We have traveled quite a bit in Europe and have never taken a tour. We manage very well. We are planning our first trip to China this October. We feel that on this trip we must take a tour. Are we being overly cautious? I am having difficulty sorting out all of the tours. Any recommendations? Though not on a budget we cannot afford the "design your own".

Tens of thousands of people manage independent travel in China every year, and without a word of Mandarin between them.

The difficulties of China are in the eyes of the beholder. For some it's ridiculously simple, and for others bewilderingly impossible. But if you are prefer travelling independently and are used to doing so, then there's no reason why you shouldn't do so in China. If you can managed Paris on your own, you can manage Beijing on your own.

Why in particular do you think you'll need the services of a tour company for China when you wouldn't use one somewhere else?

Peter N-H
http://members.axion.net/~pnh/China.html

I'd say it depends on where you're going. If you're visiting the main cities like Beijing, Xi'an, Shanghai, Guilin, etc, then no a tour is definitely not necessary. You can hire a car, get a guide, or just use public transportation and wander around by yourself in those places.

However, if you're thinking about more remote places like Silk Road or Jiuzhaigou/Huanglong, where there are more logistical problems, then a tour will be preferrable.

If you do travel independently up through Gansu Province and Xinjiang A.U. on the "Silk Road" you will find hundreds of people doing the same thing, most just booking transport and hotels as they go.

Ticket offices are much the same across China--no one speaks English, but it doesn't really matter if you know the name of your destination, and have it written down along with the date of travel. But equally hotel travel desks and travel agencies are the same across China, and if you feel the need to use them they'll sort things out for you.

There's nothing particularly logistically complex about one part of China over another, and while there's certainly hard travelling available if you go well off the beaten path, even remote areas now frequently have large air-conditioned buses and fully computerised ticketing systems.

There's plenty of advice and encouragement here to travel as rurally as you please, and independently, too. You won't be alone.

Peter N-H
http://members.axion.net/~pnh/China.html

Thanks for the encouragement. I guess we are not as adventurous as we were when we were younger-- the language is a bit daunting (not being able to even read a street sign)also have heard that we cannot get the hotel rates on our own as well as tourists are taken advantage of. I guess, I am not willing to put in the planning time that would be necessary to make it work without a tour.

An opportunity to clear up a few misunderstandings:

To be sure, there's greater ease in countries where Roman script is used, but there's a great deal more Roman script about in China than is commonly supposed. In railway stations and airports signs are in English. Most streets in larger towns have their street signs in Romanized Chinese as well as characters, as do all major tourist sights (very often with English, too), as do important businesses you might want to deal with such as travel agencies and banks (for foreign exchange), very many hotels, etc.

Guide books vary in accuracy, but the better ones place almost anywhere you might want to go on their maps, which can be used with the better maps on sale at every airport and railway station to help you get around. Better guide books have the characters for wherever you want to go, and showing these to taxi drivers and others will get you where you want to go.

All that's needed, really, is a 'can do' attitude. If you'd rather not have the bother, then a tour would be indeed be better.

But as regards planning, it's those who plan who pay too much and who are taken advantage of. Those who just go to China and make it up as they go along do a great deal better, and by discussing prices at hotel receptions, for instance, pay 50% or so of the prices paid by those who insist on booking in advance. These days a smile, and a request for a discount, and then for a little bit more, will get you the same price as any Chinese, who will do exactly the same. This isn't a long-drawn-out or painful process: it's the conversation everyone has, and it's all over in two or three minutes. At every level of accommodation in most of China for most of the year, supply well exceeds demand, and it's a buyer's market.

Train ticket prices are fixed, and rather than face the station yourself (although I always do) you can always find agents who charge between Y5 and Y20 (you should only pay more if you're in town A and wanting to board at nearby town B) per ticket (that's US$2.50 or £1.50 or so). If you stay in better hotels there's always a tendency for the agents to charge four- or five-star commission rates, just as a beer at the bar will cost a lot more than it will in an ordinary restaurant just down the street. Nevertheless, the service is there. Agents on the Web offering advance booking to foreigners ask as much as 70% more than the ticket's face value--again, it's the planners who suffer, not those who travel in a more relaxed manner.

Air tickets are easily available from dozens of agents in every town, easily recognizable from airline signs, and charge no commission. Again, prices can be bargained down in a way they usually cannot in advance over the Web. Just mime disappointment, write down a lower figure or enter it on the pocket calculator provided, and see what happens. In the end the agent will always sell you the lowest price ticket the system will give them. The timetable is in English, and communication is thus straight forward.

Eating is easy, even local foods. Of course, English menus are available at restaurants inside many hotels and at upmarket venues favoured by resident foreigners, but even elsewhere you can simply point at what other people are eating, or, better, take along the menu from your local Chinese take-away restaurant, or better still, get a guide book with the characters for local dishes discussed in the restaurant reviews, which two or three do offer.

China has still to throw off its reputation for cheating and overcharging foreigners at absolutely every turn, a reputation which was once very well justified, and there's no doubt a bit of caution is still necessary. But it's the advance bookers and those who insist on buying organized services once they arrive who pay more these days. Those who just walk in to hotels, who jump in cabs waving a map and the characters for their destination, who pick their own restaurants and shopping locations from independent advice rather than that of rapacious guides, and who book their transport from within the country, find it astonishingly cheap.

The fact that thousands of others travel independently only indicates that it's possible, not that it's necessarily for you, of course--only you can decide. But do read a bit more because ruling out independent travel in China, if it's what you prefer elsewhere. If you've some idea of how long you want to spend and where you want to go, I'm sure many here will help.

Peter N-H
http://members.axion.net/~pnh/China.html