Many people have the Around the World dream. For young people in China, maybe the Around China Travel is more realic. Dan Washburn did wonderful to travel around China in 3 months. He was also very successful in the fund raising perspective. I hope he can realize his dream of publishing his story into a book soon.
I talked with my friend, a girl with great thoughts recently. She is also dreaming a 3-month around China tour. She expects the cost to be something around 10,000 USD. It seems to be a mission-impossible to raise this big amount of money in China. Donation and sponsorship are not popular yet.
I suggested her to focus on the larger scope. I thought there must be some way to get some money for her trip. I don’t know yet. Here is a list of things I can think of. Anyone has more ideas or willing to sponsor her? Please leave comment.
Plan A: Gege is a very good writer and writes novels. Maybe she can publish some articles (but only in Chinese).
Plan B: Some company may want to sponsor some $$ to have her wear the T-Shirt or coat with the logo of the company. And she makes sure there are enough reports for the trip so people can see the logo.
Plan C: If any company or agents want someone to do some survey around China, maybe hiring her is a good idea – she only needs the travel cost, and don’t ask for pay for the labor (I guess)
Plan D: She can take pictures and sell it on the web, so someone can assign some photo-taking tasks….
Plan E: Create a donation website so people can donate and help her…
I know there must be plan F, G to Z. Any ideas?
P.S. Wendy spent the last week in Seattle and this is the first weekend for her in Seattle. Wendy always wanted to visit Seattle. Her last trip was only to Portland – very near Seattle. I hope she enjoys the trip, as well as enjoy the happy life in Shanghai.
Hello,
I know a lot of bloggers and writers in America set up paypal tip jars on their blogs. If her writing is good enough, and if she can generate a good deal of web traffic, then she may be able to raise funds that way. I’d be willing to donate 5$ US and I would make a post about her on my own cite asking for donations.
If she’s good the word will spread and that should be able to help.
Hi – I’d very much like to get your opinion on my post here: i’m trying to take a survey of Chinese bloggers on “Chinese Hopes and Dreams”
http://publicenemy1.blog-city.com/chinese_hopes_and_dreams.htm
LW
This sounds interesting. Is there anywhere we could read about her story and her purpose for traveling around China? It might be inspiring for others. Idea’s for sponsorship may a good option if the word gets out.
Yeah.., If she can write an interesting story about her trip and experience then it is worth some donation. I would not mind donating 20 USD or more if she write something interesting to read at the end. Similar to what Dan Washburn wrote about his trips. I enjoy reading his blog and his stories. But, perhaps she can write it from a chinese perspective. I am sure being native chinese she can communicate more with the people she meet then Dan can. Key in the story is the people interactions. The lives that these people live? Their challenges they face. Really analyze the people and places she will meet. Differences of a lifestyle of from the big cities like Shanghai and the life from rual areas. The widening gap between the haves and the have nots. How the changes and growth of china affect these people. How these people intend to keep up from an ever changing society from agricultural society to modern industrial society. What makes these people tick? what are the dreams and aspirations of these people?
besides working, F is a good idea. The problem is it will take a while to get a lot of traffic going into her new site. Since so many people check your site, maybe you can create a link to her donation blog site.
Perhaps if we knew a little bit more about the girl; why she would like to go on this trip; what does she hope to accomplish through traveling across China….then we can probably give better suggestions for fund raising.
10,000 USD is a LOT of money for 3 months in China, how did she calculates her journey costs? Most people in the UK agrees around 18,000 USD is enough for a 12 months round the world trip if one look after the money.
I did a very comfortable trip with my fiance in China for 3 weeks last year and it cost 800 USD between us.
Does she want to stay in posh 4, 5 star hotels on her trip?
By travelling “backpacker-style”, she can easily reduce her budget to 1/3 of $10,000, and probably have a more interesting trip, too.
Do they sell the Lonely Planet or Rough Guide guidebooks in China? One of these books is a good starting point for modestly priced travel.
Hi, everyone, I am gege:). Thank you for your interest with my trip and for those so many valuable ideas you suggested. Last week I met with JIANSHUO and told him about my dream—-to see to explore the mysterious China, to meet with local people, to experience the different lives in different areas of China. And to share my stories with people in my book( I hope :))
In the past five years, I’ve already traveled some places in China, such as Tibet, Xinjiang, Neimeng, Yunnan, Hainan, etc, which most of these place are time-honored and have unbelievable beautiful and most mysterious scenes. The greatest thing is, I heard a lot of ancient tales from the local people and saw so many things that amazed me a lot, and most of them can’t be seen in common travel brochures and on TV.
And the cost will be 10,000 USD around. The reason is that most of the budget is NOT on the accommodation but on the transportation fares and permits. I’ve been to Xingjiang before, only the one area is so so much bigger than anyone’s ever imagined. Without the enough finance help, it is impossible to fufil the whole plan. And I’ve already planned for ‘backpack’ travelling, just sometime go by train and bus. And I intend to stay at cheap hotels. I travel for exploring things that I never see, not to experience hotels :).
If you have any idea or more suggestions about it, please go to my blog where I’ll share my ideas with you. Thank you very much
I’d love to hear more about your trip. Will you keep a blog about it?
There is a chance I will be backpacking in China in Yunnan around October. It’d be good to meet up with friends I met on the last trips again.
splendid travel done.
Tibet is not a “place in China.” Tibet is it’s own place.
Tibet is not a “place in china.” It is its own place.