Grand China and the Yangtze
Overall Impression.
China is like going to another planet. An amazing place. I think people should give it more consideration. Here are some thoughts:
Food: The food was fine from start to finish. No one in the group had digestive problems. If anything, we were more prone to a little constipation than anything. All the meals included enough variety for everyone, and as far as I’m concerned, the food was healthier than anything you’d get in western nations. Fat, sugar and salt was virtually non-existent. Vegetables were cooked. Spices kept to a minimum except for the odd meal that you’d try just to try. Sometimes, it was quite nice. Other times, our eyes watered. The only complaint about the food was that there was too much. I was the most finicky eater of the group (because I don’t eat fish, duck and am picky about my beef and pork), and I never had a problem getting enough to eat. There was always a chicken selection and I could eat rice until the cows came home. And the vegetables were always delicious. And who can’t eat cantaloupe or watermelon for dessert? So, don’t let food be a reason not to visit China. You’ll eat more, eat better and eat healthier than you will on any other tour of a western nation.
Toilets: Yeah, they can be interesting at times, but there are some things you put up with when you travel. You can come across smelly, urine soaked toilets in New York or Rome, but that doesn’t stop anyone from going. Western style toilets are becoming more and more common, but to tell you the truth, I didn’t mind the squat toilets. Seriously. Think about it. Most women will “hover” anyway over a public toilet, so squatting isn’t any different. (TMI yet? LOL). The only bother was making sure you had toilet paper and I got in the habit of not only carrying my travel roll in my knapsack, I carried some in my pocket (since I found I’d go to the washroom while my pack was on the bus or at the table). As long as I had paper, I was happy in the Happy Room.
Safety: I don’t recall seeing a single pick pocket suspect on the entire tour. I never once felt unsafe, even walking the streets after dark. Others on the tours went for walks in the evenings and early mornings and never had any worry about their safety. Of course, we all exercised normal precautions. Walking the busy streets and not the weird and wonderful side alleys. Also remember that pedestrians have absolutely zero right of way. The cars will, quite literally, drive up to you close enough to touch you. Crossing the street is just a matter of watching for traffic and following the locals. As long as we kept with them, we were fine. For the most part, the cars obeyed the traffic signals so that we could cross on the walk signal – but still kept an eye out anyway. This was less of a problem in Hong Kong, but there, we had to get used to looking in the other direction.
Shopping: I’d been told that the vendors loved to grab the shoppers and in three weeks, that only happened once – in Guilin. One other pair of vendors stood in my way but didn’t grab me. The vendor near the hotel physically grabbed me and tried to pull me back and I just ripped my arm away from her and walked away. Otherwise, the vendors primarily shouted “hello” “I give you good deal” “I am your friend” etc., but didn’t lay a hand on me. Bargaining is essential. Many are afraid to bargain because they think they are depriving the vendor but think of it this way: imagine you want to buy a bottle of Coke. The vendor will start off by asking you for $10 for that Coke. Why would you pay $10 for a Coke? So, you come back with 25 cents. They’ll go to $6. You go to 70 cents. They go to $4. You go to $1. In the end, you’ll get your Coke for $2 – which is what you would normally pay. If you’re not willing to pay $2, walk away. If they can go lower, they’ll run after you. If they are at their lowest limit, they won’t. Simple. Granted, even I didn’t always follow these rules and paid too much for some items, but that’s part of it all. At least the rug place didn’t sell me a 1 foot square rug for like 50 Euro. Oh, and check with the TD about whether or not you can bargain in the stores. Some of the stores said there was no bargaining but others did. The tea farm in Guilin said no bargaining for the tea. That didn’t mean no bargaining for the other items – I found that out after I made my purchase. And double check your purchase. I bought pink jade ear rings at the jade factory and when I go home, I found they had switched them for the white ones. Not happy about that at all.
Luggage: Obey the weight limitations – at least from the start. Every bit of documentation that I got said 44 lbs maximum. It was splashed over everything and impossible to miss, but still, one tourmate showed up with a bag weighing well over 50 lbs. What kept us from paying for the extra weight on the flights was the TD’s light luggage and everyone else working to keep their own weight down. (However, on a larger tour, his light luggage wouldn’t make up for it if a number of people were well over the limit). One has to remember that it’s not only the flights that we have to be concerned with but the porter’s and bus drivers that have to handle bags this heavy. We lucked out in the end. Even though we were consistently over the weight limit by a few kg, none of the airlines charged us. If they had, there would have been some question about who paid. People didn’t mind paying for the bags that were one or two kilograms over, but when one doesn’t even attempt to respect the weight limit and is up to seven kg over the weight limit, people might refuse to contribute to paying for the collective overage.
Flights: We flew with China Eastern, Shanghai Air and China Southern. All were modern aircraft that followed normal aircraft procedures as with any western airline. The Shanghai Air flight was the nicest with the newest aircraft while China Southern had the oldest aircraft but the best service. All aircraft were modern Boeing or Airbus. I felt perfectly safe on all the flights.
Language: English is spoken by more people than I expected and by more people than in Russia. On the street, they know enough to negotiate prices. In the hotels, the staff spoke pretty good English. My only problem was with the accent at times. The guides all spoke good English. Two of the guides were close to flawless. Some people didn’t understand some slang, so if you’re asking an important question, make sure they understand. Sometimes, I’d get a weird answer to a question then realize that they didn’t understand a bit of slang.
Hotels: Some of the best I’ve stayed in. All had amenities that I often didn’t see in many of the European hotels like bath robes, iron and kettle with condiments. Internet was easy to access and reasonably priced. All had safes and bar fridge with English channels other than news – usually HBO and Nat GO. (A lot of the European hotels I stayed in only had news in English). The breakfast buffets went from reasonable to exceptional. All had western type breakfast selections plus some Chinese selections like Congee. If one can eat breakfast at the Hilton in Berlin, they can eat the breakfast at the Sheraton in Guilin.
Tips: The usual tips for the TD, drivers, local guides and river guides/cruise staff. Otherwise, the Chinese don’t expect tips, but are grateful for them.
Pollution: Air pollution is the primary concern in the cities. We lucked out in that Xi’an, Shanghai and Hong Kong had seen quite a bit of rain and had clear air. Beijing was another story. The smog limited visibility to less than a kilometer at times. You could smell and taste it. If you have allergies to dust, pollen and other airborne particulates, you’ll likely have a problem when the air quality is low. I wore an ‘I Can Breathe’ clothe mask with a carbon filter inside and while it fogged my glasses at times, it was very effective. There are other masks on the market. I didn’t feel out of place wearing it even though few locals were wearing a mask and no other tourists that I saw. In the end, it was worth it to be able to finish the trip healthy. I took an adequate supply of decongestants, cough drops, cough syrup, anti-histamines and pain relievers – all of which I used at some point. Finding a pharmacy would have been a problem – finding what you want in those pharmacies, even harder. Better to have more of what you might need. No one else on the tour suffered any ill effects from the smog except some minor throat irritation that disappeared after we left Beijing. One woman likely had allergies and didn’t know it. The ship was full of carpets and set off my allergies. She had the same symptoms which also began to improve as soon as we left the ship.
Overall, I highly recommend China to any traveller and encourage anyone who didn’t think of it as a destination because of food or other reason to reconsider. The tour is a mix of cityscapes, historical sites and some of the most beautiful scenery you can imagine. The Great Wall, Xian and Three Gorges Dam were manmade highlights. Guilin was the natural highlight and if anyone considers a tour of China, don’t skip Guilin. I know some tours offered only do the northern portion but offer Guilin and Hong Kong as extensions. Whichever you do, include Guilin. It’s a highlight that I label among the most amazing places I’ve been – up there with the Grand Canyon, the Pyramids and Petra.
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