Trip Report China March/April 2019
We flew 16 March with Cathay Pacific Business Class to Beijing with a transit and plane change at Hong Kong. No delays. CX J class is not as good at Emirates, Qantas or Air NZ. The seats are narrow and hard with no mattress. Bubbles on take-off in a glass but wine with dinner in a plastic cup! Food was ok. Service ok. The wine choice was limited to 2 whites and 2 reds, very poor.
Met on arrival Beijing by our National Tour Guide, Betty, and transferred by car to our hotel. So we started Wendy Wu “Magnificent China” 22 day tour of China. Beijing 4 nights, Xian 2 nights, Yangtze River Cruise 4 nights, Chengdu 2 nts, Guilin 1 night, Yangshuo 2 nights, Guilin 1 night, Shanghai 4 nights. We added the Amenities Package to the Yangtze Cruise which was worth the extra money.
Luckily we were a small group of 11 made up of 5 Brits and 6 Aussies. Apparently you need to have at least 10 in a group to qualify for a National Tour Guide. We crossed paths with Trip A Deal and other shorter Wendy Wu tours and they were in groups of more than 27. Our group got along very well with a good sense of humour. Betty, our guide, was with us for the whole trip with local guides in some cities. I cannot say enough about Betty. She always had our interests at heart, made sure our hotel rooms were ok, explained the dishes at meals, talked to us about life in China, stayed with anyone who wanted to go to a pharmacy or shop. She was even at our hotel on departure at 4am. Betty goes beyond what one would expect from a guide.
Our hotels were Jiangxi Grand Hotel Beijing, Grand Dynasty Culture Hotel Xian, Xin Liang Hotel Chengdu, Lujiang Waterfall Hotel Guilin, Elite Garden Hotel Yangshuo and the Sheraton Grand Shanghai Pudong Hotel. The Beijing hotel is a government run hotel, the rooms and bathroom smelled of cigarettes, no air con and the window didn’t stay open so I had to wedge it open with my duty free perfume box and the shower rose didn’t work properly (this was fixed). The Yangshuo hotel was basic but we were pre-warned, at least it was central. All the other hotels were excellent, particularly the Waterfall Hotel and the Sheraton Shanghai. It is a regulation in China that air con is not switched on till May. We had some unseasonal warm days and nights which we didn’t expect. It was mostly dry weather and any rain didn’t affect our trip.
We went on all the side trip tours included in the itinerary and most of the extra optional tours. Don’t miss the night tour of Xian and the night boat trip in Shanghai. You need local currency for the optional tours. The hotels give the best exchange rate, better than Crown in Australia and the China airport exchange outlets. We were warned to take plenty of local cash and ended up taking a total of RMB7660 which we spent but this included lots of laundry, an electric razor and many small gifts. I would certainly recommend exchanging at least RMB7000 for a couple. We used our credit card to purchase items at the Pearl Museum, Shanghai Museum and the Silk Factory. Laundry on the river cruise was expensive, better to wait till the next hotel where there is same day service and cheaper.
We were warned that the Chinese wine served on the Yangtse Cruise was awful, even with the Amenities Package but previous complaints must have changed what they serve now as we had a reasonable French Bordeaux red wine and there was an Australian Chardonnay Semillon with dinner. This certainly made the Amenities Package worthwhile as well as the free wifi and one level deck upgrade.
Be warned, the pollution in China is shocking and it’s not just Beijing and Shanghai but everywhere we went including along the Yangtse River. I could not believe the changes in China since I was in Beijing in 1987. Bikes have been replaced with cars hence worse pollution and all the high rise buildings have replaced the previous traditional Chinese structures. China is no long a third world country but is very advanced. We saw cranes everywhere and lots of infrastructure building of bridges and roads etc.
We flew home Cathay again, economy Shanghai to Hong Kong then changed planes and Premium Economy from Hong Kong to Brisbane. I was impressed with Premium Economy, comfortable seating, good leg room, seat reclines well, food was ok – fish or lamb but lamb had run out so I had an economy chicken noodle dish. Service only ok. On Cathay the cabin crew do not walk through the aircraft checking if anyone wants anything. They seem to hide in the galley.
To summarise the trip we had a wonderful time and it exceeded my expectations. I would recommend Wendy Wu Tours to anyone and lucky you if you get Betty as your guide. March/April was a good time to go to China as it’s before the peak tourist period and the fruit blossoms were out everywhere, very pretty.
