发送时间

This China trip has come together quicker than I could have imagined!

It turns out that we have an employee that is stationed out of China. A couple of emails later, I have the trip planned out!

For a lot of the places, a travel agency or tour guide isn’t required. I know what I want to do and how I want to do it. Expedia, Cheap Tickets, they can do the rest for me. But in China? I want something similar to my safari experiences: a guide, some meals, and transportation door-to-door for each leg of the trip.

A guide is crucial in China, where street signs are going to look like this: 发送时间. Also, I can’t understand train stations/bus stations/airports. Trains and busses are extremely stressful for me to figure out. And airports? I’m totally fine in any new airport because I ask for directions every one hundred meters. (No, I'm not joking).

I’m all for "the more the merrier", but when it comes to travelling?? Um. No. I don’t want an actual group tour. Yes, I’ll go to places where there are thousands of tourists, but I want to go there on my own.

I have no idea how to say this without coming off as pretentious (I felt this way long before I travelled outside of North America) I find the average tourist extremely annoying.

The following habits that I’ve observed, that annoy the CRAP out of me are:

• Not using your inside voice. Not everyone in the bus/boat/car/plane is interested in hearing what you have to say
• Body odor. Look, I live in a hot climate, I know that we can’t always smell like a breath of fresh air, but daily use of deodorant is a requirement. At least while you’re travelling.
• People that talk endlessly to the guides, asking them questions, but actually wanting to talk about themselves
• Impolite behavior. Examples are: rushing to get there first instead of following an orderly, normal line (like you learned in kindergarten), not holding the door open for the person behind you, not practicing elevator etiquette (let the people get out first, then when it’s your turn to get out, there is an order: Old people, children, women, then men). Look, I don't make up these crazy opinions of mine, they just ARE. :P

Spending fourteen days with people I don’t know, who may partake in above habits, will drive me crazy, and doesn't interest me. Ok, I’ve totally failed and yes, I sound incredibly pretentious. And I’m fine with that, too.

Anyway - I’m quite lucky, with this trip to China I have a direct flight to/from Johannesburg - my favorite airport.

Even better is that I don’t waste any daytime travelling. My flights leave in the very late evening, so while I’m sleeping, I’m travelling. I think I’ll have a five hour jetlag difference, which is half of what I have when I fly to Edmonton.

Ok, enough about my preaching about travelling as a picky-pretentious-princess, here’s the highlights of the trip!

In Beijing

• Tian'anmen Square
• Forbidden City
• Summer Palace
• Temple of Heaven
• Hutong Tour
• Great Wall Badaling (section of the Great Wall of China)
• Ming Tomb
• Bird's Nest
• Water Cube
• Quanjude Roasted Duck   

In Xi'an (how do I even pronounce that!?!)

• Museum of Qin Terracotta Warriors and Horses
• Big Wild Goose Pagoda,
• Ancient City Wall
• Tang Dynasty Dinner Show

Guilin and Yangshuo

• Reed Flute Cave
• Fubo Hill
• Li River cruise

Shanghai

• Yu Garden
• Old Downtown
• Shanghai Museum
• Bund
• Acrobatic Show
• Jinmao Tower

Hong Kong

• Victoria Peak
• Stanley Market
• Repulse Bay
• Historic Fishing Village at Aberdeen

Two of those cities were on my “list” and three of the places were on my "list".

 It’s a lot to take in and was originally a 12 day tour, but I extended an extra day in Beijing and an extra day in Shanghai. Our rotations out are sometimes called “R&R” for Rest and Relaxation, so I need at least a day or two to SLEEP IN and just chill out. I have no idea what half of these places are. Luckily, the tour is flexible and if there’s something we want to swap in or out, we can do that on the fly.

Next step: Buy a travel book on China and read up!!!