@AlexKMG thanks. I know using electricity to cook is pretty silly, especially in a car, especially when it might require getting a bigger battery and alternator...
I was trying to avoid getting a big-ass propane tank, since it will weigh 60lbs and if we ever roll the car it will become a cannonball.
Still, that may be our only practical option.
@tigertiger thanks!
I want to run a rice cooker out of my car. I think the wattage pull is way higher than what you can get from the 12v cigarette lighter (~180w), but I am not sure.
On the rice cookers I've seen in a store, on the electrical labels on the back they go anywhere from 400w to 750w. But on the energy label I see it says for warming rice it uses 35w, but it doesn't say how much it uses to cook. So I can only assume it uses the max amount on the back label (e.g. 400w).
If they are all going to use ~400w, then I think i can get one of those heavier-duty inverters that you have to run off the battery terminals. Does anyone have recommended brands or a store where they sell them? I might try getting one off Taobao.
Any advice regarding cooking equipment I can run off electricity in a car is welcome.
Thanks.
I would like some recommendations for providers and plans that will best suit traveling all over China over the course of the next 2-3 months.
I know there are many threads about 3G coverage, the best plans, the best providers, which phone you have, etc. So I know some of what I'm asking is redundant but I figured since I am traveling that may affect recommendations.
WHAT I OWN:
1. An unlocked iPhone 4S. I already use it here with a regular top-up China Unicom SIM.
2. An unlocked iPhone 4, no SIM.
3. A laptop
4. A USB 3G dongle from India, but I have no idea if it will work here.
WHAT I HAVE READ:
- You may not be able to top up minutes outside of your home province. I have done this in Guangzhou with my Yunnan SIM but I am not assuming I will be able to elsewhere.
- China Mobile supposedly has the best coverage but uses a proprietary protocol that only iPhone 4S's and later have? Is this accurate?
- China Unicom supposedly has the best 3G but doesn't work everywhere. True?
MY PLAN SO FAR:
I need Internet. I don't talk on the phone much. I will probably only use the phone for calling hotels, restaurants or the police in an emergency. My top-up China Unicom SIM draws on my balance for data, it does not have a separate data plan. Not only is it not cost-effective but once I start roaming it will be untenable. At least on China Unicom, I believe a separate data plans requires a six month commitment. If the math made sense then I would consider that, but it doesn't get around my roaming problem. So I assume it will just be better to get a data-only plan, use that for the iPhone 4S and the laptop (I'd get a China-working dongle), and move my China Unicom SIM into the older iPhone when I need to make a phone call.
OPTIONS:
If China Mobile will work on my iPhone 4S and whatever USB dongle I buy, and if they have a roaming-free data plan, perhaps that would make the most sense? Next would be China Unicom's roaming-free data plan, and then I'll just have to go without internet when I'm in the rural areas?
Another option would be to possibly get a local SIM whenever I am planning to be in another province long enough to merit the cost, but I would probably only do that as a backup for when my roaming-free data-only plan had no coverage.
Does this make sense? Does anyone have other suggestions? Have I done my homework correctly?
I see there are a bazillion little 3G data booths lined up around Yuangtongbei Lu. Can I get what I'm looking for there, or should I go to a particular shop?
Thanks.
Hello everyone,
Most of you probably know about this trip we have been planning, but I wanted to put together a more thorough request for road/sight recommendations. We finally bought a car - a 2009 2WD Changfeng/Mitsubishi Pajero. We're still working on paperwork and will probably have the car in hand in a few days. We expect to be leaving for our 2-3 month road trip through central and western China in about 7-10 days. Our main goal is to better understand China by traveling through the geography, meeting and staying with people and generally by observing everyday life.
Many of you have been incredibly helpful in our exploratory phase (thank you), so we're reaching out again once more. We've done a great deal of planning ourselves, but we've had quite a bit of trouble identifying good roads, etc. We also feel personal recommendations are always better than guide books, etc. When we started planning our trip we weren't going to have a full itinerary, but it's been recommended to us that in China this will be really helpful. So we're looking for route recommendations. Below is bunch of specifics to guide this route.
BACKGROUND
We've studied 10 weeks of intensive Mandarin between this year and last. In Kunming we can generally make ourselves understood even if we're missing a key piece of vocabulary, but listening is harder. We can read menus pretty well, soap opera dialogue, and anything else with simple grammar/words. We have our Chinese drivers licenses and are in the process of registering our car.
We have driven and road-tripped in a lot in other countries, including a month-long motorcycle trip in India last year. So we're familiar with the kind of traffic/road obstacles we'll encounter. We're also familiar with the kind of planning, preparation and risks involved with such an ambitious trip. We like to camp, cook our own food, etc. We have emergency beacons, water filters, and various other survival / safety equipment, and so on.
OUR GOALS
During this road trip we want to see: geography, culture, agriculture/cultivation and food harvesting/preparation, and the daily life and customs of people who live outside the cities.
OUR PLAN
We plan on leaving in the next 7-10 days from Kunming, and would really love to get a starting itinerary (e.g. the first few provinces). We're generally looking for a route that covers the best smaller roads, scenery, and interesting counties. In some we'll stop to explore the local roads - and possibly stay in a local village or two - before getting on our main route again. We usually don't travel on highways/expressways or through cities unless we really just want to go from A to B quickly. We prefer to go slowly, follow our curiosity and allow for chance encounters. That said, we still prefer to travel on good, safe roads wherever possible. We plan to avoid tourist sites except for a few highly recommended places.
The main provinces we plan on visiting are Yunnan, Guangxi, Guizhou, and Sichuan. We also really want to drive through Qinghai, Gansu, maybe Xinjiang and maybe Tibet. In the first provinces we will go more slowly, staying with people and exploring. In the other provinces, we were planning on spending more time on the road. What we're looking for is 1.5 months worth of driving that will probably take 2-3 months to do. We have budgeted for around 20,000 kilometers.
We plan on staying in small hotels, with locals, and camping in a tent or in the back of the car occasionally. We generally stick to three rules of road travel - no driving at night, in cities, or bad weather. We know this slows down travel, but we feel it mitigates a lot of the risk.
WHAT WE WANT TO SEE:
* Mountains, high plains, rivers (especially deltas), forests, geological formations and desert
* Smaller and more scenic routes in place of highways
* As much traditional agriculture as we can find - plantations (tea, etc.), animal farms, wild-harvesting, rice terracing, orchards, growing grains, fishing
* We'd love to follow around some folks while they wild forage for foods, while they process soy beans into tofu, while they make barley wine, while they bake their clay pots, etc.
* Craft-making, especially pottery, textiles and traditional food production
* Old silk route, tea horse road, etc
* Great wall - the older, more genuine parts, not the touristy reconstructed parts
* Market towns and trading in general
* Ethnic minority places, especially where they still do things traditionally - craft, food production, etc
* Places where we can hike
WHAT WE WANT TO AVOID:
* Large and even medium-sized cities wherever possible
* Most large tourist sites - we'd like to pick out only a sampling that are exceptional
* Roads frequented by truck / trade routes wherever possible
* We have been told to avoid border areas, but if there are certain areas that are near a border worth seeing, we'd like to know
QUESTIONS:
1 - Can anyone recommend a high level strategy for visiting the provinces? Which order, weather considerations, etc? At the high level, we are either going to do a large loop (e.g. starting and ending in Kunming), or an open-jawed trip, in which case we'd sell our car in the final city. Which do you think would be better?
2 - Within each province, we'd love as much detail as you can provide about roads and sights. We've pinpointed sights, but haven't been able to find things outside of guidebooks, especially on which roads to take.
3 - We know the rainy season is starting, so we are assuming it's best to see Yunnan and Guanxi first. Does this make sense?
4 - For language, we're planning on getting fixers where we need them, especially in the west and any remote places where people will not speak Mandarin. We are favoring taking this as it comes, but if you have recommendations please let us know. Where do you think the accents will be hardest to understand.
5 - Do you recommend any other forums / places where we can post this same information?
Many thanks!
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