At the beginning of the trip, we decided to count our pennies so we would know how much everything costs. The only place where I think we consciously tried to keep our costs down was by not paying money for entrance fees to things that we probably do not care about and have not heard about previously. I think we would have been wise to pay the fee at Pingyao, but it was 180 RMB, and we do not feel we missed much by not paying it. Much of the time, Meng and I have learned that your trip costs increase greatly when you start to pay admissions to everything, and it is best to be more selective in what you decide to see. As a general rule, I think if I have not heard of the thing previously and I do not know what it is before the time to pay the fee, I can probably skip it and not feel I missed much. Following this, we could have skipped the thing we saw in Zhenyuan, and the 4 RMB we paid in Guiyang was well worth it. Sometimes cheap admissions are worth paying.
Costs can also be kept down by choosing crappy hotels. It is nice to stay in a 5 star hotel. Really nice. This kind of hotel will cost on average say 600 RMB per night. If we did that every night for 18 days, the cost of our trip would nearly double. In Pingyao, we chose to stay at the nicer hotel. There were 80 RMB options, but we did not think it would be comfortable, and we knew we had stayed and skipped on some admissions in other parts of our trip. This made us truly enjoy the room and we felt it was well worth the extra money to stay somewhere a bit nicer. I think had we been going back to Shanghai after Pingyao and I knew my own bed was coming in a few days, i would have skipped the nice hotel and stayed somewhere better in Zhenyuan. There was a cool place there. However, as I knew we were going to Dalian, I wanted to be sure I also got some good rest before going (which was a good idea because the bed there was very hard).
It is difficult to cut too much cost on transportation. We were flexible with our days to fly and we took the cheaper but less convenient route to Beijing to Taiyuan to Pingyao (the direct flight to Taiyuan was around 1200 RMB per person, so we saved money by going to Beijing first--plus we hoped to meet some friends there, so there were other reasons we included it on our route). Also this transportation includes: 3 one way flights, 6 to/from airport transfers, 5 train rides, 5 long distance bus rides, and several taxis. We covered a lot of miles on our trip, so this cannot be forgotten. We did need to pay for one more flight from Dalian back to Shanghai, but I did not include this in the cost because we had to go to Dalian for Spring Festival anyway. We shopped around for flights and Spring Air is an excellent choice when their flights are at suitable times and able to be obtained.
As to the food, I am not really sure how much we spend in three typical weeks in Shanghai, but I think I will track that expense in weeks to come. There is not one meal that I would say we ate extravagantly, but the Western food is certainly more expensive and often less satisfying than local food. The more expensive meals we had were at western establishments. In addition, we could have cut our food costs down by ordering fewer dishes and by eating more rice. I could have ate less meat as well. It would be possible to eat for closer to 10 RMB for Breakfast (4 boiled eggs/two pieces of fruit per person), 20 RMB for Lunch (two orders of fried rice/noodle and a vegetable dish), and 40 RMB for dinner (one meat dish, two veggies, and rice) per day. At that calculation, I suppose we could have ate for closer to 1330 RMB/23 RMB per meal compared to our 38 RMB per meal. This way of eating would have saved about 825 RMB. The savings budget would not have left the option for coffee and beer along the way as well, and we would not have ate any western food.
As to the local products we bought, Meng got papercuts and I got embroidery. These expenses were not necessary, but I feel we would not be able to get these things cheaper elsewhere and I am quite confident we would be able to resell these products for the same cost and possibly make a profit on them. I do not feel we spent this money on useless things, and to me one of the reasons to go on a trip was to get these local products that are either not for sale in other places or more expensive in other places.
The other expenses we had included bathroom supplies, batteries for the camera, and postage for postcards. These are not unreasonable costs.
All in all, I can think of two places where I can honestly say we sort of wasted money. The admission ticket in Zhenyuan (around 40 or 60 RMB) and the Coffee and Beer at the Airport in Guiyang (80 RMB). I found it satisfying to keep track of where my money was going and I think it is useful to keep track of these expenses for future trips.
Grand Total: 13187 RMB/ $1939.26 USD ($969.00/person & $51.00/day per person)
Transportation: 5354 RMB/ $787.35 + 1760 RMB/$258.00 (flight from Dalian to Shanghai--not included in trip total) ($393.00/per person)
Hotel/Lodging: 1706 RMB/ $250.88 ($125/person & $6.90/night/person)
Food: 2155.7 RMB/ $317.01 ($158.00/person & $3.77/meal/person)
Entrance Fees: 184 RMB/ $27.05 ($13.30/person)
Gifts/Local Products: 3569.5 RMB/ $524.92
Other Expenses: 211 RMB/ $31.02
I am sure Meng will be posting photos from our trip on Picasa soon!
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