Consider using a laptop for emails while in a hotel or wifi hotspot and leaving the BlackBerry at home. Or use the BB with a local pre-paid SIM for voice calls only.
Interestingly (or maybe not), I called Sprint about a different issue and the subject of travel came up. I was told I could get CDMA service, including BlackBerry data, in China if I were to go there with my BlackBerry 9650. No need for using the GSM SIM slot. I was told there would be a "small additional fee" for the data but no price was quoted.
Yeah, not as interesting as I thought before I typed it.