Garuda to Indonesia, Spring Festival Train Tickets, Chinese-US Visas, and More

A big round-up from all over in this Tuesday's look at travel.

There may still be time to get in on Garuda Indonesia's Christmas deal. RMB 1,970 roundtrip from Beijing to four Indonesian destinations, including Bali and Jakarta, December 19-25. Act now. Now.

Train tickets for Spring Festival/Chinese New Year have already started going on sale, and are selling like concerts seats: many popular routes were gone in seconds, which shouldn't be a surprise. Take a look at our guide to buying the tickets and you may still have hope to get one during one of the biggest annual migrations of people in the world.

People are still curious about the requirements for the 10-year visas now being offered by the government of China to citizens of the United States and vice-versa. SmartBeijing took a look at the situation and reports some positive results. We also know of one American who applied in Hong Kong, paid HKD 2,580 (about RMB 2,062), and received a 10-year, maximum 60-day stay visa. If people continue to receive the visas, this is a paradigm shift, especially for Americans who have struggled with short-term, short-validity visas since before the Olympics.

Thanks to falling oil prices, we're seeing lower airfares, at least somewhat lower. Many US destinations are showing up on United Airlines for under USD 1,000, including tax. That's not too bad.

And today's travel-news-that-sucks from China Daily: "The researchers looked at the proportion of days each year with air quality that meets the official standard. For each one-percent drop in good air days, the number of inbound tourists fell by about 443,550 people, according to the 2014 China Tourism Development Report released by the Wuhan Chapter of the China Tourism Academy."

One road flat safe.

Photo: Getty Images