About us: Myself Christine, age 62, retired; husband Richard, age 65, retired. I had long wanted to take a trip to China but no one had ever expressed any interest. So I put that idea on a shelf.
Imagine my surprise when my husband who was newly retired said to me "Let's go to China". I was so excited that my dream just might finally come true. This was the beginning of 2007 when I started to plan.
Because China is such a vast country and the language is not something that we could just wing it like if we were going to Mexico we decided that a tour rather than a do it yourself was the way to go for the best experience for us. First I checked some travel agencies that do China trips like Vantage. But then I stumbled upon China Spree through a simple google search on the internet. This company only did China tours back in 2007. Based in the state of Washington, USA. I perused some of the tours on offer and decided that the China Panorama was what I wanted for us. Chances are this would be our only trip to China as my bucket list has so many destinations that I want to visit. The information on the website chinaspree.com stated "Designed for those who tend to visit China only once in their lifetime, this 21 day tour covers all major highlights China has to offer: Beijing's Imperial Forbidden City and the Great Wall of China; Xian's Terra-cotta Warriors; 4 night cruise on the fabled Yangtze River, sailing through the Three Gorges and a tour of the world's largest dam. See Giant Pandas at Chongqing. You then fly to subtropical Guilin-China's scenic paradise and indulge yourself in the stunning Li River cruise and enjoy an off-the-beaten path exploration to Long Sheng's minority villages and its famed Dragon Spine rice terraces. The tour also includes a short visit to Canton and a 3 night Hong Kong visit with an optional Macau excursion to the Vegas of the Orient. Before your journey wraps up at Shanghai, China's most vibrant metropolis you also tour Hangzhou to savor classic gardens and sample the well known Dragon Well tea besides the West Lake".
Included in the price was round trip transpacific flights from San Francisco or NY/JFK via Air China, all intra China flights/ground transportation/transfers, 1st class accommodation with private bath, Yangtze River cruise, Yangtze cruise shore excursions including port taxes, private sightseeing tours/shows including entrance fees, 46 meals-19 American buffet breakfast, 14 lunches, and 13 dinners. Peking duck dinner, traditional Mongoli lunch, and a dumpling banquet in Xian. Culture program-Hutong tour in rickshaws, visit to a local kindergarten, Bell Tower, local family visit, home hosted lunch, etc. New maglev train ride Shanghai. Tour directors/guides throughout China. All baggage handling. Several shopping stops.
Cost. China Panorama tour package was $2899 per person, total $5798. US and China Air taxes and fees-total $598, Double entry China visa handling fee-total $190. Add on air from Buffalo, NY to San Francisco-total $700. We decided to select the SF west coast departure option. The grand total was $7286 for the 2 of us. A deposit of $400 was paid on 7/23/2007. Corporate name of China Spree was Tour Beyond, Inc. Balance of $6886 paid on 7/25/2007. Passport and China visa application form received on 7/25/2007. My only concern was that I had to mail our current passports to the agency as part of the process for the China visa. We communicated via e-mail and fax. I was very pleased with the responses to my questions.
We opted for our tour 9/4-9/24/2007. On the China Spree website I found so much information pertinent to our trip. Know Before You Go-do before you go, air flights, passport & visa, arrival procedures, baggage, China tour guides, money matters, time difference, meals, dress, climate, packing tips, and much more. I also researched recommended immunizations before travel. My husband and I did get hepatitis A shots on 8/10/2007 and tetanus shots on 8/22/2007 from county health department. Information about these immunizations were recorded in International Certificate Of Vaccination as approved by WHO booklets that we each got.
All our travel documents were sent to us on 8/17/2007. Our group would be just 7 of us. Frank from New York City, Jim and Joyce from Pennsylvania, Kevin and Cherie from California. Great to have such a small group. Passports were returned to us with the China visa inside. We were good to go! I also bought some travel guides on China. Even a book to communicate with simple Chinese.
I made a list of our hotels and souvenirs for myself and family that I wanted. I really didn't do a ton of research as this was a guided tour of China and everything was included except for dinner in Hong Kong for our 3 nights.
Itinerary:
9/4 Flight Buffalo-Chicago-San Francisco UNITED
Flight San Francisco- Beijing AIR CHINA
9/5 Arrive Beijing. Evening. Beijing Grand Metro Park Hotel-indoor pool.
9/6 Beijing.
9/7 Beijing.
9/8 Xian. AIR CHINA flight from Beijing to Xian. Xian Goldstone Hotel.
9/9 Xian.
9/10 Xian. Yangtze cruise. M.S. Yangtze Angel.
9/11 Yangtze cruise.
9/12 Yangtze cruise.
9/13 Yangtze cruise.
9/14 Chongqing. AIR CHINA flight from Chongqing to Guilin. Guilin Park Hotel-outdoor pool.
9/15 Guilin. Yangshou. Guilin.
9/16 Long Sheng. Guilin.
9/17 Canton. Hydrofoil to Hong Kong. The Salisbury Hotel Hong Kong-indoor pool.
9/18 Hong Kong.
9/19 Hong Kong.
9/20 AIR CHINA flight from Guangzhou to Hangzhou. Hangzhou Lakeview Hotel-indoor pool.
9/21 Shanghai. Shanghai New Century Hotel-indoor pool.
9/22 Shanghai.
9/23 Shanghai.
9/24 Flight Shanghai-San Francisco AIR CHINA. Flight San Francisco-Chicago UNITED.
Arrive Chicago 9/25.
9/25 Flight Chicago-Buffalo UNITED.
Packing. I printed out from China Spree "Essentials to Pack" which included suggestions on medications, accessories, gadgets, and clothing. Several of our hotels would have a swimming pool so swimsuits were recommended. I love photography and knew I'd be taking hundreds-if not more-pictures. I took my Canon SLR camera, plenty of film, batteries. My SONY Handycam video camera. I packed mostly casual clothes for sightseeing for myself and my husband-shorts, sleeveless tops, T shirts. For the weather we took rain jackets and fleece tops. For special occasions I packed a few pairs of dressy slacks and a couple of dressy short sleeve tops for myself. A couple pairs of long pants and some nice short sleeve shirts for my husband. Comfortable walking shoes, flip flops for use by the pools, nicer shoes for dinner. I didn't pack a lot of clothes as we had been told there would be very inexpensive laundry service at the hotels. We ended up using that laundry service a lot.
China Spree gave us neck pouches with our name and tour information on it. They had a velcro compartment as well as a zipper one. Nice enough that I didn't need to bring a purse along on our sightseeing.
Imagine my surprise when my husband who was newly retired said to me "Let's go to China". I was so excited that my dream just might finally come true. This was the beginning of 2007 when I started to plan.
Because China is such a vast country and the language is not something that we could just wing it like if we were going to Mexico we decided that a tour rather than a do it yourself was the way to go for the best experience for us. First I checked some travel agencies that do China trips like Vantage. But then I stumbled upon China Spree through a simple google search on the internet. This company only did China tours back in 2007. Based in the state of Washington, USA. I perused some of the tours on offer and decided that the China Panorama was what I wanted for us. Chances are this would be our only trip to China as my bucket list has so many destinations that I want to visit. The information on the website chinaspree.com stated "Designed for those who tend to visit China only once in their lifetime, this 21 day tour covers all major highlights China has to offer: Beijing's Imperial Forbidden City and the Great Wall of China; Xian's Terra-cotta Warriors; 4 night cruise on the fabled Yangtze River, sailing through the Three Gorges and a tour of the world's largest dam. See Giant Pandas at Chongqing. You then fly to subtropical Guilin-China's scenic paradise and indulge yourself in the stunning Li River cruise and enjoy an off-the-beaten path exploration to Long Sheng's minority villages and its famed Dragon Spine rice terraces. The tour also includes a short visit to Canton and a 3 night Hong Kong visit with an optional Macau excursion to the Vegas of the Orient. Before your journey wraps up at Shanghai, China's most vibrant metropolis you also tour Hangzhou to savor classic gardens and sample the well known Dragon Well tea besides the West Lake".
Included in the price was round trip transpacific flights from San Francisco or NY/JFK via Air China, all intra China flights/ground transportation/transfers, 1st class accommodation with private bath, Yangtze River cruise, Yangtze cruise shore excursions including port taxes, private sightseeing tours/shows including entrance fees, 46 meals-19 American buffet breakfast, 14 lunches, and 13 dinners. Peking duck dinner, traditional Mongoli lunch, and a dumpling banquet in Xian. Culture program-Hutong tour in rickshaws, visit to a local kindergarten, Bell Tower, local family visit, home hosted lunch, etc. New maglev train ride Shanghai. Tour directors/guides throughout China. All baggage handling. Several shopping stops.
Cost. China Panorama tour package was $2899 per person, total $5798. US and China Air taxes and fees-total $598, Double entry China visa handling fee-total $190. Add on air from Buffalo, NY to San Francisco-total $700. We decided to select the SF west coast departure option. The grand total was $7286 for the 2 of us. A deposit of $400 was paid on 7/23/2007. Corporate name of China Spree was Tour Beyond, Inc. Balance of $6886 paid on 7/25/2007. Passport and China visa application form received on 7/25/2007. My only concern was that I had to mail our current passports to the agency as part of the process for the China visa. We communicated via e-mail and fax. I was very pleased with the responses to my questions.
We opted for our tour 9/4-9/24/2007. On the China Spree website I found so much information pertinent to our trip. Know Before You Go-do before you go, air flights, passport & visa, arrival procedures, baggage, China tour guides, money matters, time difference, meals, dress, climate, packing tips, and much more. I also researched recommended immunizations before travel. My husband and I did get hepatitis A shots on 8/10/2007 and tetanus shots on 8/22/2007 from county health department. Information about these immunizations were recorded in International Certificate Of Vaccination as approved by WHO booklets that we each got.
All our travel documents were sent to us on 8/17/2007. Our group would be just 7 of us. Frank from New York City, Jim and Joyce from Pennsylvania, Kevin and Cherie from California. Great to have such a small group. Passports were returned to us with the China visa inside. We were good to go! I also bought some travel guides on China. Even a book to communicate with simple Chinese.
 |
I made a list of our hotels and souvenirs for myself and family that I wanted. I really didn't do a ton of research as this was a guided tour of China and everything was included except for dinner in Hong Kong for our 3 nights.
Itinerary:
9/4 Flight Buffalo-Chicago-San Francisco UNITED
Flight San Francisco- Beijing AIR CHINA
9/5 Arrive Beijing. Evening. Beijing Grand Metro Park Hotel-indoor pool.
9/6 Beijing.
9/7 Beijing.
9/8 Xian. AIR CHINA flight from Beijing to Xian. Xian Goldstone Hotel.
9/9 Xian.
9/10 Xian. Yangtze cruise. M.S. Yangtze Angel.
9/11 Yangtze cruise.
9/12 Yangtze cruise.
9/13 Yangtze cruise.
9/14 Chongqing. AIR CHINA flight from Chongqing to Guilin. Guilin Park Hotel-outdoor pool.
9/15 Guilin. Yangshou. Guilin.
9/16 Long Sheng. Guilin.
9/17 Canton. Hydrofoil to Hong Kong. The Salisbury Hotel Hong Kong-indoor pool.
9/18 Hong Kong.
9/19 Hong Kong.
9/20 AIR CHINA flight from Guangzhou to Hangzhou. Hangzhou Lakeview Hotel-indoor pool.
9/21 Shanghai. Shanghai New Century Hotel-indoor pool.
9/22 Shanghai.
9/23 Shanghai.
9/24 Flight Shanghai-San Francisco AIR CHINA. Flight San Francisco-Chicago UNITED.
Arrive Chicago 9/25.
9/25 Flight Chicago-Buffalo UNITED.
Packing. I printed out from China Spree "Essentials to Pack" which included suggestions on medications, accessories, gadgets, and clothing. Several of our hotels would have a swimming pool so swimsuits were recommended. I love photography and knew I'd be taking hundreds-if not more-pictures. I took my Canon SLR camera, plenty of film, batteries. My SONY Handycam video camera. I packed mostly casual clothes for sightseeing for myself and my husband-shorts, sleeveless tops, T shirts. For the weather we took rain jackets and fleece tops. For special occasions I packed a few pairs of dressy slacks and a couple of dressy short sleeve tops for myself. A couple pairs of long pants and some nice short sleeve shirts for my husband. Comfortable walking shoes, flip flops for use by the pools, nicer shoes for dinner. I didn't pack a lot of clothes as we had been told there would be very inexpensive laundry service at the hotels. We ended up using that laundry service a lot.
China Spree gave us neck pouches with our name and tour information on it. They had a velcro compartment as well as a zipper one. Nice enough that I didn't need to bring a purse along on our sightseeing.
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