Must read Viking River Cruise China

[astasi]

Anyone going on the ms Century Star read the following article:

 

http://cruisereport.com/default.asp

 

This is there review and its a good one.

[pater15]

We are leaving 7/12/04 for China and will be cruising on the Century Star. You are right this is a very helpful review.

[astasi]

I was beginning to wonder if anyone ever read what I posted.

Let us know how the cruise was as we are going 8-20-04. Just got our visa papers back. Wonder what they did with our passport photos?

[AZ Stan (FKA Stan in Chicago)]

Al and Martha,

 

We too would like to thank you for this link. It was very interesting. My wife Pat and I will be sailing on the 7/27/04 cruisetour, starting in Beijing, embarking in Chongqing on 7/31.

 

This is our second river boat, the first in Russia, and both with Viking. The Russian ship is one of the oldest in their fleet, so it will be nice to sail on a new ship. The cabins on the Century Star are almost twice the size of the tiny 90 sq ft cabin we had on the Sergei Kirov.

 

This is also our second time to China, the first in 1996 via a Princess cruise.

 

Have a wonderful time, and we are sorry we won't be sailing with you. Hopefully the jet lag won't be too bad upon our return, and we can give you some insight before you leave.

 

Stan and Pat in Chicago

[astasi]

Thanks for the wonderful incourgement & we can't waite to go.

[smeyer418]

As I stated elsewhere We were in China in 2002. A couple of additonal points. You take two or three intercountry flights the 44 lbs checked luggage limit is enforced. Extra charges are expensive. China is very modern in my opinion(hint the bathroom which has a disabled sticker on it always has a western style comode). The Chinese especially at the airports don't understand cueing. use your elbows...

 

enjoy the trip we loved China although the end of August is among the warmest months there.

[new_cruiser]

You take two or three intercountry flights the 44 lbs checked luggage limit is enforced.

We were in China this May for a tour with Intrepid Travel including a Yantze cruise. This was a small group tour (max of 15 - ours had 7 plus the tour leader) and we always checked in to the flights as a group. A couple of the people had bags that exceeded 44 lbs. The airline never said anything about it. Our trip leader said that they will give some leeway as long as our bags are averaging less than 44 lbs per person (not that it is a good idea to depend on your trip mates packing light).

 

My bag started out the trip at about 30 pounds. There are plenty of really nice things to buy at good prices so it ended up heavier but thanks to mailing some stuff home it was still under 40 pounds by the end of the trip. If I did it again I would take a bit less clothes - I didn't realize there was laundry on the ship. Laundry service charges were generally much less than Europe/US prices at all the hotels - a bit less so at Beijing.

 

We did the Intrepid Premium so the hotels were all 3 and 4 stars. The one downside was air pollution which was particularly bad in the Yantze part of the trip. Everything else was great.

[smeyer418]

if you check my other post I do say the amount for the group is averaged out. However if the group goes over, they will find the luggage that is the culprit and charge. As I pointed out, our guide carried only a carry on so we had 44 lbs to work with. That being said I would rather everyone be below 44lbs than worry that someone will make it up for me. and I agree with the Pollution caused by coal burning plants. That is one reason why the three gorges Dam is so important to them.

[new_cruiser]

smeyer418,

 

I agree that it is not a good idea to count on averaging. That is why I put in "(not that it is a good idea to depend on your trip mates packing light)."

 

I hope Three Gorges will help with the pollution, but I'm pretty sure it won't be enough. Our group talked about this when we were there. They have rapidly increasing numbers of cars. Modernization is pushing up their electric power needs such that even with the new dam they won't necessarily be taking any coal burning plants off line. They also do a lot of coal burning to produce heat directly. In Yichang, for instance, one is continually seeing loads of coal being carried around. It is used to heat houses, to run the forge-like cookers in the night market, for small industry, etc. Coal fired plants at least can be modified to do some clean-up on their emissions. All this distributed use of coal is unlikely to get cleaner.

 

I don't want to focus too much on that aspect. We loved the food. People were friendly and helpful everywhere we went. It is impressive how hard the people there work. A lot of the shops are open late at night. Prices are very low.

[smeyer418]

They closed all the coal plants in Shanghai. The three gorges dam is so big that it is anticipated that many coal plants will close and the dam flooding has knocked out a lot of marginal coal fired plants of all sorts. I agree that with the increase in the number of cars they will have another problem. I have a great picture of the coal polltion on the river but it is too large to post... only time will tell clearly China has a insurmountable pollution problem with no easy solutions... and we loved the food and people too and the prices :)

[cmthomas]

It appears that Viking is offering a program that includes several days in Tibet as part of the land portion of the tour. It is called "Top of the World." I would be most interested in hearing from anyone who has taken this trip, to include Tibet, advising if the additional time and expense to see this isolated land is worthwhile. Clarence

[smeyer418]

are you really Clarence Thomas?

[cmthomas]

Yep. I'm the real one. The other guy just happens to have the same name! I had it first tho!