<p>Hi all,</p>
<p>I'm looking for a long (4-5 weeks) small-group tour to China that covers much of the country. Adventures Abroad has pretty much what I'm looking for (its "RK8"), but it didn't run that trip last year or this year, and probably won't any time soon. Does anyone know of anything like this?</p>
<p>I'm only interested in groups of less than, say, 24 people, and I'm not looking to do a private or custom trip.</p>
<p>Any thoughts or advice?</p>
<p>Thanks!
</p>
Long tour to China?
Message Submitted by velevele on Sun, 01/30/2011 - 08:29
You might find something here http://www.chinahighlights.com/tour/china-customer-tour/30-day-china-tours/ but I'm not sure of the group size, I can't imagine it would be a big group since most tours are geared around two weeks.
I took a quick look at the Adventures Abroad itinerary (I like this company, have traveled with them several times) and it looks like their itinerary is a combination of a Silk Road trip, plus time in the Yunnan. You could duplicate this trip by combining two tours. I did something similar with Peregrine Adventures (www.peregrineadventures.com), a Australian company some years ago.
Look at these itineraries:
China's Silk Road (trip code:PCSR) this trip is 16 days and begins in Beijing and ends in Kashgar
http://www.peregrineadventures.com/central-asia-north-asia/china/chinas-...
you could then fly to Kunming (I did this) and pick up their 10 day Yunnan Explorer trip. The trip code is PCYE. It begins/ends in Kunming.
http://www.peregrineadventures.com/central-asia-north-asia/china/yunnan-...
Then fly to Hong Kong, stay at a centrally located hotel and do day trips.
You could buy your main airfare to Beijing and home from Hong Kong adding these internal flights:
Kashgar to Kunming
Kunming to Hong Kong
I booked Peregrine Adventures thru Adventure Center (800 228 8747), but they also rep some British companies that have similar itineraries. You might want to ask them about tours that would also include the Yangtze River trip.
According to the website Peregrine's maximum group size is 15 persons.
Hi Velevele,
I don't know where you heard that Adventures Abroad did not run Tour RK8 to China last year, but that information is not correct. In fact, I ran into that tour group and its tour leader, Weifeng (Aggie) Lu (better known as Lu) on Sunday, Oct. 17, 2010 at the Kashgar Market and again two days later in Turpan. Although I was with a different tour group (Orient Odyssey), Lu and I remembered each other from Fall 2008 when I took Adventure Abroad's tour RK3 (Yunnan Province and Eastern China including Yangtze River cruise) and she was the group leader. At the Kashgar market she remembered my face, but not my name; I remembered her name but not her face, but between the two of us we found each other, which was an amazing co-incidence. Can you imagine what the odds are of running into someone you know two years later in the country with the largest population on earth in a large Sunday market no less? But that's exactly what happened.
In any event, I had a chance to talk to Lu and some of her group members on her Fall 2010 Adventures Aboard tour of China. Although the tour was modular where one didn't have to do the whole thing, a few people were going the whole 9 yards and taking the entire 35-day tour of China, including Yunnan Province, Eastern China, Yangtze River, and Silk Road (Western China). That was Tour RK8 and even if it was not assigned that specific tour code in 2010, in essence it was the same thing. So contrary to what you heard, it did indeed operate in Fall 2010.
While I was on Adventures Abroad Tour RK3 in Fall 2008 as well as the Orient Odyssey tour "Glorious Silk Road & Kashgar" in October 2010, I also spoke with members of a tour group called Wendy Wu's China, who were on a month-long tour of China. Wendy Wu's China is a long-standing Australian-based company that is branching out into the American market AND is a brand new advertiser in ITN Magazine. They offer a 27-day grand tour to China that includes all or most of the places offered in Adventures Abroad Tour RK8. Their website is www.wendywuschina.com and their US office is right here in New York, NY. You might want to compare Wendy Wu's China with Adventures Abroad in making your choice.
I recommend Orient Odyssey as well. I traveled with them on a group trip to China, and had a great time , good food and nice accommodations at a very reasonable price.
Thanks all for the suggestions! I'll check them out.
Sorry Ada, I meant the April departure of RK8. I know they have a fall departure, but since I can't take that one, I didn't investigate it.
Betchert Travel does two back to back trips in China that would get you a month. They are small, wonderful and know their stuff - more natural science oriented, but more importantly know how to get you off the beaten track. We did a Silk Road- Solar Eclipse -Pakistan tour with them and it could not have been more superb.
TravelCenturian, thanks! I'm a scientist but had never heard of Betchert... it sounds they're right up my alley. Thanks for the pointer!
Betchert also offers packages for university alumni tours which is how we found them for the solar eclipse tour in China Pakistan. George Smoot, Nobel Prize physicist was our distinguished lecturer companion on the trip and we also met up with several Astronomical Society groups in our special remote viewing location near the Mongolian border that Betchert also specifically pre-arranged.
The "official" China tourism viewing spot had over 30,000 people all with loud speakers, where as our specially arranged Betchert spot was lonely, remote and with sweeping 360 views for just us alone.
You can book with them directly, or see if your university alumni group might have some packages where they add on a few extras, like a distinguished lecturer but which also takes the price up from the regularly booked Betchert tours.