Trip Report: Part 1: Beijing
 

My husband & I recently returned from a 3.5 week trip to China and Honk Kong. We were travelling with friends who joined us for the tour and 5 days (compared to our 12 days) in Hong Kong.

We started with a 12-day tour of Beijing, Xi’an, Guilin and Shanghai. The tour was sold through a local Chinese travel agency in Toronto but we discovered on arrival was actually a CITS tour.

We spent 4 days in Beijing staying at the Days Hotel and Suites. The hotel was quite nice but the location was not really close to downtown but this wasn’t a real issue as we had no free time and the tour bus took us everywhere. The only thing we didn’t like about the hotel was at registration when they asked for a deposit of 1,000 Yuan for the mini bar. That was half of our cash and we said “no”. They then changed it to $100 US. We told them we were Canadian and not American and didn’t have $100 US. We then agreed on 100 Yuan and asked them to clean out the mini bar because we wouldn’t be using it. When we got to the room all that was in the fridge was one small chocolate bar. Obviously we didn’t use the mini bar and there was no issue to getting our 100 Yuan back during checkout.

Beijing was a busy city. On our first day, we visited the Summer Palace, Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. We quickly discovered that we are not tour people. We didn’t like standing around every 10 minutes to hear a long talk about a specific place of thing; especially when Beijing was experiencing an unusual heat wave. It was 32c in the shade and there was no shade in the Forbidden City. I guess it didn’t help that this was Day One of the tour and everyone had jet lag. We asked to tell us when and where we could meet at the end of a place and was told “no, we had to stay with the tour”.

Day Two was the Ming Tombs and the Great Wall at Badaling. At least we were given 2 hours on the wall on our own. Thanks to people on this forum I knew enough to know I had a choice. Go right for steep – Left for steeper. I shared this with my new friends in the tour and we all went left. Wow, steep is an understatement. 2 hours was more than enough time as we returned to the meeting place with 20 minutes to spare but my husband did not want to go up the other side as his knees were hurting him from the descent. The wall was great. Not too many people (maybe because we went the steeper way) but the vendors were a pain - actually very aggressive. I did order to have a slate engraved with our names and paid him the half the amount and said I would return. We were late getting back and I thought he may actually have left with my deposit but he was there and I got what I ordered. Very nicely done too!

Day Three was the Temple of Heaven, a Huntong Tour, Peking Duck dinner and cultural show. The most fun was the Huntong Tour where I bought so many silk products hat I had to buy a big silk bag to carry it all in.

great start...now you know why many of us prefer individual travel not on tours...

Hi, we are scheduled for our first trip to China, tour group...(yeah, I'm chicken to wing it...pun unintended?)
I'm sure this is a Non Issue for most...
Q.in Forbidden City/other public areas is there access to WC/restroom?
(because of Health issues one needs to know !)
Any other China tips you can think of are welcome! thanks

Betty:

Had to join a tour back in '84..only practical way into China then..but planning to go again in April and will be hiring a guide from time to time in select cities...can't wait to independently explore some of the places we were guided into back then.

Stu T.

katenate: I am not sure if you mean water closet/restroom or western style W/C? There are W/Cs are all tourist spots, but might not all have western style toilets. Latter Q will be for your tour group director.

I meant W/Cs in all tourist spots.

Nice pun, do you like chicken wings, or paws? Just kidding.

TO: Shanghainese

Thank you So Much for your Reply...and for appreciating my Lame Pun...chicken feet,I've eaten...ahem!

In all earnestness,I asked about Toilet/restroom/ WC...and I do what what non-Western/English toilet means...

You Have alleviated a good bit of my Anxieties in that Realm of Travel in Chian!!

Interesting to read, as we are considering our first organised tour in Sept. to China. I'm worried that we also are not 'tour people'. All the ones i read are too 'organised'. Doesn't seem to be any 'down' time for exploring.
Would you do it that way again for China....or do you feel it would be ok to do it independantly? We are fairly well 'world traveled' but not in a place 'like' China.

Thanks in advance.

aussiedreamer: You can do it! The people on this forum are so helpful you can get feedback on any questions you have.

Aussiedreamer: We would go next time by ourselves. The tour was like a sampler. Now we know where to go and what to do. My husband speaks Cantonese and understands some Madarin. It helps that he also reads it fluently. Everything can be done yourself except for maybe the Great Wall but guides/taxis can be hired.

We will go again in a few years and will go back to Beijing, Gulin and probably Shanghai. Once you have a feel for the airport, city layout, etc I feel more comfortable.

I applaud the non-Chinese who visit China on their own.