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| Beat that StairMaster! |
Back in October, I begun looking for good deals on a trip to Asia. I ended up booking a tour of Thailand with Affordable Asia (see my old post
here), but also came across many good deals going to China. Only a few short months later, I found myself heading to China after all with family on another good deal offered by
ChinaTours.com. The 8 day package could not be passed over, and this time around we decided to book the flights on our own. It looks like the tour we were on has been slightly modified from its original itinerary, so if you look at the options now they are different from what I experienced. I found out the hard way last time that the flights that Affordable Asia booked for us were not eligible for frequent flyer miles, and sadly, I ended up missing the number of miles I needed to secure status for this year. After doing a comparison on purchasing the flights on our own, we found there was a negligible difference in price and made sure our miles counted this time around. The only down side to this method was that we had a bit of a mix up at the airport when we arrived and had to get to the hotel on our own. All of our domestic flights were still booked through the tour company between Beijing, Xi’an, and Shanghai.
Day 1 – Arrival in Beijing
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| Live snacks |
After 17+ hours of traveling including a quick layover in Chicago, we touched down into Beijing around 7 pm on day 1 of our tour. There were no issues with our flight or customs and immigration and we got our luggage in a fair amount of time. Before leaving, our tour rep, Fiona, had communicated to us over email that there would still be someone to pick us up from the airport when we arrived even though we purchased our own flights. We expected to see someone waiting with a China Tours sign at the terminal as we walked out, but sadly, no one was there. After making a few calls and waiting some more, we decided to just jump in a taxi ourselves and head to the airport. Fortunately, we didn't experience any problems with the cab and got to
Hotel Jen soon thereafter.
The hotel was very nice, but far from the downtown area. I have found this arrangement to be pretty typical with tour companies since they have to park their big buses and shuttle you around most of the time anyways. Usually it isn’t an issue, but it can make for expensive cab rides. We were able to speak with our local guide, Lilly, after checking into the hotel and she apologized for the mix up and gave us the meeting time for the next morning in the lobby. We waited for about an hour assuming they may have been running late.
Day 2 – Beijing
One of the best things about this tour was knowing that a huge hotel breakfast buffet was included each day. All of the buffets were a good mix and Chinese food and an American breakfast. My typical breakfast consisted of coffee, pineapple juice, a croissant with Nutella, fried rice, and some veg/meat stir-fry… a breakfast of champions, for sure!
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| Traditional Peking Duck |
After eating a large meal, we met up with the larger group in the lobby. It was a mix of ages, but most appeared to be in their 30s and 40s. I think on average, this group was a little older than the group that went to Thailand, and much older than the groups I’ve traveled with in the past using On the Go and Tucan Tours. It could be because of the location, or because of that particular tour company… I’m not entirely sure which is the reason. The group was friendly and ready to head out to our first sight! Because of some logistical changes, we had to switch the itinerary for day 1 and day 2 meaning that we would start our trip with going to see The Great Wall of China. I was very happy with this change because it was supposed to rain almost every other day on our trip and I was glad to be able to spend the nice sunny day outside on the wall.
Just like with Thailand, most of our travel time was due to the fact that we were always sitting in traffic. Since the wall is so great indeed, there are multiple places that tourists tend to visit. We went to Juyongguan Pass. Our bus was supposed to drop us off at a higher point in the mountain side, but the road was closed so we stayed in a less steep area. What I didn't realize about the Great Wall beforehand was that it has a lot of steps! It's not just a flat wall, it is like the great steps of China. I would have loved to see Rocky filmed here because he would have never made it to the top. After about 30 minutes or slow, my movements slowed down pretty drastically. After the next 15 I sat on the stairs and started to second guess my decision of walking that far. All I thought about was how in shape those warriors must have been. Because the wall goes for such a far distance, it is hard to really take it all in from one spot. I found myself not as impressed as I have been at some other historical sights, only because I couldn't really appreciate it all. If I could do this again, I would definitely look into some kind of helicopter ride or something over the wall so I can really get a sense for it.
After our walk along the wall, we headed over the a jade “museum” for lunch and a brief instruction on how jade is excavated and polished. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of food here. Who would have thought a shop would offer such a good meal too. The museum itself was more of a shop with a short discussion and demonstration, but that is what I expected when I arrived. Fortunately, I actually wanted to get a small pendant and found one that didn't cost too much. I wouldn't have thought you could haggle in shops like that, but negotiating happens everywhere! I wouldn't be surprised if you went into a shop like H&M and starting bargaining, ha! Heading into traffic yet again, we made our way to an area downtown with more shopping and an exotic food market.
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| Beautiful architecture in the Summer Palace |
Before cutting us loose to walk through the food market on our own, we were escorted into a nearby building for a traditional medicine seminar and consultation with a local medicine person who specializing in herbal treatment. We were led in a short 15 minute discussion around ancient Chinese medicine and how western medicine and eastern medicine complement each other. It was actually very interesting to hear about how they are coming together in comprehensive treatment plans all over the world. We were also offered an opportunity for a free consultation with a professor for a quick check up. I went first in my small group and the professor checked four different pulse points on my arm, asked me to stick out my tongue, and then continued to ask me a few basic questions. After giving me my diagnosis, he discussed what the herbal treatment options were and asked me if I wanted to buy any. I politely declined and he moved along. After our consultation, I was offered a 10 minute chair massage for a few yuan. It felt great after walking all morning.
After leaving the building, we continued down the street to Wangfujing Street to peruse the high-end shopping and more importantly, the food market. Now I am not naive enough to think that local people eat scorpions on a stick everyday, but to see even a few people snacking on them was pretty shocking. In addition to scorpions, there were also kebabs full of starfish, snakes, tarantulas, grubs, and seahorses... something for everyone! For the less adventurous folks, there were steamed buns, stir-fry, and other sweets. I am not one to eat street food anywhere (even in Boston), so I passed. I was tempted to buy some tea and other souvenirs though. I ended up with a silk embroidered piece of artwork that was haggled down to 50 yuan from a 600 yuan starting price, yikes!
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| Rickshaw ride through a Hutong |
Instead of meeting back up with the group to head to the hotel, we stayed behind in search of one the best local restaurants for Peking Duck (according to the internet, of course). After a short walk around the block, we found a tasteful restaurant with a big crowd waiting outside salivating over the small of roast deck wafting through the air. Everyone was given a number and asked to wait outside. The only problem was that they called the numbers out in Mandarin and none of us spoke Mandarin. What ended up happening was that we watched the woman call out number after number and then someone would approach her from our party and she would just shake her head. After 30 minutes of head shaking, it was finally our turn to order! We got a roast duck to share with the traditional accompaniments and pancakes. The condiments included a sweet sauce, some sugar, green onions, pickled diakons, horseradish, and some other things that either I don't remember or could not identify. When our duck was ready to eat, they brought it out and carved it table side. I later found out there is an art to how many cuts they make so that it is in line with some ancient superstitions around bringing good luck and prosperity. At the time, I only thought about how good it was and how the meat melted in my mouth. It was a great way to end the day.
Day 3 – Beijing
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| The Forbidden City |
The rain started as predicted on the next day and we had a cloudy morning while walking around the Summer Palace. The grounds were huge and our guide informed us that this park contained the
longest covered corridor in the world, which is a random but cool fact to know. As a summer home to the Qianlong Emperor's mother, there is a beautiful lake and many pagodas to visit. One of the coolest things to see was the marble ship sitting in the middle of the lake, which was built so that the emperor's mother could still be on the water without the fear of sinking. The only thing I was a bit put off by was that you had to pay to go and visit this beautiful park. It seems to me that it should be open to the public to enjoy!
After our morning stroll and a quick stop into a pearl "factory", we drove to a different part of the city for a rickshaw ride in the rain. In addition, lunch that day was provided by a local family living in a hutong within the city. My guide book makes hutongs look very pretty and spacious, but in reality, so many additional structures popped up within the hutong that was explored that I couldn't tell where the outer wall even was. It seemed run down and dirty, and while I try not to complain, I think this might have been a scam. The food was fine and the host was very welcoming, but it just didn't add up. There was so much pressure for us to eat at this home that the people who opted out of this optional expense were pretty alienated. The bathroom situation at the hutong was, by far, the worse I came across. Allegedly none of the homes have their own bathrooms (which makes you wonder where they shower since I saw they definitely had indoor plumbing in the kitchen), so we all had to use the communal toilets in the alley. The squatty potties were taken to the next level because not only were they holes in the ground, but none of the “stalls” had any doors, just very small dividers. Needless to say, I became much closer to a few of the women on that trip in that bathroom.
After that situation was taken care of, we piled back into the bus to head over to Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City. Unfortunately, we could not actually walk on the square due to a visiting foreign dignitary, but we did walk around it and take a quick picture before continuing on to the Forbidden City. This spot was drastically different from the Summer Palace. Unlike the beautiful trees and landscaping I saw earlier in the day, the Forbidden City was completely concrete and bare. Our guide told us this was because the buildings were made of wood and they didn't want anything inside the fortress that could catch on fire and bring everything down with it. Additionally, there was large tubs all around the outer wall to hold rain water to douse any fires that may have started during an attack. We were also supposed to visit the water nest and Beijing Olympic park that day, but due to all the traffic, we never made it there.
That evening, dinner was included with the tour group for a traditional Peking duck meal. In comparison to the previous night, we only had about a quarter of a duck to share among the large table. Fortunately, we had many other dishes as well including some delicious veggie and other duck meat stir-fries. The stir-fry dishes were fabulous, but I think the duck was better the night before. It had a better presentation and was more moist. After dinner we headed back to the hotel to pack back up for another flight the next day.
Day 4 – Fly to Xi’an
Our group was chauffeured to the airport the next morning and split up onto two different flights landing within an hour of each other. I do not know why we were booked on separate flights, but since we arrived second and didn’t have to wait around for anyone, it didn't seem like a big deal at the time. When we met up with the group, we found out that we were being consolidated into an even bigger group while touring in Xi’an. The other group was also in Beijing for a few days, but stayed at a different hotel and were escorted around by a different guide. It still wasn't completely unmanageable with the larger group, but it did make coordinating times at the sights much more difficult than before. I actually felt bad for our guide, Aaron. He did a great job though!
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| Local artist creating a mini warrior |
Because the flights did not arrive until mid-afternoon, most of the time planned to visit the Small Wild Goose Pagoda had passed and the venue was no longer open. Instead we did a quick city tour in the bus driving around the Bell Tower and Drum Tower squares.
The optional tour for that night was the Tang Dynasty show and dumpling dinner. I did some research in advance on the show and decided it wouldn’t be a good use of our time. Instead, some of the group headed out to a local restaurant with great reviews for a dumpling feast of our own. I don’t eat much seafood, so I chose the meat and veggie dumpling dinner while everyone else had the seafood as well. The dumplings were very good and I definitely enjoyed some more than others, but it seemed like a somewhat authentic experience and no one went home hungry! Fun Fact: Some restaurants will charge you for napkins.
Day 5 – Xi’an
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| View of Pit 1 |
Because of the travel chaos from the day before, we had to squeeze in a trip to the Small Wild Goose Pagoda before continuing with our plans for the current day. The group arrived just as the doors were opening and we walked right in without a wait. The beautiful open park hosted multiple open areas for gathering with friends and family or even exercising. One of the common things for retired women to do is to join a group in the nearby park for traditional dancing. We saw several groups of dancers near the pagoda working on their rhythm. We split up for about 20 minutes or so to explore on our own before getting back on the bus for the drive out to the complex housing the Terra-cotta warriors. Fun
The ~40 minute drive was not too bad considering we had been sitting in heavy traffic during most of our travels within China. Just outside of the venue, we made a pit stop at another local “museum” to understand how the clay warriors were made and view some local furniture and art. This was the only place I found during the entire trip that sold Christmas ornaments, so even though I know I didn’t get the best price, I bought one anyways. I like to collect ornaments and now I will have a little koi fish dangling from my tree next year. After 45 minutes or so of this museum/shopping experience, we were all sent upstairs to eat lunch at the buffet. I don’t know of many shops that offer lunch as well, and I’m not sure how I feel about it. We didn’t even have this experience in Thailand, so it is pretty unique. The food at the Jade museum was awesome, so I was hoping for something delicious. Sadly, I was letdown; I didn’t really enjoy any of it. Good thing I had my snacks ready for that long afternoon.
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| YuYuan Gardens and Huxting Tea House |
After lunch, we hit one of the highlights of the trip, the Terra-cotta Warriors and Horses! We started out as a group in Pit 1 and then had free time to roam the other pits and take photos. Everything I read said to save pit 1 for last, so I was a little confused by why we started there. I guess if you are going to have a guide, you can cover the most detail in the first pit since it is the largest, but that meant the other pits were underwhelming. The most interesting thing I noticed was that they have been digging for 40+ years and still haven’t dug everything up. They have, however, built a beautiful building surrounding each of the pits and plenty of souvenir shopping. Had this been found in the US, I’d like to believe they would have uncovered most of the artifacts before putting them all on display. I do understand having to cover the clay warriors so they can remain preserved, but the shopping too? Is that necessary? It was very cool to see everything that has been dug up so far. The excavation site is much larger than I could have imagined by reading the guide books and the carvings are very ornate.
The last sight for the day was at the Big Wild Goose Pagoda square. I actually wish we were able to spend more time here because it was a fun open area with lots of shops, restaurants, and people walking around. The pagoda itself was closed by the time we arrived, so we could not go in, but walking around outside was delightful. In addition, I was able to pick up a green tea and red bean cheesecake and green tea latte from Starbucks for a taste test comparison to what I get back home. I concluded that the green tea latte I had there was more powdery and rich flavor than what I get back in Boston. I like them both though, just for different reasons. I also liked the flavor of the cheesecake, but the red beans made it very crumbly instead of creamy. One of the optional tours for that night was to take a bike ride along the ancient city wall. I am glad I did not book that in advance, because the rain would have made it a miserable and potentially dangerous experience. A small number of people did pre-pay for the tour and they did not end up going. I would have liked to take a walk along the wall, but that didn’t happen either.
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| Inside the YuYuan Garden |
Once we got back to hotel and changed, we ventured out to find dinner and drinks somewhere nearby. Our guide gave us directions to a local restaurant just a few blocks away, but we ended up sitting at a table for over 10 minutes before even seeing a menu. After we got our menu (one to share amongst our large group), we decided it wasn’t a good place to try and went back to the hotel for drinks and snacks in the hotel bar. That night we packed back up and got ready for another early morning and day of traveling.
Day 6 – Fly to Shanghai
Domestic traveling is definitely one of the weaknesses of China Tours. I really hope they are working on this with the revised itineraries since it was dreadfully unorganized. This time around, the people in our tour group were split between three different flights. While they were all planned to landed within 2 hours of each other, some of the people on our tour were told that their seats were not confirmed and others were later told that their flight was cancelled all together. My group ended up being the first to land, so we had 1.5 hours to kill at the airport before collecting the next group. The third group was actually split onto multiple other flights and one never made it to Shanghai until 11pm. They had to spend the entire day at the airport in Xi’an! Since we only had the next day to walk around the city, this unfortunately arrangement really cut into the time we could see the city.
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| Tea tasting experience |
Once we met up with the second group, we threw our jumped into a smaller bus and headed to the Shanghai Jiangnan Silk Museum. Again, I can barely use the word “museum” here since it was more of a shop with a little demo area out front of how silk is made. These types of tours really are notorious for shopping stops, but fortunately we only spent approximately 30 minutes here watching the presentation and browsing before going over the Bund: a boardwalk area that skirts along the river. From one side you can see the old Shanghai buildings with strong European influence, and from the other the massive sky scrapers that make up the booming financial district. It a beautiful and somewhat confusing sight to see! By the time we got to the hotel late that afternoon, I was exhausted. Some of the group headed out to Xintiandi for dinner and drinks, but I grabbed two glasses of wine from the bar (2 for 1 happy hour) and took advantage of the impressive room service menu at the hotel by ordering sweet and sour pork with a side of steamed BBQ pork buns. It was delicious!
Day 7 – Shanghai
The only day we had completely away from the group was in Shanghai. I actually found it a little odd they didn’t have anything planned in such a big city. There were some optional tours to take a train out to Hangzhou, but I doubted anyone wanted to do even more traveling. The good news is that I had purchased a travel book a few weeks before that had two 90 minute walks laid out through the Old City and French concession. That morning we took a cab to the Chenghuang Miao bazaars and Yuyuan Garden where I played tour guide for the day. When I would imagine China in my head, the first thing that I envisioned was a beautiful garden with koi ponds and stone paths. 7 days into my trip and I finally found what I was looking for… Yuyuan Garden was a beautiful sanctuary located within a walled border in the middle of the city. We got there early before it was too crowded and spent a few hours walking around and soaking it all in. We stopped in the Huxting tea house for a tea tasting with traditional snacks. I ordered a jasmine flowering tea and cautiously picked at the snacks laid out in front of me: some mini eggs, what may or may not have been tofu, a salted prune (I think) and something else that tasted both like jelly and sardines at the same time. The good news was that the tea was delicious and the rest was a learning experience.
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| Green tea latte and cheesecake |
After our tea, we spent another two hours walking through the old city and checking out the architecture. Our morning walk ended near the French Concession in a new part of the city called Xintiandi. Some of the people in our group went to this neighborhood the night before since there are a lot of restaurants, bars, and nightlife. The guide book suggested a dim sum restaurant in the mall for lunch called the Crystal Jade. Happily, this was a good suggestion! Our food was delicious and I got to try the famous soup dumplings. Unlike regular dumplings, these actually have broth within the doughy purse with a small hole on top to let out steam. After some cooling time, you dig right in. I was warned in advance that the only way to eat these dumplings is to put the whole thing in your mouth. If not, you risk the broth exploding all over the front of your shirt. They were fabulous and quite possibly one of my new favorite Asian foods, next to BBQ pork buns. The second 90 minute walking tour picked up not too far away from our lunch destination. We walked for another hour or two before deciding we were tired and jumping on the subway to get back to the Bund for an evening river cruise.
A similar excursion was offered through China Tours for an added fee (inflated for profit of course) for the night before, but everyone was exhausted from traveling all day and I don’t believe anyone went. We walked down East Nanjing road and along the waterfront before reaching the ticket office. Within a few minutes, we had our tickets for the 5:30 river cruise. When we arrived, I noticed the open top of the boat was packed, but no one was sitting on the second deck where all the tables and chairs were located. After walking up to the deck, I learned this was a VIP section that was available for only 50 Yuan extra (~$8 USD). After walking all day, this was an easy decision. I handed over my money for a complimentary orange juice and a seat out on the deck for the next hour. The cruise was short but provided an excellent view of the skyline at night. I highly recommend doing that on your own just to get out on the water for a bit and see the city from a different angle. After we docked, we made our way back to Xintiandi for dinner. That day was one of the days I really wish China Tours would have booked us into a hotel closer to city center. It would have been a lot of effort to get back to the hotel to change before coming back in town for dinner. After perusing the menus outside each restaurant, we decided to try out the pizza. Because of my bad experience flying back from Thailand, I didn’t want to take on anything too adventurous before the flight home the next day.
Day 8 – Fly Home
One last perk of booking our own flights was that we didn’t have to get up to meet everyone in the lobby at 4:00 am to meet their flights. Our flight out of Shanghai left at 4pm, so we had a leisurely breakfast and made one last attempt to get some treats to bring back home. The concierge at the hotel directed us to a nearby shopping “mall” where we killed a few hours before checking out. China Tours redeemed themselves for the mistake when we arrived in Beijing and arranged for a private car to the Shanghai Pudong airport. The trip to the airport was easy since it was Tomb Sweeping Day and everyone was headed in the opposite direction to pay their respects to their deceased ancestors. The long flight back home was a little bit better because we were able to use our frequent flyer miles to upgrade to business class! I think I know how I will be using my miles accrued miles going forward… now I just have to plan my next trip!
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| Shanghai Skyline from the River Cruise |
You can also book a harbour cruise without tea on the same ship, but you are standing at the top of the boat, rather than being seated inside the dining room. I loved having space to spread out and enjoy my meal while watching the sights go by. An added bonus was that the boat went from Circular Quay to Darling Harbour. I did not know this in advance, but you could actually get off in Darling Harbour, or ride it back to the original departure location. This worked out nicely for us because we got off in Darling Harbour and had time to do some shopping near our hotel for souvenirs! 
