Hi Sunny!
Sorry for the delay in replying - I hope you didn’t think we weren’t going to! Right at the very end of our trip I got sick, and spent a miserable week when we got back. All OK now, but we’ve been trying to catch up with work etc. and are desperately busy. I’ll try to answer your questions, but they are surprisingly difficult to give precise answers to. This is really because the whole trip was absolutely fantastic, and there were SO many wonderful things to see an do, SO many wonderful people we met (including all the guides), that it is very hard to say which was the best. I’d rather just comment generally. And Pam may have different opinions from mine, so I won’t send this on till she has had a chance to comment also. As a first general comment (which we have made to the many friends who have asked), we would say that “Everything worked as planned”. Every guide met us as promised. Every transport worked on time, as booked. Every hotel was very good or absolutely excellent. Every restaurant we were taken to was excellent. Every tourist attraction we visited was fascinating. Every guide was totally professional, and very well informed, very anxious to please us in every way, very friendly, very sensitive to our every need. I have vivid memories of the Great Wall and the Summer Palace particularly. But as soon as one says that, it seems to imply that the other attractions were somehow less memorable, less important. And that is not so. It is often the little things that impact on one’s emotions (and thus, memory), like funny encounters, unexpected kindness from a stranger etc. And there plenty of those! Of all the towns we visited, I think we liked Yangshuo most, with Guilin and Xi’an close second. I had the feeling that I would like to have a holiday just in and around Yangshuo Every guide was excellent, as I said. I got on especially well with Foster, and we parted with some regret. He now knows that if he ever comes to NZ, there is a warm welcome in our home for him and his wife. We would love to show them around. Foster grasped our interest in the “China behind the scenes”, and tried, in the little time available, to show us that. He was so cheerful and unfailingly courteous, funny and warm. ut then, Li in Xian was an amazing young lady. Her historical knowledge is encyclopaedic; her English is probably the best of any of our guides, AND SHE IS SELF-TAUGHT!! She works incredibly hard, and deserves to be very successful. Yoshi, in Beijing, was similar. His degree in English isn’t enough for him, so he’s now doing one in business. He converses with authority on a very wide variety of subjects, and his ambition will lead to success without any doubt. With all our guides, I felt embarrassed that we could not be more generous with tips; we overspent our budget by a long way (inexperienced travelers!), and had to miss out on many things we would like to have done. We do understand the policy of not allowing guides and drivers to share meals with us (our invitations were politely declined), but it would have been nice to have their company and conversation over a meal: we honestly enjoyed being with them. We did get Foster to join us for dinner in the evening once or twice, and he was such good fun. The matter of tipping is always rather awkward, and perhaps some further development of policy would be a good idea. I did see a piece in the China Daily about travel guides’ low salaries and the need for tips to make their existence possible, so it seems the matter is under discussion. Guides gave us conflicting information as to whether they receive any basic wages, or have to rely entirely on tips for their income. I believe they do a very professional job, require extensive learning and knowledge, work very inconvenient hours and their workload is extremely seasonal. In these circumstances, I believe a proper salary, without the need for tips, would be preferable. One could still give them a gift for truly exceptional service if one feels one should. The costs of a trip would not be much altered, and embarrassment would be saved on both sides. My own attitude is that guides are NOT servants: they are fellow professionals. We remarked often how excellent the hotels and their service were, well above our 3-star expectations. All staff were extremely helpful and polite. Everything worked, everything was clean and well prepared, the breakfasts were delicious and VERY generous. The lunches arranged by China Highlights were delicious and lavish, and the restaurants chosen were superb. With such marvelous breakfasts and lunches, we felt no need for more than a snack in the evenings. Snacks were easy to find in the streets and markets. We were a little bit careful in what we chose, however, which sometimes extended the search. China was so full of surprises. I didn’t expect such modernity, such sophistication. And yet, underneath the surface, China is still China: timeless, beautiful, unchanging. I still say what I said before I went there – that it would take 50 years to understand China; it is so vast, so complex. I wish I had that 50 years left! The traffic was a surprise: the drivers so courteous and caring despite the apparent chaos. But it isn’t chaos, it’s just a mixture of so many kinds (and speeds) of vehicles, and with patience and courtesy everyone gets where they want to go, eventually. Truly, I felt much safer riding a bike in Yangshuo than I do in Auckland. Foster couldn’t believe that, and did his best to put me off the ride, but I wouldn’t have missed it for anything: I wanted to ride all day! Really, from Yangshuo to Fuli was a very short distance, with no hills. Drivers took great care of us as if we were children (not like NZ!!), and I never felt in any danger. The cultural show in Guilin was truly excellent, and we learned something of the minority groups’ traditions. We were offered similar opportunities elsewhere too, but the costs were high and our budget was very stretched, so we sadly declined. We did feel the tickets were very expensive. Wine was a surprise in China. We love wine, and drink it often at home. I would say the wine industry in China is about level with how it was in NZ when we arrived here in 1967, except that the wines are unbelievably expensive! That is to say the wine is drinkable, but not of good quality. However the prices charged are equal to the most expensive fine wines in NZ!! We were absolutely amazed!! An example: Great Wall red wine was charged at 580 yuan on the boat (about NZ$150), whereas I can drink much better wine in NZ for $10-15, sometimes $8 on special. $50 is what you would pay for a really good wine in an expensive restaurant. Travel tip: LEARN to use ‘traditional’ toilets, and ALWAYS carry toilet paper! Accept other countries as they are; if you want everything exactly as you find it at home, WHY TRAVEL?? Another travel tip: It is courteous to try to speak to people in their own language; take the trouble to learn a few polite words in Mandarin, even if it’s only “shia-shia”. People appreciate it, and try even harder to please. I found that most Chinese people have a great sense of humour and fun, and like to practice their English; one can have so much fun communicating. Carry paper and pen: draw pictures when you get stuck. And again: Work out your budget for the trip, then double it! I honestly can’t say we enjoyed the train trip to Beijing. This was mainly because we had formed quite incorrect expectations, and were totally unprepared: I just didn’t ask the right questions! So our first shock was to find we were sharing a cabin with other people, and had no privacy at all. Then we found there was no food or water available; luckily we had some water and sweets we had bought in Yangshuo. The one toilet for about 40 people was horrible. (It didn’t help that it was raining hard in Xi’an, and we were wet and our bags were wet from dragging them through puddles 7 cm deep in the station forecourt. The design of the forecourt is very bad, and you can’t get the car nearer than about 50 metres from the door, and have to queue up in the rain.) Apart from the station forecourt, this is not a complaint. If we had known more detail, we would have prepared better and handled it very differently… or maybe flown! Poor Yoshi got told very quickly that the attractions in Beijing would have to wait till we had had a meal and a shower! He was very understanding and kind.
Cheers, Jim

• Client's Information: Pamela Judith Lamb, New Zealand
• Tour Starting Dates: September 27, 2008
• Tour Itinerary: 14 Days Hong Kong, Guilin, Yangshuo, Chongqing, Yangtze, Yichang, Xian, Beijing Tour
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