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onespots
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Wife & I are going to China in late August with Vantage World Travel. We are going in early to Beijing & extending in Shanghai. We fly home to Arizona from Shanghai.

 

Please share any tips or ideas for Beijing or Shanghai. We will be on our own for 2 days in each city. We are in our late 60's, good shape, no mobility issues.

 

Open to new ideas, prefer more rural than urban areas. Love nature, landscapes, water, parks, the great outdoors, & wildlife.

 

Our only boat experience will be the trip up the Gorge & to the Dam. This is a 3 night boat trip to break up the land portion.

 

We assume Vantage will just take us to the usual tourist sites. Their tour is 17 days. Therefore we will have 2 full days in each city on our own. We do not speak Mandarin or any Chinese language.

 

Ideas please. We know many of you are world travelers with great knowledge. Your experiences are important to us.

 

Yes, we have done some research & used google to inquiry about China. Since this a land tour, most of our research has provided hotel information & news about sites that we will visit.

 

Any tips are welcomed. Clothing, drinking water, unknown gems, shopping, photo opportunities, etc. We are excited to try this without Vantage. However we are open to using a local guide to see more of these cities.

 

Thank You in Advance... John

Edited by onespots
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We stayed 4 days by on our own in Shanghai. It is a very easy city to do on your own.

At your hotel they will provide you with maps and info and we used the Hop on Hop off bus to get to many places.

Visit Yee Gardens, walk along the Bund ( area by the water that separated the old part of the city from the new part. Visit the Pearl Tower or perhaps by now the World's Tallest Building has opened. Take lots of pictures of the skyline the mix of old and new building is amazing.

This is a super easy city to do on your own.

 

Beijing We were on tour there but here is where we visited of course the Great Wall and Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden City. (once you enter and start walking in the Forbidden City you have to walk all the way through and it is a long walk. But very interesting if you have a guide as we did. We also visited the Pearl Market for shopping. The Temple of Heaven We had 3 days and there were full days.

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The past few years I've been working on a project requiring trips to China - mostly Shanghai. My husband came with me on one trip - we stayed at a hotel near the university where I was working for the first few days and he used the subway to get around - very easy, there's signage in English (and the machines where you buy tickets also in English) Subway is so cheap! When my work ended on that trip, we moved to the Hyatt on the Bund and played tourist a few more days. My favorite thing was the night market (food) tour from Untour Shanghai. I adore food, I travel for my stomach, and this was amazing!!! I had really wanted to do the dumpling tour but they had sold out on the only day that would have worked for us:eek: http://untourshanghai.com/shanghai-food-tour/

 

I was in Beijing in December for final project meetings and my co-worker and I took a day and a half with a private guide to do as much as we could - had noodles, visited the Temple of Heaven and Forbidden City, then on our final day we went to the Huanghuacheng section of the Great Wall and climbed (in the ice & snow:p) and then our guide took us out for dumplings and then to the airport. (we also did a half day at the National Museum of China & Tianamen Square on our own, using the subway from our hotel area - also near a university not the tourist area) We found our guide through word of mouth - he works with a lot of parents at an international school. Happy to share his info if you're interested.

 

On my next visit to Beijing, whenever that is, I'd like to visit the hutongs and the Summer Palace....

Edited by Hoyaheel
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It's more than a few years since we've been to China - so I googled to make sure my favorite memories from China are still happening - happy to say they are...at least in Beijing.

 

Go to any park early in the morning and watch the people exercising...Tai chi to ballroom dancing. At every corner you'll stumble on something new. One of our favorite scenes was the older men who would bring their caged pet birds to the park each morning and sit on the benches and visit with each other while getting their birds out for a bit of polluted air.

 

When I googled it, they mentioned Temple of Heaven park as being a good place...but, we went to a different park close to our hotel and it was enjoyable. Actually, we stumbled on the activity during our morning runs.

 

Another afternoon, we were wandering through another park and happened upon a group of seniors doing a Chinese Opera performance (in their street clothes). It was pretty cool getting a private performance and they were appreciative of our applause.

 

I'll bring up a map of Beijing and if I can figure out which parks we went to I'll post. I know we did Temple of Heaven during organized tours and it was not our "morning run" park.

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I'm pretty sure the "morning park" was Jingshan Park, because it near the hotel we stayed and it has a hill which I remember.

 

The area where we ran into the private Chinese Opera performance was around the lakes - just west of Jingshan Park. There was a lot of activity there with families taking their kids out on paddle boats - also interesting to see.

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I can't add anything to Shanghai, the suggestions are very good other than you might want to take a day trip to Shuzo.

 

Not sure they have a Hop on / Hop Off bus in Beijing, but if not, it's a little more difficult to get around on your own. see the link to a land tour that we did and it discusses most of the sites in Beijing. We also went to the Silk Market (similar to the Pear Market) to do some shopping, it's a six story building with many small stalls with very aggressive sales people. It's really something to see.

 

http://www.chinaspree.com/escorted-china-tours/china-best-treasures-tour-2016/china-tour-itinerary.aspx#sthash.Xf0gettf.dpbs

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Don't drink tap water :eek: Locals sure don't.

 

Tap water is okay to brush you teeth or wash up with, but don't swallow.

 

Boiled or bottled water only for drinking.

 

Store bought water: make sure YOU can still crack the seal on bottled water.

 

If you venture to a McD's or Starbucks the ice should be okay as they supposed to use filtration systems; like wise in western branded hotel chains (Hilton, Hyatt, etc.)

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Check the weather forecast before leaving, light color cottons, hats & perhaps folding umbrella (for sun protection & rain showers). Most definitely, bottled water only or bottled (non-local/non-Chinese brands sold in stores) soda/beverages (careful with ice cubes) and avoid street-food, even if it looks & smells great, stomach virus & diarrhea aren't fun (fruits & cooked vegetables are fine) ... when in doubt, take a pass & "no, thank you" and keep walking.

 

Dining & Loo's - upscale restaurants & hotel bathrooms usually stocked with paper towels & toilet paper, but not always. Besides, hand sanitizors, carry some (and, buy more - locally) extra-strong 4-ply facial/tissue paper packs (10 folded sheets per pack) - very important if you need to do #2 on the road. This is the brand, you will find them at newstands & general (7-11's) stores everywhere. https://www.amazon.com/Tempo-Taschentuecher-Facial-Tissues-6pc/dp/B0013BAPLO/ref=sr_1_94_s_it?s=hpc&ie=UTF8&qid=1468292602&sr=1-94&keywords=facial+tissue+paper

 

When you need a place to rest, look for the nearest McD or KFC's - Starbucks are harder to find, for some reasons and they have clean, western restroom stalls - otherwise, practice squatting down without getting your pants wet. Warnings - locals don't always believe in closing the door or "locking" down while doing their #1 or #2.

 

BJ & SH's subway systems are great with signage, getting to/from can be a challenge - always have the Chinese name, address & phone # of the hotel, restaurant or ship terminal, etc. written on or stored on your smartphone or tablet; and, show it to the driver or when asking for assistance. Almost all the drivers speak little to no English & don't count on using Google Translate even if you have data connectivity to get things right.

 

Beware of the Tea Ceremony "invitation" aimed at travelers, visitors & LaoWai's alike - where they "like to practice & learn English" over tea (or, coffee) around the corner.

Edited by mking8288
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Thank you all for the great ideas & suggestions.

 

Nice to have the tips about western toilets & bottled water. Always concerned about food vendors from the street. Visiting the parks early morning is a wonderful idea. We would have never thought to do this & we love open spaces.

 

Just knew you travel experts would come through with personal experiences. Much better information then I could have found on the internet.

 

Wishing to express my appreciation for all of this valuable information from you.

 

go fish44

hoyaheel

buggins0402

loeb

melba51

philob

mking8288

 

Certainly this will enhance our trip in a new country.

 

Sincerely, John

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If you are going to Jingshan Park as Buggins suggested (Hi, Buggins!), there is a Houhai Lake, northwest of Jingshan Park, where we happened to walk past when we attended a conference in Beijing in 2014. It was absolutely beautiful! Unfortunately we did not have enough time to explore that area of old Beijing. I only have a couple of pictures of Houhai here, in the middle part of this blog entry.

 

Wangfujing (pedestrian street) is touristy but interesting.

 

Subway is quite easy to navigate both in Beijing and Shanghai.

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Wife & I are going to China in late August with Vantage World Travel. We are going in early to Beijing & extending in Shanghai. We fly home to Arizona from Shanghai.

 

Please share any tips or ideas for Beijing or Shanghai. We will be on our own for 2 days in each city. We are in our late 60's, good shape, no mobility issues.

 

Open to new ideas, prefer more rural than urban areas. Love nature, landscapes, water, parks, the great outdoors, & wildlife.

 

Our only boat experience will be the trip up the Gorge & to the Dam. This is a 3 night boat trip to break up the land portion.

 

We assume Vantage will just take us to the usual tourist sites. Their tour is 17 days. Therefore we will have 2 full days in each city on our own. We do not speak Mandarin or any Chinese language.

 

Ideas please. We know many of you are world travelers with great knowledge. Your experiences are important to us.

 

Yes, we have done some research & used google to inquiry about China. Since this a land tour, most of our research has provided hotel information & news about sites that we will visit.

 

Any tips are welcomed. Clothing, drinking water, unknown gems, shopping, photo opportunities, etc. We are excited to try this without Vantage. However we are open to using a local guide to see more of these cities.

 

Thank You in Advance... John

 

We did a wonderful Vantage tour of China in 2012 that included a four day Yangtze River cruise. The tour was 21 days and ended in Hong Kong.

 

Here is my detailed review of our trip.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1718320

 

Our Program Manager in China was the best, simply fantastic. I am sure he will give you some tips for post-tour.

 

I have some tips.

 

Our tour was in September, which is the perfect time of the year for China. Late August, it will still be hot, especially in the south. Not sure how far south you are going. Are you going to Hong Kong or Guilen?

 

Do not drink the tap water in China. Make sure you have good bottled water to drink.

Also, our PM advised us for the few on our own meals not to just pick a restaurant at random. The Chinese government certifies restaurants for tourists. Only eat at those restaurants. Never eat anything from a street vendor.

 

Also, be aware that the air is very polluted in all the Chinese cities. Being was the best. If you have respirator problems, check with your doctor prior to the trip.

 

Many people in China speak English. The government mandates English for all its students. Older persons may not speak English.

 

China was one of our most favorite trips. It was wonderful, but one thing you will see is that in the cities, the traffic is terrible. Also, the crowds of people are massive. There are something like 20 cities in China with more than 20 million people and many live in high-rises in highly concentrated areas.

 

I like going DIY sometimes, but frankly, being on a tour is a lot easier in China.

 

Not sure what Vantage will do for you in Bejing and Shanghai, but it will likely be similar to our tour. Check my review to see what we did vs. your tour. We went back to Shanghai last year on a Celebrity cruise and did a tour of a small city near Shanghai that was on canals. It was nice. Make sure you visit the famous

Bund and across the rivet to Pudong.

 

Don't miss the wonderful museum in Shanghai if Vantage doesn't take you there.

 

http://www.viator.com/shanghai-tours/d325-ttd?pref=204

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To 4774Papa

 

Thank you for your reply.

 

More useful information & personal experience with Vantage. We used them for our Out of Africa Tour. Excellent service with nice hotels, no tent camping, private game drives, Kruger National Park, Cape Town & the Winelands. ( 21 days )

 

I also read your very detailed review of China for October 6th 2012. Really enjoyed all the information.

 

Did anyone in your group wear a mask to help against the pollution in these large cities ? With all the walking & climbing the wall, I'm sure we will get plenty of exercise. Instead on Hong Kong on our trip, we will be going to Tibet. Appears you took many photos during your trip. Guess I should bring an extra 32gb memory card.

 

Truly appreciate your reports & the excellent information received from all of the cruise critic members.

 

Best Wishes, John

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I wore a mask in Beijing in December. Overkill, but....Beijing had a series of high alert warnings (worst time of year). Never had pollution like that in Shanghai. Check the Beijing consulate twitter feed - they list the air quality (PM2.5) every few hours. https://twitter.com/BeijingAir

 

For teethbrushing - every hotel room I've been in in China has an electric kettle - I boiled a pot and let it cool & used that for my teeth. Drank beer or bottled water the rest of the time. Most of our hotels rooms had little fridges.

 

As for street food, well, I have an MPH and am very aware of food safety issues and I do it. I like it too much to avoid it forever.:eek: The nice thing about a guided tour is that they know the reputable places to eat and will take you there. Many years of travel & eating pretty much anything - and I've only been sick once (and it was 2014, in Shanghai - and I had ONLY eaten in our hotel restaurant/work events at that point!) Obviously, you need to do what you're comfortable with, but I don't subscribe to blanket "you must/you shouldn't" statements....

354072776_KMDmaskTiananmensq.jpg.4d95b3a55227916691a54952a1e02554.jpg

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To 4774Papa

 

Thank you for your reply.

 

More useful information & personal experience with Vantage. We used them for our Out of Africa Tour. Excellent service with nice hotels, no tent camping, private game drives, Kruger National Park, Cape Town & the Winelands. ( 21 days )

 

I also read your very detailed review of China for October 6th 2012. Really enjoyed all the information.

 

Did anyone in your group wear a mask to help against the pollution in these large cities ? With all the walking & climbing the wall, I'm sure we will get plenty of exercise. Instead on Hong Kong on our trip, we will be going to Tibet. Appears you took many photos during your trip. Guess I should bring an extra 32gb memory card.

 

Truly appreciate your reports & the excellent information received from all of the cruise critic members.

 

Best Wishes, John

 

John,

No one took a mask. The Great Wall was in a very hilly area and we entered the wall at a low point. You could go right or left, but you had to go up. DW and I bike a lot, so we were in good shape. We took the less crowded right and it was steep. We were one of the few to go all the way to the tower at the top. It was awesome. It was clear at the Wall. I think that I took about a 1000 photos on the trip.

 

You will love it.

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The Great Wall was in a very hilly area and we entered the wall at a low point.

Which section of the Wall did you explore? There are many sections open to the public and many others that are accessible but not officially open.

 

The sections most westerners visit (those closest/easiest to access from Beijing) are Mutianyu or Badaling....https://www.travelchinaguide.com/china_great_wall/scene/beijing/)

 

We visited Huanghuacheng which is not publicly open (but our guide takes small groups there regularly) It was not easy to climb and since it was December - pretty icy - as you can see in the photo. Awesome and fun but I wasn't able to climb to the top tower (too icy, no traction or hand rails) and slid on my butt on the way down.

347051482_huanghuachengGreatWall.jpg.6e068bd4715a5e342e69b7dbc2c46d77.jpg

174680810_SteepicyGreatWall.jpg.da17d7e6cde2102ab3d90b5db9242c87.jpg

Edited by Hoyaheel
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Which section of the Wall did you explore? There are many sections open to the public and many others that are accessible but not officially open.

 

The sections most westerners visit (those closest/easiest to access from Beijing) are Mutianyu or Badaling....https://www.travelchinaguide.com/china_great_wall/scene/beijing/)

 

We visited Huanghuacheng which is not publicly open (but our guide takes small groups there regularly) It was not easy to climb and since it was December - pretty icy - as you can see in the photo. Awesome and fun but I wasn't able to climb to the top tower (too icy, no traction or hand rails) and slid on my butt on the way down.

 

We were told that we were going to a site that was not the closest to Bejing, but that it was a better site than the closer one. I think we visited Badging.

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Note that the subways in both cities are easy to use, just push the

British flag for English. Must have coins and these can be got a

hotel desk. Also in some of the older stations, one walks down stairs,

but not up as there are escalators out. Subways stations underground

tend to be large. We used subways to get to sites and loved the experience.

Suggest you print out a subway map for each city. Also your hotel

will have a card written in Chinese, saying that you are staying at that hotel

with address. This is great, when you are using a cab, which are very

reasonable.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I was on my own in Shanghai a few years ago when DH was in hospital there. I found it very easy to get around, walking or taxis. Make sure you have the front desk in your hotel write down the places you want to visit in Mandarin and English and of course the name of your hotel.

 

I really enjoyed the Yu Gardens and the Shanghai Museum is spectacular. We were back in Shanghai last year and barely recognized the place. There is constant building going on, especially on the Pudong side of the river.

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I keep a small bottle of liquid soap with me (like those from the hotel), because many restrooms do not provide soap, paper towel, and sometimes not even bathroom tissues.

 

I travel with wipes of all types, and also a small roll of toilet paper (I have a case of "travel" paper - comes in a plastic cover so it stays dry & clean in my bag) And a flashlight (these are "in my bag at all times" items :D)

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

We had a nice trip & some interesting adventures during our time in China.

There is so much to see & do in this country. I want to thank everyone for their valuable input in preparing for this trip. It was most helpful. One big plus for me... I was the only in our group while in Tibet, that did not suffer from altitude sickness. 12000 ft will certainly make you walk slower & take more breaths.

 

Happy Travels, John

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We had a nice trip & some interesting adventures during our time in China.

There is so much to see & do in this country. I want to thank everyone for their valuable input in preparing for this trip. It was most helpful. One big plus for me... I was the only in our group while in Tibet, that did not suffer from altitude sickness. 12000 ft will certainly make you walk slower & take more breaths.

 

Happy Travels, John

 

That's incredible that you did not suffer the altitude. We were in Jiuzaigo last month and I felt a little dizzy and out of breath even after taking the 'medicine' that the tour guide sold us. I don't think I will survive in Tibet.

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