C Roy
02-13-2004, 03:52 PM
Posted by C Roy on January 19, 2002 at 14:45:52:
Traveling by train, we visited Beijing, Taiyuan, Xian, Chongqing, took a 7 day Yangtze cruise, and
then landed in Shanghai, and continued on to the cities of Hanzhou, Suzhou and Wuxi. Took us 28 days.
One tour guide we had the luck to have with us for two days was a Mrs. Li Min Xue or Shirley. She is a
Manager at CITS in Hangzhou, has been a tour guide for 15+ years, has traveled throughout China as well as
to America. Her English was fantastic! Anyway, she told us that anyone traveling to China should skip by the
agents over here and deal directly with CITS to save a bundle of money. In fact, your travel agent is calling
CITS anyways. By the way, CITS was the agency that helped us resolve any and all problems (just two), not
the travel agent sitting in LA. Anyone can email her directly to have her help you set up all your tours, hotels,
travel. Try her out and reach her by email at slcitszj@mail.hz.zj.cn.
Three Biggest Tips:
1. Forget bringing all that toiletry stuff when you leave home -- China's grocery and department stores have it
all.
2. Bring some anti-bacterial / odor killer spray for the toilets. You can find them in small spray bottles and
well worth the effort.
3. If you are traveling light and don't want to get your clothes laundered a lot and you'll be on the run yourself,
try bringing a small spray bottle of Fabreeze. With all the smokers there, plus all the pollution, your clothes
will stink.
I was in China almost 20 years ago now and I would have to say that although it is still a very foreign place to
travel, it has lost some of its exotic feel. One of the Chinese jokes we heard was: What's China's national
bird - answer, the "crane." Not the bird, the building crane.
P.S. Email Shirley at slcitszj@mail.hz.zj.cn.
Traveling by train, we visited Beijing, Taiyuan, Xian, Chongqing, took a 7 day Yangtze cruise, and
then landed in Shanghai, and continued on to the cities of Hanzhou, Suzhou and Wuxi. Took us 28 days.
One tour guide we had the luck to have with us for two days was a Mrs. Li Min Xue or Shirley. She is a
Manager at CITS in Hangzhou, has been a tour guide for 15+ years, has traveled throughout China as well as
to America. Her English was fantastic! Anyway, she told us that anyone traveling to China should skip by the
agents over here and deal directly with CITS to save a bundle of money. In fact, your travel agent is calling
CITS anyways. By the way, CITS was the agency that helped us resolve any and all problems (just two), not
the travel agent sitting in LA. Anyone can email her directly to have her help you set up all your tours, hotels,
travel. Try her out and reach her by email at slcitszj@mail.hz.zj.cn.
Three Biggest Tips:
1. Forget bringing all that toiletry stuff when you leave home -- China's grocery and department stores have it
all.
2. Bring some anti-bacterial / odor killer spray for the toilets. You can find them in small spray bottles and
well worth the effort.
3. If you are traveling light and don't want to get your clothes laundered a lot and you'll be on the run yourself,
try bringing a small spray bottle of Fabreeze. With all the smokers there, plus all the pollution, your clothes
will stink.
I was in China almost 20 years ago now and I would have to say that although it is still a very foreign place to
travel, it has lost some of its exotic feel. One of the Chinese jokes we heard was: What's China's national
bird - answer, the "crane." Not the bird, the building crane.
P.S. Email Shirley at slcitszj@mail.hz.zj.cn.