China Tour
 

Just got back from a tour of China for 8 days (with a tour group)& finished with a trip to Hong Kong (on our own for 3 days). This was my first guided tour and it probably will be my last.I had done my research and picked a tour group highly rated. I read post after post raving on about the food - how good it was and how much there was to eat. I was in for a rude awakening - the food was our main problem. Don't know if anyone else has had this experience. I was delighted to get to Hong Kong and be on my own again.Just wanted to share my thoughts about the trip - maybe I was expecting too much. Went with my 19 year old son.
- Our days were at least 12 hours long. Everyone was totally exhausted including my teenager. We weren't given the opportunity to go back to the hotel if we didn't want to go out to events after dinner.
- Food was almost totally vegetarian. I like Chinese food but I am not a vegetable eater. Meat was very, very scarce in the food until several of us meat eaters said something & we did get a little more meat. I wondered when I saw how much the tour was spending on our meals on their website how they would feed us. Now, I know why. Every meal (except for breakfast - the saving grace) was the same. Stir-fry vegetables with little meat or none at all, sticky rice, tons of vegetables and watermelon for dessert.I almost lost it the day we were served watery soup with some kind of greens in it and tofu. We were allowed 2 - 4 oz. glasses of water, beer or soft drink per meal. One restaurant refused to give me the 2nd glass of 4 oz of water with my dinner. Dishes were all bread/butter size, rarely had serving spoons, and everything was served family style on a lazy susan. Even when they let us order a la carte from the menu, it was still served like this. My teenager was starving most of the time. And if you were the unlucky guy who was at the end of the lazy susan, you might find your meat dish just full of vegetables by the time you got it. It got to be such a hassle trying to get food on the mini plate without serving spoons & eating repetitive food meal after meal that I didn't care whether I ate or not. I felt like I was in the movie Ground Hog Day (when Bill Murray's day kept repeating itself). We don't eat the same thing for lunch/dinner for 7 days in a row at home, why would a tour company expect us to do the same? The restaurants were nice, and the food was seasoned well, but no way are meat eaters going to be turned into vegetarians on a vacation or vice versa. The next to the last day in Shanghai we saw a pizza parlor. I felt like I had an out of body experience. That was the best pizza I ever had. We were all so tired and all we wanted was a good, filling, hassle free meal and that was not to be had. One guy finally said - this is enough, and asked for a regular size dinner plate. I know they say - when in Rome........ but I just wanted to let people know that it's worth checking out the menus of the tours they take. No way would I have gone if I knew I would be staring at multiple plates of vegetables for 14 meals and little else.
Also, beware of where the guides take you shopping. Shops were nice and $$$$$. We finally had to speak up and say - we want to go where the the bargains are & the cheap stuff. They took us to show how silk is made and the showroom had beautiful silk fabric. It was at least $20/yard. Glad my friend didn't buy it because I found her the same thing in Shenzhen for $4.60/yard. A local guy in Shanghai told her never to buy where the guides take you because they get a commission and she also found silk about $5/yard in Shanghai by asking around.
Had a great time on the trip excluding the meal problem - especially liked Hong Kong but if I go to a country again that I feel I need some assistance, I think I will go on a guided day tour only & be on my own the rest of the time.

I think many of us here could have told you of the problems you would have encountered on a tour, not the least of which is that you won't get to choose restaurants and would miss out on so many good ones. For some of your issues, I would note that food is virtually always served family style in Asia, China being no exception, and in China small plates that are changed periodically are the norm, so what you experienced is per normal and you would have found this in any restaurant you picked on your own; as for the lack of meat, one thing is that meat is generally more of a side portion than the main event in a lot of Asian cooking (that is why their rates of heart disease are much lower, they eat much less saturated fat and more tofu and veg); there are of course meat dishes and it is unfortunate that it seems you did not get to experience at least some good meat dishes. Desert in Asia again is virtually always fruit if anything (at home generally it would be nothing), a formal prepared desert being served only on special occasions like a holiday. But overall, your tour should have been designed to accommodate Western eating habits, or if you have been on your own, you could have picked restaurants and ordered what you wanted, including more meat dishes and desert. As I have mentioned many times on this board, one of my main issues with tours is the shopping, which tends to take up more time and be a rip-off, you will find this even on day tours. I have not take anything but a few day tours in my whole travel life and this has always been the case, long on shopping and a mediocre lunch, short on the actual tour part. Organized tours and day trip tours in the PRC were necessary 20 years ago when there were was no tourist infrastructure, but that is not the case now. In future I suggest you avoid even day tours, just get out there and do it on your own, it really is not hard, you will make a few mistakes for sure, but you will never be bored.

Yes blondiepopo, your experience sounds very much like ours. Never again will we do a group tour. We were just a little bit nervous about doing China on our own. However quite early into the trip we just abandoned the group and did our own thing whenever possible and only stayed with our guide when travelling between cities. This worked well for us and things very much improved.

Thanks for your replies. I feel better now - knowing that it's just not me who gets frustrated with some of the things involved in being on a tour. Their diet is much better healthier than ours - I never saw one overweight Chinese person & most get alot of exercise not having a car. But on a tiring tour is not the time to put me on the diet I should be on :)
The pluses of the tour - met 2 couples we really liked & had fun with. I don't think we would have had such a good time if we would have been on our own. And no one got any intestinal problems which was a worry of mine before the trip. But I'm glad Hong Kong came at the end of the trip since it was nice to be on our own.Once I got to China I realized that I could have done this on my own.

I think many people choose to contact with locals and then do their trip on their own,you just need to plan your route,from internet,you may book the hotel,to hire guide or driver,choose your interested resturant and so on.
Try to back next time on your own.

Mickal in Chengdu,China

It would probably be helpful to tell us the name of the tour group, so that others who feel as you do could avoid a similar fate. Thanks for the heads up.

The group we used was Travelsphere. In addition to the general poor quality of this tour, when we met up with our 'expert' tour guide at Heathrow, we discovered that she had never been to China before!!! A lovely, helpful lady....but no China expert.

Thanks very much. I actually was wondering about the original poster, although your data point will definitely be helpful for others in the future. Thanks.

The tour group was Travel China Guide.

Thanks!