April 9, 2004 -- The East in general and China in particular likes to imagine its "exotic" qualities will attract foreign visitors, but sophisticated travelers no longer dream of just The Great Wall or red sails in the sunset -- or even the Forbidden City. You gotta get a gimmick, as marketers believe, and China is no exception. On stage for this little review are four products just waiting for you, with teasers as far apart as Formula One Racing and a bun festival.
Buns first. The Bun Festival Tour is an option you can select after you're already taken a Just Holiday hotel package to Hong Kong, including roundtrip air, for five nights in a three-star hotel (the Metropole), costing from just $659. Included also are roundtrips transfers between airport and hotel, hotel taxes and service charges. The price mentioned is out of San Francisco, but departure from New York is only an additional $100, they say. The package is good from now through May 2004, with last ticketing date on May 19. You fly via Air Canada, which means all flights go through Canada, mostly through Vancouver BC. As for the Bun Festival Tour, that takes place only on May 26, and costs an extra $69 per person. More expensive hotels also available at extra charge. Contact Just Holidays at their website, www.justholiday.com, or phone them at 800/953-2291 (you may have to wait a while until they find someone who speaks English well; at least that happened when I phoned in.)
Go Today has at least a dozen packages to China, most with an April 15 booking deadline. One crowd-pleaser is the "Hong Kong Special," for departures between April 11 and May 31. The cheapest combo starts from just $699 for a five- nightstay at the tourist class Newton Hotel, with roundtrip airfare on an available carrier, roundtrip airport/hotel transfers, a half-day city tour, hotel taxes and service charges. The price includes airfare out of Los Angeles or San Francisco, with add-on gateway costs ranging from $50 (Portland OR, San Jose CA, etc.) to $250 (Chicago, Kansas City, New York, etc.).
There is a slightly later booking deadline for a different package, the ten-night Beijing-Yangtze Tour priced from $1,379; the date to beat being April 20. Contact them at www.gotoday.com or phone (for an extra $20 charge) 425/487-9632.
Crown Travel invites you to explore "The Wonders of China" with a Beijing visit costing from just $759 per person. The package includes roundtrip airfare from New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco or Seattle. Add-on gateway costs are as low as $100 from Washington, D.C., and $125 from 28 other cities. Also in the deal: transfers and luggage handling on arrival and departure; five nights in your choice of hotels; buffet breakfast daily and two lunches; full day sightseeing tour of Beijing featuring the Forbidden City, the Temples of Heaven and Tiananmen Square; day long excursion to the Great Wall and the Ming Tombs. At the lowest price, you stay in Crown Travel's choice for "best value," the Xiyuan, said to be first class and bearing a four-star logo, located about a 15-minute drive from its Financial District location to downtown. The tour includes also the old-fashioned Hutong districts, and gives you a full free day on your own. Available from April 2004 through April 2005. Contact them at www.crown-travel.com or by phoning 800/853-6453.
Finally, Octopus Travel has a marvelous package taking in Shanghai, with a chance to buy discounted tickets to the Formula One Grand Prix there this September. The package is available just once, from September 22 to 28, but the booking deadline is April 25. The tour itself costs from $770, including roundtrip airfare from Los Angeles or San Francisco, roundtrip private car airport/hotel transfers, and five nights' lodging with hotel tax and service charges. At the lowest price of $770, you'd be staying in the three-star Jin Sha Hotel. The price out of New York is an extra $100. Then, you have a chance to buy a three-day Formula One Grand Prix ticket package, from as little as $155 for Grandstand C & D seating, $234 for Grandstand B seats, and $366 for Sub Grandstand H/K arrangements. Each includes the Friday opening practice, Saturday qualifying event and Sunday Formula One Event. Gateways from all over the US are available, they say. Contact them at www.octopustravel-us.com or by phoning 877/330-7765.
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