Los Angeles to China and Back: My Review of a 13-day China Tour

Our journey started three years ago when we were all set to go to China. Due to a family illness we had to cancel the trip but luckily we had trip insurance (highly recommended).

We went on the same trip in May through Nexus Tours and other than in a few cases, the trip through them was excellent. I will note what I would suggest they change in the following article.

Since we have three adult children living in California that was our first stop from Boston. We stayed at Howard Johnson Pasadena located at 1599 East Colorado Boulevard. The location was very good if you will be in the Pasadena area . If you are venturing into Los Angeles, you will want to stay closer. This was a suite and great for a family. For only $79 it was a great buy. Our room was clean though there were areas here and there that could use work. The air conditioner was so noisy we complained and were offered the choice to move. We were told that they were upgrading the air conditioning and perhaps ours would be done that day but it wasn't. The parking was free as was the decent continental breakfast. The pool was small and the whirlpool dirty but it was close to a Starbucks and CVS so all in all three stars.

One afternoon we ate at Thai Dishes located at 239 Colorado Boulevard. We thought the food to be excellent as was the atmosphere so we brought out daughter there one night. She wasn't as enthralled as we were.

We ate at El Portal located at 695 East Green Street. This offers a Yucatan Mexican cuisine, which I found to be very good and reasonably priced. Brunch on a Sunday morning was at a combo flower shop and restaurant called La Petite Jardin located at 1456 South Robertson Boulevard. The food was very good but the service was lacking. Still it was a comfortable setting for a family get-together. We spent three hours there and never got a dirty look! Our last meal before we hit the skies to China was at Pita Jungle located at 43 East Colorado Boulevard. It is new having replaced a Mexican restaurant. It was great. I would definitely recommend it. The ambiance was cute, the staff very nice and the food excellent.

The day we were to fly we spent at the gorgeous Huntington Botanical Gardens. This is a must see. Although we have been to L.A. many times this place eluded us. It is located at 1151 Oxford Road in San Marino and is a wonderful way to spend a da

I am neither sad nor glad we went to China. It was on my husband's bucket list so we went. The time change was very difficult so to make it easier nothing was planned on the day we arrived, which was at 2:00p.m. We literally slept until 11:00p.m. and then unpacked. Be prepared - I have not yet figured out how to survive jet lag so if you have any suggestions please leave a comment.

Beijing was our first stop. We spent three days here. This city served as the capital of five dynasties over a period of 800 years. Our guide, Grace, and driver (We always had a driver with our guide.) met us at our hotel, Jade Palace, along with our Beijing tour mates. There were only seven of us, which was fantastic. We had visions of a giant bus with 40 people on it. Jade Palace was truly 5 stars and perhaps the nicest hotel we have stayed in. (Keep reading) It was a suite with a giant tub, king sized bed, modern tile and glass. The hotel had five restaurants, a regular-size blowing alley, an Olympic sized pool, a store and a karaoke bar. The safe wasn't working and the water spilled over from the shower making the floor slippery. There could have been hooks in the bathroom. This was one of my few complaints. The buffet breakfast was truly amazing. We were offered an omelet station, Muslim (meaning no meat) and non-Muslim food, all sorts of oatmeal and millet, pastries, noodles, fruit and meat dishes.

This was a day of walking. I cannot emphasize that I probably walked more on this first day than I ever had when visiting a city. We started at the Forbidden City, which was about 40-minutes away from the hotel. This is a group of buildings for the variety of Emperors whose dynasties ended 100 years ago. It is the largest and most intact conglomeration of ancient structures of the imperial palace ever built in the world. There are more than 800 buildings with 9999 rooms. We also went to the Temple of Heaven, which was used by emperors to offer sacrifices to heaven and pray for good harvest in ancient times. Truly by the time I was done with Beijing I never wanted to hear the word Emperor. Our guide continued to call 100 years ago "ancient times."

From there we went to the huge area called Tiananmen Square. This is the largest public square in the world. When I asked Grace where the incident with the students being killed occurred she pointed to it and said This is a sensitive subject. We are not allowed to talk about it. Hooray for the USA.

You may have heard about the toilets. Other than a few here and there that are "Western" they are in the floor making squatting necessary. This was one of many customs I found -- well -- interesting. Another custom is that of toilet training babies. Many babies and very young children wear pants with openings in the front and the back. How this work exactly I cannot explain. Our guide tried to explain it but was a bit defensive as one would imagine.

All our meals until our last stop consisted of family style dishes and the food was plentiful! We had gotten tetanus and Hepatitis A and B shots as well as a prescription of Cipro and lots of Imodium D, but we were careful and never got sick. Peking duck is very popular as are fish dishes comprised of the whole fish. Other dishes include rice, rice and more rice, what I call mystery chicken, eggs, and a lot of pork. Dessert was always comprised of fruit, which most often was watermelon.

We went to a Kung Fu Show, which is a very popular stop on China tours. It was actually quite good but don't be surprised if you find yourself nodding out due to fatigue.

The Great Wall was the first real attraction that took us to China and it did not disappoint. What is interesting is that on one side a "tourist" wall has been built which makes it easier for tourists to climb; however, it is not the real wall so in my opinion, if you can't climb the Great Wall, sit it out. We started at Juyong Pass. It is the most famous image of China throughout the world and is the only manmade object that is visible from the moon. It is one of the Eight Wonders of the World.

We, as most tours, stopped at two factories from here. They were the largest Jade Center in Asia and a Cloisonne factory. I did not find that our guides spent too much time at any shopping stop in spite of reading that complaint from others. This may be a plus for Nexus Tours. It is obvious that the guides get kickbacks but at no time did Grace put any pressure on us to buy except for once.

We visited the Sacred Path of Ming Tombs, where 13 of the 16 Ming emperors have their tombs. It was very scenic though truly just a long walk in the park.

We went to the area of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, which the Chinese are proud of and have every right to be. We saw the Bird's Nest and Water Cube buildings built for the Olympics. That night we saw the traditional tourist acrobat show, which was really enjoyable. This was our first tour - we usually go on our own without guides - and we found an advantage was not having to wait in lines and getting great seats.

Day 3 of our tour took us to the Summer Palace of the Emperors, which we ran through in an hour. It is the largest ancient preserved garden in China and a former summer resort for emperors and a chosen few. A boat ride on the man-made lake called Lake Kunming was on our itinerary but for whatever reason we did not do that. No one questioned our guide including me.

We went to an herbal pharmacy where we had a lecture from a Chinese doctor who did acupuncture tests on anyone who wanted and then proceeded to want to sell us a one-month supply of herbs for $100.00. No one took him up on this "offer." When we got in the van Grace was quite critical of Westerners who do not believe in Eastern medicine. I know in our case that is quite untrue. We see an acupuncturist regularly but have never spent $100 on a bottle of herbs. The Pearl Exhibition Hall was on our itinerary but the guide found out we would go to a Pearl Factory later in our tour so we did not go.

An optional $40.00 tour was a carriage pulled by a bicycle called a pedicab. This was a definite pressured tour and not worth the money so do not fall for it being a highlight of your trip. The ride was fun but short and we saw an area called Hutong, the ancient Beijing Alley District where we met the head of a Chinese family, who was quite interesting. One problem was the language. For example I really wanted to know how he found his way to this area where the government helps preserve the district and the rent is quite low. We had a separate guide for this tour who was our translator and all we could find out was that he doesn't get lost getting home. At the end of our tour we had to tip both the guide, Yo Yo, and the carriage driver. Everywhere we turned we were tipping people.

We then went to a large pedestrian shopping area, which was quite nice; however, going down a side street to a bazaar/market we saw "food" such as rats, starfish, and scorpions on a stick. Later that day the whole street in front of the pharmacy was lined with vendors selling the same kind of food and it was here we saw dog stew.

We were all very glad that we nixed what Grace said was truly the "best show in Beijing." The cost was $40.00 per person and we later heard from another tour group that it was not worth the money.

What I took away from Beijing: people and gazillions of them pushing me, a growling stomach, and smog.

The next two nights took us to the Titan Times Hotel after we said goodbye to Grace and got on a plane to Xi'an. Two in our group left for a private tour but we gained five others making our group 10 people. Our first stop was the wall that surrounds Xi'an, which is 8-miles long. This wall is not only the most complete city wall that has survived in China but also one of the largest and most complete ancient military defenses. Once we got past the smog the area was very pretty. Xi'an was the first Chinese city to open its doors to the world during the Tang Dynasty.

After lunch we spent 1 ''½ hours at the Shanxi Provincial Historical Museum, which made no impression on me whatsoever. Even with my notes I can't remember it. We could now go to our hotel and unpack. I though Jade Palace was amazing. Titan Times Hotel was also a suite but it had two bathrooms. It was truly impressive. Nexus provided us with great accommodations. That night we had a wonderful dinner at the Imperial Dumpling Banquet with 18 dishes followed by the Tang Dynasty Singing and Dancing Show.

The following day, which was a Monday but I am not counting days although they are written in my notes (The truth is we had no idea what day it was.) we had an even more amazing buffet breakfast than our previous ones complete with all the regular dishes and mango juice and coconut bread. This was a very busy day. We visited the Art Ceramics Factory, where it will be hard not to buy a Terra Cotta Warrior. We did buy one and the price was very good considering that the quality was good. You will find them on the streets for much less but the quality will reflect that. Then off to the second reason we went to China: The Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses Museum. This site is among the top archeological excavations of the 20^th century. The life-sized defending army to the first emperor of China was discovered by farmers in 1978. Much of it was (and is) in pieces so it is being painstakingly put back together and more excavation continues.

We continued our day with any kind of a massage we wanted (not included in the tour as was true of some of the nighttime shows) but most chose foot massages. This was a well-needed full-hour massage.

The Big Wild Goose Pagoda is the symbol of the city. It is said to have been built to house and protect Buddhist scriptures collected by a Chinese monk.

A negative to this tour happened the next day. We had to wake up at 4:00a.m. to fly from Xi'an to Chongqing and do nothing but wait until we could board our river cruise at 5:30p.m. Chongqing is the largest industrial and commercial cities in the Sichuan Province. During the Second World War it was the headquarters for Chiang Kai-Shek and his government and the base for the Flying Tigers who made their historic flights over the Himalayan Mountain Range to Burma. Truly one would have to be a history buff to the nth degree to have been interested in the museum that is a tribute to General Stilwell i.e. The General Stilwell Museum. There was no place to sit inside and I was so bored. Our guide, Jasmine, was quite nice and spoke perfect English. All the guides spoke English of course but some were harder to understand than others.

We visited he famous Panda House. Truly they are quite cute but only if you like zoos. The Chongqing Hot Pot was a unique lunch where one side of a giant pot has spicy boiling water and the other side less spicy. In this hot pot go all sorts of meats and vegetables including mutton (sheep).

It was then finally time to get on the President Prime Cruise for the third reason we went to China: The Yangtze River. We spoke with others on other tours and if you can, choose this boat. It is new and very nice. We heard some not so nice things about one of the other boats. The bottom line: We would have preferred to spend ''½ a day in Xi'an then getting up so early to go to Chongqing and wait.

Our room on the cruise was nice. Everyone had balconies. Of course this cannot be compared to a cruise ship because it is after all on a river! This was a three night cruise. Our food on the cruise was generally good. We had one night of food that we complained about and the staff, who was all very nice, did the best to accommodate our table of 10 with whom we ate all three meals.

Our first excursion was a joke. In fact a young man traveling along who got off another boat asked us if "Ghost City" was "hoakie." That was his term and we concurred that it was. That was a perfect term. It felt like Disneyworld. At one time a cable car to it may have been fun but now the walk to it was not fun -- especially in the heat. What we found were a whole lot of statues of ghosts and devils and some silly things like having good luck if we got over a bridge in only nine steps. On our itinerary was a visit to a village and a trip to an elementary school but that never happened and was disappointing.

The Three Gorges Dam Project is the world's largest dam measuring 606 feet long. The dam has two five-stage locks to raise and lower ships to different river levels. Each lock in the five stages is 65 feet high and 910 feet long. Although not talked about much this dam caused and is causing huge numbers of people to be relocated. The spin is a positive one '" people get new housing provided by the government. I would urge you before going to see a few movies on China. In fact we were supposed to go to Wanzhou Relocation Village, which was formed due to this project but that never happened. The excursion director spoke into a microphone but between the bad sound system, his English, and the noise of the people outside it was quite hard to hear him as we traveled through the gorges.

On board there were presentations on the Gorges and performances by the staff. I never miss a show on a cruise but in the case of the river cruise I didn't go to any thing at night. Unless you are in one of the front rows it is very hard to see the stage so after the first few minutes of the first show I left.

The ship sails through the Qutang Gorge, the shortest and narrowest of the three gorges. Next was Wu Gorge, which was quite beautiful. Our next shore excursion was at Wushan where we got on a small riverboat for a ride on Shennong Stream. The rock formations were beautiful and the water color was so dramatically different than the brown water we first encountered. The last gorge was Xiling, which is the longest of the three. The ship went through the locks at night -- starting around 10:00 or so. My husband watched. All I know is that when I opened the curtain to our balcony there was a wall next to me!

We disembarked in Yichang city where we got on a bus to the airport and flew to the modern city and commercial center or China, Shanghai. I was expecting this city to look like New York but it doesn't '" at least it didn't to me. I found it very clean and much more civilized than New York City. We stayed in the Minya Hotel, which is on the modern side of Shanghai. Our Shanghai guide was Kelly who took us to restaurants much different than we had been used to. They were Eastern restaurants. We were the only Westerners in the two places in which we went. This wasn't a bad thing but I was concerned about eating the food. As it turned out there were a lot of Asian tourists in the eateries.

Minya Hotel was super modern with a volume control for the TV in the bathroom. Unfortunately we could hear the TV from the adjoining room. The breakfast buffet was not as good as we had been used to. In fact I couldn't drink the orange juice.

Our first stop was to the Silk Market, which was quite interesting and much to our surprise we bought one of the famous silk blankets. Bund is a mile-long stretch along the Huangpu River. What was really interesting was the architecture of the other cities i.e. the palace-like roofs which were gone and in their place were buildings that looked like they belonged in any city in the U.S.

The Ming Dynasty Yuyuan Garden is considered to be one of the fours greatest Chinese gardens and it was beautiful. Nanjing Road was the shopping district and our last stop.

The following day we were on our own. We had the entire day and experimented with the subway station. It was easy to follow having had help from Kelly as to which lines to take where. Kelly and our driver picked us up at our hotel later that day and drove us to the airport. Unfortunately when we gave the driver his tip he was not happy with it. He claimed that he was with us for longer than we considered him to be with us. In fact the tips are recommended amounts and not written in stone.

Back to Los Angeles where it was two hours earlier than when we had left Shanghai! We spent one night at the Travelodge Pasadena Central located at 2131 East Colorado Boulevard. I will just leave this article with my final words, which are don't stay here.

There is a lot more I can say about my experiences in China so feel free to ask in the comment section.