Viking China

[land lover]

Tina, sounds like you had a wonderful time in Egypt, two remaining rivers I have on my list to cruise are the Nile and the Yangtze. I just don't think I will be making it to the Nile for a few years, with 2 kids still under 18 I don't feel comfortable taking a chance.....Murphy's law seems to follow my family around so I hate to play with fate. How safe did you feel? Of course no fear could be as great as brain surgery, sorry to hear about the migraines. But, glad to hear you are game to travel. I will jot down the info you provided....Thanks. L:) ri

[luv2bcruzng]

Hi Jack,

 

Haven't checked this board in a while and was thrilled to read that you said hello to Pandora from us and she remembered us. What a wonderful staff they had onboard the ship.

 

It is still great to continue reading everyone's comments as they return from their cruises and to see that everyone has only good things to say. I still highly recommend this cruise to everyone I speak to.

 

Reba

[royalflush]

Please clarify carry-on baggage allowances for Intra-China flights. "Any carry-on item in excess of 11 lbs. must be checked." Our empty carry-on bags weigh 5-8 lbs. Jack has replied "On all domestic flights, we could carry on all we could manage". I'm confused! Thanks, Carol

[DanceswithNancy]

Please clarify carry-on baggage allowances for Intra-China flights. "Any carry-on item in excess of 11 lbs. must be checked." Our empty carry-on bags weigh 5-8 lbs. Jack has replied "On all domestic flights, we could carry on all we could manage". I'm confused! Thanks, Carol

 

Carol,

 

We, also, were nervous about our carry-on bags - but we had at least 4 bags on the flight from Guilin to Hong Kong, and three or more at other times. These bags were never looked at, except for security. Our guide (Edward of Viking, who was the BEST) told us that the record for his tours was 6 carry-ons by one person. I wouldn't be surprised if some one in our group beat that. As you might understand, it is difficult to stow everything in the bins, but the stewards were helpful, and it just got done.

 

Reba, you're right about the staff on the sun. We loved being called by name as we entered, and told that we were missed if we happened to use another table .... It is fun reading other folks' comments.

 

Jack and Nancy

[vacation_girl]

Hello everyone:

 

I have read mixed messages about obtaining the currency. Can anyone please tell me/us what the real deal is???

I tried looking up local ATMs in the area and have not found but a few. I read on a thread that it was hard to change Traveler's Cheques. Should I just bring cash?:confused:

 

Jack and Nancy thank you for putting my mind and I am sure Carol's too at ease about the carryon luggage.

 

THANK YOU,

Tina

[vacation_girl]

CAROL,

 

When are you going? My mom and I are on the June 13th trip, but we are arriving a day early to do some extra shopping in Beijing. :D

 

---Tina

[DanceswithNancy]

Hello everyone:

 

I have read mixed messages about obtaining the currency. Can anyone please tell me/us what the real deal is???

I tried looking up local ATMs in the area and have not found but a few. I read on a thread that it was hard to change Traveler's Cheques. Should I just bring cash?:confused:

 

Jack and Nancy thank you for putting my mind and I am sure Carol's too at ease about the carryon luggage.

 

THANK YOU,

Tina

 

We bought a few hundred yuan from our local bank before we left. Easy. In Hong Kong, we just bought HK dollars at the hotel, and again at an ATM. ATMs in Beijing, we didn't see - nor did we have time to look. (Plentiful in HK, though)

 

Highly advise getting some yuan from your bank. We had to wait maybe 3 days.

 

We took travelers' checks, but wouldn't bother again.

 

Jack and Nancy

[chestnutter]

We are on the June 13 China Cultural Delights trip. The documentation from Viking suggested not shaving with tap water - it suggested electric shaver. I don't get a good shave from electric razor.

 

Has anyone had a problem with shaving with tap water? My assumption would be bacteria in the water would cause skin infections.

 

We leave in a week and are very excited.

[vacation_girl]

The documentation from Viking suggested not shaving with tap water - it suggested electric shaver.

 

bacteria in the water would cause skin infections.

 

We too are on the June 13th Cultural Delights. Are you starting out at the Hilton?

 

I don't know how you shave, but I remember my grandfather umpteen years ago putting water in a stopped sink and swishing his razor in it to clean off the shaving cream. Then he would take a wash cloth to get the residue off really well. My ex he could use an electric and preferred it. But since you can use bottled water from what I have read it is really not that expensive no more than US and we are going to be in a hot humid climate you may just want to bite the bullet and spend the $$$. I live in South Florida and on a hot day nothing beats smooth skin and a comfortable top.

 

--T

[biblioguy]

We just got back today from the Cultural Delights tour that included 9 nights on the river.

 

I promise much more to come once I get reoriented, but here are a few things right off the bat.

 

First of all the trip was wonderful.

 

Our trip originated in Shanghai and had only 62 passengers and 160 crew members aboard the boat, so you can imagine how we were treated while we were aboard. Several officers on board told us that the trips originating in Shanghai have been consistently less full than the trips originating in Beijing. The last several trips originating in Beijing have had well over 200 people aboard. Personally, I preferred starting in Shanghai since the Great Wall and Forbidden City were at the end of the trip after I had a chance to get over the jet lag.

 

No need to worry much about the whole money thing, but leave your travelers checks at home--a couple of people couldn't get any bank or hotel to cash their travelers checks. All banks, airports and hotels change US Dollars for Yuan at exactly the same rate of exchange. There were ATMs everywhere including in the hotels and they also give out cash at the identical exchange rates. My bank ATM card worked like a charm the two times I used it. Lots of places (but not all) will be happy to take your US Dollars. I brought a lot of $1 bills with me and they came in very handy throughout the trip.

 

Finally, if any of you are booked at the Hilton in Beijing any time soon, you should call Viking immediately and request a change to another hotel. The Hilton is being rennovated in advance of the Olympics, and it's not a good place to stay right now--trust me on this. By contrast, the Shangri-La in Shanghai was superb in every way, and the Sofitel in Xi'an was very nice.

 

More later.

[land lover]

Welcome home biblioguy..looking forward to your future posts.

 

L:) ri

[Manny's mom]

Jack, sounds like you had a wonderful time.......and Sun if all of us could be that lucky.........Was your cruise at capacity? What tour did you find the most interesting?

 

L:) ri

 

 

PS.............glad you were able to put those dancing shoes to work. Were the musicians still the man and wife team?

 

I just signed up today, although I've been reading for a while. We're booked on July 18 starting in Beijing.

How did you all make out with the luggage restrictions.

We've traveled a lot, mostly on tours and cruises, but we've never been restricted before. What do you do when you buy stuff? Kathy

[DanceswithNancy]

Hi, Kathy,

We started in Beijing, also. If you're shopping, I'd say that's a good place to begin your tour, as we had little lime on our own in Beijing, and knew "there's always Hong Kong." Read through this thread and you'll see that no one had his or her carry-on baggage weighed, and the checked luggage was handled as a group, not individually. We did end up lugging 5 bags onto the plane at the last stop (Guilin to HK), with no trouble with check-in. All told, I'd say we had less luggage than most, and our check-ins were 20 kg (44 lb) each. A few people paid extra from Guilin to HK for heavy bags ($10 or $20, I think).

 

If I were to do it again, I'd save most shopping for Hong Kong, or the Shanghai bazaar, if that's the last stop.

 

Re the Beijing Hilton - the only issue is public areas – there are none, except the breakfast area. If you begin in Beijing, you may not have time for hotel lounging anyway! We had a great room and they serve an excellent b'fast.

 

BTW, this thread helped us a lot - we were there in May.

 

Jack and Nancy

[biblioguy]

As previous posters have indicated, the whole luggage issue on the intra-China flights was no problem at all. Viking pooled the weight on the checked luggage and there were no restrictions on the number of bags you could check (we had three checked bags between the two of us). Also no one was policing or enforcing any restrictions on our carry-ons. I suppose if you tried to lug a pile of bricks on board they may have objected, but nobody said a word about any of the carry on luggage that anyone in our group had.

 

I didn't see the warning about not using the water to shave and used the tap water on the ship and in the hotels to shave with no apparent ill effects.

 

And Jack, while I agree that our room was fine, the work on the Beijing Hilton has progressed in the last couple of weeks. On the day we checked in, two of the four elevators were shut down for repairs and were closed for the duration. This caused a long wait for elevators (15 minutes at times) and caused the microscopic and smoke-filled temporary lobby to be jammed. Several in our group reported that the carpets on their floors were changed while we were there and that the chemical smell from that process was powerful and unpleasant. There were other issues too, but I won't belabor the point. Our guides told the group that this was far beyond what they'd experienced up to now. They said that Viking wasn't aware how far the renovations had progressed over the last couple of weeks until we checked in and that they had reported all this to their office. No one in the group was really whining or complaining, we were a bunch of happy campers--but just about everyone made a negative comment about that hotel in their final evaluations.

 

Finally, if anyone wants to look at some of my pictures from the trip, I've posted a bunch on the Kodak Gallery site. You don't have to register for the site to look at them. Just click on the option that allows you to view them without signing in. Fair warning--I'm an amateur photographer with a capital A.

 

Here's the link:

 

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=168k9ni6.5gt1l9ua&x=0&y=7dwwp9

[biblioguy]

Oh, I forgot to mention, if you do choose to look at my pictures, you might scroll down a tiny bit. I've enclosed captions below some of the pictures that might help you make some sense of what you're looking at.

 

Here's the link again:

 

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=168k9ni6.5gt1l9ua&x=0&y=7dwwp9

[Manny's mom]

Oh, I forgot to mention, if you do choose to look at my pictures, you might scroll down a tiny bit. I've enclosed captions below some of the pictures that might help you make some sense of what you're looking at.

 

Here's the link again:

 

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=168k9ni6.5gt1l9ua&x=0&y=7dwwp9

 

Thanks for posting the pictures, I getting really excited, I leave on July 16 for Beijing, doing the 9 day and then HK, we can only go for 2 weeks unfortunately. It looks like your weather was ok, I'm in for really hot. Does anyone have tips for HK?

Kathy

[biblioguy]

Thaks Kathy,

 

We did have really nice weather overall. The temps in late May and early June were pleasant and we only had a couple of brief sprinkles along the way and no heavy rain at all. We were very lucky.

 

They did tell us that Chongqing, where your Yangtze cruise will begin or end depending on the direction you're going, can be blistering hot in mid-summer, but it was fairly mild there last week.

 

I didn't go to HK, so I'm no help there. Of the 62 passengers aboard our cruise, only four opted for the HK/Guilin extension. Since this was already a 15 day trip, with 9 nights aboard the ship, I expect a higher percentage of people on the three or four night cruises would opt for the extension. The two couples that did go to HK, did it on the front end of the journey and said they had a great time.

 

Have fun on your trip--I know you will!

[Manny's mom]

Hi, Kathy,

We started in Beijing, also. If you're shopping, I'd say that's a good place to begin your tour, as we had little lime on our own in Beijing, and knew "there's always Hong Kong." Read through this thread and you'll see that no one had his or her carry-on baggage weighed, and the checked luggage was handled as a group, not individually. We did end up lugging 5 bags onto the plane at the last stop (Guilin to HK), with no trouble with check-in. All told, I'd say we had less luggage than most, and our check-ins were 20 kg (44 lb) each. A few people paid extra from Guilin to HK for heavy bags ($10 or $20, I think).

 

If I were to do it again, I'd save most shopping for Hong Kong, or the Shanghai bazaar, if that's the last stop.

 

Re the Beijing Hilton - the only issue is public areas – there are none, except the breakfast area. If you begin in Beijing, you may not have time for hotel lounging anyway! We had a great room and they serve an excellent b'fast.

 

BTW, this thread helped us a lot - we were there in May.

 

Jack and Nancy

 

 

Thanks, did you love the trip? We've traveled a lot, and we did a river cruise in Dec. up Nile, but this seems so different, and I'm getting really excited. My husband loves the bargaining, he sends me away, I'd like to look for pearls, and he loves to buy rugs. I'm trying to figure how to carry stuff back. We went to Peru, and bought bags there, maybe this is similar.

Kathy

[vacation_girl]

Hank:

 

LOVED the pictures. It has gotten me just that more excited. It looks like you and Teri had a wonderful trip. I do have a few questions if you don't mind. When were you in Beijing? We are scheduled to stay there starting on the 13th and I have asthema.

 

I noticed you both wearing long sleeves in a lot of the pictures was it cold? How bad was the humidity? Did you feel out of place wearing shorts? I've read a few postings were people said very few locals were shorts.

 

Did you or someone you met have trouble getting CA$H, either by exchanging 'traveler's cheques or ATM'?

 

THANKS-----TINA

[biblioguy]

Hank:

 

I do have a few questions if you don't mind. When were you in Beijing? We are scheduled to stay there starting on the 13th and I have asthema.

 

I noticed you both wearing long sleeves in a lot of the pictures was it cold? How bad was the humidity? Did you feel out of place wearing shorts? I've read a few postings were people said very few locals were shorts.

 

Did you or someone you met have trouble getting CA$H, either by exchanging 'traveler's cheques or ATM'?

 

THANKS-----TINA

 

Tina, we left Beijing on Sunday (June 4). The temperatures were comfortable, but by no means cold. I think the daily highs over the two weeks ranged from the upper 70s to the low 90s depending on where we were.

 

If you have asthma, you should know that the air quality in China is pretty bad compared to the US. Beijing especially was very hazy when we were there. Also, they allow smoking indoors in a lot of the public places you'll visit. The ship is non-smoking except for one outdoor deck and a cigar bar that I didn't see anyone use on the entire trip.

 

It's true that you won't see Chinese adults wearing short pants, but if you're not Chinese, you're going to stand out from the crowd over there anyway. Nobody's going to gawk at you any more or less because you're wearing shorts. I tended to wear long pants when venturing out in the cities and shorts when we were doing more outdoorsy excursions but I don't think it mattered. On the ship I tended to wear shorts during the day and dress up a bit more for dinner. A couple of the guys wore shorts pretty much all the time (except for the two dressier dinner nights) and they didn't seem to be treated any differently than the rest of us or the object of any more attention.

 

Forget traveller's checks. The people that brought them had no luck getting anyone to cash them--even banks. ATMs were all over the place (including the hotels we stayed in) and the two I used worked just fine with my bank debit card from home. If you bring US Dollars, any bank or hotel will turn them into Yuan for you, and they all use the exact same exchange rate, which is mandated by law. Be sure that any US currency you bring with you is fairly new and unmarked. The Chinese are very reluctant to accept any dollars that aren't in pristine condition. I brought $100 in new $1 bills with me and they came in very handy for tipping local guides, drivers, bellmen and for buying trinkets from street vendors. I also brought some larger denomination USD bills with me, but never used them since the ATMs accepted my bank card.

 

Hank

[DanceswithNancy]

Thanks' date=' did you love the trip? We've traveled a lot, and we did a river cruise in Dec. up Nile, but this seems so different, and I'm getting really excited. My husband loves the bargaining, he sends me away, I'd like to look for pearls, and he loves to buy rugs. I'm trying to figure how to carry stuff back. We went to Peru, and bought bags there, maybe this is similar.

Kathy[/quote']

 

Hi, Kathy,

 

Yes, we loved the trip - from beginning to end. We want to return, which we hadn't figured on before going.

 

We've experienced bargaining before, and were never very good at it. Nancy bought several scarves, from anywhere from 70 RMB to 115. I remember one stall where Nancy offered 80 after being told the price was 120. The seller laughed. At the next stall her asking price was 80. The laughing at the buyer's offer is a tactic we saw often. Don't let it intimidate you – you are not insulting the seller, only playing the game with him or her. (Yes, similar to Peru and Ecuador)

 

Hank, you're right about the hotel-in-progress. With the conditions you describe – new carpet, 15-minute elevator wait, crowded "lobby" – Viking should move out.

 

Your tips are right on, and your pictures took us back (a whole month back ... ) Great job. Must have been great on that ship with so much open space. 60 passengers! We had over 4 times that amount.

 

You're right also about Travelers' Checks - no need. We just brought ours back and will use them for a tour in St Petersburg next fall. We also took many, many $1 bills for tips and trinkets. Again, I'd recommend getting some yuan at your local bank.

 

Happy travels, everyone!

Jack and Nancy

[vacation_girl]

Hank // Jack:

 

Thank you so much for the info about the Hilton and other stuff. I forgot to ask you about the Panda Pictures. I did not see in the itinerary where we are able to go to the Zoo in Chongqing. Was there a lot of free time in other places. I know not Beijing because Jack mentioned that earlier. Did the ship stay in port most of the day:) , or was it like a MAJOR CRUISE LINE where you just have enough time to do your excursion and get back:mad: ?

 

THANK YOU BOTH SOOOOOO VERY VERY MUCH ABOUT THE TRAVELER'S CHEQUES!!!!

 

Do most places take Visa or AMEX?

 

By chance did anyone see or even use the GYM? Was the equipment adaquate?

 

Thank You Again,

----Tina :D

[biblioguy]

Hank // Jack:

 

I forgot to ask you about the Panda Pictures. I did not see in the itinerary where we are able to go to the Zoo in Chongqing. Was there a lot of free time in other places. I know not Beijing because Jack mentioned that earlier. Did the ship stay in port most of the day:) , or was it like a MAJOR CRUISE LINE where you just have enough time to do your excursion and get back:mad: ?

 

Do most places take Visa or AMEX?

 

By chance did anyone see or even use the GYM? Was the equipment adaquate?

 

:D

 

I'm not sure, but I think the stop at the Chongqing zoo is only for the tours originating in Shanghai. We visited the zoo in the morning and then flew on to Xi'an after lunch. I suspect if you fly to Chongqing from Xi'an that you'll arrive in the afternoon and go straight to the ship.

 

Most of the time you won't have much free time in town. We opted to skip one of the excursions (a visit to the school that Viking sponsors) so that we wander around town on our own. In Wuhan the captain decided to extend our stay by several hours so that we could visit the city on our own after doing the morning excursion, and that was welcome. Most of the time, as soon as the day's excursion was finished, we'd set sail for the next town.

 

At all of the "official" shopping visits (jade factory, silk factory, carpet factory) they'll be happy to take your Visa card. You can also use your Visa or Amex to settle your bill on-board the ship at the end of the cruise or to pay for any incidentals at the hotels. I used cash for all of my other purchases.

 

The "gym" on the ship was nothing more than a small windowless room on the lowest public deck. The equipment was a few of stationary bikes, a couple of very light weights and one of those "fanny belt" machines. I hadn't seen one of those machines in a long time and didn't know that they still made them. They did have half hour Tai Chi classes every morning--those were a lot of fun. And there were a few passengers who joined together for "power walking" sessions on the top deck in the mornings. The hotels we stayed in had excellent workout facilities.

[CincyAL]

Several people have quoted prices in RMB or Chinese currency for small purchases in shops (beer, cokes, etc). Do shops except dollars or just the streer vendors?

 

The ships balconies look pretty small on brochures. Little or no privacy?

How do they work out?

[CincyAL]

Several people have quoted prices in RMB or Chinese currency for small purchases in shops (beer, cokes, etc). Do shops except dollars or just the streer vendors?

 

The ships balconies look pretty small on brochures. Little or no privacy?

How do they work out?