In regards to taking a tour to China, my recommendation will be to do independent travel based upon my experiences having taken a tour of China as well as doing independent travel in China with my family (twice). We are planning to take a trip (independent travel) to China (Shanghai, Hangzhou and Huangshan) this fall.
In regards to independent travel, you can fly into Beijing or Shanghai (my preference is Shanghai…it is more cosmopolitan than Beijing in my opinion) to start your trip. While traveling in China, it is our preference to stay at hotels that are North America-based (e.g. Hyatt, Hilton, Sheraton, Marriott, etc.), European-based (e.g. Kempinski Hotels) or Asia-based (e.g. Shangri-La) brands instead of the local Chinese hotels because I think they offer better service than the local Chinese hotels; having staff members that are more fluent in English and etc. Of course, there are exceptions such as the real first class Chinese hotels like the Peninsula Palace. For example, we have stayed at four Chinese hotels (three of the hotels, stayed at least four nights or more) and I never saw a vacuum cleaner and the carpets looked very dirty in these hotels. I stayed at a Marriott brand hotel (Renaissance Beijing Hotel in Beijing) and a Crowne Inn (Shanghai) and I saw someone vacuuming the carpets every day.
You can go to the concierge desk and sign up for the ½ day and full day tours from a company such as Grayline that will take you to the exact places that these tours will go at less cost. These ½ day and full day tours that we took, the tour directors and tour guides were better than the one on our tour as well as it cost less. Your travel agent can book you passage on a Yangtze River cruise without being on one of these tours; book your intra-China airline tickets and etc.
If you decided to take a tour instead of independent travel, my first recommendation is to deal with a travel agent that has personally been on the tour (if not, there is\are other agent\s in his\her travel agency that have been on the tour or the travel agent has a network of fellow travel agents that he\she can call upon) or has taken a tour from the company or talk with individuals that has taken tours from that company. When talking with a travel agent or an individual about their experiences, quiz them about their standards and etc.
What is acceptable to one person may not be acceptable to another person. There are individuals that are perfectly content to justify poor services, accommodations and\or etc. with “This is China (or insert the country that you are traveling to); so this must be the best that they can offer” rationale. If you have never been to China before, you might have a perceived notion that China is a third-world country and etc. Yes, there are parts of China that is very poor and etc. especially the countryside/rural areas. However, in the larger cities, it is very common to find them to be similar to the larger cities in the US and Europe, having modern conveniences and etc. There are several four and five-star hotels in China…many of them being just as good as or even better than the four and five-star hotels in the US.
We were scheduled to take a Ritz tour (most of it cruising on the Yangtze River) departing on September 16, 2001 and the tour was cancelled as well as the remaining tours for 2001 so we ended up doing independent traveling back in November 2001. Since we have been to China before, we knew what was available and etc. In the tour that we took in 2005, we were the only couple in the tour group that has been to China before. The tour operators know that most if not all of their travelers have never been to China and some of them will take advantage of this situation by using the rationale of ‘this is China, what do you expect!” on their tour. If you have never been there before, most people will buy this line while the tour operators are lining their pockets with cash by not providing the level of service that you actually paid for.
Sub-Contractors: Most tour operators subcontract services to local, third-party tour companies. In other words, the tour director isn’t an employee of the tour company nor do the tour companies conduct ‘quality’ checks. The bottom line is these contractors can run the tour anyway that they can because there are no on-site controls over the quality of service. The tour that we took, we found out that the tour that we were on was subcontracted to a local travel company with limited experience and the tour director could barely speak English when we checked into the hotel.
One tour company that I will recommend to check out is Viking River Cruises. The main reason why I recommended them is that they don’t sub-contract their tours out to local, third-party companies. This fact stands out on their website and in their brochures when discussing their China tours.
Another tour company that you might want to check out is Tauck Discovery Tours. We have never taken a tour with them but like Viking River Cruises, they employ their own employees for their tours. Please be advised that Tauck is a high-end tour company when comparing them to most other operators.
Shopping – Tourist Traps: Shopping stops at ‘tourist traps’ on most of these tours are standard and only the high end tour operators have initiated a "no shopping stops" policy. On the tour that we took, the itinerary didn’t list a single shopping stop at these ‘tourist traps’ but the focus of our tour was shopping not sightseeing. We have been on tours before so we were expecting some stops at these ‘tourist traps’ but not the main focus.
For example, we took a 21-day tour to Europe and made only five stops at these ‘tourist traps.’ Whereas, our China tour was 17-day long and we made at least one shopping stop at these ‘tourist traps’ per day except for the two days that we were on the cruise ship on the Yangtze River and several of the days, we had at least two to three shopping stops at these ‘tourist traps’ stores. We made 28 stops during our tours. We spent more time shopping than seeing the sights.
There was a huge difference in locations of these stops between our Europe and China tours. In Europe, all of these stores were located in the shopping districts on the main streets, right aside other normal businesses/stores/shops…located on the first floor…all of them were open to the public. In China, except for one stop…all of the stores were located not in the shopping centers on the main streets…most of the them were located not in the shopping districts…most of them were not located on the first floor…all of them were not open to the public.
There was a huge difference in the quality. The stores that we went to on our European tour were recognized brand. The stores that we went to on our China tour had no brand, no recognition, no market leadership and two shopping stops sold counterfeit\pirated\bootlegged products.
There was a huge difference in the prices. The stores that we went to on our European tour, the prices were higher than their counterparts down the street but by 10% to 100%. The stores that we went to on our China tour, the prices were at least 1000% to 3000% higher for the same product in the local markets, stores and etc.
There was a huge difference in the time spent at these stores. We spent only 30 minutes at these stores on our European tour (I videotaped every stop that we made)…our tour director gave us a time limit (e.g. 15 minutes) after the so-called ‘product demonstration’ before moving on to the next attraction. On our China tour, we spent at least an hour at these stores. If a single person was browsing at the merchandise (which is common to do if there is no place to sit down), the tour director waited until the last person stop browsing before taking the group to the next stop. After a while, the group figured this out so the group started to round up the browsers so that we could go sightseeing instead of shopping.
If you do your research and read the reviews posted on the Internet, you will find out that the tour directors and/or tour companies get a kickback or commission of 30% to 50% from these ‘tourist trap’ stops with 40% being the average. It is very common if you purchase something at these stops that you will be ask what group are you with or they even will even give you a card to identify the group so that your tour director will get his 40% commission.
There was a huge difference in the time spent on personal shopping. For example, on our European tour, we were given plenty of personal time to go shopping on our own; whereas, on our China tour, we were given a grand total of three hours over the 17 days for personal shopping. It seems to us that if the tour director wasn’t getting a commission\kickback, he had no desire to give personal shopping time to the group.
There was a huge difference in the attitude for these ‘tourist traps’ stores. On our European tour, we didn’t felt that none of the five stops were tourist traps because 1) the prices were somewhat “reasonable”; 2) quality product, quality brand and etc; 3) no mention of the tour director getting a commission\kickback; 4) spent a reasonable amount of time at these stops and etc. Whereas, on our China tour, it was clearly blatant…clearly evidently that these stores were ‘tourist traps’…prices were ridiculous high, the tour director made claims that this store was the only store that made this product so you better buy here which wasn’t true, the clerk at the stores will follow you around hounding you to buy, tour director refusing to leave until somebody buys something, the time spent was too long and etc. On the China tour that we took, we went to five silk rug stores…the fellow travelers on our tour thought that two silk rug stores would have been enough. By the time we got to the last store, the group was telling the host the answers to her questions during the product presentation so that we could get out of there sooner.
Meals: If the tour includes meals, ask if the meals, especially the lunches, are served in a normal restaurant or served in a ‘factory’ restaurant at these tourist traps. On our tour, except for two lunches, our meal service for lunch was served in these tourist traps’ restaurants. Just think of putting a table in a conference room in your office or factory. These restaurants are not open to the public and most of them were located on the second floor of the factory, or at the back of the store and etc.
The food is average at best. There are ten to twelve dishes or plates of food which includes appetizers like a plate of peanuts. In regards to beverage service, they will serve you 8 oz. of a soft drink or a beer…anything after 8 oz. you must pay for.
It is my guess that these ‘tourist trap factory’ places have made arrangements with the tour operators such as offering the lunch for free or at little cost in exchange for the tour to stop there so that their travelers can purchase their ridiculously over-priced merchandise. The prices at these ‘factories’ are outrageous…for example, at one stop, the price for silk paintings were $ 200 to $ 500 USD; whereas, we purchased our silk paintings for $ 16 to $ 25 USD on our own.
The breakfasts at the hotels were Western and Chinese. The dinners on land were Chinese. The dinners on the cruise ship were Western (25%) and Chinese (75%)
Tip Extortions: Another common thing that you run into on these tours is tip extortions. The reason why we selected the tour that we went on, it stated in the brochure, on the confirmation of our purchase and in the travel documents that we received, that tipping was included for everything (except for the tour director) such as luggage transfers. Our tour director took away our passports before each intra-China flight and extorted tip money for luggage transfer before handing back our passports.
This practice of tip extortions is very common on these tours in China. One couple on our tour showed the tour director their paperwork that clearly stated that tipping was included for everything except for him and his response was that isn’t correct…pay up or be stuck at this destination. We are not against tipping but why should we tip twice if we already paid for tips in advance!?!
Tour Director: IMHO, the tour director makes or breaks the tour regardless where the tour is. Two individuals could take the same tour but had different tour directors and their opinions on the tour could be 90 to 180 degrees different.
Our tour director that we had for our Europe tour spoke five languages, had four college degrees (one was a BA in European History, one was a BA in European literature), be doing these tours for 24 years and etc. We left the hotel every morning at 7:30 AM on the nose (if you were late, you were on your own) and came back to the same hotel or roll into the next hotel at 8:00 PM or later…she made sure that we had a full day. When we were on the bus, she told us the history and etc. but the area that we were going through, the destination that we were traveling to and etc.
Our tour director for our China tour was nearly the complete opposite. He could barely speak English. He never has been outside of China. He constantly lied to the group (all of his lies were captured on video). He spent all of the time on the bus calling the group ‘foreign devils’ and espousing Chairman Mao (all of this was captured on video). One day in Beijing, he left the tour early so he could be home early so we was stuck with a bus driver that could only speak “Hello” and “Do you want to buy a bottle of water” in English.
Again, my first recommendation is “independent” travel. If you still want to do a tour, I will recommend Tauck and Viking River Cruises. Our current travel agent recommends General Tours (we have never been on a General Tour). If your budget calls for a tour with a lower price, then it is our recommendation to take a tour from Pacific Delights World Tours or Ritz Tours because their prices are low making them a good value. Please understand that there will be shopping at these tourist traps and everything else that I listed in this post but at least you will be aware and won’t go on a tour ‘blindly’ and you will have the proper expectations. We have never been on any tours from Ritz Tours (was scheduled but cancelled due to 9/11) or Pacific Delights World Tours from these companies but have friends that have been on them as well as I spoke with passengers from these tours when we were on the Yangtze River.
In closing, research the tours, read the reviews on the various Internet websites and work with a professional travel agent that works in a brick & mortar travel agency in your community.