China travel resources
Have you ever wondered which book to buy when you prepare for a trip to China?
The best tip I have ever seen so far is to buy the book “Point It”- a traveler’s language kit (ISBN: 978-3-9803130-2-5), a book with pictures only for you to point at. This book is very helpful when you travel to China or any other non-Latin countries.
I also recommend DK’s eyewitness travel guides “China”. You can find the book at any book store.
How about online resources? There are many. The one I like is this user-friendly tool www.tripadvisor.com where you can find hotel information, free travel guides, restaurants and things to do for a particular city.
Maps are always handy to have. If you are the person like me or most of us, you will be disappointed to know that recent China map or city map in English are hard to find, almost non-exist. China National Tourism Office publishes high quality maps and travel guides in English, but you can’t buy them in stores. You can either order them from info@cnto.org or you can buy them from me: map is $2 and travel guide is $8 each. It is too cheap not to have them. While those resources are very popular among my customers, my stock is running low.
As always, I tell my customers that the more they read and study on China, the more they will get out of their trips. It is true that learn a few Chinese words and sentences will take you a long way. I bought a few books “Chinese for Tourists with CD” while I was in China. Those turned out to be wonderful gifts to friends and customers.
Last but not the least, think about people resources. Do you have Chinese co-works or friends who you can ask for their opinion? I am happened to be Chinese, a travel agent and your friend, why not ask me?
Feed my starving children
My kids and I spent the last nice summer Saturday afternoon at Feed My Starving Children in Eagan. The non-profit organization bags nutritious meals to feed malnutrition children in eight countries like Philippines, Haiti, Indonesia and other. In two hours, a group of fifty people from our church bagged 73 boxes of food. With each box contains 216 meals, our work produced 15768 meals to feed 15768 people for one meal or 11 families of four for an entire year.
Two-hour flied by really quickly when we had a lot fun bagging food. Music was playing in the background and teams were working as fast as they can to see who bags the most. I was very impressed by the well structured assembly lines. Chicken flavored Vitamins and minerals powder, dehydrated vegetables, soy nugget, rice went in the bag in order, weighed at 380 to 400 oz each, sealed and labeled, then into the box.
1 bag = 6 meals; 1 box = 36 bags; thus 1 box = 216 meals.
Feed My Starving Children has five facilities in the Twin Cities area. It relies totally on volunteers to donate money and time. For 17 cent, you can buy a child in need a nutritious meal. My kids bought three M&M tubes for $1 each. Just $3, you can feed a child for 17 days. Next time when you are looking for something to do for the family, think about Feed My Starving Children because it is fun and the time is well spent for a good cause http://www.fmsc.org.