China in March - would you? (Weather wise).

cRaZyRaVr wrote: ↑ And if not what would be the best time for a 10 day trip?

Just a warning, this is a shopping tour...

"As this is a sight-seeing and shopping tour, there are seven shopping excursions on this tour, and a minimum amount of time (60mins) must be spent at each shopping site."

You'll spend a lot of time in tourist traps, but if you don't mind March is not bad in visiting these cities at all.

yes, the weather will be ok. A little chilly in Beijing, but great in hangzhou/shanghai mid-china.

Well I dont see any other way of visiting China than joining one of these tours. So you get to spend some time in the shops, but who says you have to buy anything.

What would be other tours that will not have these shopping stops???

cRaZyRaVr wrote: ↑ Well I dont see any other way of visiting China than joining one of these tours. So you get to spend some time in the shops, but who says you have to buy anything.

What would be other tours that will not have these shopping stops???

Interested in knowing this too... I got a friend that hired a personal tour guide because she wanted to avoid visiting these shops, and guess what?... the personal tour guide took them anyways there!, and they ended up buying some stuff

we arranged a private tour, where we specified that we wanted no shopping stops.
Although they did mostly comply. The did try and sneak a few in.

cRaZyRaVr wrote: ↑ Well I dont see any other way of visiting China than joining one of these tours.

Yes, all tours, even ones run by Western tour agencies have shopping components, but not to this number nor are they mandatory.

You pay for what you get on these tours (in China) - cheap tours, more shopping stops to subsidize.

But seeing vacation time is valuable, I rather pay more so I'm not stuck in some fake cultural tea ceremony.

Ask around, I'm sure people can give you recommended tour agencies.

roblombardi wrote: ↑ Interested in knowing this too... I got a friend that hired a personal tour guide because she wanted to avoid visiting these shops, and guess what?... the personal tour guide took them anyways there!, and they ended up buying some stuff

Hopefully not 7+ hours worth of shipping ... for OP, each stop maybe "60 minutes" but it takes time to get to the store and leave, plus the bus will stay as long as someone is still shopping. In some cases, you could be stuck at the shop for 2 or 3 hours while the suckers buy up the stock.

cRaZyRaVr wrote: ↑ And if not what would be the best time for a 10 day trip?

http://www.wechinavacation.com/content/ ... rs/29.html

Is this the one that this company runs in the Star travel section every Saturday for $888 all-inclusive? We always get a laugh out of it. There's another advert right beside, same length of time, for almost $4,000. I think I'd take that one.

icantfigureoutausername wrote: ↑ Is this the one that this company runs in the Star travel section every Saturday for $888 all-inclusive? We always get a laugh out of it. There's another advert right beside, same length of time, for almost $4,000. I think I'd take that one.

Why? What makes them different?

The main difference is the time cheap tours spend on attractions.
If you haven't done any research and just follow the crowd, you won't notice any difference.
I just hate it when they spend little time on the attractions I love and then much more time in useless shopping "outlets".

I remember one time one of the most famous attraction in the area I visited is marked as optional in the itinerary.
It was tough convincing the entire tour bus that we should go there instead of some herbal medicinal presentation, which many older people are more interested in.
I ended up begging the tour guide to contact another bus tour to buy things for us in order to calm everyone down and turn the bus around.
And even then, we spent so little time there it was hardly worth the ticket price at the gate (not covered).

I've been on 6 or 7 all-inclusive tours inside China and have visited most of the hot spots in both sight-seeing and shopping tours.

Shanghai - Suzhou - Wuxi - Hangzhou is a pretty standard route. Those 7 shopping excursions pretty much means 1 per day. I've been on a similar tour, one that started in China and cost about $4500 RMB ($900CAD) and it was not pretty. Basically everyday while on tour was like this:

-Wake up at 6AM.
-Eat bland breakfast. Hop on bus, drive 1-2 hours. Spend 1-2 hours at shopping destination.
-Bland lunch. Hop on bus, drive another 1-2 hours. Spend <1 hour at sight seeing location.
-Bland supper. Hope on bus, go back to hotel.
-The tour guide was friendly/helpful 90% of the time. While you were not required to buy at shops they would push hard for purchases and when not enough people did, they would give us attitude. Kick back to the tour guides are quite high.
-Rinse and repeat for 5 days.
-Only redeeming quality was the hotels were generally really nice. The group usually got back to the hotel before 10pm and you were free to go out on your own.

The general consensus is you will get what you paid for in these tours. Personally I would never go on another shopping tour again. Would much rather plan my own stops.

cRaZyRaVr wrote: ↑ And if not what would be the best time for a 10 day trip?

http://www.wechinavacation.com/content/ ... rs/29.html

I have read thru various threads on this topic for the past few months and pulled the trigger on the below tour for the march break period
http://www.compassholidays.net/tour/info.shtml?id=1315
As I heard lot of horror stories but keeping in mind of the march break prices else where and reasonably mild temperatures and deterimined to say "NO" at shopping outlets...made my decision
Ontop of it this will be the first trip to china and wanted to go by the flow and will go next time with my own terms
PS: got the 10 yrs multiple visa in this trip.
PM me with your itinery if you have already purchased as we might bump each other and toast as RFDer :-)

We booked a cruise tour, Legend of China, with Sinorama for late March departure. I think it's targeting "kwailo" because my sister asked for the itenary in Chinese and they don't have it. Everything is in English.

dec12 wrote: ↑ We booked a cruise tour, Legend of China, with Sinorama for late March departure. I think it's targeting "kwailo" because my sister asked for the itenary in Chinese and they don't have it. Everything is in English.

do you mind share the price for this tour? just curious as I was trying to include the 3 day "Yangzi Rvier Curise" but charging me extra $600 USD..

It's Cad $2000 per adult.

mkannuri wrote: ↑ I have read thru various threads on this topic for the past few months and pulled the trigger on the below tour for the march break period
http://www.compassholidays.net/tour/info.shtml?id=1315

Bon voyage and please give us a detailed review when you get back! BTW I would recommend the optional excursion to Zhujiajiao, we really liked this place when we organized our own trip to Shanghai.

mkannuri wrote: ↑ I have read thru various threads on this topic for the past few months and pulled the trigger on the below tour for the march break period
http://www.compassholidays.net/tour/info.shtml?id=1315
As I heard lot of horror stories but keeping in mind of the march break prices else where and reasonably mild temperatures and deterimined to say "NO" at shopping outlets...made my decision
Ontop of it this will be the first trip to china and wanted to go by the flow and will go next time with my own terms
PS: got the 10 yrs multiple visa in this trip.
PM me with your itinery if you have already purchased as we might bump each other and toast as RFDer :-)

Did you pre book any of the extra shows / side trips? I have not booked yet but I am looking at the same thing as you with March. 27th departure from Toronto. With all I want to see and do and the visa I get ~$1800 for a single.

Dealmaker1945 wrote: ↑ Bon voyage and please give us a detailed review when you get back! BTW I would recommend the optional excursion to Zhujiajiao, we really liked this place when we organized our own trip to Shanghai.

So far I have not booked any side tours, but will go by the flow with fellow group tourists.

Sure, will provide the detailed TR upon arrival.

cRaZyRaVr wrote: ↑ Did you pre book any of the extra shows / side trips? I have not booked yet but I am looking at the same thing as you with March. 27th departure from Toronto. With all I want to see and do and the visa I get ~$1800 for a single.

Nope, none booked yet for any side tirps/shows.
It looks like out dates are different and will not be bumping each other :-).
$1800 is bit expensive, mine is $820+$110(gratuity)+$145(Visa)=$1075 (including Pecking Duck dinner but without any side trips/shows)