Group Tours
This is the traditional form of travel to China, which started in the 1970’s. Since early 1990 tour groups to China have been the mainstay of incoming tourism with mass tourism groups arriving from Korea, Japan, and Taiwan. Western tour groups have tended to be smaller in number and focused on cultural attractions more than natural scenery. This is due to the difficulty in travel within China and the lack of convenient services of western standards in most naturally significant sites.

With the increased popularity of China as an exotic destination finally accessible to general tourists, operating tours to China became fashionable in the 90’s especially in USA, Canada, UK, Germany and France. The range of tours on offer is wide, from budget tours sold by agents in the market and operated by the large state owned agencies in China, to specialised up market tours by small tour operators who employ their own staff in China or use private, quality land operators.

Invariably, there is often a mismatch between expectation and delivery, which is greater in the case of agencies leaving all the operation to the Chinese handler. Control of guides, buses, restaurants and accommodation is tricky because of the size and the language. With a variety of personalities in each group, and the innate drive of Chinese hosts to please their guests, it is inevitable that some members of a group tour will find many things to be unhappy about.

Typical complaints

Too many people in the group, takes too long to check-in, get on and off the bus and queue for attractions.

Packed itinerary leaving no free time to rest or walk around.

Tipping not included in package price but encouraged by the escort and guides, often not very subtly.

Food not clean or not tasty enough, bland, greasy (not what is expected from Chinese food).

Frequent stops at factory outlets and government run stores for souvenirs.

Hotel location far from city centre, not expected standard, breakfast selection not satisfactory.

In broad terms, group tours may be divided into those planned by Chinese land operators and escorted by a Chinese nationally licensed guide, and those planned by western specialist operators who use their own staff as escorts, either flying with the group or a local representative who meets them on arrival. These tend to receive less complaints due to the personal attention to details given.

Independent tours
The FIT market to China is young, and follows in the footsteps of two distinct trends.

The business traveller

Business has been done with China in an open way since the 70’s when German, French, British and later American and Australian business people would fly to the main Chinese hubs for meetings with business partners and inspections of manufacturing sites and real estate. Since the 90’s China’s open door policy and increasing international air routes saw a drop in air ticket prices and the ability of people to combine their business activities with leisure ones. The increased reliability of domestic air carriers helped the visitors go further a field.

As infrastructure improved the business travellers would bring along their family or return as tourists with their family or friends. Using the personal connections that they have made in China, they would receive help from locals in planning and making reservations. This led to more leniency on the part of the Chinese authorities towards independent travel, which was originally frowned upon and actively discouraged.

The authorities initially thought only low budget travellers would travel on their own, and had suspicions of spying and western ideas influencing Chinese people. They preferred organised groups that they could control and follow, allowing them to visit only specific areas and towns.

The business travel phenomenon shows the authorities and local business that FIT is a lucrative market that can and should be exploited. Over the past 10 years only, many private travel companies have been setup specifically targeting the FIT and business traveller, offering hotel reservation services, flight bookings and tour packages. Despite the increase in incoming business, overwhelmingly the western FIT business is home grown, coming from expatriates who feel comfortable travelling around China by themselves.

The backpacker

Independent budget travellers have been going to China since the 80's. Before then young people did visit China as students of Chinese, martial arts or Chinese medicine. Others were contracted as foreign language teachers. They were able to travel inside China using government issued documents allowing them to pay local prices, stay in hotels reserved for locals and use the local currency. As explained above, this was not easy. Unless they spoke Chinese, travelling in China independently was a real struggle.

The impact of the backpacker culture on China’s tourism development cannot be underestimated. Most of the popular tourist attractions now visited by millions of Chinese tourists and throngs of foreign tour groups were until only a few years ago secluded and idyllic backpacker hangouts. They served only basic accommodation in guest houses and simple restaurants selling local food. In place after place, the trend of backpackers ‘opening up’ a destination to mass tourism has repeated itself. Internationally, the inclusion of certain spots in the ‘Lonely Planet’ or similar guide books brought about more interest from package tourists and groups, along with a demand for better standard accommodation and food. In many instances, the attraction of the place to foreigners was the impetus to Chinese tourists to start visiting. We can see the same trend in Dali, Yangshuo, Lijiang, and Jiuzaigou to name a few.

Leisure package FIT
These two trends led to a new concept for China travel – the FIT package. The demand came from:

Business travellers wishing to add on a leisure experience at the end of the visit;

Ex-backpackers returning on a higher budget and expecting more comfort;

People who have tried mass group travel and wish to experience the freedom of independent travel with some assistance from the travel agent.

China is not an established destination for individual packages. The cost for FIT is much higher than for groups largely because of the need for full escort services and the short supply of quality accommodation in city centres. The underdeveloped infrastructure and reliance on internal flights also increase the cost of an FIT package compared to a group package.

There are signs that more people are picking up guide books, booking flights and accommodation with a travel agent and heading to China by themselves, with friends or family. The advent of new, clean and safe budget hotel chains throughout China is stimulating this trend. China's infrastructure is improving by leaps and bounds.

Aviation

The main gateways into China are: Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Beijing. The secondary gateways are: Guangzhou, Kunming, Chengdu, and Dalian. Most international airlines fly to China and Chinese carriers now fly to many international destinations. The Chinese carriers with international routes are Air China, China Eastern, China Southern and Shanghai Airlines.

Domestic airports are usually efficient, modern and small enough for short processing time. Catering and shopping outlets are minimal and over priced.

Rail

Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Hong Kong have underground rail systems. Tianjin, Wuhan and Shenzhen have limited service and are constructing a larger network. Chongqing has an elevated monorail. Where an underground network exists, it is efficient, safe and cheap. It is recommended for tourists who wish to experience Chinese city life.

China’s rail network is extensive and now includes a link to Tibet! It is the main method of transport for most of China’s citizens despite the growing popularity of flights. The rail companies operate at provincial level and lack a central computer system that links all of them together. It is therefore not possible to issue train tickets other than from the point of departure. Reservations are normally opened one to two weeks in advance, and popular routes are filled quickly. Travelling overnight or several hours on a Chinese train is part of the experience of travelling in China.

Roads
The road network in China has been greatly expanded in the last decade, especially in the vicinity of popular tourist attractions, to cope with the growth in coach and private car traffic. Long stretches of newly built highways are still quiet on inter-city routes, while city centres are chocking from traffic jams. In the major cities private car ownership has mushroomed to an unsustainable growth level, to the extent that Shanghai has began restricting the number of car plates it issues each month. Owning a car is a status symbol for the younger generation.
Domestic tourists mostly travel in large groups, and demand large coaches. Most Chinese buses and mini buses used by domestic tour operators have little leg room for the western tourist. Coaches offered to foreign tourists tend to be slightly roomier, though long rides in coaches will not be very comfortable.
Each city is different when it comes to taxi service levels. In general the smaller the city and the further away it is from the eastern seaboard, the lower service standards are.
Self drive car rental is available in the major cities of Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. It is not recommended for short term visitors since driving in China is dangerous. Many of the private car drivers do not have formal training. Driving licenses can be obtained by bribes and traffic enforcement is lacking. There are hardly any signs in English, which makes navigating tricky.
Once the proverbial home of the bicycle, this symbol of proletariat China is being rapidly replaced by the car. There are still millions of bicycles on the streets every day, but they are now seen as a nuisance by the authorities who try to curb their access to major routes, in order to ease congestion. Riding a bike in China can be a great experience but not for the faint hearted, due to the sheer volume of traffic.

China sightseeing highlights

Most tours take in the various sites in Beijing before moving on to visit the most famous cultural attractions of China. In Beijing, the ‘must see’ attractions are: Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, Temple of Heaven, the Lama temple and Confucius temple, the Summer Palace, the Ming tombs and the Great Wall. While Beijing has many museums, they are more of interest to domestic tourists and lack accessible information for western tourists. It is worth noting that the drive to improve tourism infrastructure is ongoing leading up to 2008, so the situation of many tour attractions will improve.

Xian in Shaanxi province is famous for the army of terracotta soldiers buried in the tombs of Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi from 200 BC. It is a worthwhile one day stop over.

Guilin is famous for its beautiful landscape of strange rock formations shooting out of the valley floor, the calm Li River as well as growing popularity of nature sports such as mountain biking and rock climbing.

Yunnan province is possibly the most diverse province for tourist attractions, with its varied climate ranging from snow covered mountains in the north to tropical rain forests in the south, and a large number of minorities living in traditionally built villages. Highlights of Yunnan include Lijiang ancient city, the Stone Forest near Kunming, and Xishuang Banna, a tropical paradise more resembling Thailand than China.

Sichuan province conjures images of hot, spicy food and Giant Pandas. It has both although much more of the former. Chongqing, a metropolis of provincial status, has equally spicy food and is the gateway to cruises on the Yangzi River through the three gorges. With the construction of the three gorges dam, the scenery is not as striking as it used to be but the cruise is smoother. Near Chengdu the sacred mountain of Emeishan and the Giant sitting Buddha statue of Leshan are famous tourist attractions.

Tibet has long held a fascination to westerners as a religious centre of Buddhism. It is now a regular tourist destination though a special permit is required from foreigners to go there. The high altitude and distance from the rest of China rule Tibet out as part of a general China itinerary. The recent opening a a railway line to Lhasa has already resulted in a tourism book to the area.

Shanghai is China’s most modern and fast moving city. Visiting this ‘Paris of the East’ is a chance to see how far China has come in its modernisation drive. Chinese are proud of their accomplishments in the city and routinely put it in tourist itineraries. The nightlife, shopping and cityscapes are undoubtedly exciting, but do not hold a particular attraction to people from Europe. It can be added to a long itinerary at the end of the trip, to catch up on some retail therapy and western style entertainment.

Hainan Island is known as the ‘Hawaii’ of China and attracts holiday makers as the only pure sun&sea resort destination in the country.

There are many other attractions around China that cannot be mentioned due to space constraints. Many are seasonal in nature due to the extremes in climate.