Comments on recent trip to China

Recent Trip to China

Overall, it was a wonderful trip. We were able to see the ancient China that the world owes so much to, in terms of culture and technology, and at the same time see the modern China that is at the forefront with the leading countries in the present world.

Specifically, we enjoyed: a) the modernity of Shanghai, b) the everlasting and wondrous gardens of Suzhou, and the impromptu grand canal trip our guide was able to arrange for us on our way to Tiger Hill, c) our early morning walk from our hotel down the street to the morning market with all its sights and sounds and tastes in Suzhou, d) our early morning walk along the causeway over West Lake, watching the “gondoliers” with their passenger craft which we hoped we would be taking later in the day, e) our trip down the Li river (from Guilin which otherwise was mostly a tourist trap and its attractions largely glossed over) to the town of Yangshuo and the subsequent restful free day which we spent shopping on West Street, f) the Provincial Museum in Wuhan where we saw the “bell” instrument that could reproduce all the notes of our present day tonic scale over 5 octaves which had been produced over 2400 years ago, g) the 5-day trip up the Yangtze river with the stop at the dam and the excursion down Daning river, h) the magic of the mountains of Emei which we declined to spend the night at the top of, due to the health of one of the party, i) the re-acquaintance with my interpreter of many years ago at the Management Training Centre in Chengdu who is now Asst Director of Foreign Affairs and who took us for a visit to a country tea-house on a Sunday afternoon, j) the Terra Cotta soldiers of the emperor of the Qin dynasty (this may well have been the trip highlight, this and the museum in Wuhan), k) the stop in the town of Pingyao, marred as it was by the dust from the storm in the Gobi desert, and l) the wonderful hotel upgrade in Shanghai that we were unaccountably given, the un-guided opportunity for shopping on Nanjing Rd. and our last morning on the water-front, watching the tai chi, the boat traffic and the kite-flying.

Some of our disappointments were 1) the pollution in the big cities (though I must admit that the air quality is better than I remember it being many years earlier, and this despite the remarkable progress China has achieved in the same period) that left us with the respiratory ailments we are still fighting. back home, 2) not being allowed to take a trip on West Lake in the sculled “gondolas” but having to settle for a big iron passenger ferry, 3) the so-called factories of silk and tea and jade that were no more than tourist traps with high-pressure sales teams, 4) the two 5-star hotels that used their status to charge exorbitant restaurant and bar prices that made us have to go out of the hotel for such services, 5) the general state of accessibility of the attractions in Beijing as they are gearing up for the 2008 Olympics (too many are being restored in part so that some of each is off limits to tourists), 6) the lack of knowledge of some of the guides regarding the attractions they were showing (they knew what they had memorized as their presentations, but often had little depth on related topics), and the lack of knowledge on the part of most of the guides in terms of handling train connections. Train attendants (unlike airlines) do not speak English and this needs to be acknowledged in the guides’ awareness, and the way they handle arrangements.

The only train connection that was according to your published itinerary was the last one, from Taiyuan to Beijing when one of our party accompanied the guide to buy the tickets. And that was the best train accommodation we had. All the others were similar but not as published and the train accommodations were worse. Perhaps it was coincidence, that we were present at the purchase of the tickets and the times and level of accomodation were also the best, and perhaps not. Perhaps guides are purchasing cheaper tickets when available and pocketing the difference.

It is necessary for me to cover the subject of guides in more depth. We found all of them to be reasonably competent in English, at least enough to tell us what we must do, or tell us about the attraction we were seeing, but not competent enough often, to be able to understand us in our requests for either information or service. Sometimes we would have to devote particular effort to communicate. All of them were very courteous and smiling even under what must have been very trying circumstances at times. We particularly remember a) the breadth of knowledge of the guide when we entered China, in Shanghai, b) the desire to learn (she carried an electronic dictionary with her where she would look up new words she encountered through us) and the flexibility of the guide in Suzhou, c) the inflexibility and determination of the guide to take us through her pre-determined program, in Hangzhou, d) the extensive knowledge on so many subjects and in particular the “dig” presented in the Provincial museum of Wuhan, as well as his knowledge of Daoism when we viewed the temple in question, by the senior guide in Wuhan, e) the lack of knowledge of trains and porters and the requirements of boarding trains, by the guide in Xi’an, and f) the seeming total lack of attraction knowledge by the guide in Beijing, which he made up for by his personal magnetism and attentiveness to our ailing group member.