9 day China tour?

[Eric in McLean]

Looking for a tour of China that starts on Saturday and ends on the following Sunday (9 days/8 nights) that starts in Beijing, goes to Xian, and ends in Shanghai. We want to stay in 4 star hotels, meals don't have to be included. $2k to $2,500 per person for hotel, some meals, and escorted travel inside China. Any suggestions?

I do speak Mandarin from growing up in Taiwan, although it's rather rusty.

 

[davhu1]

Try www.ritztours.com

 

[Eric in McLean]

They have the exact dates we want to travel. Have you done their tour? How's the food? tour guides?

 

[jlee2070]

Hello,

I have taken a tour with Ritz. I recommend them for sure... Ritz is considered a "higher" end tour in that they use better Hotels (than most). The food between the various tours I think are same as many of the tours use "contracted" restaurants and serve fixed menus. When I was on the tour, most restaurants was packed with travelers from other tours. As to tour guide, they are English speaking (if you need that) and the Ritz guide does stay with the tour BUT at most locations, you will have a "local" tour guide takes over that segment of the tour. Our tour was very diverse with young/old and Asian/non-Asian. We had about 20 people in our group.

I might also recommend http://chinafocustravel.com/. My friend used them and was happy. As I understand it, they are less expensive than Ritz and they stay at "4" star hotels as opposed to the typically "5" star Ritz uses.

Also, the "4" vs "5" in China is different that what you would expect in the US. I would say 4 in China is about 3.5 in US and 5 in China is about 4 in the US.

 

[Eric in McLean]

Thanks! That's very helpful.

 

[rje]

Highly recommend Ritz Tours.

 

[IngridN]

You mights give CITS (China International Travel Services or close) a try. They are the Chinese gov't travel service and have offices in the US. Back in 1994 when we couldn't find a tour that met our specific itinerary requirements, I stumbled upon them. The totally customized a tour for the 2 of us and it cost approximately 5-10% more than your typical mid-level tour. They used 4 and 5 star hotels (you can specify) and made arrangements for all travel within China. We used FF miles for travel to and from China. They provided an excellent Engligh speaking guide as well as car and driver at each location. We would be picked up at the airport/train station and dropped off again. We were in China for 3 1/2 weeks and had 4 or 5 flights and 1 train trip within China. I would go with them again if I were traveling to multiple locations and did not want to hassle with the logistics myself. DH and I just got back from a week in Beijing, and the changes are amazing...

Ingrid

 

[Eric in McLean]

next question, when and where to get visa? we live around Washington DC.

 

[IngridN]

Eric,
DH was in Beijing for a conference prior to our vacation and he had his staff assistant handle our visas. His company uses a service, http://visanetwork.com/ . Their website should provide you will all the info you'll need.

Ingrid

Edit to add: The visa is good for 1 30 day entry during a 6 month period that begins with the date the visa is issued. It took about 7-10 days to get the visas.

 

[Canuck]

Eric,

Not sure if you have booked your trip/tour yet. However, an excellent company that has been around for over 25 years is Premiere Tours, they are a tour operator based in Canada with ground handlers all over Asia.

http://www.premieretours.net/

Great people to deal with and decent prices. If they don't offer what you're looking for they will build custom trips just for you.

Merry Christmas!

 

[Eric in McLean]

Haven't booked yet. I think with the collapse of the world economy, the prices are gonna go down.

 

[PLL]

Take a look at Gate1travel.com also. My cousins who travel a great deal highly recommend them. When you compare packages, see if the price quoted includes China visa and travel insurance - I believe these are included in quotes from Ritztours - they do add up. We went to China for the first time last yr but used United FF miles for our flight to China and organized the land portion of the trip ourselves. We almost got Gate1's land package but could not make the schedule work and ended up doing our own thing. We hired a private guide in Beijing for $55 per day for the 3 of us. For the sites in the city (e.g. Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven) she took us around by taxi, but hired a van for us to go to the Great Wall at Muitanyu (less crowded than Badaling). We stayed at the Absolute in Beijing. I wrote a review of this place plus a summary of our stay in Beijing if you want to read more about what we did there. If you are interested in hiring our guide, email me at Lukphx@yahoo.com.

I debated about buying a package tour vs doing our own thing but am so glad we did it ourselves with a private guide. It gave us alot of flexibility and we ended up saving money since we wanted to start the trip from Hong Kong. From there, we went to Guilin via Guangzhou, then to Beijing. I also recommend the reviews on www.tripadvisor.com.

 

[Eric in McLean]

After much comparison shopping, we booked with http://www.intertrips.com. It was recommended by Washington Post in this article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy...30/AR2009013001746_5.html?sid=ST2009013002440

They were cheaper than Ritz - excluding international airfare, the price is $864 per person, with $150 addition for visa application. I believe the trip is one day shorter.

 

[Reno27]

Hi, I don't know if this is the right thread, but I want to go visit China in the next few months. However, I heard from my friends that some part of China is dirty and people even spitting anywhere they like. Do you guys know something like this?
I really want to see that Great Wall you know.

 

[Eric in McLean]

The air is smoggy in the 3 cities I went to (Beijing, Xi'an, and Shanghai). The streets aren't littered with garbage but the personal hygiene of the locals aren't particularly good. People do spit, the public toilets tend to stink, and people will shove or nudge you out of their way without prior warning.

From what I've heard, China is still infinitely cleaner than India.

 

[Reno27]

The air is smoggy in the 3 cities I went to (Beijing, Xi'an, and Shanghai). The streets aren't littered with garbage but the personal hygiene of the locals aren't particularly good. People do spit, the public toilets tend to stink, and people will shove or nudge you out of their way without prior warning.

From what I've heard, China is still infinitely cleaner than India.

Thanks Eric. Btw, what city do you suggest me if I want to visit China? I'm definitely going to Beijing, though. My friend is taking language course at CNU, so she asked me to visit her.
I think I can bear with toilet stink and spitting stuff as long as I can get a nice hotel there. Are hotels also dirty? 5 stars hotel?

 

[Tacoma]

The hotels wil be very clean and pleasant with great breakfasts provided. The beds however are smaller than we are used to and are VERY hard. Apparently the locals like them hard. Most tours have you out and about for most of the day so you need to use local toilets. I always had toilet paper with me. It took my daughter a while to get comfortable just using the hole in the ground toilets but now she agrees with me they are more sanitary that the normal toilets. As mentioned the smog was incredible particularly in Beijing.

Joan

 

[lily28]

You will have not problem with 4 and 5 star hotels in China. There are many western brand hotel in China now. In Beijing, there are sheraton, western, ritz carlton and novotel hotels to name a few.

 

[Eric in McLean]

Thanks Eric. Btw, what city do you suggest me if I want to visit China?

Beijing and Xi'an have lots of historical/cultural stuff to see. Shanghai is really just a modern city but if you're interested in nightlife then it's probably a good place to go. I'm personally not going back to China anytime soon. The hotels away from large cities are supposedly less than acceptable to western standards.

 

[Zac495]

Hi, I don't know if this is the right thread, but I want to go visit China in the next few months. However, I heard from my friends that some part of China is dirty and people even spitting anywhere they like. Do you guys know something like this?
I really want to see that Great Wall you know.

We visited when we adopted our little girl. The customs are different. They have split pants for their little ones. We have a picture of a mom holding her son over a trash can for him to do his thing. But that's not considered dirty there.

So I think you have to decide if you want to see a different culture with things that may suprise or shock you - and accept that it's okay - just different.

VERY hard beds - food was okay - not like American Chinese.

Our baby is so beautiful - she's 11 now! Oh - the Great Wall was awesome!

 

[yoohoo]

I just came back from China last week; I was in southern China around Guangzhou. We spent two weeks touring northern China; we were an hour away from Russia. Our plane fare was $750 St. Louis to Beijing and return Hong Kong to St. Louis. Our two week tour cost us about $300. There were three of us. We traveled around on trains; we took the lowest class possible. The best hotel we stayed at was a 3 star. We had our own guide, van, and driver. If we had to do over again, we would upgrade the train to the next class. We would have kept the hotels since you only needed them as a place sleep. They were all clean but not up to western standards. They all had Chinese breakfast.

As others have pointed out, habits and custom will be different, but that is a reason to go.

On visa get a multi-entry one for two years. You may want to go back or you may want to visit Hong Kong or Marcu.

 

[dacoda]

China tour

If you want to see the Great Wall of China, and a Tour in Hong Kong and Macau then maybe it would be helpful if you will try to google it. Because there are a lot of websites out there that offers tour packages. Look what i found www.travelbooth-asia.com. Maybe you should try this if you are planning to go to China. I'm sure you can also ask them to give you a discounted rate.