By Kathy M. Newbern and J.S. Fletcher
 Visiting the fourth largest country in the world means making choices. After all, if you only had a week or two in America (third largest), it would be tough to narrow down, right?
The same is true of China, but it can be done. We were delighted with the highlights we chose in Beijing (The Great Wall, Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, a temple); Shanghai (ancient water town, the Bund, shopping, Pearl Tower, world's fastest train); Hong Kong (OK, more shopping; The Peak; the flower, bird and goldfish markets, harbor light show) and the Yangtze River.
If you're planning to visit Beijing for the Summer Olympic Games you may already know that tickets and packages are already sold out. Now how much else you can squeeze in?
Be a Hero: Climb the Wall
Top of our to-do list was climbing The Great Wall of China, and the 55-yuan entrance fee is the best $8 we’ve ever spent.
Our guide suggested foregoing the wall at Badaling, most touristy because it’s closest to Beijing, so instead, drove us to the Mutianyu section, an hour away, which features a chair lift up and individual luge ride down. Loved it.
Here, the wall measures 23-26 feet high and 12-15 feet wide with 22 watch towers. At times, we had whole sections to ourselves.
We took the shortest but steepest route, covering three towers, ignoring our screaming calves. Begun in the Qi Dynasty but mostly built in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), the wall is more than 3,000 miles long. Amazingly, a fourth of the population at the time contributed to the building.
Chairman Mao proclaimed that anyone who wanted to be a hero in China must climb the Great Wall. We proudly wear our hard-earned T-shirts.
Beijing: Temples to Rickshaws
The Forbidden City, the most visited site in all of China, draws over 8 million sightseers annually. Guides deftly describe life among the emperors and concubines who lived here.
Officially called the Palace Museum, the vast, 180-acre complex was home to 23 Ming and Qing emperors from 1420 to 1911.
 The 9,999 rooms constitute the world’s largest collection of preserved, ancient wooden structures and contain a mind-blowing 1.5 million objects. Allow several hours, even at a quick pace.
A huge portrait of Chairman Mao Zedong still hangs on the outside wall of the Gate of Heavenly Peace, where, in 1949, he proclaimed the establishment of the People’s Republic of China.
Across the street is Tiananmen Square, roughly the size of 90 football fields, and as the largest city square in the world, reportedly holds a million people.
One AAA tour includes kite flying in the famous square.
Beijing’s best-known and largest temple is The Temple of Heaven, twice as big as the Forbidden City.
We opt for the Lama Temple, or Yong He Gong, an active temple with many Buddhist devotees worshipping with incense offerings and prayers. One ornate incense burner dates to 1746.
This site’s prize possession is a 60-foot statue of Maitreya (the future Buddha) carved from a single piece of white sandalwood.
A pedal-powered rickshaw tour of a “hutong” provides a glimpse of real China. Hutong are narrow alleys containing courtyard homes, or siheyuan, just beyond their walls.
Thousands of hutong once radiated from the Forbidden City. About 3,000 such neighborhoods still exist, some sharing toilets outside the courtyard wall. (Speaking of toilets, be prepared for the “squat” variety throughout China, even at Olympic venues. And carry tissues.)
The Hutong Tour highlight is the chance to visit a home for light snacks and conversation.
Our host, a young father, is intrigued that Americans can openly criticize their government; in turn, we are surprised by his compact living quarters and posters of Chairman Mao.
Hong Kong’s Symphony of Lights
Long reputed as a duty-free, shopping mecca, Hong Kong is a modern, vibrant city boasting the fifth largest harbor in the world. Victoria Harbor sits between the Kowloon Peninsula and Hong Kong Island.
Both sides will challenge even the most astute shoppers, and its tailors are world-renowned. You can take home a custom-made suit in just two days.
The personal shopper that Seabourn Cruises guests can hire confided that for the hard-core shopper, it’s Kowloon that provides “location, location, location.”
Despite the ‘97 British turnover of Hong Kong to China, the city maintains its British roots, including driving on the left, along with its own currency, the Hong Kong Dollar.
By day, take the Peak Tram, the world’s steepest, to view the city and the harbor from The Peak, home to a Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum and multi-level restaurants and shops.
Back at street level, don’t miss the flower, bird and goldfish markets, each a photographer’s dream.
By night, the must-see is the harbor light show with lasers and chasing lights outlining rows of skyscrapers, plus strobes and searchlights, all synchronized and set to music. The 20-minute show is sponsored each evening at 8:00 by the Hong Kong Tourism Board.
Hong Kong Disneyland is located on scenic Lantau Island.
For gamblers, there are the ponies at Happy Valley Raceway, and Hong Kong is, incidentally hosting the Olympic equestrian events.
Shanghai: Modern Metropolis to Ancient Water Towns
Shanghai takes no back seat to Hong Kong for shopping. Silk, pearls, jade and ceramics are favorite purchases. Nanjing Road boasts all the major brands and more, and the French Concession area provides many surprises like the upscale Shanghai Tang boutique.
Walk along the Bund to witness the Huangpu River’s working pulse and admire buildings over 100 years old, while visiting shops teeming with tourists and locals alike.
The river at night mesmerizes with all kinds of ships outlined in white or colored lights, ferrying not only tourists but single, massive plasma TVs for advertising. On weekends, many buildings power up their own light displays, reminiscent of Hong Kong’s harbor. Particularly impressive is the Oriental Pearl Tower, Asia’s tallest. The view from the top is killer.
We got a kick out of riding the world’s fastest train, the Maglev (for magnetic levitation), which reaches 220 mph in two minutes and operates at 268 mph in its airport runs.
Take in a Chinese acrobatics show, where performers dazzle with their skills.
Visit one of the ancient “water towns” outside Shanghai. The hour-ride to Zhujiajiao in the Jiangnan area (meaning “south of Yangtze River”) takes you back a century.
Women still wash clothes by hand in the river that tourists traverse in wooden boats maneuvered by weather-faced gondoliers who speak no English but smile profusely.
Cooking aromas fill the street, lined along both sides with vendors selling everything from dim sum and handmade silk comforters to cheap trinkets.
A bonsai artist invites us into his courtyard to have a look when we peek in with curiosity.
A lady beckons us to try her “rifle” game to pop balloons pinned to a board. You don’t win anything; just test your skill.
Laughter spills from a doorway behind which a spirited game of mahjong is under way.
We’ve again discovered authentic China.
 Cruising the Yangtze; Xi’an Warriors
Though our Seabourn cruise only traverses the working portion of the Yangtze River - a “highway” full of barges and freighters - many cruises trek to the Three Gorges Dam Site with small boat excursions up Shennong Stream, one of the most scenic of the Yangtze’s tributaries. Wu Gorge and Qutang Gorge are spectacular.
Xi’an, the ancient capital, and once, because of the Silk Road, China’s most cosmopolitan city, is home to the country’s most important archaeological site. Thousands of life-sized terra cotta warriors and horses have been excavated from their original burial with China’s first emperor, Qin Shi Huang (who, incidentally, initiated construction of the Great Wall). The buried warriors guarded the emperor in death and were only discovered in 1974 by well diggers.
New and Different
The fun of travel is exploring all that's new and different, and China has plenty of both, from the language and currency, to unusual foods.
We sampled shark-fin soup, jellyfish, marinated pig trotters (yes, pig’s feet), and Peking duck, which originated in Beijing and is served with the head on (the skin and fat are considered the delicacy, not the meat).
Seabourn Cruise lecturer Carol Jiang Hong of CITS Tours, said with a laugh, "Chinese people eat everything with four legs except the table and everything with two wings except the airplane. For 15 yuan (about $2), you can try deep-fried scorpion. I must say there's not much meat on it. It's a little crunchy."
China is still struggling with its new openness, including tourism - Westerners still stand out as different, so expect stares - along with its old problems of crowding and pollution. China's population ranks highest in the world - 1.3 billion people. A startling one in every five people live in China.
Still, go and experience an amazing culture that spans thousands of years.
If You're Going
Before you go: Rent the movies “The Last Emperior” and “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” You will need a China visa.
Getting there: Carolina AAA members are in luck; Delta began direct flights from Atlanta to Shanghai in late March.
Where to stay: Hong Kong’s remodeled Royal Park Hotel is located by a large shopping area and lovely waterfront park. The Four Seasons Hong Kong is popular with regular and business travelers, and the Four Seasons Shanghai is considered that city’s finest. The Four Seasons Beijing is scheduled to be open in time for the summer Olympics. Shangri-La Hotels has properties in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Xian and Beijing.
Olympic updates: For the latest, visit www.beijing2008.cn. A travel package is likely your best chance at event tickets.
AAA Vacations has a 13 day/12 night Enchanted China tour to Beijing, Chengdu, Guilin, Shanghai and Hong Kong, including a VIP visit to Hong Kong Disneyland; a 12-day escorted cruise and tour, the Yangtze Sampler, to Beijing, Xi’an, Shanghai & Yangtze River; and a 9 day/8 night privately guided tour of Beijing, Xi’an and Shanghai featuring all Shangri-La luxury hotels. Call 1–800–444–8691 or visit AAA.com/travel. |
