Reflections on the China Trip

I was blown away by the breathtaking attractions this country has. (See the pictures at the left and sprinkled throughout this BLOG and on Picasa) The Great Wall, the museums, the temples, the Terracotta Warriors are all incredible. The scenery is also very beautiful as well as the combination of modern and ancient architecture. China has millennia of history all around its people and tourists. Much of this is taken fore granted by the people of China and for that matter by the tourists that visit the country. China has more than many countries to offer the world. Its natural and man made wonders exceed even the expectations of the informed people of the world. I would return to look at the same venues again and hopefully view some new ones. I was more amazed as each day passed. I guess the bottom line is the answer to the question: “Would I do it again?” The obvious answer is YES, in a heartbeat.

Li Jun (John) our tour guide is phenomenal. He is personable, knowledgeable, spoke impeccable English, and is good looking to boot. He worked tirelessly to make sure our trip was the best experience we could have. The “extra” tours that he arranged for us were fantastic. His selection of “local” guides to enhance our experience was excellent as well. Again there are just not enough superlatives to lavish praise on this man. Li Jun is the best!

Once we were in China we were introduced to the others on the tour. There were 9 from Canada, the leaders from the Ottawa area, and 7 from the Phoenix, AZ area. Again I find it difficult to find superlatives enough to thank these people for joining us on this journey of a lifetime. These people made our trip so much better and in a short time I thought of them more as family than people we had recently met. Teaming up with these folk made our trip much more enjoyable.

The airline service in the country was top notch. In my opinion it is much better than those of the US. I didn’t feel the crunch of the “cattle car” that I do in the US. Our checked baggage was waiting for us when we arrived to claim it. What a pleasant change from the waits at bag claim in the US. The buses we rode on were comfortable. They had large windows to see from but the same windows let the baking sun in as well. One of the challenges was to keep the windows clean. The drivers all handled themselves very well and I felt safe everywhere we traveled.

EF Tours did a very good job of putting this tour together. With the exception of the last hotel we stayed at the accommodations were very good. The meals while often nothing to write home about were generally tasty and the food was plentiful. The in country transportation was very good. There were only two exceptions to a job well done. They were using United Airlines. Cramped space and movie equipment that did not work well were a problem. The fact that one of our adults was booked in a room with a student the whole trip was really not acceptable. We also had what I would call extreme layovers in both San Francisco and Seattle. The SFO layover on reflection seems reasonable with the possible difficulties in customs and immigration but there was little reason for the layover in SEA. The one thing that EF did for our group that was exceptional was hire Li Jun as our tour director, BRAVO.

The current government is certainly much more “open” than those of the past. It allows tourists to go places that not long ago they could not venture. As far as tourism goes they have one major obstacle to overcome, air pollution. The pollution is not just limited to the major cities; it has spread throughout the country from those metropolitan areas. Even in a town well removed from the big cities, Yangshou, the evidence of the unhealthy air is present. There is a gritty dust all over everything in the city. The carvings in the Forbidden City are even somewhat obscured by the sooty particulate matter. Much of the pollution comes from motor vehicles and much comes from factories and power generation facilities.

Major cities in the USA have dealt with the air pollution problem and while the Chinese cities are often larger they should be able to execute the same measures. One would think the task would be easier in a totalitarian government. But then in the US much of the cleanup was done at the demand of the populous. The people demanded the government do something. It took time but the air was cleaned up.

Another obvious difficulty for the traveler is communication with those outside of China. Telephone doesn’t seem to be a problem even email isn’t a problem, however try to write in a BLOG from China and you won’t be able to do it. It seems absurd that you would be able to send email and not be able to update a BLOG. Maybe I was there at a bad time but try as I might I could not get to any BLOG publishing software on the web. I say it’s absurd because I could email the entry to my daughter for her to post but I couldn’t post it myself. I suppose it’s a way for the government to feel they are in control of the information flow.