I have traveled and lived in a number of countries. I have studied a number of languages and language, in general, as a linguistics major, in college. So, I have a good understanding of language, in general, and I know that language and communication is about more than just talk. When, I first came to China, four years ago, it was a last minute thing, but I did buy some Chinese language CD's and learned some rudimentary words and phrases. However, what I learned was a paltry smattering, and could not be taken as knowing the language, but I got by with other forms of communication. Of course, the bigger challenge is that the written language, comprised of over 50,000 separate written characters, is so different from the more familiar written languages, in the West.

Moreover, even though, officially, China has one language, Mandarin (Putonghua), there are actually over 50 separate languages, in use in the country, and many people, especially, in the small villages and outlying regions, can only speak in their regional languages. Although street signs, in larger cities are also written, in Pinyin English, that is not the case, in most of the country and for most things, like store signs, product labels or menus. That problem aside, I have always relied on other forms of communication, in any country, when I did not have the words to express my needs or desires. A smile and a playful attitude, I have found, can get one pretty far.

In addition, simple words and phrases, like hello (ni hao, in Mandarin; lei ho, in Cantonese), goodbye (tsai jian, in Mandarin; bye bye, in Cantonese), please (ching, in Mandarin; mgoi, in Cantonese), and thank you (xie xie, in Mandarin; mgoi, in Cantonese), go a long way. Moreover, for travel, in China, you can take along a small Chinese-English-Chinese dictionary and show people words, in the dictionary. After that, being funny, charming and engaging are communication actions that transcend spoken language. Moreover, every merchant, from the small corner store to the large department store, has a calculator, so that they can show you a price, in numbers.

Language issues aside, the first trick to traveling in China is to use a Chinese travel agent (for example, E-long travel or C-trip) to book both your flights and hotel rooms because you will get a good discount (when in Rome...but, you're in China, so...). The prices that you can get, through those types of agencies, are actually lower, usually much lower, than those that you will get by dealing direct. In fact, on one trip that we took, we wanted to extend our stay at a hotel, and they told us to call the agent because we would get a better price on the extension. Even if you do not call an agency, in advance, to book a room, there are usually agencies around airports, train and bus stations.