Planning a Cruise to Asia - Our Experience

We just booked our first three Asian cruises, a 6 night from Shanghai to Japan in October, and two cruises from Singapore back-to-back totaling 10 days next February. This is our first time planning any trip that far away and we are finding a lot of things different than how we normally go about planning a cruise. We will be reviewing our trips, hopefully at least somewhat live, but I thought it would also be valuable and hopefully interesting to review the process that we are putting into planning the trips.

There was a lot that went into our planning, and there is still a lot that is coming up, so if there's interest this thread could be a bit verbose, and I'd be happy to answer any questions people may have or elaborate further on any point. Hopefully this will be useful if anybody else is planning a cruise far from home. This first post I'll focus mostly on the logistics of getting the flights, I'll also talk about figuring out the Visa situations, planning tours/excursions, finding hotels, language concerns, law/custom concerns, currency exchange, and I'm sure I'll think of something else.

I think it makes the most sense to start with flights, since those seem to be the largest percentage of the total cost. For us it was really interesting since our flight planning was completely different for both trips. Our cruise to China this October we actually found the flights first and then found a cruise that worked. We got a notification that there were some really good deals from the West Coast to China between September and December. We live in Nevada, near the Utah border, so California isn't super close but it's within driving distance. We found a few dates in October that worked really well and had flights from San Francisco to Shanghai for under $500 per person. If you aren't familiar with it, I highly recommend learning how to use Google Flights. It was a huge help in finding the best deals.

Once we had some dates in mind when the flights were a good deal, it was off to RCCL to see what cruises they had leaving from China. There were a few different options but one in particular stood out; a Quantum of the Seas 6 day cruise that visited 3 ports in Japan. Japan has always been our top destination where we wanted to go, and the price was amazing. We have never been in a cabin other than an interior; on this cruise we could get a Junior Suite and it was still the cheapest cruise we've ever booked.

We were also able to leverage Chase Travel, which gives us a 25% bonus when we use our cash back to book travel since we have the Sapphire Reserve. With that we were able to get two round trip tickets to Shanghai for $750 worth of credit card points.

Our trip to Singapore in February we went the opposite route. We had a date in mind (my birthday) so the first thing we did was find out what cruises were available over my birthday and were new ports that we had never been to. February didn't have a lot of variety because of the weather; only warmer climates had regular cruises so we were looking at the Mariner out of Singapore, Voyager out of Australia, or Quantum out of Shanghai again. We then had specific dates and locations in mind, so it was back to Google Flights and we calculated the total cost of cruise + air fare for each possible trip. Finally settled on a 3 day followed by 7 day cruise out of Singapore. We didn't get nearly as good a deal (this flight was $1300 for both of us) and I think it was largely because we didn't wait for a deal and plan the trip around that deal.

This has already gone longer than I expected, so I'll save a warning about time zones and researching airlines for the next post.

We did this in April this year, but with just a single cruise. Japan is a place that I would imagine might best be visited on a land trip, but I am sure that a cruise is an equally awesome way to visit it.

When do you leave?

JC

Assuming everybody wasn't scared off by the huge wall of text above I'll continue with a few other points we learned when dealing with flights.

First thing, always always be wary of time zones. I hate to admit it, but I wasn't as diligent as I should have been. I saw that the flights from the West Coast to Singapore were 18 hours. Our cruise is scheduled to leave on the 5th, so I figured plan a flight for the 3rd. Arrive 18 hours later, we'll arrive the day before the cruise and have plenty of time to enjoy Singapore before heading to the port the next morning. Alas, that's 18 hours plus a time difference of 15 hours between CA and Singapore. The actual arrival time of our flight wasn't until 7AM the 5th, the morning of our cruise. Thankfully this should still be plenty of time, but it could have been disastrous.

The second thing that we spent a lot of time researching was on the airlines. We are really familiar with the major US carriers, but there's a lot more airlines out there, and all are definitely not created equally. Domestically, we have airlines we prefer and a few that we absolutely won't ever fly, no matter how much cheaper they are. When it came to foreign flights we came across a lot of companies we didn't know anything about. We relied a lot on various online reviews, but that caused another issue. Different people have different expectations, and something that is unacceptable to one person might be completely fine to us.

Ultimately we decided to go with the cheapest flights available, which happened to be on Asiana for the Shanghai cruise, and a United non-stop (longest flight on a Dreamliner and on any US carrier) to Singapore. We heard a lot of people (even a couple of friends) say they would never fly United on an international flight, but ultimately for the price we decided it was worth it. For one, the flight is on a Dreamliner which has more leg room and wider seats than the 777 they used to use for the long haul international routes. Secondly, it's a non-stop flight which could be good or bad; 18 hours in a seat will be painful, but when layovers are added in the other options were all 25-30 hours total in airports and planes.

Ultimately, for budget reasons, we stuck with regular economy for both the China and Singapore flights. There are a lot of people who think we are insane for doing that, but we've never flown internationally before, so we don't have anything better to compare it to. Ultimately, I think it really comes down to who you are and how you like to travel. We have friends who have told us that if you can't afford a balcony then you just shouldn't cruise, and we've never had a problem being in an interior. Maybe we'll be singing a different tune after the flight, but for now we're happy with the price we got and excited for the rest of the planning.

We did this in April this year, but with just a single cruise. Japan is a place that I would imagine might best be visited on a land trip, but I am sure that a cruise is an equally awesome way to visit it.

 

When do you leave?

 

JC

You're thread covering your Ovation cruise was a great read, got a lot of good information from it. It was actually part of the motivation for booking the Singapore cruise in February, and we're looking into the Marina Bay Sands, although that might be out of our price range.

Definitely agree, we have a much larger land trip planned for Japan in 2019 to celebrate our 30th birthdays. March/April 2019 for at least 2 weeks. See the cherry blossoms.

We leave October 10th for the China/Japan cruise, and leave February 3rd for the Singapore to Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam cruises.

WELCOME to Singapore!! :)

The next big thing we had to research was Visas. For our cruise in October we are flying to China via South Korea, and then cruising to Japan. For our cruise in February we are flying non-stop to Singapore, and the cruise visits Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. To be safe we looked up the Visa requirements for all 7 countries. Of the 7 only China and Vietnam require a Visa for US citizens, and Vietnam allows you to get a special Visa while on board the ship, so ultimately we only had to worry about China.

I tend to want to err on the side of caution, so I was planning on getting the Visa as soon as possible, but as it turns out we needed to have a lot of detailed information before we could apply. Specifically we had to have the flights booked into and out of China, and hotel reservations for all days we would be in China. That meant we had to get our hotel reservations set up before we could apply for the Visa. We got our reservations made and started filling out the Visa application; it was a fairly long and detailed application but nothing too serious.

The cost ended up being a bit of a surprise. We quickly found the fee to apply for a Chinese Visa ($140 per person), but then we started finding out that there were a lot more fees we had to consider. Unless you can visit a Chinese consulate in person (and return a few days later when the approval process is finished) you have to go through a company that can take it to the consulate for you. We found the cost for that service (which seemed way too expensive, but not a lot of choice), but then found out that they also charged additional fees to ship your passports back and forth, and optional services such as proof reading your application, double checking your documentation, and even filling the application out on your behalf. Ultimately we went with just the bare minimum, shipping plus standard service speed and ended up paying almost $500 for two Visas.

Of course, this is one thing we know we will have to continually keep on top of. Just because right now we aren't required to get a Visa doesn't mean that is a guarantee. It's technically possible at any time that the Visa rules can change.

I appreciate your taking the time to share your experiences. Asia isn't on our radar but a lot of the information raises points to consider for other destinations. I personally enjoy hearing other's peoples experiences with the details of vacation planning so thank you!

We like staying at Royal Plaza on Scotts in Singapore if that helps anyone.Long flights are best to do in one stretch. With time differences it's best to try and adjust to your new time zone as quickly as possible. This might mean staying up all night the night prior to your flight and then sleeping at the rind you would at your destination.

We like staying at Royal Plaza on Scotts in Singapore if that helps anyone.Long flights are best to do in one stretch. With time differences it's best to try and adjust to your new time zone as quickly as possible. This might mean staying up all night the night prior to your flight and then sleeping at the rind you would at your destination.

Yeah, we've been reading a lot on how best to combat jet lag, and there's a lot of conflicting information. It didn't factor into our decision, but I am really interested to see how the two flights will compare. Both China and Singapore are 15 hours ahead of Pacific time; but for China our flight lands at 10PM local time and we are going straight to our hotel and (hopefully) to sleep. Our flight to Singapore, on the other hand, lands at 7AM, and we are going to be active all day until we get checked in to the ship.

I've heard people recommend both (landing at local bed time and landing at local day time) so I guess we'll see what works better for us.

I appreciate your taking the time to share your experiences. Asia isn't on our radar but a lot of the information raises points to consider for other destinations. I personally enjoy hearing other's peoples experiences with the details of vacation planning so thank you!

Thanks. Yeah, I figured this would likely be beneficial for pretty much any long haul international trip. We are tentatively planning a Med cruise for 2019 or 2020, depending on how things work out, and I'm sure a lot will still hold true when we are planning that trip.

Very useful info. Thank you for taking the time to post :D

Thank you for your info, it is very detailed and helpful. I would love to cruise from Asia someday, I'll definitely take your advice into consideration whenever I do! :D

I've flown internationally a few times, but the longest single flight I've been on was 14.5 hours (Dallas to South Korea) with a 4 hour flight before that (Boston to Dallas). This was on America Airlines on a 787 (aka Dreamliner). I was in Economy.

Most seats on the plane are economy, so obviously lots of people do it ;)

I'm not going to lie to you. It sucks. A lot. The best advice that I can give is do whatever you can to get an aisle seat (don't need your own, just one of you). You will want the ability to stand up, frequently. A lot of people sleep on these flights (they're so long...) so if you don't have an aisle you'll have to either hold it and suffer, or wake someone up. For most of the flight, there will be nothing to see out the window anyways.

Another consideration, the dreamliners do not have traditional window shades, they have electronically tinted windows. This is cool, but also means they do not fully block sunlight. If you are on the left side of the airplane near a window, you can be faced with having the sun at eye level for all 14.5 hours on the flight out to Asia, since you will be chasing the sun the whole way. So consider bringing sleeping masks, no matter how silly they look. Also helpful when someone near you turns their reading light on and it lights up the 8 seats around them too.

The worst feeling for me was I watched two movies, read a few chapters in my book, and took a nap only to wake up and look at the flight info and realize I still had 7.5 hours to go.

I don't mean to scare you, just prepare you :) Bring things to do, and get access to an aisle seat so you can stand up and walk around frequently. Go to the bathroom even if you don't really need to go all that bad, get something out of your bag, just find any excuse you can to get up and walk around. It helps. They'll feed you 2 or 3 times, but airline food can be really hit or miss, picky eaters often won't get anything at all to eat, so if that applies plan on bringing your own food. However, if you bring your own food you must eat it all or throw it away before you arrive. You don't want to deal with having to claim food in customs.

At least you'll have a nice cruise to relax on after that flight, and the way home is still long, but shorter due to the jet stream pushing you along.

I'm not going to lie to you. It sucks. A lot. The best advice that I can give is do whatever you can to get an aisle seat (don't need your own, just one of you). You will want the ability to stand up, frequently. A lot of people sleep on these flights (they're so long...) so if you don't have an aisle you'll have to either hold it and suffer, or wake someone up. For most of the flight, there will be nothing to see out the window anyways.

 

Another consideration, the dreamliners do not have traditional window shades, they have electronically tinted windows. This is cool, but also means they do not fully block sunlight. If you are on the left side of the airplane near a window, you can be faced with having the sun at eye level for all 14.5 hours on the flight out to Asia, since you will be chasing the sun the whole way. So consider bringing sleeping masks, no matter how silly they look. Also helpful when someone near you turns their reading light on and it lights up the 8 seats around them too.

 

The worst feeling for me was I watched two movies, read a few chapters in my book, and took a nap only to wake up and look at the flight info and realize I still had 7.5 hours to go.

Yeah, I'm under no pretense that it will be pleasant, but hopefully the excitement will help alleviate some of the suckiness. We've had suggestions to book an aisle and window seat and hope that the middle isn't taken, might consider doing that, but in the slim chance the middle seat is taken and they aren't willing to switch, I think being separated for an 18 hour flight would be the worst. So not sure if it's worth the gamble. Still holding out for a cheaper price to go to Economy Plus, maybe even at the airport at check-in. Just couldn't justify the extra $350 per person to fly Singapore Airlines or the current price of $300 per person for Economy Plus.

Sleep mask is no problem, I never travel without mine. I need complete darkness to sleep, so I always wear a mask when sleeping. We've also got a few other travel items we are currently researching, but going to get a better travel pillow, probably some flight/compression socks, and maybe a seat cushion like what people take to sporting events for the bleachers.

On my four trips to Asia, there has not been a flight with empty economy seats. Three were on American Airlines, one was on Japan Airlines. Each route is different though, and mid week is usually the least flown.

Premium economy on American is pretty nice. The seats are pretty much the exact same as domestic first class seats. They reclined enough, and there was enough space between people, that I could roll on my side and sleep. It's far from the lay flat Business Class seats, but far better than "Main Cabin" (Economy) and "Main Cabin Extra" (Extra Legroom Economy). I've no idea about United though, haven't flown them in several years (my employer has contracts with American and Delta so we're forced to fly them for work).

I think what makes the most sense to talk about next was finding hotels. This is an ongoing process for our trip to Singapore, but like I said, we had to have hotels reserved before we could get the Chinese Visa, so we booked those a while ago.

In many ways booking a hotel internationally wasn't much different than booking domestically. The online booking sites we use all work the same and prices are given in (estimated) USD. Part of the problem though was that at home we are familiar with all the major brands. Sure, sometimes you'll get a location that is worse than others in the same brand, but as a general rule we know what to expect when looking at different brands. In Shanghai most of the hotels are not brands that we are familiar with, and even the ones that do match brands we have in America, there is no guarantee that things will be similar.

We spent a lot of time on TripAdvisor, reading reviews of the hotels, but online reviews are always a mixed bag. One person would say the staff spoke excellent English, the next reviewer said they spent two hours trying to check in because nobody could understand them. One person said the breakfast was amazing, another said it was horrible. Ultimately we just decided to set a few filters for ourselves; we picked a location in the city, set a maximum per night price, and said the average TripAdvisor rating had to be at least a 4.0. That left us with 12 hotels to choose from. We spent a lot of time looking at traveler photos on TripAdvisor, and chose the best 6 based on pictures. At this point I just wanted to pick a hotel and be done so we could start working on the Visas, so I used quite possibly the strangest criteria possible; a review for one of the hotels was talking about how the rooms had the awesome high-tech Japanese toilets. Winner, winner.

In the end we settled on Da Zhong Pudong Airport Hotel for the night we got into Shanghai (since we were getting in so late and have to go through customs/immigration we wanted something super close) and then after the cruise we are staying a few nights at Les Suites Orient on the Bund.

A few things we learned; pay close attention to the hotel policies. We found a large number that did not offer 24 hour check in, so if you weren't checked in by 10PM you were out of luck. Currency can also cause some confusion; even though you might see the price listed in USD, it's actually charged in the local currency, and the price conversion quoted is just an estimate, final conversion rate will come from your bank. Also, credit cards without a foreign transaction fee are great.

Next up is tours and ports.

I'm not sure if this is common in the region or around the world outside of America, but one thing that really surprised us was how far away from the listed cities the ship actually docked. I'll list below the advertised city, the actual port, and the travel time:

Shanghai - Baoshan (30-50 minute drive)

Kumamoto - Yatsushiro (1 hour to 1:15 drive)

Miyazaki - Aburatsu (1 hour to 1:15 drive)

Kochi - Kochi (10 minute drive from port to city center)

Singapore - Singapore (15 minute from airport to port, but also has good public transit)

Penang - Penang (Sounds like everything is within walking distance)

Bangkok - Laem Chabang (1:30 to 2 hour drive)

Ho Chi Minh - Phu My (1:30 to 2 hour drive)

We rarely book excursions through the ship, but with so many of these ports being far away we are considering it a lot more for this trip. Some ports, such as Phu My, require a lot of paperwork for tour companies to come into the port itself, so there isn't much choice other than going through the ship. For the Japanese ports we have a bit more options since the train lines are pretty thorough. As it is, we decided to do a tour through the cruise ship in Miyazaki, because there are two sites we really want to see that public transit doesn't visit, and for Kumamoto we are just going to take the bullet train up, and a regular train back to the ship.

We were also surprised to not find a lot of local tour options in the Japanese cities. We are so used to having a bunch of excursion choices, both through the ship and local companies, that it was a bit odd not finding much of anything. I think that might also partially be because that cruise is advertised as a "Culturally Enriching" cruise.

Kochi and Penang both seem like ports where we can just go on our own without an actual tour, but Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh we will likely book through Royal. Also interesting, Bangkok is an overnight stop; so that leaves us with some extra planning as well.

We have done the Australia to Europe flight numerous times. 26 hours with a change of flights in Dubai or Singapore.I find you can end up dehydrated. You can no longer pack your own sports or rehydration drinks. So take rehydration tablets that dissolve in water. Ensure that all medications are in your carry on bags. Take a small pack of refresher wipes. Check the weather of your arrival location & dress for that. Dress for comfort not for fashion. Ear plugs or earbuds for your iPad. Blow up foot rests are great or go to a dollar store & buy a blow up kids ball which also works as a foot rest. Blow up pillows are great as well. The travel blankets they provide are very bad, so think of wearing a pashmina which you could use as a travel blanket. The food is horrible. Take your own fully sealed travel snacks like fruit & nuts or crackers & cheese. Comfy shoes. Your feet may swell during the flight. Don't try and push your feet into cute fashion shoes at the end of the flight. Blisters. Travel socks. It's worth looking at investing in good socks for the flight. Talk to your doctor prior to travel about any health concerns & get their recommendations.

We have taken a number of long haul flights, Toronto to Sydney, Singapore, Shanghai, Tokyo and most recently Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. The only one that was not in economy was Tokyo (Narita) where we scored business class with points. We are seniors who travel as often as we can and we can afford to travel more often in economy.

Long flights in economy are not fun, especially on the return journey, but quite doable. We choose an aisle and next in the centre section so neighbours can get out on the other side which means you are disturbed less frequently.

Japan is surprisingly easy to navigate independently. All the trains and buses we encountered had screens with information in English as well as Japanese and several other languages. We spent ten days there after a cruise and visited Kyoto, Nara, Hakone and Tokyo. We are going to Shanghai again this autumn, spending a week there, then taking a short cruise on Quantum. Next year we are planning a Mekong river cruise to celebrate our golden wedding.

Sheila

These very long haul flights are the experiences that have sacred the daylight out of me. It is a physical and mental torture which has no equal anywhere. If you have not been on one before you would not have experience anything like this in the world.

Most people would fly in the day before to recuperate physical and mentally from the jet lag. Landing in SG at 7 am you should not experience any delay. But what if your departure from SF is delayed. When you land in SG you would have trouble holding your bones together let alone wanting to be active before you board the ship. I suggest you do not check through immigration when you land and get some rest in the airport lobby where they have a lot of sofa seats and even some almost flat seats until time to board the ship.

Remember if you are tired already when you get on the plane you will not recover and get much more tired when you are in the plane. I know you are budget conscious but you may want to re-visit the $300 for the economy plus.

Sorry for the delay, was out of town for business. I think the next thing I'd like to talk over is a variety of topics related to specific destinations.

First, currency. This is our first trip where I feel we really need to get local currency. The Japanese ports in particular I know we will need plenty of Yen; the trains, taxis, and a lot of shops do not accept credit cards, and since they are smaller port cities, not huge tourist destinations, I don't want to try and hope that shops will accept USD. I spoke with our local bank, and checked the rates at various currency exchange shops nearby, and wow, the exchange is terrible. Our local bank gave us the best quote, but it was still a rather large difference between the official exchange rate and what the bank was offering us.

I tried to do some research online, but it seems like all the forums and sites assume you are flying into the country, and recommend just using an ATM at the airport. Of course, we are not flying in, so I had to find ATMs that work with international banks. For Japan, it seems the main choices are at 7-11 stores, and Post Offices. Since our cruise's first stop is on a Sunday, that limits what places will be open, and still doesn't solve the problem that we'll need cash to pay the taxi to take us to a 7-11. At that point it almost seems to me that it would be better to just pay the worse exchange rate and try to get all the Yen we think we'll need at home at our bank. We will also be able to find a 7-11 if we start to run low, but as long as we will have to get some before leaving home I'd rather just try and do it all at once.

China and Singapore, we are planning on just using an ATM at the airport and then other ATMs as necessary, since we are flying into those countries. Japan it works out well since we are visiting three ports, so I'm not super worried about getting too much. Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam we are still researching. Thankfully, we have a checking account with USAA which doesn't charge any ATM fees and refunds any ATM fees charged by foreign banks, so using ATMs locally won't cause any fees or extra charges, and hopefully will give us the best possible rate.

Next, languages.

When we first booked the cruise to China/Japan we decided we'd put the effort in and learn the language. At least the basics that we were sure we would need to know. This has proven to be unrealistic, at least for us.

There are a few basic words that we have learned; the niceties, greetings, yes/no, farewells, etc. For other things that we think will be useful, we are making note cards that have specific phrases in English, in the native language but written out how it would sound using the English alphabet, and finally in the native language in the native alphabet. Some of the phrases we have written out like this include asking for directions to the hotels we are staying at, asking to go to the train station we want to travel from, asking for directions to the specific sites we want to see, where is the bathroom, etc.

We also decided to create a basic menu cheat sheet with the words for various meats and other common ingredients. That way, at the bare minimum, when we are at a restaurant we can see if something is a beef dish, seafood, chicken, etc. even if the restaurant menu is only in the native language.

We have also started trying out a few phone apps that offer strong translation features even when not connected to the internet, although so far I've only played a little bit with Google Translate.

The longest flight I have taken was Detroit to Beijing - a little more than 14 hours. I like to call it my 6 movie and 4 meal flight. We are on a plane with a 2 -5-2 configuration and had the 2 seats - window and aisle. I can't imagine being in the middle - tourture!!!

I'm getting ready to go to to Africa in November - another 14 hour+ flight, and we have bulkhead seats which will be nice because of the extra legroom.

Be sure not to book in rows where the seats don't recline - in front of exit rows, exit rows and a few other locations.

The longest flight I have taken was Detroit to Beijing - a little more than 14 hours. I like to call it my 6 movie and 4 meal flight. We are on a plane with a 2 -5-2 configuration and had the 2 seats - window and aisle. I can't imagine being in the middle - tourture!!!

 

I'm getting ready to go to to Africa in November - another 14 hour+ flight, and we have bulkhead seats which will be nice because of the extra legroom.

 

Be sure not to book in rows where the seats don't recline - in front of exit rows, exit rows and a few other locations.

The Singapore flight is 1 and a half hours too short to do a full Harry Potter marathon. Star Wars would work though :D

If we were on a 2-5-2 we would definitely do a window/aisle seat. After thinking about it I think we might switch to doing aisle and middle seat in the middle since both our flights are 3-3-3. Being able to get out of the row and not having to worry about somebody else needing to climb over us sounds really nice.

The Singapore flight is 1 and a half hours too short to do a full Harry Potter marathon. Star Wars would work though :D

 

If we were on a 2-5-2 we would definitely do a window/aisle seat. After thinking about it I think we might switch to doing aisle and middle seat in the middle since both our flights are 3-3-3. Being able to get out of the row and not having to worry about somebody else needing to climb over us sounds really nice.

If you have that configuration you could do aisle, aisle if those seats are available. Just depends on how close you want to sit together. People will have to climb over you, but IMO, that's better than climbing over them.

Next, languages.

 

When we first booked the cruise to China/Japan we decided we'd put the effort in and learn the language. At least the basics that we were sure we would need to know. This has proven to be unrealistic, at least for us.

 

There are a few basic words that we have learned; the niceties, greetings, yes/no, farewells, etc. For other things that we think will be useful, we are making note cards that have specific phrases in English, in the native language but written out how it would sound using the English alphabet, and finally in the native language in the native alphabet. Some of the phrases we have written out like this include asking for directions to the hotels we are staying at, asking to go to the train station we want to travel from, asking for directions to the specific sites we want to see, where is the bathroom, etc.

 

We also decided to create a basic menu cheat sheet with the words for various meats and other common ingredients. That way, at the bare minimum, when we are at a restaurant we can see if something is a beef dish, seafood, chicken, etc. even if the restaurant menu is only in the native language.

 

We have also started trying out a few phone apps that offer strong translation features even when not connected to the internet, although so far I've only played a little bit with Google Translate.

As you have stated know hello, please, thank you, same as in European countries.

In central area of major cities some people have some English, particularly in big hotels.

In Shanghai we ate at a local restaurant near our hotel, no English speakers but they brought us a menu with pictures, Maccas in Shanghai had a picture menu too.

At night watch out fir battery powered bicycles, they are silent and most riders turn lights off to save batteries!

When you venture out from your hotel make sure you take a card with hotel address in local language.

Totally different way of life, enjoy.

By the way, zebra crossings are really only decorations on the road, be alert. Enjoy.