Friday 21 September 2012

Packing for China - Roll Like the Robbins'


Going to China – What to Pack

I did not use a packing list.  I saw several posted online and none of them really seemed to be a fit for our family.  We’re pretty comfortable traveling and the mountain of clothes/accessories for all occasions and the mini kitchen including food supplies and a bottle of dish detergent didn’t really seem to be “us”.  We were in China for 18 days and I was very, very satisfied with my packing/level of preparedness.  We used most everything we took and there was not a whole lot of “gee I wish I had brought” going on. 

Our food supplies were limited to a few emergency snacks for the backpacks (cereal bars, nuts) and a few snacks for Zack – we packed some goldfish crackers, some Gerber cereal snacks and Gerber yogurt melts (he liked all of this stuff, by the way).  We did not pack oatmeal, macaroni and cheese or peanut butter.  We like Chinese food well enough and we ended up eating out or at the hotel restaurant most of the time we were there.  In Zack’s province, we went to the grocery store and bought some noodle bowls, which we made lunches out of.  There is absolutely no reason to take food to China unless you or someone in your family is ridiculously picky or not willing to try/experience something that is a little different/outside your comfort zone.  For replacement snacks, we bought cookies and crackers at a small convenience store outside of our hotel in GZ.  They were not exactly the same as what you’d get in a convenience store in the U.S.A. but close enough – some sugar wafers, Ritz crackers with cheese and rice crackers that my son really liked.  For the most part, he snacked on Cheerios we pilfered from the breakfast buffet and fruit/cookies from the executive lounge at the HI Shifu. 

Here is a list of miscellaneous stuff that I took that I was really glad I had:

Coffee Singles – I have to have coffee immediately upon waking, or I am evil.  Truly.  We stayed in 3 different hotels and while there was a hot water pot and tea provided in each location, instant coffee packets were hit or miss.  I took a few Folgers Coffee Singles with me and I used each one of them.  There was decent coffee on all of the breakfast buffets, but I need something sooner than that to get me going and to keep the evil Jill at bay.  Also to note – if you are a Diet Coke fan and are traveling to China – get over it.  There was no diet anything to be found in Zack’s province (Shanxi) and while GZ had plenty of Coke Zero, Diet Coke was nowhere to be found. 

Downy Fabric Refresher/Wrinkle Release – I got a small bottle in the trial/travel section as an afterthought and I was glad I got this.  Our first 2 hotels did not have irons/ironing boards (although I probably could have got one…don’t know, didn’t ask) and our clothes were wrinkled from being in the suitcase.  This stuff works fairly well.

Tide Pen – self explanatory

Laundry Bags  - we brought enough clothes to get us through the first day in GZ.  The laundry bags were nice, because we had to take our dirty clothes down to the lobby and drop them off.  They were cheap and they took up no space in the luggage, and I used them as hampers.  To note, most of the shops on Shamian Island seemed to offer laundry service.  We asked our guide to arrange this for us and we had all of our dirty clothes washed/folded (3 people) for about 35 dollars, delivered to our hotel. Easy. 

Plastic bags of all sizes.  You cannot have enough of these.  I used them to pack liquid toiletries/wet clothes, to keep track of small items (hair accessories, to store extra snacks in, and to dispose of messy diapers while out and about.  These take up zero space and weigh next to nothing.  Pack your suitcases and stuff as many as you can in…then stuff some more in.  Seriously.  I had enough, but I was rationing myself at the end.  I used sandwich size, quart and gallon, as well as the plastic bags from the supermarket that you get when you forget your earth friendly green bags. 

Purse sized notebook – I used this to jot down questions for our guides, to make lists, and to write down thoughts/phone numbers and contact info for people I met.  It seemed like things happened so fast (because they did) and you’re tired and you’ve got so much going on…my little notepad helped me to stay semi-organized…or at least give me the illusion of it and make me feel better. 

Individual Kleenex packets/purse sized hand sanitizer – Toilet paper and soap in a Chinese washroom…even nicer ones…is a rarity. 

Individually wrapped “Wet Ones” – these were great for wiping dirty faces and hands while out and about.  If you have kids under 5, get these!  I am a huge fan…as the new mom of a 2 year old boy, I will continue to use these liberally. 

Small travel sized packets of wipes – I brought a few wipes with me and went through them quickly.  The small packets were easy to find in China, but if I had a do-over, I would have just packed a bunch of them.  I went back and forth between carrying a backpack and a small pouch-like purse, and it was nice to have many of these little packets to stash.

U.S. Diapers – Chinese diapers suck.  Even if they say Pampers or Huggies, they are not the same.  I took about a dozen diapers and bought the rest there…I saved my “good” diapers for appointments where I knew we’d be out all day and for the trip home.  Really…unless you are super limited on space, diapers don’t take up much room.  I lined the perimeter of one of our suitcases with diapers and could have taken more and just not have bothered with trying to grab them in China…diapers and all sorts of baby stuff are easy to find in China, though. 

Yankee Candle “Car Jars” or something like that.  A BTDT friend gave me a stash of these before we left and told me to take them to China…I didn’t really question her and just took them.  Our hotels in Beijing and in Shanxi had funny smells and it was nice to have some air freshener.  I also think I would put Febreeze on my list of stuff I would have liked to have had but didn’t take. 

Medicines – We were not able to get prescription medicine, but we did take a pretty good variety of OTC medicine and first aid supplies.  Zack came to us healthy and the only thing we needed was cold medicine/cough drops/eye drops for me…the pollution in Shanxi was horrible.  My eyes and throat burned the entire time we were there.  I thought I was getting a cold, but felt almost instantly better when we got to GZ. 

Baby blanket/pillow – I’ve previously posted pictures of Zack’s “crib” that was given to us in Taiyuan.  Total piece of crap.  It was a board with a small bit of padding on it and the safety netting had two giant holes in it.  They did provide a clean pillow and blanket but I was glad I had brought our own for some extra cushiness…these were nice for the long plane ride home, too. 

Cups/bowls - We adopted a 2 year old, and we weren’t sure what he was drinking out of.  We packed a bottle and a cup with a straw, and we ended up buying a sippy cup in Taiyuan.  We also packed 3 Tupperware containers – 2 “flat out” collapsible bowls and one small snack cup.  These were great for storing snacks and Zack liked to play with them, too.  He liked playing with them so well that one of the lids did not come home with us.  Hello, Tupperware Lady…we need a replacement lid.

Panda Phone – Loved it.  Was delivered to our hotel in Beijing and we dropped it off at our hotel in GZ.  We actually did have a need for it and it saved our bacon a couple of times.  Our guide in GZ was not at the gate we were at and we got lost out on our own in GZ and called our guide to have her translate to the cab driver.

Clothes for Baby – We are summer travelers, traveling from a cool, rainy climate (England).  We packed 5 pairs of shorts, 7 short sleeved t-shirts, two pairs of long pants, two pairs of sweat pants, one hoodie, six pairs of socks, one bathing suit, two pairs of jammies, and two long sleeved shirts.  This was just enough.  We did not pack shoes.  He came to us in a pair of new shoes, which he wore until we got to GZ.  The shoes he came to us in were fine – like Vans…but I wanted to save the outfit he came to us in, so I put the shoes away after I’d bought him some new shoes. 

Clothes for Mom & Dad – I am a pretty seasoned traveler and I have to really fight off the urge to overpack.  Here is what I took for me:

T-shirts that wicked – 4

Shorts – 2

Skort – 1

Reverseable skirt – 1

Light summer (casual) dresses – 6

Tank Tops – 3

Swimsuit/coverup – 1

Cargo pants – 1

Sweater/hoodie – 2

This includes the stuff I wore on the plane.  I kept one hoodie in my backpack that I used as a changing pad…never wore it.  I took/wore 3 pairs of shoes – 1 pair of “nicer” flip flops, one paid of Ecco walking sandals (get these!) and one pair of Sketchers walking shoes.  I took 4 bras and 4 pairs of undies…go online and look at exofficio.com and look at their travel/wash-n-go undies.  I thought they were great….Lee, not so much.  We road tested these on our June vacation…I liked them…he didn’t. 

This was it.  It was all pretty easy to pack and I tend to wear the same colors/patterns, so everything went together and I could mix/match.  We did take a detergent packet and wash out a few things in the room. 

Here is what Lee took

Shorts – 5

Collared shirts (S/S button down) – 2

T shirts – 2

Polo shirts that wicked – 5

Jeans – 1

One pair of “oxfords” and 2 pair of slip on canvas shoes

Miscellaneous Stuff/Stuff For baby – We packed too many toys.  We took a set of stacking cups, a few large sized legos, a couple of toy cars, two books, a coloring/sticker books with crayons, a stuffed animal, bubbles, a toy cell phone.  If I had a do-over, I would have taken the stacking cups and the cell phone.  There was so much going on that Zack wasn’t particularly interested in toys…and there are toys readily available anywhere in China.  Save the space.  Take the very minimum that you think you will need and get the rest there.  Zack most enjoyed playing with a wet wipe and the comb from the hotel toiletry kit. 

Again…we’re perpetually outside of our comfort zone, so this may not work for everyone.  We really loved experiencing China.  We took 2 backpacks and one carry on (small case) and two large suitcases.  One of the suitcases had Zack’s carryon (filled with toys), the gifts for officials, and his ergo carrier.  This freed up quite a bit of room on the flip side.  We bought a stroller in province.  

This is what worked for us…may not work for everyone, but we really, really loved our trip.  Hope this is helpful to some of you out there…please feel free to email – jillhudkins@hotmail.com – if you have any questions. 

 

Jill

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