I gotten a Groupon for my trip to China months and months ago. It’s somewhere I’ve wanted to go considering that I was a kid (I think I was inspired by some Sesame street big Bird in China movie).
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Anyway. When the Groupon email popped up for the deal I jumped on it because it covered flight from LAX, hotels, several meals and a excursion guide to take us to the highlights. I am NOT a fan of guided excursions when traveling because I like to explore and do my Camiseta Atletico Mineiro own thing. I have never taken a group excursion for this reason.
But, I didn’t know how to speak one word of Mandarin and knew I couldn’t try to even read the signs (unlike European countries where a language translation book could help you out of a jam) so I was absolutely open to a group excursion to China.
And I’m so so pleased I did it. This was a trip of a lifetime and the whole time I kept telling myself, “I’m in CHINA!!!”.
Before getting a Groupon trip I would suggest checking the excursion operator’s website. checking TripAdvisor for reviews of the excursion / hotels / companies involved. Also, check flight and hotel rates to make sure it’s actually a good deal!
This excursion was a complete package that included flight, hotels, a lot of meals and a excursion guide with bus/flight included to each location. It was through ChinaTour.com. I am pretty sure it was the Splendid China trip.
Beijing – we stayed at the four points by Sheraton in Beijing. It was a great hotel, with an even nicer gym. terrific customer service. location was good, 5 minute walk to a big mall and the subway.
We bought room service the night we got there (one of the few times dinner wasn’t included) because we were exhausted after landing at 5am and exploring the Beijing zoo and Olympic stadium. It was great! That pumpkin is stuffed with flavorful mushrooms and the actual pumpkin was steamed well and delicious too.
The gym also had an remarkable pool and terrific locker rooms! The one bad thing is a lot of of the gyms didn’t open until 6:30am or later. I actually managed to get this hotel to open early for me, but none of the others did. four stars!!!
While in Beijing we explored the summer Palace, forbidden City, terrific wall of China and Snack Street. You can read those articles here:
China Pandas and the Olympic Stadium
Snack Street
Walking on the terrific wall of China
All the Tea in China
From Beijing we flew to Shanghai!
Scenes from my Shanghai run
Exploring Shanghai
The next hotel was the Grand Metro Park in Jiangsu.
Our group was sightseeing, eating or traveling all day long. When we met the lobby each morning it was between 8am and 8:30am. We wouldn’t get back until after 8pm every night and we were tired. So, I uploaded one blog post of the days events and kicked back as much as possible before the next day’s adventure!
All the hotels used wifi, but it wasn’t always the best. It was complimentary in the lobby of all the hotels we stayed at. There was a paid option in the rooms, but it wasn’t very strong and would go in and out so I stopped getting it.
This was another night we had off on our own. We didn’t speak any Chinese and outside of Shanghai that was really difficult. a lot of restaurants had pictures on their menu, some had English as well. but communicating with taxi motorists was very very difficult.
Tip: Make sure you have the name of the location you want to go and your hotel in the local language (which varies in different parts of the country). Our taxi motorist did not recognize the English name of our hotel (we didn’t expect him to but dropped the card along the way).
Breakfast at every hotel was AMAZING! I am a big breakfast lover, so this was a highlight for me. Every hotel had the breakfast buffet included with our tour. There were “Western” and “Chinese” options for breakfast.
The next hotel was the Crowne Plaza Hangzhou.
Tip: check the weather at each location you will be checking out before leaving. Beijing and Shanghai are far apart with different weather!
The excursion bus… was great. It probably fit 40 people and there were 26 Camiseta Selección de fútbol de Gales on our tour. plus everyone was very cool! We made pals with everyone incredibly fast considering that you’re on the bus with them, hanging out all day and all the lunches and dinners together were ‘family style’.
We stayed at the Renaissance in Shanghai. There are two Renaissance locations in Shanghai – make sure you get to the right one!
Running in China
I only ran outside once in China and that was in Shanghai. (I didn’t have time outside of that.)
Luckily, our Shanghai hotel was the best location to run considering that it was near central Park. This was the only location I saw other people (local Chinese) walking for exercise. There was also one other runner! lots of people were also doing Tai Chi in the park (I saw a lot of Tai Chi in Beijing too).
Before running in China you must check the air quality. This is the air quality index for Beijing.
I felt completely safe in Beijing and Shanghai and would have been fine running outside there by myself if I had the time and air was good. Unfortunately, the scenarios didn’t allow that. But, the air quality was really bad in Beijing toward the end of the trip.
Questions about China from you
Q: how was it using Groupon? Was the trip as advertised? would you recommend it?
A: It was incredibly easy to use the Groupon. I had to call the company to let them know I gotten it (versus doing it online) and from there it was easy interaction by means of email.
The trip was as advertised and I feel like the excursion guides went above and beyond to share info and make sure everyone was accounted for and okay.
I would absolutely recommend it.
Q: even if you recommend a excursion group, do you think you would have been fine traveling without one? like just you and the husband
A: For anywhere in central America or South America or France/Spain/UK, Yes. But, the language barrier would have been tough to get rid of without the excursion group. It would not have been impossible, but we wouldn’t have been able to see as much because it would have taken a lot longer to get places and communicate. I think it’s incredibly safe, that’s not the issue at all. It just would have been discouraging and time consuming if you don’t speak a work of the language.
(I’ve traveled through Costa Rica, Panama, Paris and a lot more without a guide.)
Q: What must I eat in China? how do you keep it safe in terms of eating?
A: I heard and read NOT to eat uncooked vegetables or fruit that is grown in the ground for safety reasons. I’m not a doctor or scientist so I just tried to follow that recommendations rather than question it. I wasn’t incredibly religious about it, I did have a few bites of lettuce at one restaurant and something else I can’t remember I’m sure.
Our excursion guide didn’t suggest we eat the odd food at the Beijing snack street, but I wanted to experience it so I chose to eat a silk worm and squid.
I love Chinese food. LOVE. So I really took pleasure in all the meals. I tried everything at first and then gravitated toward my favorites. toward the end of the trip others in the group were ‘sick of’ Chinese food and even got Pizza Hut at one point. Not me. I Camiseta Selección de fútbol de Portugal loved every meal.
There were two vegetarians on the trip. considering that we were eating family style and not ordering (there were a bunch of different dishes the restaurants would bring out) they would point out the vegetarian dishes to us. It would NOT be easy to be a vegetarian on this trip. That was really unusual to me. a lot more on this later because it should have it’s own post.
Question: Do you have any questions about the food in China?
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