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China is great in September, with Vantage


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China is great in September

 

> China is great in September (September 13, 2012-October 3)

>

> Vantage China is a great way to go.

>

>

>

> Why we booked Vantage China

>

> We had done Russia with Vantage and were impressed, so we booked Vantage

> China. We were not disappointed. The trip was fantastic. It was very

> well

> organized and executed. Our program manager, Tan, was the best and our

> local guides were excellent (In particular, Kong in Beijing and Charlie in

> Shanghai).

>

>

>

> General comments on the tour

>

> The tour seemed to be designed for maximizing a traveler’s exposure to

> China. It is a very large country and our trip covered much of the most

> populated part of the country. We visited seven Chinese cities (not

> counting those during the four day river cruise) plus Hong Kong, which is

> part of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), but until 2047 administered

> separately, retaining its very capitalist system. One of the tour’s

> advantages was that we visited many of the key historical and cultural

> places in China as well as most scenic. However, the other side of the

> double-edged sword was that to see all these wonderful places, the tour

> required much travel within China. We became familiar with China’s

> airports, in Beijing, Xian, Hangzhou, Shanghai, Yichang, Chongqing, Guilin

> and Hong Kong. Also, we traveled on China’s version of the high speed TGV

> train from Hangzhou to Shanghai. We did tire somewhat from all the

> airports, but Vantage minimized our hassles. We were escorted throughout

> the tour by our excellent program manager, Tan. We didn’t have to handle

> our checked luggage until we got off the plane in Hong Kong. Vantage took

> care of all the tips to our luggage carriers, etc. Further, we didn’t

> even

> have to check into our hotels, since once we arrived at the hotel, it took

> Tan just a few minutes until he handed out our room keys. All out local

> tours were handled by local guides that spoke excellent English and were

> familiar with the sights.

>

> Accommodations

>

> Our hotels were all first rate, some were exceptional. All were located

> in

> central areas and five stars by US standards. A couple probably were just

> barely five stars, but we were told they were the best hotels in the city.

> The cruise ship, Century Diamond was generally good, with a rather

> spacious

> cabin and all the amenities of a European river cruise ship. The ship was

> not quite up to European standards to some degree, in that we noticed

> something of a musky odor (not bad, but noticeable). The service at all

> the

> hotels and on the ship was excellent. Only once, one morning for

> breakfast

> at Shanghai, did dear Wife, Ginny take over as server, pouring coffee for

> several of our group.

>

> Food

>

> If you decide to take to trip to China and don’t care for Chinese food,

> you

> may have a problem. We had a couple of people in our group that were meat

> and potatoes guys and they tired of the oriental food. We loved the food.

> Overall, it was excellent. We did have buffet breakfasts every day that

> provided us with the option of a western breakfast, which helped us deal

> with constant Chinese food. Also, we had a few meals on our own, in which

> we managed to find pizza, which was pretty good. The Chinese food varied

> in

> the different parts of the country that we visited and some of it was

> spicy.

> We had dishes that we had never experienced as well as some which we were

> familiar. Not every dish was wonderful, but we were usually served with

> several dishes and could choose to pass on the dishes we didn’t want.

> Chinese food in the US is different from what we found in China. Chinese

> meals don’t include sweet deserts (usually watermelon). Also, meals are

> served on a lazy-susan, which rotates in front of each person seated at

> the

> table. Frankly, I tired of this method, since frequently the restaurants

> would bring out the food in stages and you never knew if another dish

> would

> appear. Sometimes dishes would appear late in the dinner, after I was

> full

> and had eaten other, less favorite dishes. Also, you have to wait for

> people to server themselves and for the food to rotate to your position.

>

> People

>

> We liked the people in China. I know that many of the people we

> encountered

> where the ones paid to serve us, but we found the people to be friendly,

> even if they could not speak much English. Still, we found many,

> especially

> young people that spoke English. We were told that English has been

> mandatory in the schools for some years. China has 1.4 billion people and

> it shows. Every city was crowded with people and in public, the Chinese

> are

> a bit pushy. They are in a hurry to get where they are going and don’t

> queue up like in the USA or UK. Still, no one was really rude to us. We

> had

> a few opportunities to visit Chinese homes and enjoyed those visits.

>

> Traffic

>

> Traffic was awful everywhere we went. In the large cities like Beijing

> and

> Shanghai, automobiles jammed the freeways and streets. Drivers are very

> aggressive and it seems that watching from our bus, we were constantly

> waiting for an accident to happen. In some of the cities, motor scooters

> are prevalent as well as cars. Sometimes families of four (yes, there are

> some families with more than one child in China) ride on one scooter. No

> one wears a helmet while on a scooter, cycle or bicycle in China. We were

> told that over 80,000 people die on the roads per year. More people are

> buying cars in China and using them. The road systems infrastructure is

> pretty good in the cities that we visited, for example, Beijing has six

> ring

> roads for its 24 million people. We saw American cars there. GM has a

> Buick plant there, as well as Ford. VW was in China early, and VW is

> probably the most popular car in China.

>

> Pollution

>

> Pollution is bad in China. Beijing and Shanghai were not as bad as cities

> like Xian and Chongqing. The government made a big effort to clean up the

> air pollution in Beijing for the 2008 Olympics and the International

> exposition in Shanghai in 2010. Chongqing was the worst, and fortunately

> we

> were only there one day, at the end of the river cruise. We saw solar

> panels frequently in China, but once you go to rural areas, we noticed the

> odor or burning wood. I suspect that many farmers are still living in

> more

> primitive conditions, burning wood for heat. We were told not to drink

> the

> water while in China and were issued two bottles of purified water every

> day

> in our hotels and on the boat. Also, we could purchase more water on the

> tour bus (two bottles for one dollar or six Yuan). We were told that we

> could brush our teeth with the water from the faucet. We followed

> directions on that and had no problems requiring Imodium. We were told

> that

> for the government to provide drinkable water from the faucet would put

> out

> of business the purified water companies.

>

> Alcohol

>

> On our trips to Europe, we generally drink more wine than anything else.

> However, Chinese don’t drink much wine. The drink of choice was beer. We

> drank a lot of Tsingtao, which is one of the best beers in the country,

> but

> also tried the local beers, which were not bad. The beer in China is not

> bad, especially, Tsingtao, but it is only 3% alcohol and that difference

> was

> noticeable. Still, we found the beer was reasonably priced in the many

> convenience stores that were close to our hotels. We did buy some beer in

> hotel bars and paid from 18 to 45 Yuan per beer ($1 = 6.3 Yuan). The beer

> in convenience stores runs from 5 to 15 Yuan for a half liter bottle. We

> did try “Great Wall” Chinese wine and found it forgettable. If you are

> curious, don’t waste your money. Sure, you can buy it for 50 Yuan, but it

> is not worth drinking it while holding your nose. Don, our friend on the

> tour from California tried the Chinese vodka in the minibar (18 Yuan) and

> it

> didn’t remind him of Stoly. Perhaps drinking less was not a bad thing; I

> only gained a pound on our trip.

>

> Cultural connection

>

> We were very pleased that the tour did its best to expose us to Chinese

> culture and history. We had some visits to Chinese homes, were we talked

> with people (usually through an interpreter). Our program manager and

> guides gave us great information on the modern history of China, including

> their personal experiences and current Chinese living conditions and

> expectations. They talked openly about the disastrous “Great Leap

> Forward”

> and “Cultural Revolution” which resulted in the death of up to 60 million

> Chinese people. We learned that the Communist Party has loosed up in

> recent

> years, but still filters the internet and expects Chinese not to conflict

> with the party line. Sill, China’s traditional culture took some huge

> hits

> under Mao, but it clearly has not disappeared. Taoist, Buddhist and

> Confucius influences are still the cultural base of the country. However,

> western influences have changed China, from Marxist collectivism under Mao

> to US business and pop culture. Our guides told us that Chinese have seen

> American movies and TV shows, and our standard of living. They want

> what

> we have. Under Mao, before the party opened up China, the Chinese assumed

> that we were just as poor as they were. We got a good dose of Chinese

> history, including the names of emperors that we forgot ten minutes later,

> but it was good. I had read some books on Chinese history and found it

> fascinating, but had a problem remembering all the Chinese names.

>

> Mao and the Communist Party

>

> During our trip, it seemed that our guides and program manager brought up

> stories about what the people went through during Mao’s Cultural

> Revolution

> (1966-1976) resulted in the death of about 30 million people. In addition

> Mao’s Great Leap Forward (1958-61) led to at least 18 million deaths,

> perhaps as much as 30 million people. I have read that Mao was

> responsible

> for the death of 70 million Chinese. What most of our group found

> unexplainable was that Mao’s responsibility for this near genocide is

> readily acknowledged by people in China, yet Mao is still respected and

> considered a kind of George Washington of modern China. They consider his

> early years to be largely correct. The Chinese Communist Party’s official

> line is that Mao was right 70% of the time and wrong 30%. It appears that

> the CCP has moved away from mass murder toward a somewhat more open

> society,

> but is afraid to admit Mao’s culpability, since it goes to the heart of

> the

> historical source of power of the party.

>

> China largely has a capitalist economy.

>

> We learned that about 70% of the economy is private ownership, with 30%

> government owned. The government owns monopolies in profitable areas like

> the cell phone company. The government owns all the land in the country,

> but has leased property for 70 years. Apparently, it started leasing for

> 30

> years in the 80s then shifted to 70 years in the 90s. People purchase

> condos (apartments) with these leases. No one knows what will happen when

> the leases expire. I suspect that before those leases expire, the

> government will eventually grand total ownership. Farming is the one area

> where collectivism has been retained. Farmers have one-third of an acre,

> like the small plots farmers had in the Soviet Union. Large farms are

> still

> collective farms. It was acknowledged that farming in China is largely

> inefficient. Private ownership of land is likely a factor.

>

> Christianity

>

> We learned that China has about 150 million Christians, with many of them

> young people. Some estimate an even larger number. This is more than 10%

> of the population. Many Chinese are atheists. We did see evidence of the

> worship of Buddhism in the country. If Christianity continues to grow,

> that

> will pull China more toward westernization. Still, old Taoist custom like

> Feng shui is very prevalent. Feng shui has guidance on which direction

> that

> your house should face and how it is constructed. We found older homes in

> China have a threshold of at least a foot high board to step over to keep

> out the evil spirits. We discovered that evil spirits only travel in

> straight lines, so build a bridge with turns.

>

> Toilets

>

> Prior to going to China we read about the eastern (squat) toilets. I

> visited China for one day, from Hong Kong in 1981 and discovered the hole

> in

> the floor toilets. Now those eastern toilets are not just holes in the

> floor, but are flushable with water. Still, they can be intimidating,

> especially for the ladies. Our guides constantly advised us when we could

> find western toilets instead of the eastern types. Our hotels and new

> buildings in China have western toilets, but older buildings usually do

> not.

> Be aware that bathrooms in China generally don’t have toilet paper in the

> stalls with the toilets. The paper is on the wall as soon as you enter

> the

> bathroom. You are expected to take what you need prior to entering the

> stall. If you forget, you may have a problem. Many public bathrooms in

> China have no paper towels, but a very weak hand dryer, which takes

> forever

> to dry your hands. Therefore, be prepared for air drying your hands.

>

> Language

>

> China’s language is tough for westerners. You can see the same word with

> four different tones that have four different meanings. Further, there

> are

> many dialects throughout China. Some of these dialects like Cantonese in

> Southern China are different languages. Our program manager told us that

> Cantonese is more different from Mandarin than German is from English. We

> learned a few words in Mandarin during our visit, but fortunately road

> signs

> are in Chinese and English. Also, most restaurants and businesses in the

> major cities have signs in both languages. Chinese has no alphabet.

> Korea

> and Japan have adopted a phonetic alphabet, but China has resisted. The

> symbols are the words themselves making it harder to learn the language,

> even for Chinese. We learned that there is no Chinese keyboard for a

> typewriter or computer keyboard. Chinese have to type in English on an

> English keyboard then use a program that converts the English to Chinese

> characters for documents or emails.

>

> The weather

>

> September is the best time to travel to China. High temperatures were in

> the low 80s most of our trip.

>

> Our tour

>

> After overnighting at a hotel near the Jacksonville airport, we departed

> from Jacksonville at 5:59 am for our flight to Chicago on September 13.

> After catching our flight to Beijing in Chicago, we arrived there on

> September 14. Tan collected us at the airport and took us by bus to our

> hotel, the Beijing Marriott Hotel City Wall for four nights. Our hotel was

> located close to the old Beijing rail station and remnants of the old city

> wall. The hotel was very nice and had a reasonably priced Chinese

> restaurant with a great daily menu price of a full meal for less than $10.

> The Italian restaurant was pricey, so we didn’t eat there.

>

> On September 15th, we saw Tian’anmen Square, which is the largest square

> in

> the world. The square has the entrance to the Forbidden City at one end

> and

> at the other Mao’s mausoleum. The Forbidden City and imperial palace

> includes mostly wooden buildings, most of which have burned to some degree

> since built during the Ming and Qing Dynasties (6 to 4 centuries old).

> The

> palace is enclosed by the Forbidden City. Apparently, while the Chinese

> invented gunpowder, paper, movable type, they were late with concrete,

> which

> the Romans used profusely two millennium ago. Not many buildings were

> built

> with stone and concrete. City walls were built at some point, as well as

> the great wall. We understand that they used some form of Chicken soup to

> build the wall. That evening, we ate dinner at a local restaurant for a

> traditional Peking duck banquet. The duck was excellent, as well as the

> other dishes provided.

>

> On September 16th, we had a full day, going to the Great Wall (the

> Badaling

> portion) and the Ming Tombs. The Great Wall was one of the highlights of

> our trip. The history of the wall is interesting. The Great Wall was

> originally several walls, some built as early as the 7th century BC, later

> joined together and strengthened, it became known as the Great Wall.

> Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang built it between 220–206 BC. Little of

> that

> wall remains. The wall was rebuilt, during the Ming Dynasty, around

> 1505AD.

> There are towers on the wall spaced two bow-shots apart. We learned that

> many died building the wall and were buried in the wall. The wall did

> keep

> out barbarians for centuries, but failed in two key invasions. First, the

> Mongols in the 13th century and later, the Manchu in the early 17th

> century

> made it through the wall. The Manchus were able to get through the wall

> due

> to infighting within China, not to overcoming the wall. The early wall

> was

> made of cut stone, but the Ming Dynasty used cut stone and brick. The

> portions of the wall visited by tourists have been repaired extensively in

> modern times. We learned that it is a myth that the wall was visible from

> outer space. After visiting the wall, we stopped at the Ming Tombs, which

> was a very large area North of Beijing that the Ming Emperor set aside for

> their tombs. The tombs are buried underground with large mounds of earth

> on

> top, creating large hills. The tombs were created according to feng shui

> principles by the Ming Emperor that moved the capitol of China to Beijing.

> The entrance to the tombs is a pathway called the sacred way lined with

> many

> statues of guardian warriors and animals.

>

> On September 17th, our group took a ride on a trishaw, a bicycle-powered

> rickshaw, through the narrow lanes of a hutong, a traditional

> neighborhood.

> We visited a local family for tea and later be the guest in another home

> for

> lunch. That afternoon, we visited the Summer Palace, which is on a lake

> (we

> took a boat ride across the lake) and the Zoo, home of the giant pandas.

> The palace was very busy with many Chinese visiting the site. The Summer

> Palace was heavily damaged by European forces during one of the wars in

> the

> late 19th century. We saw about four Pandas at the zoo. Later that

> evening

> we opted for the Peking Evening Show with dinner, which was called an

> opera.

> The dinner before the show was probably the worst meal we had in China.

> The

> show was pretty good, but nowhere near as good as the show we saw in Xian.

> Still, I recommend going to the show.

>

> Xi'an

>

> On September 18, 2012 we took one of our five internal flights (all from

> one

> to two hours) to Xi’an. That city is the home of the famous Terra Cotta

> Warriors. Our hotel was the Shangri-La Golden Flower, which was not as

> nice

> as our hotel in Beijing, but still a nice hotel, with a friendly staff.

> Xi’an is a large city of 8 million people, but not as large as Beijing’s

> 24

> million. Every city we visited in China was larger than New York City

> except our last city, Guilin. All the cities were crowded with cars and

> or

> motor scooters and of course people. On the bus trip from the airport to

> our hotel, we saw hundreds of 20 or more story apartment building, either

> under construction or in use. Xi’an seemed to be a city under development

> more than was Beijing. The air pollution was worse than Beijing. The

> city

> was the ancient capital of the Qin, Han, Tang and other dynasties. Its

> ancient name was Chang'an. Emperor Qin Shi Huang, of the Great Wall also

> had the funerary warriors built and buried at his tomb. What we learned

> is

> that after his burial, a popular revolt resulted in attacks on the

> warriors.

> Most were damaged and archaeologist are still excavating and repairing the

> warriors. The warriors were discovered in 1974 by a local farmer, while

> he

> was digging a well. That same farmer is still alive and autographing

> picture books of the warriors. I have such a book with his autograph.

>

> I am getting ahead of our timeline. Our first night in the city, we

> attended a Tang Dynasty (618AD –907AD) banquet with entertainment. The

> food

> was good and the show was fantastic. This show was far superior to the

> optional opera show that we saw in Beijing. The music, dancing, costumes

> and choreography was just awesome. The next day, September 19th, we

> visited

> the Small Wild Goose Pagoda, which was built between 707AD–709AD, during

> the

> Tang Dynasty. The Pogoda and area was sought by Buddhist pilgrims.

>

> In the afternoon, we drove outside the city to the museum of the Terra

> Cotta

> Warriors. This was another huge highlight of our trip. We were impressed

> by the museum, which had several buildings. The buildings were modern,

> well

> organized and well maintained. We have visited museums in many foreign

> countries and several have not come up to the level of what we find with

> the

> National Park Service or Smithsonian in the USA, but we found this museum

> is

> on the same level as the Smithsonian, Louvre, Vatican, etc. It was a bit

> crowded, but we were able to enjoy our visit there. There are three

> separate buildings for three pits (excavations) of warriors. Pit one has

> most of the warriors. The warriors were buried in tunnels. The tunnels

> had

> wooden ceilings covered with reed mats and layers of clay for

> waterproofing.

> Pit two has cavalry and infantry units as well as war chariots and is

> thought to represent a military guard. Pit three is for the command post,

> with high-ranking officers and a war chariot. There is a separate

> building

> housing war chariots. If you go to China, going to see the warriors is a

> must.

>

> A personal issue came up in Xi’an. My checked luggage did not make the

> flight from Beijing, but with Tan’s able assistance, it was tracked down

> and

> brought to my hotel room the afternoon of the second day. Our tour group

> had its problems on the trip. One elderly member of our group could not

> get

> out of bed one morning and had to be taken to the hospital. We believe it

> was a small stroke. Tan assisted that couple that did not follow our

> group,

> but after some days departed China for the US. Apparently, the gentleman

> was able to fly home on commercial air. Further, one lady in our party

> had

> her wallet stolen out of her purse in Guilin. Again, Tan assisted her in

> notifying her credit card company that arranged for expressing to her a

> new

> card to her hotel in Hong Kong. Whenever there was a problem, Tan was

> there

> to assist in a successful manner.

>

> Hangzhou

>

> On September 20, 2012 we set out for the airport for another short flight

> to

> Hangzhou. That city is known for its scenic beauty and favored by

> newlyweds. It did have its scenic beauty, which I will explain, but it

> was

> another multi-million person crowded city with much construction, many

> cars

> and people. Next to our hotel, the Landison Plaza Hotel Hangzhou, there

> was

> construction that we could hear somewhat, into the late hours of the

> night.

> This was the worst situation that we encountered regarding our hotel

> during

> our trip, but there wasn’t much Vantage could do about it. We were able

> to

> sleep, but just not like we would have liked.

>

> On September 21, we started with a stroll through gardens to West Lake,

> and

> then cruised on the beautiful lake, seeing pagodas and beautiful

> landscaping. That afternoon we visited a tea village outside the city

> where

> we saw a small tea farm and had lunch at a local farmer’s house. Also, we

> saw a presentation on how tea is dried and marketed as well as explanation

> of the use of tea extracts as herbal health supplements. Green tea has

> been

> used by Chinese for centuries as a kind of medicine. It has properties

> that

> include antioxidants and other beneficial properties.

>

> Shanghai

>

> On September 22, after stopping at a Chinese Medicine Museum and attending

> a

> lecture on Chinese medicine, and lunch at a local restaurant, we left

> Hangzhou for a 120 mile high speed train ride to Shanghai. The train

> looked

> very much like the TGV that we took from Paris to Lyon this May. It

> achieved speeds in excess of 300 km per hour (190 miles per hour). This

> was

> a pleasant change from another air flight. We were able to see some of

> the

> countryside and the seats had more room than an airplane. The seats were

> nice, even though we were in second class.

>

> Our hotel in Shanghai was the Longemont Shanghai, which was very nice, but

> also very tall. We had a room on the 41 floor. Ginny is not happy at

> that

> altitude and would not look out the window. Still, the hotel was great.

> We

> found a 7-11 nearby to purchase beer at reasonable prices. We drank our

> beer with our friends on the tour Don and Karol from California.

>

> That evening we attended the optional Shanghai acrobatic show. The show

> was

> amazing. It was about an hour and a half of jammed packed acrobatics that

> wowed the crowd. I commended during one female’s act that “she can’t do

> that.” We saw amazing feats of acrobatics that seemed impossible for

> humans

> to perform.

>

> On September 23rd, we toured the Bund, which was the riverfront area with

> European architecture that was a banking and commercial center in the late

> 19th and early 20th century by several European powers and the USA and

> Japan. These countries had concessions that were areas of land in

> Shanghai

> governed by their law, not Chinese law. The area across the river from

> the

> Bund, Pudong, was developed by China in the last 30 years as a development

> zone. Pudong has some of the most spectacular skyscrapers in the city.

> The

> TV Tower and Shanghai World Financial Center are some of those buildings.

>

> Later, we visited the Yu Yuan Gardens and Bazar and the Shanghai Museum.

> The Yu Yuan Gardens and Bazar was created under the Ming Dynasty and are

> very attractive, even though not that old. The Gardens included a large

> tea

> house in the center, next to a pond with a zigzagged bridge, which was

> designed to stop evil spirits (they can only go in straight lines). The

> gardens include a rockery, which were artfully piled rocks. We did some

> shopping in the bazar after touring the gardens and rockery. The Shanghai

> Museum was another wonderful surprise. We spend about two hours there

> viewing exhibits for furniture, ceramics, clothing and bronzes. The

> interesting exhibits were well displayed.

>

> On September 24th, we took the optional tour to the Fengjing Ancient Water

> Town Tour. This tour took us several miles outside the city to a

> community

> that at one time was converted to a commune. We visited that commune,

> which

> included some buildings that housed people in this collectivist paradise.

> There was much Communist propaganda on the walls. Also, there was an old

> MIG-15 aircraft used in the Korean War that was purchased by the commune

> for

> the air force, and then later returned as a monument for the commune.

> Most

> of our visit included the Water Town Tour that had us go in sampans

> through

> the canals of the town. It was nice to see small town China, past and

> present.

>

> Yangtze River Cruise

>

> On September 25th we caught another flight to Yichang to embark on our

> riverboat, the Century Diamond, for a four day cruise of through the Three

> Gorges Dam locks and Three Gorges area of the river to Chongqing. We

> arrived somewhat late in the day.

>

> On September 26th, we had a morning optional tour for 260 Yuan each to the

> “Tribe of the Three Gorges,” which was recreated village extending down a

> small lake and stream (a few miles downriver from where our ship was

> docked.

> This tour turned out to be a pleasant trip. The recreated village was

> attractive, as well as the costumed inhabitants, fishing boats and wedding

> show. We saw a group of monkeys there as well.

>

> In the afternoon, we toured the Three Gorges Dam. We took a series of

> escalators up to a viewing area, nicely landscaped, where we could see the

> dam and the five locks that raise ships 370 feet. We were told that these

> were the largest locks in the World. They looked bigger than those on the

> Panama Canal. Our ship went through the locks with three other ships.

> The

> dam is the largest in the World, and 607 feet high and 6,500 feet wide.

> The

> dam reservoir displaced 1.13 million people and we heard a lot about how

> China rebuilt cities and dealt with the historical sites lost. In some

> cases, items were moved. The homes that replaced those displaced were

> larger and more modern than the ones the people left behind. Still, we

> heard that some people still miss the old towns.

>

> On the evening of the 26th, we transited the locks, but we did not stay up

> to finish, since it took hours to complete the transit.

>

>

>

> On September 27th, we cruised the Xiling Gorge in a smaller river boat,

> viewing awesome gorge scenery, and then breaking up into small group

> boarding motorboats, for a scenic trip up one of the "little gorges" of

> the

> Yangtze. Afterwards, returning to the Century Diamond, we cruise between

> the

> twelve peaks of the Wu and Qutang gorges for more awesome scenery. This

> day

> was another one of those highlights of the trip.

>

> On September 28th, we stopped at a small Yangtze River town where we

> visited

> at the home (townhouse structure) of local people. The home housed a

> multi-generation family, with the father working in Chongqing during the

> week and the son working in Southern China, near Hong Kong, but visiting

> home from time to time. We also visited a local kindergarten. The

> children

> became very excited at our visit.

>

> On September 29th we disembarked the ship at Chongqing visiting the

> General

> Joseph Stilwell Museum. The city was the temporary capital of China

> during

> most of WWII, since the Japanese occupied the most populated areas of

> China

> in the East. There was not much to the museum; still it was interesting

> to

> see where he had his headquarters in WWII. We learned that Chongqing was

> heavily bombed by the Japanese during WWII, but the Flying Tigers had

> their

> revenge, shooting down many Japanese aircraft. Chongqing was the most

> polluted air we encountered on our trip. We were happy to leave this city

> of 34 million people. Afterwards, we fly to Guilin.

>

> Guilin

>

> Our hotel in Guilin was the Lijiang Waterfall Hotel. It was a nice hotel

> with a large waterfall on one side of the hotel that covered the entire

> height and width of the hotel. The waterfall would go off at 8:30PM every

> evening for about 12 minutes, so we made sure to be there for that event.

> Thousands were there to view the waterfall. The hotel had a large open

> center, with hotel rooms opening to that center. We took the optional

> Guilin by Night tour with dinner. Dinner was Chinese and good, and then

> the

> night tour involved a boat cruise on the four lakes in Guilin, highlighted

> by cormorant fishing, which involves fisherman using cormorant birds with

> collars to catch fish. The birds swim just below the surface alongside

> the

> fisherman’s raft catching fish, and then the fisherman retrieves the bird

> and then fish. We saw this, at night and I got some marginally good

> photos

> of this interesting fishing method.

>

> On September 30th, we took a very scenic boat cruise down the Li River in

> Guilin. The river cruise was awesome. Guilin is famous for its remarkable

> limestone karst peaks. These peaks are spectacular and many. I took so

> many photos that my friend Don commented that at some point he didn’t need

> more photos of rocks. Still, those rocks were amazing. This proved to be

> another highlight of our trip.

>

> On October 1st, this was National day in China, as the anniversary of the

> PRC (October 1, 1949). We were getting out of the country (sort of) to

> Hong

> Kong in time to avoid the massive crowds. We had already seen what we

> thought were massive crowds, but Tan said it would be much worse. She

> showed us photos on his I pad of the many traffic jams all over China’s

> freeways. Apparently, the government decided to waive the tolls for the

> highways on the holidays. This caused massive traffic jams, with people

> spending the night on the highways.

>

> On our way out of town (we had a late afternoon flight); we stopped at

> Chuanshan caves to see the rock formations. It was moderately

> interesting.

> We then proceeded to the airport for our flight to Hong Kong.

>

> The flight was a little late and we arrived in the city in the late PM.

> We

> stayed at the Hotel Nikko Hong Kong. It was a nice hotel in Kowloon. We

> decided to skip food and went for a German Paulander weitzen beer near our

> hotel.

>

> On October 2nd, we had a tour of Hong Kong Island with views of Repulse

> Bay,

> a drive to Victoria Peak, and a sampan ride through Aberdeen floating

> village. We had a western Farewell Dinner that evening. I had been to

> Hong

> Kong in 1981 and noticed some key changes. The skyline was filled with

> even

> more skyscrapers, many exceeding 50 stories. The city seemed more Western

> and more prosperous than before. A good example of the change was I

> Aberdeen. When I visited there 31 years ago, most of the harbor was

> filled

> with small sampans that people lived in on the water. Today, the harbor

> had

> many expensive yachts, large fishing boats and very few of the sampans

> that

> I saw there in 1981. We were told that the younger generation of those

> fishermen didn’t want to fish and live on the water. I suspect that

> prosperity had assisted in that transformation. Hong Kong is known for

> its

> business environment with few regulations. It appears to be thriving.

>

> Tan explained to us that may shoppers from mainland China love to come to

> Hong Kong to buy designed items. Also, until the law was changed many

> Chinese would come to Hong Kong to have their babies, so they could move

> to

> the city. The city is very crowded with 7 million people in 40 square

> miles, so the local government put a stop to that.

>

>

>

> On October 03, 2012 we flew back to the USA, starting with a 14 hour

> flight

> to Chicago. The flight was brutal and with a five hour layover in Chicago

> it was more tiring. The flight to JAX was an hour and half late leaving,

> causing us to arrive home about 2 AM.

>

> I weighed in the next day and had only gained one pound. I suppose that I

> can thank the Chinese food for that. Come to think of it, we saw few

> heavy

> people in China. Our guides told us that some of the young people love

> going to KFC and McDonalds, leading to some overweight kids.

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thank you for your detailed report. We leave this week for our own 30 day trip that will be 5 days Beijing, 2 days Xian, 5 days Bangkok and 16 day cruise on Diamond Princess. You have made me even more excited. Some of the things you saw are planned for our trip. We will have a private guide for our party of 3 for BJ and then Xian and then Bangkok but we have to make the 3 interior China and Bangkok flights by ourselves. That is scary.

 

How well marked are the airports? We will need to find our way in and out of PEK, XIY (Xian), and CAN (guangzho). Again thanks for this review -- I truly enjoyed it.

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thank you for your detailed report. We leave this week for our own 30 day trip that will be 5 days Beijing, 2 days Xian, 5 days Bangkok and 16 day cruise on Diamond Princess. You have made me even more excited. Some of the things you saw are planned for our trip. We will have a private guide for our party of 3 for BJ and then Xian and then Bangkok but we have to make the 3 interior China and Bangkok flights by ourselves. That is scary.

 

How well marked are the airports? We will need to find our way in and out of PEK, XIY (Xian), and CAN (guangzho). Again thanks for this review -- I truly enjoyed it.

The airports are all fairly new, modern and well marked. Signs are in Mandarin and English. The fiight information is posted on boards similar to those in US or European airports, also in Chinese and English.

 

The security lines are generally not too bad, but were very long in Xian. You won't have to take off your shoes.

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How about the 3 in one bag? That is such a pain. Do they weigh your carry on? The rules say 20 KG for checked bag and 8 KG for carry on. Thanks.

Not sure what you mean by 3 in one bag?

For internal flights checked bags have a 20 Kilo limit instead of 23 Kilo for international. However, flights into Hong Kong from China are international.

No one weighted our carryons during the trip.

We may have benefited from traveling in a group. All the luggage was weighed as a group, so some bags could over a little.

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I also appreciated your review. We'll be adding a 12 day visit in late February/early March, to Shanghai, Chengdu, Xi'an, and Beijing, after our B2B cruises to SE Asia.

 

I just about have all the information needed for our visas, and need to purchase our intra city airline tickets, and I think we're good to go...except for the packing, that is!!

 

Mary

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I also appreciated your review. We'll be adding a 12 day visit in late February/early March, to Shanghai, Chengdu, Xi'an, and Beijing, after our B2B cruises to SE Asia.

 

I just about have all the information needed for our visas, and need to purchase our intra city airline tickets, and I think we're good to go...except for the packing, that is!!

 

Mary

 

Hey Mary. For the intra China trips I found that China Southern CZ has the best web site. Get the international English site because the Chinese English site will not allow for international credit cards. ITA matrix software lets you know all the flights possible and shows the code shares. My tickets came out almost $800 cheaper by doing it myself and the times were better. Good luck. It really does keep you busy planning a complex trip.

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Hi Barbara,

 

First of all I want to make sure I tell you to have a wonderful and safe trip. And I want to hear all about it when you come back.

 

You must have ESP. I have had quite a day trying the different websites for flights. Several won't let me do the multiple flights - they only offer three slots, and I need four. ITA does show me the flights I want, but when I asked my TA (who is cruise only) if he could book the tickets for me, he said the office doesn't book the tickets.

 

All but one flight I'm looking at is on China Eastern. I've tried their website also and didn't see where I could do a multiple itinerary - just OW and RT. I'm beginning to wonder if it's too early still. We need the flights beginning Feb. 20. Expedia gave me an itinerary that I could live with at a great price, but when I tried a mock booking (clicking on select), the price jumped $600!! (My dates were correct).

 

So you must have known I was having a hard time - I appreciate the email!!:) Then there's tomorrow!!:rolleyes:

 

Mary

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Mary start watching now but probably have time. It seems the Chinese do not start with the tickets early. Leave at least 3 hours for flights that change planes. Too often too crowded and the planes don't go on time. One of the problems with picking the flight you want is that you have a default lowest price. Everything is in grey but one flight that you don't want. I found a way to click on the higher price option (sometimes really only a few $) and that allowed booking of the flight that I wanted. Make sure you are in the right web site. Somehow I spent a great deal of time and frustration on the Dutch web site and then the HK $ quote means you have English but you can't use that site -- no international credit card Chinese only. Just keep working at it and somehow you will get the site, the flight and the price you can live with. I really felt on top of the world when I accomplished this booking. Now if it only works out:eek::D

 

I'll be back in mid Nov. and will help you if you haven't gotten it booked yet. No booking agency seems to have the range of flights and the ability to put them together. They can get you from Beijing to Xian but anything else is completely baffling. Do not buy from 3rd party like Expedia etc. very little offered in times and places. Also more chance for not ever getting the ticket.

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We made our own flight and hotel bookings in China. Do not book too far in advance. Six weeks to two months is the norm. I used ctrip.com which is in English and works well. Your passport is all you need for a ticket but I found it handy to print out our confirmation. The airports are modern and easy to find your way around.

 

Go to Trip Advisor for up to date advice.

 

This was a great trip report. We went to many of the same places and it brought back memories.

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As always, thanks for the information. Yesterday I sent C-Trips an email under their "contact us" link, and today received the reply that it is indeed too early to book, which is what I had feared was the problem. Yet when I checked the seating available on the flight we want from HKG to SHA, there are only about 20 seats left on an Airbus 320. The other flights are fairly wide open.

 

I'll be so happy when this is all finalized and put behind me. Maybe I can go back to being excited about this trip.:)

 

Mary

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