China-wish you knew before trip

[CincyAL]

Departing in 2 weeks for Viking China cruise. Looking for any tips that past travelers "wish they would have known before their own trips".

Any and all areas open for your suggestions (tipping, hotels, currency issues, clothing, weather, food). Thanks:)

[pacmom]

Hi,

There is a thread on the "other cruise lines" board. It has almost 300 replies. Bet it would answer some of your questions. Also try searching river cruises for China. Would really like to hear about your trip when you return. Pat

[caclays]

I posted a very long review of our trip to China on Viking Cruise Lines. It was done on 9/18/2005. I wrote it from the point of view of sharing info with future cruisers based on a "I wish I had known" attitude.

 

Several people added to the information I posted, so it really is a comprehensive report.

 

If you can't find it by date, let me know and I'll send you the actual URL for it.

[Seacucumber]

We were in Yangtze cruise 4 years ago before three gorges dam was completed. I wonder what it is like to cruise the river after the completion of the dam tow weeks ago?

[dragonmaster]

I would love to get the URL for that information. We leave for the July 2nd 2006 trip.

 

Thanks

 

I posted a very long review of our trip to China on Viking Cruise Lines. It was done on 9/18/2005. I wrote it from the point of view of sharing info with future cruisers based on a "I wish I had known" attitude.

 

Several people added to the information I posted, so it really is a comprehensive report.

 

If you can't find it by date, let me know and I'll send you the actual URL for it.

[caclays]

Here is the URL for my posting about our Viking China trip. It was a really good trip and we definitely will cruise with Viking again. If my report sounds a tad negative, it's only because I was trying to point out the things that I didn't expect to happen or those that were out of the ordinary.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=232373&highlight=caclays

 

If this URL doesn't work, just log into the site and then search for my user name of "caclays". All of my postings should come up and you can pick the one that interests you.

[SakeDad]

We were on the Yangzte in October and took the Viking Empress. Here is a link to my China photo gallery, starting on page 48 so you can see the river pics first. We were in China for 2 weeks, from Beijing to Shanghai so feel free to look at the rest of the gallery as well. It was an amazing trip and I'm glad we were there before the dam completion.

http://sakedad.smugmug.com/gallery/904429/48

One thing I would say is don't worry about learning the language, it's very hard and most people there speak English. And you'll always have a local guide to help you. And don't be afraid to try the different foods, everything we had was wonderful!

Enjoy the trip!

[Dick_F]

Here is a link to several photo albums from our UniWorld trip to China in fall 2003.

 

Dick

[Dick_F]

With link this time:

 

http://members5.clubphoto.com/d366398/owner-6059-2.phtml

[irv54]

Hi all

 

We heard that getting a message in China was a wonderful experience

Any suggestions or advice?

 

We are on the Viking Sun - Do they offer messages?

 

Thanks to all for the pictures. They were really great

 

Irv