Anyone used China Odyssey?
Feb 13th, 2016, 04:58 AM
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Anyone used China Odyssey?
My family has the chance to go to China this summer (kids 15, 13, 10) plus my mother. Thinking of booking with this company. We'd be in Beijing, Xiam, 2 day/3night river cruise, than Shanghi. Love to here your experiences, must sees and advice. Thanks
Feb 13th, 2016, 07:00 AM
#3
Before you commit to using any tour group for China, you might consider traveling independently. Besides the usual downsides of group travel, China has additional problems relating to the education of the guides (state propaganda), forced shopping ops and dumbed-down food. The tour you outline is absolutely standard for a first trip to China - nothing wrong with that, but it now a well-trodden tourist trail.
Rather than repeating what has been said he many times already:
http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...ndependent.cfm
http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...s-267678-2.cfm
http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...na-beijing.cfm
And so on.
Rather than repeating what has been said he many times already:
http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...ndependent.cfm
http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...s-267678-2.cfm
http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...na-beijing.cfm
And so on.
Feb 13th, 2016, 08:20 AM
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Here are some reviews about them: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractio...r-Beijing.html
If you are the type to do tours, they seem ok. It is not required to join a tour to visit China. Despite the language difference, you can organize everything yourself. Especially with a family of 5, it would pay to use your own planning and hire a private guide here and there. with kids of this age, I would definitely skip the boring cruise. Actually, i would skip it at any age. Instead, go to the Guilin-Yangshuo are that the kids will probably love.
If you are the type to do tours, they seem ok. It is not required to join a tour to visit China. Despite the language difference, you can organize everything yourself. Especially with a family of 5, it would pay to use your own planning and hire a private guide here and there. with kids of this age, I would definitely skip the boring cruise. Actually, i would skip it at any age. Instead, go to the Guilin-Yangshuo are that the kids will probably love.
Feb 13th, 2016, 10:18 AM
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Abram. Thanks! Just wanted to make sure they are a good tour company
Thursdayd Thank you for the links....I will definately read them. The tour we are considering is a private tour with guides in each location that pick us up from the airport/train, bring us to the hotel and give us tours with a driver and tour guide. I actually was thinking that would me more educational for the kids (two love to talk and ask questions). We did opt out of a few "shopping tours" and for our lunch meals the guide will take us to local spots.
CanadaChinaTraveller Thanks for your advice. I'll look into Guilin... the idea of the cruise was to give my mother who is 72, but in excellent shape a little break. I can change anything I'd like, it is a private tour
Thursdayd Thank you for the links....I will definately read them. The tour we are considering is a private tour with guides in each location that pick us up from the airport/train, bring us to the hotel and give us tours with a driver and tour guide. I actually was thinking that would me more educational for the kids (two love to talk and ask questions). We did opt out of a few "shopping tours" and for our lunch meals the guide will take us to local spots.
CanadaChinaTraveller Thanks for your advice. I'll look into Guilin... the idea of the cruise was to give my mother who is 72, but in excellent shape a little break. I can change anything I'd like, it is a private tour
Feb 13th, 2016, 10:23 AM
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No need to join a tour unless you want to do so -- it is surprisingly easy to travel independently in China, and as noted above, there are some unfortunate drawbacks of tours of China. In addition to the links already provided, you might find some value in trip reports from those of us who have traveled there independently -- go to the section of this board on China and then scroll down to the section on Trip Reports.
Feb 13th, 2016, 10:42 AM
#7
Rather than Guilin, which is heavily touristed, you might consider Chengdu, and a visit to see pandas.
For more on Chengdu see: http://wilhelmswords.com/rtw2004/index.html - Chilly Chengdu
For more on Chengdu see: http://wilhelmswords.com/rtw2004/index.html - Chilly Chengdu
Feb 13th, 2016, 11:33 AM
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Kia. Thanks.... Still figuring out if I have the courage with everyone in my party. My husband who is not a traveler, my eldest son who loves a "plan", my two other kids (13, 10) and my mom. The private tour would give her a place to sit if she became tired. But will read the reports
Thursdaysd.. I will check that out as well. My daughter loves pandas. Thanks!
Thursdaysd.. I will check that out as well. My daughter loves pandas. Thanks!
Feb 13th, 2016, 01:30 PM
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Be aware that the information you get from your tour guides in China is unlikely to be accurate. Instead, it will be the propaganda the guides learned about China and its history. I highly recommend that you and your family do a lot of reading ahead of time on Chinese history and the history of the sites you plan to visit.
Feb 13th, 2016, 06:29 PM
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Kathie
We are starting a unit plan in a couple of weeks! It will be interesting to compare and contrast...even "our" history of China is changing. I was looking at an old 1978 World Book Encyclopedia compared to the newer addition. Any book recommendations?
We are starting a unit plan in a couple of weeks! It will be interesting to compare and contrast...even "our" history of China is changing. I was looking at an old 1978 World Book Encyclopedia compared to the newer addition. Any book recommendations?
Feb 14th, 2016, 07:46 AM
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"Be aware that the information you get from your tour guides in China is unlikely to be accurate. Instead, it will be the propaganda the guides learned about China and its history. " - not sure that this is a Chinese thing. Anywhere in the world, there are more than one interpretation of history, even here where I live.
I still think that guides will be useful for most people. It's not just about telling you the history.
I still think that guides will be useful for most people. It's not just about telling you the history.
Feb 14th, 2016, 02:11 PM
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My understanding of the limits to the information one can get from guides in China is that they have no awareness that their information is limited. It isn't a matter of interpretation (nor is it their fault), it's that they honestly don't know that there is a wealth of information about their country that is not generally available to them. They simply know only what they have been permitted to know. I'm not saying that China is the only place where that happens, just that it is a major factor there.
Feb 14th, 2016, 02:56 PM
#14
Book recommendations: "Wild Swans" takes you through three generations of a Chinese family and will be an easy and readable way to understand the history before Mao, during the Cultural Revolution and after it is over. Highly recommend it. It was very helpful to me on my first trip to China. Also "Life and Death in Shanghai", non-fiction, biography.If you are on a private tour shopping stops do not have to be included and you can request high level quality food. You can also hire highly educated guides with university degrees who know the actual bistory of their country. Guides trained in tourism schools may not. I am returning to China soon for the third time and always have had highly educated and competent guides as well as excellent food in every region I have visited.
Feb 14th, 2016, 06:09 PM
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Kia - Thank you for your thoughts and advice... I was thinking the guides could discuss daily life, what school was like, etc.
Happy Trvlr - Thanks for the advice. I already ordered Wild Swans and will look up the other book. Amp you advice on finding "educated" guides?
Happy Trvlr - Thanks for the advice. I already ordered Wild Swans and will look up the other book. Amp you advice on finding "educated" guides?
Feb 14th, 2016, 08:58 PM
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> Happy Trvlr - Thanks for the advice. I already ordered Wild Swans and will look up the other book. Amp you advice on finding "educated" guides?
I'm sorry, but none of this makes any sense in the context of China travel.
There aren't any "educated" guides in the sense you mean. Going through higher education simply means further reinforcement of the false, and only one view ever provided. Control of the account of history is total. Becoming a properly licensed guide requires training in telling tourists what the government wants them to hear. The tourism industry is merely one arm of the same general system of information control which includes the education system and the media. Read what you can before travelling, and take materials with you. You won't find any truthful substitutes in China, and I've never yet met a guide who wasn't clueless, although of course many didn't know it. The main purpose of even the most tooth-acheingly sweet, is to tell you whatever it is thought you want to hear, whatever makes China look best, and to get kick-backs from every opportunity (which is everything you eat, every sight you visit, and every bit of shopping).
As for reading, I'm afraid 'Wild Swans' is a carefully engineered narrative of dubious honesty which tells you nothing about how China is now, and is mainly concerned with settling scores in the past. 'Life and Death in Shanghai' is more accurate, but even less relevant, and not short of the same self-righteousness. If you're interested in China's post-revolutionary history then read proper (but readable) historians who give you the whole picture: Frank Dikötter for instance (three volumes on the Revolution, on the Great Leap Forward, and on the Cultural Revolution). For very readable accounts of life in China today, see some of the many books published by foreign correspondents. Ian Johnson's 'Wild Grass', although not now right up to date, is a very fine example.
And whatever grade of food you request, you'll still be taken wherever the guides get the biggest kick-back. This is unlikely, unless entirely by accident, to be the best choices.
You really do need to read the material linked to earlier, which includes lengthy discussions of the problems with tour companies, and tells you the questions you need to be asking them.
As for Yangshuo, if eating pizza is your idea of real China, then by all means go. But it's rather less Chinese than the Chinese pavilion in the Epcot Center.
I'm sorry, but none of this makes any sense in the context of China travel.
There aren't any "educated" guides in the sense you mean. Going through higher education simply means further reinforcement of the false, and only one view ever provided. Control of the account of history is total. Becoming a properly licensed guide requires training in telling tourists what the government wants them to hear. The tourism industry is merely one arm of the same general system of information control which includes the education system and the media. Read what you can before travelling, and take materials with you. You won't find any truthful substitutes in China, and I've never yet met a guide who wasn't clueless, although of course many didn't know it. The main purpose of even the most tooth-acheingly sweet, is to tell you whatever it is thought you want to hear, whatever makes China look best, and to get kick-backs from every opportunity (which is everything you eat, every sight you visit, and every bit of shopping).
As for reading, I'm afraid 'Wild Swans' is a carefully engineered narrative of dubious honesty which tells you nothing about how China is now, and is mainly concerned with settling scores in the past. 'Life and Death in Shanghai' is more accurate, but even less relevant, and not short of the same self-righteousness. If you're interested in China's post-revolutionary history then read proper (but readable) historians who give you the whole picture: Frank Dikötter for instance (three volumes on the Revolution, on the Great Leap Forward, and on the Cultural Revolution). For very readable accounts of life in China today, see some of the many books published by foreign correspondents. Ian Johnson's 'Wild Grass', although not now right up to date, is a very fine example.
And whatever grade of food you request, you'll still be taken wherever the guides get the biggest kick-back. This is unlikely, unless entirely by accident, to be the best choices.
You really do need to read the material linked to earlier, which includes lengthy discussions of the problems with tour companies, and tells you the questions you need to be asking them.
As for Yangshuo, if eating pizza is your idea of real China, then by all means go. But it's rather less Chinese than the Chinese pavilion in the Epcot Center.
Feb 15th, 2016, 05:35 AM
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Happy Trvlr - thanks for your input!
temppeternh - thank you for taking the time to respond! We will be in China in Ningbo for almost four weeks before the "tour", so we will be exploring on our own as well. Mostly taking day trips. I will look up your suggestions on reading. I greatly appreciate the advice
temppeternh - thank you for taking the time to respond! We will be in China in Ningbo for almost four weeks before the "tour", so we will be exploring on our own as well. Mostly taking day trips. I will look up your suggestions on reading. I greatly appreciate the advice
