Pacific Delight Tours (tel. 800/221-7179; www.pacificdelighttours.com) offers a selection of China tours from budget to Imperial class. Their "Historic Cities and Yangtze River Cruise" Super Value package is a 13-day trip that visits the historic cities if Beijing, Xi'an and Shanghai plus four nights discovering the Yangtze River cruising upstream through Yichang, San Dou Ping (Three Gorges Dam), Daning River's gorges or Shennong Stream and Fengdu. This deal is currently on sale for select departures between November 2006 and March 2007, starting from $1,798 (November 30 and December 28, 2006, January 4 and 18 and February 8, 2007) per person plus taxes of approximately $250. The package includes round-trip airfare from Los Angeles (or for the same price Anchorage, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Portland or Seattle) all intra-China air/land transportation, local guides, seven nights' accommodations in deluxe and superior first class hotels (two at Hua Ting Hotel and Towers in Shanghai, two at Sheraton Xi'an Hotel in Xi'an, and three at Presidential Plaza Hotel in Beijing), four nights in an outside cabin with balcony aboard a Victoria Cruises' ship, 11 breakfasts, eight lunches, ten dinners, airport transfers, sightseeing, cultural activities and performances. Highlights include the Shanghai Museum, Yu Yuan Garden, The Bund and a Children's Palace performance in Shanghai, a day tour of Chongqing, the Terra-Cotta Legion, Shaanxi Provincial Historical Museum, Tian An Men Square, Forbidden City's Imperial Palace, a cruise on Lake Kunming, the Great Wall, Ming Tombs and Chang Ling Exhibition Hall. March 1 and 8, 2007 departures are $1,838; November 16 is $1,908; December 14 is $2,948; November 9 is $2,078; and November 2, 2006 is $2,158. Add $120 from Honolulu, $140 from Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Boston, Baltimore and Miami.
If you'd like to travel more off the beaten track in China and get beyond the standard package deal cities of Shanghai, Beijing and Xi'an, you may like to consider using a locally based tour operator for a land-only trip once you arrive. Guilin Ronghu International Tourism Co. Ltd (also know as Yoyochina) (tel. +86/773-583-6119; www.yoyochina.net) is based in Guilin and provides a variety of interesting specialized tours to diverse destinations across the country for two or more people. For example they feature a number of Southern China water town tours including a nine-day one that leaves from Nanjing and visits Wuxi, Suzhou, Zhouzhuang and Hangzhou before finishing up in Shanghai. The eight day tour is priced at $789 in low season and only a few dollars more ($793) in high season. Visit temples, museums, gardens and historic sites, traveling by private car and what are referred to as "soft seat" trains, staying eight-nights in three and four-star hotels en route (The Friendship Hotel in Hangzhou, Bamboo Grove Hotel in Suzhou, Pacific Luck Hotel in Shanghai, Ramada Plaza Yihua Hotel in Nanjing and the Ramada Hotel in Wuxi). Breakfast and lunch is included daily, plus one final night diner and airport transfers.
Their nine day tour of Guilin, Yangshuo, Kunming and Xishuangbanna is priced at $889 in low season and $922 in high season. It includes airport transfers, car transportation and domestic flights (Guilin to Kunming, Kunming to Xishuangbanna, Xishuangbanna to Kunming), eight nights' accommodations in three and four-star hotels (Guilin Plaza in Guilin, Paradise Resort in Yangshuo, WSei Long Hotel in Kunming and Dai Yuan Hotel in Xishuangbanna), eight breakfasts, six lunches, a cruise down the Li River and sightseeing visiting temples, ancient towns, gardens, museums and lakes.
China Highlights (tel. 800/268-2918; www.chinahighlights.com) has a seven day "World Culture Heritage Discovery" tour from Beijing that visits Datong, Taiyuan and Pingyao. This tour is priced from $737 per person based on double occupancy or $1,060 for a single person. Prices are valid until March, 2007, but surcharges are in place for Chinese holiday periods including September 30 to October 7, 2006 and Chinese New Year from January 29, 2006 to February 17, 2007). In this one week tour, visit several important historical sites, see an abundance of ancient Chinese architecture, and World Heritage listed Buddhist temples Yungang Grottoes, Xuankong Temple, and Yingxian Wooden Temple. The land-only package includes airport transfers, transportation by private car and by train, five breakfasts, five lunches and one dinner, five nights' accommodations at hotels and one on an overnight train, a personal guide and driver, service charges and taxes. Highlights include Tian An Men Square, the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven, a Kungfu Show, the Great Wall, Hutongs and the Lahma Palace, the Yungang Grottoes, the Nine-Dragon Screen, the Taiyuan House of the Wang clan, Shuanglin Temple, the Rishengchang Draft Bank and Mingqing Street.
For an adventure at high altitudes, the first ever passenger railroad link between northwest China and Tibet was launched on July 1, 2006. The Qinghai-Tibet Railway (www.chinaview.cn/qztl/index.htm) departs from Xining in Northwest China's Qinghai Province and heads to Lhasa, Tibet's capital (or what the Chinese call Tibet Autonomous Region). You'll be relieved to know that the railway uses sealed, oxygenated cars to cope with the thin air and high-tech cooling to keep the frozen track bed stable, according to the experts at the China Railway Ministry. The train trip takes 20 hours and covers a distance of 710 miles between Xining and Lhasa and running along the Kunlun and Tanggula mountains. Of this, 597 miles is above 13,000 feet, with the highest point at 16, 640 meters, making it higher than the Peruvian railway in the Andes, which was formerly the world's most elevated track. Unfortunately information was not available at this time regarding individual ticket prices but packages are available. An eight day tour costs 12,000 Yuan ($1,500) for foreign passport holders. The price includes a travel permit, meals, accommodation and all transportation (one-way train ride and one-way airfare) and various tours including Potala Palace, Lhasa's biggest landmark, Jokhang Temple, as well as Lake Yamdroktso, one of Tibet's three holy lakes, Gyantse, the Nojin Kangtsang Glacier, Nagqu Town and Gelmu City in Qinghai.
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