Traveling and Tours in China?

[shanghaikai]

Hi guys,

For those of you who have participated in a tour group in China before, I have a few questions I'd like to ask:

1. Where did you go and how long was the tour?

2. What were the people like on your tour group? How many people? Age mix? Gender mix?

3. Do you recommend any particular companies or tour packages? Are there any you do NOT recommend?

4. What about your experience was worth your money? What wasn't worth it? What did you like? What did you hate?

Thanks!

[xianu]

I once participated in a "culinary tour" of China. The people that went on the trip ended up being just my family, because we had 7 of us altogether, so i can't answer that part of the question. We used a company (I can't remember which) that my parents found through AAA in california, and I think coming out of the San Francisco chinese community, so it was VERY cheap (maybe 1100 for air & ground transportation/lodging/most food/tour guides).

Having lived and traveled in China before this, much of the tour was annoying. I wanted to actually BE in the country, and my husband and I at the time were both grad students in Chinese lit, so we wanted to hit the bookstores. Parts that were annoying (I think regardless of what your purpose for being in China was) was that on EVERY single excursion, they always "swung by" a factory of some sort on the way to and/or from the place, and sometimes both to and from. Although some of the factories were kind of cool, most were overpriced, with the same kitsche (sp?) goods for sale, plus whatever the factory's main item of product was. Food outside the culinary tour was the same crappy restaurant food-for-tourist-groups fare (endless thousand year old eggs and other cold appetizers, and plain food that was heavy, greasy, boring). Again, having lived and traveled in the country, all I wanted was local street foods.

Plusses: The tour itself seemed to consist of an overabundance of scenic lakes, though in a couple places, since we as a group acted somewhat together, being a family and all, we were able to mutiny and ask to go to some other places. In Suzhou, we toured the stinky but pretty canals in a boat. In Nanjing, we went to the Nanjing Massacre Memorial instead of going to the lake. In Beijing, we have family and the tour let us out to have dinner and visit with them.

Tour was abotu 10 days, went to Shanghai, Suzhou, Wuxi, Nanjing, Beijing. The culinary part of the tour was great - went to the culinary institute in Nanjing, and had at least one special meal in all the cities of the local specialties. They also sent us to this strange "minority" dinner in Beijing at this restaurant that was obviously a hip place to be, and reminded me of going to the polynesian village in Oahu or something laike that - dances and food from Yunnan province, tropical surroundings, kind of goofy, but fun and "vacation-like" all the same.

Because the tour included so much, and the hotels were all 3-5 star and nice, I think it was worth it. Figure airfare to Beijing or Shanghai can run about 1200 with all the taxes, and that you are staying in decent hotels, with tour guides who can speak English, and some who are really intelligent. Wuxi and Nanjing had excellent guides, who also had a lot of knowledge on Chinese history. Since my husband and I both speak mandarin and know a good deal of Chinese history, we got a lot out of the guides that I think most people don't because we asked a lot of different questions, and did not have a language barrier. We helped to play translators for my family. The group was also very