How do you rate the China land & Yangtze River cruise

[robthens]

How do rate the China land & Yangtze River cruise?

 

This is a trip DH & I have always wanted to go on.

 

What company did you book through?

[greatam]

How do rate the China land & Yangtze River cruise?

 

This is a trip DH & I have always wanted to go on.

 

What company did you book through?

 

Booked and planned everything myself. No package tours for me. Saw lots of tour groups. They looked like they were very frazzled. First trip to China in October 2005-Beijing (2 days), Yangtze River cruise all the way to Wuhan, 3 days in Chengdu in the mountains at the Panda Preserve, 2 days in Llhasa.

 

Never went to Xian or Shanghai. The Terra Cotta Warriors will be there for a long time, as will Shanghai, so you have time for a return trip. What you need to schedule is things that may not be there in the future-Three Gorges (better hurry-the dam is filling up), pandas in the wild, and the hutongs in Beijing. The hutongs will be mostly wiped out before the Olympics in 2008. A lot of the old stuff is being wiped out at a VERY rapid pace.

[cruzcation]

We went on a Uniworld package which included 4 days on Yangtze river (on a Victoria Cruise ship) Beijing and Shanghai. We also extended trip to Hong Kong.

I would highly recommend Uniworld tours. In addition to China we have taken two Danube river cruises with Uniworld.

[roberts2005]

Our Viking experience in China was wonderful. Much better than they do in Europe. Saw alot, did alot. I would do my cruise all over again. Don't miss Xian or Shanghai

[Spikesgirl]

We did a nine-day add on to our Asian cruise with Princess and it got high marks with us all the way. We just got in this morning from Beijing and I can't think of anything that could have made this trip better. Princess really delivered and it was nice to not to have to worry about details. Unless you are very comfortable traveling in China or the far east at Great AM is, I would reccomend a tour as china can be a tough country to travel in if you don't spek the language(s). It is probably too late for much of the old views on the Yangtze for the next scheudled realize of water is September 1. There is still lots to see and I would also urge seeing Xian, as well as the many other sights in the regions. Like I said before, I can't think of anything that would have madethis trip better. Definietly go for it.

 

Charlie

P.S. If you want more details, let me know. Our river cruise was on Victoria and our China tour group was CITS

[lois1112]

Hi Charlie,

glad the cruise was wonderful...mine is in November. any not to miss sites / tours?

Lois

[Spikesgirl]

Are you doing the same Bangkok to Beijing route? If not, let me know your ports and I will try to be a little more specific with my comments. We were definitely gald that we took to extra time in both Bangkok and China before and after the trip, although we were exhausted.

 

In Bangkok, we liked Noon Noch - the botanical garden, although it would have been nice to have more time at the garden and less time with the elephants (they were great too).

 

We did the river and batik excursion in Kuantan - batik factory was nice and had some good deals. unless you're into mangroves, you might want to skip the river portion of this. It was really, really hot there and there was sawdust blowing into our faces all the way back from a sawmill - not the best of feelings. It wasn't as bad as other reviews had lead me to believe though. I think the hint is to keep your expectations low. Lunch was very good though.

 

In Singapore, we did the pewter factory (this was fun as we each got to make something to take home), Cinatown (makes you really appreciate your childhood home) and Raffles (this was a hoot - my DH loves Singapore Slings, so this was a 'must' stop for us.

 

Saigon was crazy - the bicycles and motorcycles were like an investation of locust - lots of peddlers who follow you from stop to stop. We did the city highlights and shopping. Less high lights. more shopping would have been nice because by the time we got to Dong Khoi, we were too pooped to do much more that just walk a couple of blocks. Ride was long into and back to the ship, but that can't be helped because the ship can't negotiate the river any farther up.

 

Nha Trang - we skipped the excursions and just rode the shuttle into the market. Interesting, but be prepared to be descended upon en mass by peddlers, beggars and 'helpers'. We had a 12-year old girl, who was 'helping' us, mostly by steering us to her family's stalls. shopping on the dock offered about the same merchadise. You might want to go to the beach instead, if you are beachy sorts and shop on the dock.

 

Hong Kong was pretty incredilbe - you dock at a four-story mall. We took the highlights tour, which was okay. Took a water taxi around Aberdeen, went to Stanley market (no matter what they tell you, make sure you have some Hong Kong dollars as some vendors will only deal in that) and up to Victoria peak (also a shopping mall). Because of MaiKai, we had two days here and the next day, a tablemate, who grew up in Hong Kong, took us on a personal tour. That was fun and both he and his wife were able to negotiate some great prices for us.

 

Shanghai is an incredible city, but be prepared for the traffic. I would avoid taxis as the traffic is crazy. We did the Best of Shanghai and it just about walked us into the ground. The Children's Museum(a fine arts school) was fun, the Jade Buddah was interesting, but our guide chose to give us an hour lecture upon the niceties of the religion and we just about lost half the tour to heat stroke. She didn't seem to notice too much.

By the time we got to the Shanghai museum, most of us were exhausted and that was a shame because the museum was beautiful. This would be the place to start. finally we stopped at a silk factory and about half the bus stayed behind. It was a long day, too long, really, but the city was wonderful and the skyscrapers just incredible.

 

Because of KaiMai, we only had half a day in Nagasaki, which was a disappointment (and we missed Pusan entirely). Many people expressed extreme displeasure about the Museum offering a very askewed look at the bombing there (Japan was going to surrender, but hadn't gotten around to it yet sort of things). We went to the Peace Monument and that was pretty, but shop there as it will be your only chance to on the Intro to Nagasaki tour. Wasn't much better on the other tours, so I was told.

 

Beijing was incredible and I will be happy to go into more details if you'd like (e mail me at ckirby@deltacollege.edu). On the Yangtze (upgrade to the Shangra-la suite if you can), we loved the Feng Du temple. You take a chair lift up and then enter the Gates of Hell - there are three tests to pass before you can return. We had a cloudy, cooler day and it was a lot of fun (but a lot of stairs). The river ride to the lesser gorges was pretty and easy. Unless you're into dams. I would skip the dam tour (the DH went and he said it was great, but that I would have been bored). food was good on board, but got a little boring after the third day - we'd already been in Asia for nearly a month, so it was probably just us)

 

It was a fabulous trip and our eyes have definitely been opened with regards to the Orient. You are going to have a blast!

 

Charlie

[40yearcruiser]

In 2004 we took a China and Yangtze River tour with Grand Circle Travel. This is a company that caters primarily to mature, experienced travelers. We loved this trip and highly recommend Grand Circle. We've traveled with them several times and their tours are great allowing for both guided sightseeing and time for independent exploration. They have a sub-company called Overseas Adventure Travel that limits tours to small groups (usually 10-16 in a group) and we have booked a tour to Thailand and Vietnam in October. The Grand Circle website is http://www.gct.com to get information on what they offer.