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◆british travel blogger owens took a photo with his two children matthew and holly in front of tiananmen square.

text丨yifan

editor丨qifei

this spring, british mark owens and his two children departed from manchester, england, and arrived at london heathrow airport after a short flight. from here, they would take a british airways direct flight to china.

after about 10 hours of long-distance flight, the plane landed in beijing. after collecting fingerprints, filling out immigration cards, and picking up luggage, the owens family successfully took a taxi under the guidance of the english signs at the airport.

the next journey was a bit long. both their 13-year-old son matthew and their 10-year-old daughter holly fell asleep from exhaustion - they had to drive from daxing airport in the south of beijing to universal studios in the east of beijing. this was the first part of their trip to china. first stop.

◆the first stop of the owens family's trip to china: universal studios beijing.

owens, 47, runs an account called "travelshorts" on the social platform youtube to share videos of his and his family's travel experiences around the world. as of now, his account has about 105,000 subscribers.

being a blogger is just a hobby for owens. his main job is as a marketing communications manager for a multinational manufacturing company, but he has devoted many years to this side job and has been making travel videos since the 1990s. after becoming a father, he took his children to travel to different countries every year. although matthew and holly are young, they have a lot of experience.

the trip to china was a long-awaited trip for owens. after many postponements, he was finally able to set off in march this year. they started from beijing and went all the way south to xi'an, shanghai, chengdu, leshan, guilin, yangshuo, and finally ended the journey in hong kong, a total of 23 days.

◆the 23-day itinerary of the owens family's trip to china.

on youtube, owens is one of many bloggers sharing their journey to china. "china travel" has become a popular keyword on the platform, and a large number of videos are continuously produced. bloggers from all over the world record their experiences in china from a personalized perspective, which also confirms the recovery of inbound tourism. in the first seven months of this year, 17.254 million foreigners entered the country at various ports, a year-on-year increase of 129.9%; foreigners visiting china are expected to drive consumption of more than 100 billion yuan.

unlike the superficial glimpses of many bloggers, owens did quite solid homework before coming to china. after returning to the uk, he spent a long time editing and sorting out the trip. he is used to sharing every detail of his itinerary, from his experience of visiting scenic spots to as small as whether the airport was clean and how much the taxi cost. here is what he said:

two planned trips to china finally came true

our trip to china has been planned for a long time. around 2020, i planned a great travel plan that covered the entire summer vacation - starting from the train station in north wales where i am, taking the train all the way to hong kong, and finally flying back. i prepared extensively for the trip, creating an itinerary that lasted five and a half weeks, including three weeks in china.

for this purpose, i booked everything, including the hotel and the return flight from hong kong. the original plan was to set off in the summer of 2021. i originally expected that the world would have returned to normal from the covid-19 epidemic by then. but everything didn't work out. i had to postpone my travel plan to the summer of 2022, but it still didn't happen. affected by the russo-ukrainian war at that time, we were unable to cross russia to china via the siberian railway/mongolian railway and had to cancel the entire plan.

later, i decided to focus my travel plans on mainland china. china doesn't reopen until 2023 and we decided to wait until 2024 to ensure a smooth trip. i also timed my trip during the easter holidays instead of summer vacation so it wouldn’t be as hot.

my itinerary in china was basically the same as the original plan, with the only exception being the addition of universal studios beijing because it had not yet opened when i first planned it. to add this stop, i extended the overall trip by two days.

this is the first time matthew, holly, and i have been to mainland china. i have been to hong kong twice before. one was in 2006 and the other was in october 2023. at that time, i participated in a cathay pacific promotion and was particularly lucky to win a prize.

for this trip, we applied for a two-year multiple visa. the 144-hour transit visa is not suitable for my travel plans. it would be a pity if i could only stay in one city for a few days after flying so far.

applying for a chinese visa is not complicated, but it is strict. for example, the application form is 8 pages long. the children's applications cannot be included in my application. they need to apply separately and provide all proof of accommodation and round-trip flight information during their stay in china.

after submitting the application information online, i went to the manchester chinese visa application service center closest to my home. the next process was very simple. it only took 20 to 30 minutes to submit all the documents and passport, collect fingerprints, pay the visa fee, and get the passport back four days later.

to be honest, we were looking forward to everything about this trip, after all, it had been planned for several years. i made a lot of preparations for this, including daily activities, and also booked all hotels, trains and attraction tickets in advance to ensure that there were no surprises. for children, the most impressive attractions are shanghai disneyland, universal studios and the great wall in beijing, and hong kong disneyland.

◆owens and children at hong kong disneyland.

i was worried about digital payment before departure. even though i had downloaded alipay and wechat and linked my credit card and debit card before departure, i was still worried that something might go wrong because i knew that china was already a cashless society and the use of credit cards was not easy. universal. in the end, it turned out that these worries were unnecessary and everything went smoothly overall.

there were some twists and turns when purchasing train tickets. although i booked through a third party well in advance, train tickets in china don’t go on sale until two weeks before the actual departure. in the end, i couldn’t buy the planned train tickets for two sections of the trip, one was a sleeper berth from xi’an to shanghai, and the other was a high-speed rail business class from chengdu to guilin. this resulted in our sightseeing time in shanghai being reduced by half a day, but the overall impact was not significant.

in addition to downloading payment software before traveling, i also downloaded the subway app for my travel destination. translation software is also essential to help us communicate with locals.

without chinese id and a local mobile phone number, it will indeed be inconvenient in some ticket purchasing processes. for example, we cannot directly use our mobile phones to purchase tickets for the terracotta warriors and horses, but must purchase them through a third party; the same is true for the leshan giant buddha. when taking a train, if you want to scan the qr code to order food, you also need to verify it with your chinese mobile phone number.

fortunately, i successfully made an appointment to visit tiananmen square through wechat. although the page was in chinese, i still solved the problem after some exploration.

on this trip, we went to beijing, xi'an, shanghai, chengdu, leshan, guilin, yangshuo, and finally arrived in hong kong. i chose these places because i wanted to cover the main highlights of china in 23 days. but i realized that this was just scratching the surface as time was limited.

furthermore, things have changed a lot in the past few years and it is difficult to find up-to-date information about travel to china. i mainly get information through the travel forum tripadvisor and a few western bloggers living in china.

before traveling, i had no stereotypes about china. just like the outside world, there are many stereotypes about us welsh people, but many of them are not true. especially when i have done my own research, i will not listen to other people's words. those people have neither personal experience nor actual motivations. they may be disparaging a certain country or culture just because they feel that it is different from my own.

china’s tourism information is still lacking

i've been making travel videos since the 1990s. at that time, mini dv video tapes were used to transfer the videos to computers for editing, and it was difficult to publish them. i stored the videos on my personal website and then sent the link to my relatives and friends.

i started using youtube in 2007 (note: the platform was created in 2005). before that, the video platform i used was google video, which was later acquired by google. at that time, the online community for sharing travel videos was still very small.

shooting travel videos has been with me my whole life, my parents have been shooting with video cameras since the 1950s. i also recently digitized their original footage. i am very grateful to have kept these videos so that i can watch my childhood travels at any time and pick up wonderful memories.

my channel theme revolves around travel and especially theme parks as i have always been passionate about it. i love exploring new places, experiencing new things, and meeting new people. naturally, i uploaded the content online.

◆owens' previous travels in india.

part of that passion is documenting what you’re doing and where you’ve been. to be honest, i mainly make these videos for my family, to document our shared experiences.

it would be even better if other people would like to watch my videos and gain something from it. as my channel becomes more and more popular, i also try to make the content more reference-worthy, even if it is just to provide some basic information, such as prices of travel destinations, transportation methods, hotels, etc., these are all planned by myself information you look for when traveling.

since becoming a travel blogger, i have been fortunate enough to visit 42 countries and have left many wonderful memories. for example, in february 2022, we stayed in northern norway for 8 days and could see the aurora almost every night. at that time, we stayed at an igloo hotel, took a husky sleigh ride, experienced a reindeer safari, and even visited the north cape, the most beautiful place on the european continent. the northernmost point.

◆the owens family is in northern norway.

i also really like theme parks and have been traveling to florida, usa, almost every year since the late 1980s. i think it’s the theme park capital of the world. another place that i find very unique is easter island in chile. i have always been fascinated by the moai statues there. my childhood dream finally came true.

◆owens' previous trips to easter island.

i choose my travel destinations very casually, with a mix of long-haul and short-haul options.

for trips that are expensive and require long flights, i have a list of countries i want to visit. i'm planning my next long trip, with options including japan, uae, vietnam and cambodia. i discuss with the children the places they would most like to visit and explain what we will be doing at each location and the different activities they can experience.

if it's a short trip, i'd check to see what cheap budget flights are available from the two nearest airports - liverpool and manchester. for example, i recently discovered a great deal on a flight from manchester to billund, denmark, for just £24 return. so the kids and i took a weekend trip to denmark to visit legoland, which was cheaper than going to legoland windsor in the uk. by the same choice we have also been to ireland, sweden and portugal.

for me, travel planning is very important because with the kids, i have to make sure the itinerary is suitable for everyone and that the places i visit are safe. i spend a lot of time planning and learning everything there is to know about an area so i can make an informed choice because i don’t want to leave only to find out that i missed something worthwhile.

when planning, i usually first look on youtube to see what other tourists are doing in the area, then use tripadvisor to find popular itineraries and restaurants, and check other people’s travel blogs.

on average, we travel abroad 4 to 5 times a year, usually during school holidays. the most frequent year was from october 2021 to october of the following year, when i visited 15 countries. most of these trips took place during the summer, and we traveled around europe solely by train and ferry, with no flying at all.

the reason why i go on every trip with my children is because they are the most important people in my life. i want to experience the world with them, and i also want them to experience it with me and realize that this world is full of different cultures and customs. of vast space.

there will come a time when they no longer want to travel with their dad, and when they grow up they may prefer to travel by themselves or with friends. but as long as they are still willing to travel with me, i will cherish every moment.

after the trip, i share the travel guide for free on youtube. take the china travel guide as an example. i did this because it is very lacking on the platform. almost all the information online is before 2020. but in fact, china has changed a lot during this period, but it is difficult for western tourists to find the latest. material.

◆owens shared his china travel guide, which can be obtained for free by clicking "read the original text".

so i wrote this guide based on all my pre-trip research and observations while traveling, all from first-hand experience. of course, this guide may not be enough for some travelers, as it only includes the places i’ve been to and the services i’ve experienced.

i also don’t like that some travel content creators are always trying to monetize their content, whether it’s through patreon (note: a crowdfunding platform for content creators), asking you to buy them a cup of coffee, or becoming theirs through a subscription channel membership. if i can't afford it, i won't go. people shouldn't ask others to pay for something they enjoy doing, that makes me uncomfortable.

currently i only include a link to donate to the motor neurone disease (als) association under the travel video. i did this because a very close family member of mine has this disease.

◆owens’ youtube platform to raise funds for als research。

unfortunately, very few people donate through this link. this might be my problem since i never mentioned it in the video. someone recently sent me some money through youtube's super chat feature, and i chipped in and donated the money to charity on their behalf.

after returning to china, i will try to recreate the roujiamo recipe.

talking about my trip to china, the attraction i miss the most is the forbidden city, which is very historical and vast. theme parks are the key to keeping matthew and holly happy. we also went to the giant panda research base in chengdu, but mainly to see the red pandas because holly loves them so much. matthew especially likes taking a bamboo raft rafting trip in yangshuo.

◆the owens family at the giant panda base.

◆matthew took a bamboo raft rafting trip in yangshuo.

talking about food, we had delicious hot pot in chengdu and roujiamo in xi'an, which we tried to make ourselves when we got home, but the taste was still different. holly especially likes strawberry candied haws because strawberries are her favorite fruit.

◆owens is eating roujiamo.

◆owens ate chengdu hot pot.

in terms of transportation, we will try to take the train, which is my favorite way to travel. during this trip in china, i experienced almost all types of train carriages, in addition to second-class seats, first-class seats, and business class seats on high-speed trains, as well as sleeper berths on ordinary trains.

◆the owens family took a group photo in front of the train.

we had almost no language problems on this trip. of course, there are some minor inconveniences. for example, when taking a taxi, sometimes you cannot communicate with the driver smoothly over the phone, and the other party cancels the order. on other occasions, i use translation software to communicate with locals.

overall, our experience was great, the chinese were very friendly to us and many wanted to take photos with holly, sometimes asking for photos every few minutes. actually i don't mind you asking, but some people will secretly take photos from a distance, which makes us feel uncomfortable.

prices in china give me two experiences. if it is a western chain brand, such as mcdonald's, starbucks and other restaurants, the prices are actually similar to those in the west. this surprised me because i thought it would be cheaper. the same goes for tourist attractions and theme parks, with prices similar to those in the west.

in comparison, local restaurants are much cheaper. even in very modern shanghai, we only spent a total of 62 yuan on one meal. really great value for money. as for hotels, except for theme park hotels and some five-star hotels, the overall price is lower than similar hotels in the uk. transportation costs in china are also much cheaper than in the uk, especially taxis, which are only about a quarter of those in the uk.

this series of china travel videos is very popular. to my surprise, many of the commenters were from china, which i had never encountered in my previous videos. i think maybe many chinese people want to see how foreigners travel in their own country.

the videos also received more comments than ever before, most of them very positive. there is also a small number of anti-china or anti-western remarks, which are very ridiculous. fortunately, i can moderate comments before they are posted, and any comments that are overly offensive, political, discriminatory, or offensive will be deleted.

we will definitely travel to china again. by then i want to continue exploring around beijing, such as simatai great wall and jinshanling great wall. i also want to see the place where the great wall enters the sea - laolongtou.

◆the owens family climbed the great wall.

chongqing is another big city i want to go to. i heard that the night view there is very famous. if it is winter, you can go to harbin to see ice sculptures. i like cold places very much and have participated in several arctic expeditions before. i also want to go to lhasa, tibet. , i have been to nepal before, and i wanted to see the snow-capped mountains and glaciers from another angle. in addition, there are some places suitable for vacation, such as sanya and zhangjiajie.