[seanmcdirmid]

Went this summer and it was a great deal for a two week vacation. As long as you can get an ok price for plane tickets, it is cheaper to visit Japan than much of the USA (assuming American).

It’s too bad China is still hard to get to by plane (Russian airspace being closed really hurts).

[Scoundreller]

> It’s too bad China is still hard to get to by plane (Russian airspace being closed really hurts).

Assuming you're flying from eastern US, taking the pacific route to bypass RU airspace instead of the polar route doesn't add that much distance to get to coastal China.

And Chinese airlines can still overfly RU.

[seanmcdirmid]

I’m coming from Seattle. Before the pandemic, we had two direct flights. Now the cheapest flight to Beijing is through Istanbul, and the next cheapest ticket (with a much more reasonable flight time) is 50% of the cost, and stop in either Japan or Korea to switch planes.

If you are going to southern China you wouldn’t be save so much going over far east Russia anyways, I guess.

Also, Chinese airlines can’t overfly Russia on the way to the USA, at least for newly approved flights: https://www.reuters.com/world/chinese-airlines-avoiding-russ...

Just 12*2 weekly round trip flights between the USA and China really sucks. There were a lot more before the pandemic. But it seems like we are going to 35 soon? https://simpleflying.com/us-china-lift-number-weekly-flights.... (Or already?)

[mixmastamyk]

How is the visa, biometrics, surveillance situation there these days? Was just telling someone yesterday that I’ll probably never make it there.

[seanmcdirmid]

Visa situation is a bit easier since they don’t require an invitation letter for Americans anymore. I’m not sure about the biometrics and surveillance now, but it should be limited to a finger print and…China probably has little interest in monitoring you while in the country, they would rather have more tourists than less, as long as you aren’t unlucky enough to be picked for retaliation (or naive enough to snap pictures of navy ships in tourist areas).

[mixmastamyk]

Thanks. Well, everyone says there’s little interest in…, but for some reason surveillance keeps increasing. That tells me there actually is interest.

[seanmcdirmid]

It is wrong to think of the Chinese government as a well organized/disciplined machine that can ease drop on citizens and visitors alike. It really is much more chaotic than that: they rely on services to local self censor because they don't have anywhere near enough to do so on their own, nor do they really want to.

When you visit there is lots of chaos, like people parking on sidewalks when they aren't supposed to, or driving the wrong way down a street and no one even batting an eye, or obvious brothels advertising out in the open. Like, if the Chinese government can't even control these simple kinds of things, why do you think they are going to try and control much harder cases?

[rayiner]

We flew ZipAir which has amazing prices on lay-flat seats, around $2,000 round trip. Also significant discounts for kids: tickets for my 2 year old and 5 year old were just a few hundred dollars round trip.

[TaylorAlexander]

Checking prices on google flights, assuming a trip in April from SFO where I live, cheapest option is about $800 round trip to Tokyo, or $1050 to Shenzhen. A bit cheaper but maybe not a significant difference for such a long distance trip.