Most first time visitors to China focus on touring eastern China rather than starting with for example a Yunnan tour in western China. One of the most popular itineraries is the seven-day Beijing – Xian – Guilin – Shanghai tour. Starting from Beijing, next stop in Xian, then off to Guilin and finish in Shanghai, the circuit has become the beaten path of seeing China, especially for the American tourist.
While visiting the Imperial Palace, seeing Tiananmen Square, getting a taste of the ramparts of the Great Wall and even having the famous Beijing Duck Dinner is part of all the Beijing tour programs, Beijing has lot more to offer and to do it justice demands much longer stay.
Tourists head to Xian primarily to visit the Wild Goose Pagoda and the life-size terra-cotta army. Memorable indeed and not to be missed but a brief Xian tour stop it is and one is back to the airport to fly to Guangxi to commence their Guilin tour.
Once the plane touches down in Guilin, the operators herd the tourists on boats and down Li River they go, one boat after another, gaping at the stunning karst formation in amazement on aboard crowded boats. In Yangshuo they step on shore and instantly get engulfed in a mass of vendors. Amidst endless mass of souvenir stalls they proceed to their waiting cars and buses for a return drive to Guilin and a flight to Shanghai. What a spectacle!
The grand megalopolis of Shanghai certainly overwhelms. To sample the Bund and drop in to Jade Buddha Temple, just to blow in and out is hardly worth the stop. All in all, the seven-day tour is a race and no wonder these tour participants come home exhausted.
One can certainly understand that many travel on limited time and resources but the still evident mentality of American travel, “It’s Wednesday, must be Xian,” seems to predominate how many select their vacation and why the operators design these kind of tour races.
Some would argue that even though hurried, the tour still offers the casual tourist taste of China, which is the objective. But travel should be about an experience which comes from immersing one into a place or an event, to interact with the locals, not just run through all the pagodas and museums and move on.
Perhaps on your next trip try staying put in just one place. Frankly you can leave Beijing and Shanghai for a later trip and get a taste of China by spending a week in the likes of Hangzhou and Suzhou, Pingyao and Kaifeng, if indeed you want see eastern China first.
