  The roads around the lake are all under construction-part of Kunming City's 12 year plan to expand and increase transportation routes-and the start of the second day's ride was beginning to seem like a repeat of day 1.  Fortunately, the western edge of the lake is less developed and much more scenic, and the road quickly flattened and became paved.  Just before Haikou on the southwest corner of the lake, we had a choice to make:  stay on the local roads, climbing up into the mountains and around, or sneak onto the expressway, cutting straight across flat roads and the new bridge into town.  We snuck past the toll, a little wary we were going to get chased or yelled at, but we were clear.  We saw the green, polluted waters below us as we crossed the bridge, and made it into Haikou.  We switched to local roads, and we passed donkey-drawn carriages, construction men yelling "Hello! How are you?" in English, local restaurants selling fresh-caught fish from the lake (!), and scenic "tourist" spots with mediocre views.  We made it to XiShan (the western hills), where the impressive cliffs towered above us on our left, a few stray sheep bleating somewhere up above us, invisible.

We stopped for a snack in a small village towards the north of the lake, watching the local stray dogs interact, sniffing each other and lying in the middle of the road, obstructing local traffic.  Asking for directions, we found a main road back into Kunming proper, and rode through town until we were back on familiar turf.  We pushed the last leg up towards WenHua Xiang, and locked our bikes up outside Salvador's (where we'd started nearly 140km ago the previous day) for lunch.

Since this was primary a cycling trip, I didn't take many photos, but I'll throw some up when I get the chance.

Over Land From Hong Kong Back to Kunming:"The Finest Mountains and Waters Under Heaven"

Well, this post is a bit overdue, but I wanted to at least give a brief retelling of my trip through Southern China, from Hong Kong back to Kunming by land.  After the Fulbright Conference ended in mid-march, my friend Laura and I set out back into mainland China by bus, traveling from Hong Kong directly to Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province.  While the primary language in Guangdong is Cantonese, we didn't have any trouble getting by with our standard Mandarin.  The bus let us off after dark in downtown Guangzhou by a Hilton.  We checked the price, but it was far out of our budget.  So, we called around, and it seemed that most places were steeply priced compared to what we were used to in other Chinese cities (possibly due to the high volume of international business and trade conferences in the area).  We finally found a "cheaper" hostel south of the river, and cabbed it down there.

The next morning, we went to the bus station to buy overnight bus tickets to Guilin, a fabled city in Guangxi, Guangdong's provincial neighbor to the west.  We had the day to play, and we walked around a bit, met up with a friend of mine who was also staying in the area, got dim sum for lunch, and visited some sites.  Guangzhou was not exceptionally interesting, and we were glad we'd opted to only stay for one day.  That night, we returned to the bus station, and boarded a sleeper bus, traveling west into Guangxi Province.  The driver told us we would arrive in Guilin around 6:30am, and we tried to get some sleep on the narrow beds.

Around 6am, the bus stopped and everyone shuffled out.  We were told we'd arrived in Yangshuo, an hour or so south of Guilin, and where we'd intended to go after Guilin.  So, we discussed it, and decided to switch our itinerary around a bit, first spending time in Yangshuo.  We checked into a cheap hotel, and rested a bit more till the sun came up.  After a light breakfast of buns and dumplings, we rented bikes and set out into the countryside.  Yangshuo is known for its astounding karst scenery (much like the scenery I encountered in Laos), split picturesquely by the peaceful Li River.  Telling many Chinese people that you're traveling to Guilin and Yangshuo elicits an envious reply.  In fact, there's a Chinese saying: "桂林山水甲天下，阳朔山水甲桂林。"（Guilin's mountains and waters are the finest under heaven, but Yangshuo's mountains and waters top Guilin's）.  China's 20 yuan bill even depicts a scene of the Li River in Yangshuo.

We rode out around the area taking photos, visiting sites, climbing Moon Hill (known for its moon-shaped hole), and riding some more.  With no real map or idea of where we were going, we kept asking locals for directions, and got lost a couple times.  The weather was slightly overcast, and not the ideal for a visit to Yangshuo, but it was still quite an enjoyable day.  Flat roads by tourist attractions gave way to winding roads through vast open spaces between imposing karst cliffs, and then the Li River.  Flat bamboo rafts floated by carrying fishermen, cows grazed the fields, and everything seemed picture-worthy.  We stopped by a chicken farm, and the owner came out to ask us how many chickens we wanted to buy.  (We refrained.)  At one point, the road led right to the edge of the river, continuing on the opposite side, and a local helped us cross and bring our bikes across by raft.

By the time we made it back into town we'd ridden about 40km, and were fairly tired.  We walked around a bit, had dinner, and went to bed, catching a bus north to Guilin the next morning.  Guilin is an interesting city, but not necessarily deserving the above Chinese saying.  We explored, had some snacks, visited a number of different sites, including twin pagodas, one made of copper, the tallest copper building in the world.  For dinner, we had Guilin snails (a traditional dish).  The first one I went for turned out to be pregnant with lots of gritty little baby snails.  After that, Laura refused to eat any more than the foot of each snail.  We finished most of them, and explored some more.  The next day we visited the Longsheng (Dragon's Backbone) Rice Terraces.  I'd visited the Yuanyang rice terraces in southern Yunnan with Ariane, but it had been extremely foggy, and the views had been limited.  Fortunately, our day in Longsheng was a sun-filled one, and we climbed through the terraced hills above the quaint villages, feeling like we'd somehow stumbled out of our world and into the Shire of Hobbit acclaim.

After our day in Longsheng, we returned to Guilin and arranged train tickets back to Kunming.  Lonely Planet listed the travel time as 8 hours, and the ticket salesman told us the train departed at 4:30pm and arrived around 11:30.  We bought hard seat tickets, figuring 7 or 8 hours was not too bad a trip.  Later, however, after some online research, I realized that the train did indeed arrive around 11:30... the next morning!  The 8 hours that Lonely Planet listed had been a typo, and should have actually said "18 hours".  I was a bit concerned, and almost didn't even tell Laura about my realization.  Finally, however, I decided I had to, and with a couple hours left till our train was scheduled to depart, we headed to the station to try to switch our tickets to hard sleepers.  They were sold out.

A man approached us and offered us hard tickets, but we were very skeptical.  A bit desperate, however, we followed him to his tourist office, and made him sign a contract saying the tickets were real.  We didn't have a problem, and made it on the train, 18 hours back to Kunming.

I've left out a lot of details for the sake of brevity, but I've also posted photos.  I also be following this post up with some more recent events.