My wife and I (both 70 years old) would like to travel to China in October 2010. My wife can walk short distances with a rollator but must rely on a wheelchair for distances more than a few hundred feet. She also has celiac disease and must adhere to a strict gluten-free diet. We have made several unescorted trips to Europe and enjoyed them all. However, with the physical limitations we now have, we think an escorted tour makes more sense.

Has anyone had any experience with handicapped travel in China?
Do any tour companies cater to special needs travelers?
Can anyone suggest some reliable tour companies (either US or Asian)?

Any information from experienced travelers would be greatly appreciated.

Dickp

The general drawbacks with tour companies in China you'll find discussed under several threads by using the search box above.

But China is a very difficult destination for anyone with physical limitations. Pedestrian ways are very uneven and full of obstructions, wheelchair-accessible taxis do not exist, access to subway stations is often only by long flights of stairs, provision of wheelchair ramps is almost unheard of outside a few top-ranked sights. Some of these do have wheelchairs available, and even people to push them for you, although charges are exorbitant. A few have electric carts to help you get about. But in general there's a lack of provision of facilities for the less nimble, or even awareness of their existence.

This is all best attempted by taking support with you in the form of family members and then taking things at your own pace. Many Chinese travel companies will tailor-make tours to cope with different needs, but these should all be treated with great caution, as they cannot be described as 'reliable'. Standard Chinese tours, in addition to their many other drawbacks, have a relentless all-day non-stop pace you might well find daunting even without mobility issues.

Peter N-H

Thank you, Peter for the information. Do you have any recommendations for travel companies that I might contact to customize a tour for us? (I will not hold you responsible for their reliability

dickp

One nice thing about China is that labor is fairly cheap and very plentiful. If you're willing to spend a little money, you can easily have someone help you with almost any needs.

I'm very reluctant to recommend tour companies at all.

If you must, look for a home-based organisation that makes arrangements for less limber groups (do I remember Elderhostel is one of these, if you happen to be in the US)? Academic Travel Abroad is another US company with an eye on people in their 70s.

Otherwise be prepared to pay through the nose and get a foreign-run tailor-made tour for two. Abercrombie and Kent (has or had a Beijing office, but still contracts local services, as almost all do), Imperial Tours (run by foreigners based in Beijing, still a bit too willing to stress the government is making progress, '5000 years of culture', etc.), or Steppes Travel (a UK-based tailor-made specialist).

Although you'll end up paying prices completely out of line with local norms, the main point of using these people is quality control, and the possibility of effective complaint and compensation (although in these cases it is highly unlikely to be necessary--it's with the Chinese companies that this is a problem). Unfortunately local guides are usually used, so you'll still need to bring more reliable reading material yourselves, and should take everything you're told with a kidney-damaging amount of salt.

See if Elderhostel and Academic Travel Abroad's group tours appeal, then consider tailor-made.

Peter N-H