Introduction |
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China2015 |
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We had not done
a trip to China |
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and were
reluctant to try a self |
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drive trip
there. A travel company, |
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Wendy Wu, based
in Australia, |
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came very
highly recommended. |
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They provided
an ALL INCLUSIVE |
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trip with an
experienced Chinese |
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tour guide,
which seemed very |
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suitable for
ALL our needs. |
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Every thing
apart from personal |
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expenses were
provided, including |
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all Airlines,
International/domestic, |
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all
accommodations, 4 star + (good) |
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all meals,
taxes, visas, some extra |
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optional
excursions were additional. |
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Our group size
was 25 people, |
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mostly from Oz,
& mostly couples |
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generally aged
60 to 70.(retirees) |
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The tour
included all the must see |
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items in China,
including :- |
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Shanghai city,
25 million. |
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Yangtze cruise
and 3 the Gorges, |
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lasting 3 days,
cities : Chongqing, |
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and Chengdu,
including the Panda |
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reserves. Then
fly to city of Xian, |
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with the
Terracotta warriors...great. |
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Then fly to Beijing to see the city |
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and visit the
Great Wall of China. |
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This served no
useful purpose ! |
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As soon as we
got to China, we were glad we had selected the Wendy Wu guided tour. Most
towns |
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had directional
sign also in English, but the traffic was VERY heavy, so our usual mode of
self drive |
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cars, as we do
in Europe and Nth America, was impracticable. All the pain of finding and
booking |
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hotels and
meals was eliminated, making the tour a pleasant experience. |
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Shanghai, 25
million, very modern Commercial Centre |
Parj was very impressed with the modern |
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buildings in
Shanghai, having been a Project manager on many High Rise buildings in
Australia. The |
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quality,
especially rooftop designs which hid the ugly plant and machinery was
excellent, and I am |
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advised the
speed of construction was comparable to the best in Australia. It is
difficult to digest that |
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most of what we
saw, has been achieved in the last 30 years, since the Communist regime was |
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relaxed to
allow enterprise and reward for effort. They were very proud of what they had
done. |
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We visited the
CBD and the top of a tall lookout high rise, and travelled on the Mag Lev
railway, between |
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the city and
the airport. The standard of the hotels was at least 3.5 to 4 star, with good
Chinese buffet |
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meals. Many
Chinese in Shanghai spoke/understood English, and where required, our tour
guide, |
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called Link,
made arrangements. Link was a veritable "treasure" as he looked
after all of us "OLDIES" |
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and called us
Link's family. |
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The High rise
buildings and numerous modern bridges over the Yangtze, were very impressive.
We had |
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seen some of
the recent bridges being built on Pay TV, but were still impressed by their
planning and |
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quality. When
we did the Mag Lev train trip, from the City centre to the Airport and
return, the train |
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reached speeds
of 431 kph. Bit faster than any of my old motorbikes, or old Porsche, BMW and
350Z ! |
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Some of the modern high rise towers in the |
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Hazy view of
Shanghai, from river bridge. |
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CBD, impressive. Rooftops were well done. |
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Hazy view from the top of one of the High rise
towers ↑ |
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<--- Modern slender tower. The wind effects
on this |
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building could be quite interesting. (slender
aerofoil) |
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Garden walk in Shanghai, Parj got lost ! |
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<--- Good view of Shanghai CBD. |
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During the
Garden walk in Shanghai, we had 2 Wendy Wu groups, ours with LINK and the
other with |
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GEORGE. At one
stage, Parj got into Georges group in front, discovered his error, and waited
for the |
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LINK group
which was behind. WE finally established contact by mobile phone and Parj
re-joined the |
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LINK family.
LINK was not amused, claiming he had not lost a family member in 5 years of
guiding tours. |
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On this trip,
the 1st day, he lost 2 people, other group members giving me
"sullen" looks. |
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