China Tour 12 Tips

1. What should I make of the tour prices?
   Many factors figure in the determination of tour prices: destinations, sites, class of hotel, class of ship and cabin on a cruise, meal arrangements, number of tourists, means of local transportation, entertainment activities such as shows and dinners, so on and so forth. In addition to all these, there is one element that is the most difficult to define and quantify, and that is the quality of the tour. It is extremely important, of course, that one feels comfortable and at east throughout his or her tour, and this means that price should not be the only criterion in selecting a tour. It is advisable that one does some research to get to know the services offered, so as to find the tour that is just right for you.
   
2. How do I get a visa to travel in China?
   A tourist needs an L visa to visit China. You can apply for your visa in person at a Chinese consulate. Alternatively you may entrust the matter to someone else - a friend, a professional service, or the travel agent who arranges your tour; they can then apply on your behalf. The Chinese consulates do not accept mail-in applications.Either way, you need to provide the following documents to apply for a single-entry L visa:
   1. Your passport, which should have at least 6 months remaining before its expiration date and should have at least one blank page.2. One completed Visa Application Form, which can be downloaded from internet.3. One passport-type photo, either black/white or color.The application fee for a single-entry L visa is US$50.00 for U.S. citizens and US$30.00 for citizens of other countries.Standard processing time is 4 working days. You may rush the processing - $20.00 additional for 2-3 working-day processing or $30.00 additional for 1 working-day processing.A single-entry L visa, once issued, is valid for 90 days. This means that the bearer should use it to enter China within 90 days of the visa issuance; otherwise he needs to apply again. The duration of the visa is 30 days, which means that the bearer of this visa can stay in China for up to 30 days.Below are the Chinese consulates located in the United States and the states they are responsible for:
   1. Consulate in Washington D.C.: Delaware, District of Columbia, Idaho, Kentucky, Maryland, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming.2. Consulate in New York: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont. 3. Consulate in Chicago: Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Wisconsin.4. Consulate in San Francisco: Alaska, Northern California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington.5. Consulate in L.A.: Arizona, Southern California, Hawaii, New Mexico, Pacific Islands.6. Consulate in Houston: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Texas.
   
3. Do I need a visa to visit Hong Kong?
   Hong Kong is a special administrative zone of China, and it exempts citizens of many foreign countries from its visa requirement. Citizens from these countries, which among others include the U.S., Canada and most European nations, may enter and stay in Hong Kong as tourists for up to 90 days. Please remember that the exemption applies to Hong Kong only. If you plan to visit mainland China as well as Hong Kong, you still need a visa to enter China proper. Even though cities such as Shenzhen and Guangzhou are just a couple of hours away from Hong Kong, they have different visa requirements as Hong Kong is a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China. Tour groups organized and led by travel agencies based in Hong Kong do enjoy some special visa treatment when they visit cities such as Shenzhen and Guangzhou, but these are exceptions.
   
4. On prices, what do “land and air” and “land only” mean?
   The “land and air” price generally includes international flights to and from China. The “land only” price does not contain the cost of international flights, but it does include flights inside China – from Beijing to Xian to Shanghai, etc. So, in a way, “land only” is not all that accurate a term.
   
5. What is “airport tax”?
   The airport tax in China was "abolished" sometime ago. It was ablished only in the sense that now travelers do not have to pay the tax right before they board their planes, as it used to be the case. In reality they still pay the surcharge (supposedly for the construction of airports), except that now the fee is included in the airfare itself. As Chinese would put it, "bu jian bu fan" - "what you do not see does not annoy you." Well, it does not annoy as much.
   
6. Do they tip in China?
   Generally the Chinese do not tip. For instance, people do not leave tips on the table after a dinner in a restaurant or pay extra after taking a ride in a cab. They pay the actual prices.This may not be the case, however, with businesses that cater to Western visitors. For better or worse, the idea of tipping has arrived in China along with foreign visitors. It is not a universally followed custom yet, but on some occasions a foreign visitor may get the indication that tips are expected or hoped for. Some establishments, such as hotels, sometimes simply add 10% or so as what they call “Service Charge.” Some tour organizers also take the trouble of stating that their price does not include tips to the tour guides. In situations like this, one should just go ahead and ask how the issue should be handled.As a general rule, however, no tipping is necessary in China.
   
7. Do I need to speak Chinese?
   Not really. The tour that your travel agency offers usually includes an English-speaking guide, who will be with you on your tour. Also, English is widely taught in China, so it shouldn’t all that hard to find a youngster who speaks some English, at least in urban areas. In fact, many young Chinese are eager to speak with foreign visitors to practice their English.On the other hand, it obviously does not hurt to pick up some basic Chinese before you go on the trip. The Chinese would be pleased to hear some Chinese phrases from you.
   
8. Can you give us a few quick pointers on Chinese geography?
   China is the world’s most populous nation, with a population of 1.3 billion. This means one out of five human beings in the world reside in China./n/nIn land area, China is the world’s third largest country (after Russia and Canada). At 3,696,100 square miles or 9,572,900 square kilometers, the country is slightly larger than the United States (3,679,192 square miles or 9,529,063 square kilometers).For most Chinese, the country’s longest river, the Yangzi (known as the Yangtze in the West), separates the country into the South and the North. Chinese from south of the river are generally regarded as Southerners and those north of it, Northerners. Scientists, however, have a more accurate division of the country into the southern and northern portions. For them, the dividing line is to be found some distance north of the Yangtze River, a line that can be drawn from the Qinling Mountains in Central-Western China eastward, along the Huai River, to the seashore. Notable geographical and climatic differences can be observed on the two sides of the dividing line.North China is consisted of a plain in the east and a high plateau in the west. The said plain, North China Plain, is the largest area of level land in what is generally a mountainous country, and it supports a large population of high density. This is also where the nation’s capital, Beijing is located. The plateau to the west, on the other hand, features terraces of yellow earth, which is a fine dust of clay and sand deposited there by wind over past millennia. Both on the plain and the plateau air is generally dry. In winter times, icy wind sweeps down from Siberia and temperature quickly drops below the freezing point. In summer, however, currents of warm and moist air from the sea do bring rain. The advances and retreats of these two major air-systems give North China easily identifiable four seasons. The land of North China, having been cultivated for thousands of years by hardworking Chinese peasants, is generally level and covered with few trees.The South of China, in contrast, is far more hilly and mountainous. Here the weather is largely dominated by the warm and moist air-system of the Pacific and the region receives a greater amount of precipitation. Many rivers flow among the mountains and the land is also dotted with numerous lakes. The land is better treed than the North, giving the land a lush green color-tone.Historically, Chinese civilization first originated in North China, in the valley of the Yellow River. From there it gradually spread to other parts of the country, in the process absorbing and digesting local influences to create what is generally known as the Chinese civilization.
   
9. Is it "Xi'an," "Xian" or "Xi An"? How do you pronounce?
   In the Chinese original the name is consisted of two characters, Xi and An. The apostrophe is added so that Westerners will know to pronounce them as two syllables instead of one. Some people, however, will simply omit the apostrophe.Xian, Xi’an, or Xi An, literally means “Peace in the West.” The city was located in the Western part of ancient China and for centuries was the capital of China. Back then it was known as Chang An, or “Long-lasting Peace.” It is outside this city that we find the mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor, along with his famed underground army of terra-cotta soldiers.Here is how you pronounce Xi'an, Xian or Xi An.Relatedly, there are two Chinese provinces the name of which would appear the same in the romanized form. To differentiate the two, one is arbitrarily spelt “Shaanxi" while the other “Shanxi" – one more “a” is inserted. The two provinces border on each other, and the city of Xian is located in Shaanxi Province, the province located west of Shanxi Province, and is the one spelt with the additional "a".
   
10. What should I wear when I travel in China?
    Comfortable is the keyword when it comes to your attire while you tour China. The Chinese do not have a very clearly spelt-out dressing code. The country has in rapid changes for quite some time now, and Chinese life today is a curious mixture of traditional Chinese and modern Western mores, customs and etiquette, and the country has learned to recognize and, to various extent, accept differences among people from different backgrounds. Most clothes that you wear in the West should encounter no problems in China. Jeans, sneakers, t shirts an walk shorts are quite acceptable wears for tourists. It is, however, prudent not to wear anything that is extremely revealing, especially in the case of female travelers. Many young Chinese girls in urban areas do dress rather aggressively, but of course traveling in a foreign country is different from hanging around one's own home turf because one does not know foreign lands as well and cannot very well foresee what situations lying ahead.If you're going to travel into remote rural areas where people have rarely seen any foreigners, you should dress a little more conservatively. Not that the local people would object; generally the Chinese are easy-going and would cut some slacks for men and women from foreign lands. In this particular situation, the main reason to dress a little more conservatively is that you're going to get a lot of attention - curious stares, for instance. (For some reasons, most Chinese do not feel that staring is rude. Not that kind of cold stare, of course, but the kind out of curiosity and interest).If you are planning to attend formal events, business meetings or evening functions, you should dress up. Dress for ladies and suits and ties for gentlemen should do. So, when you plan what to wear while traveling in China, give more consideration to matters such as weather, road conditions, etc.
    
11. Know Your China Map: Pointers for Those Who Will Travel in China
    If you are going on a tour of China, naturally you want to see a map. Here are a few pointers on what to look on a map of China. To get know the more important geographical features of China, you may want to pay attenton to the following.Major rivers. The two biggest rivers of China are Yellow River (Huang He) and Yangzi (Chang Jiang). Both of these two rivers originate in the highlan of western China and flow eastward to empty into the Pacific ocean. Yellow River winds through plateaus and plains of North China while Yangzi makes its way through Southwest and Central China.
    
12. Can I travel in China independently without a tour guide?
    Traveling in China without a tour guide is permitted and possible, but it is a difficult thing to do, certainly for those who have little or no prior experience in China. It is so for a number of reasons. First of all, there is the language issue. Unlike in Europe, where just about everybody speaks some English, in China you cannot always count on people understand what you say. At places such as airports and upscale hotels services are rendered in English; out in the street you may often come across young students eager to practice their English on you. To plan and arrange a whole trip all by yourself, however, is a different matter.Also, transportation, accommodation and sightseeing in China differs significantly from tourism in the West. What you can generally expect in the West may not be readily obtainable in China. Train tickets, for instance, are often hard to come by, especially if you need either a “soft berth” or a “hard berth” for a train ride that may last over 20 hours. Train tickets are generally sold just 5 days in advance, and you can purchase them only in the city where you are going to board the train. Imagine you arrive in a city with the intention to stay there for three days and then find out that you cannot get hold of a train ticket for quite a few days more – you’ll be stuck there, wasting your precious time in China. Furthermore, China is a large country where one finds significant regional differences. Many tour destinations are located far outside urban areas, and arranging trips to these destinations often takes knowledge on local matters. That is why in China often a tour group has quite few tour guides working for it as the group traveling in the country. One guide accompanies the group all the way, from the moment the tour group arrives in China till the group departs from the country. This is the national guide. On each stop of the tour – cities or destinations - the national guide works with a local guide, who is the actual guide for the group for that particular segment of the tour itinerary. This is in recognition that matters on the regional or local level can be rather enigmatic and complex, and that no one single guide knows it all and is capable of running the whole tour well across the whole country. Needless to say, it is so much more difficult for you, someone with virtually no knowledge of China.In addition to considerations such as efficiency and comfort, safety is another factor to think about. While it is generally quite safe to travel in China (racially based hate crime is rare, for instance), petty crimes such as pocket-picking and more serious offenses such as robbery do take place frequently. This is particular true at places where one finds a large “flowing” population - railway stations, for example. (Guangzhou Railway Station seems to have a bad reputation, where there have been quite some incidents of “purse-snapping” – young motorcycle-riders snatch people’s purses or other valuables and then speed away) Criminals do seem to avoid foreign visitors if they can, since the Chinese government takes crimes against foreign guests more seriously (whether it is fair to do so is another matter). Foreign tourists are, however, often targeted by persistent beggars and street peddlers, and they should also watch out for other kinds of unwanted solicitations.Lastly, there is the issue how much you can get out of your time spent in China. A nation with a long history and a unique culture, China is alien to most of the people outside the country. Even if you have studied the country carefully in advance, it is easy to miss aspects of life there that are not so self-evident. A native, especially a knowledgeable one, can be very helpful in this regard. To, a foreigner can travel all by himself or herself in China if he or she chooses to do so. This is, however, recommended only for those who have spent some time in the country and have some Chinese language proficiency. Given that most foreign visitors of China have limited time to spend in the country, they might as well enlist professional help to get the most out of their stay in China. For those who are young and adventurous, with abundant time to travel round, and who are adamant about traveling alone instead in a tour group, some sort of compromise may be possible. One can find a guide to travel with himself. There are travel agencies that can customize tours for independent-minded travelers. One can also, theoretically, find someone (a Chinese college student, for instance) who’s willing to work on the side as a travel companion. In the latter event, the arrangement is clearly not professional, and there may be some legality issues if somehow the relationship does not work out.