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Travel Snippets

Trains

Beijing – Lhasa

With the much hooted opening on July 1st of the Beijing – Lhasa railway line, the highest in the world, train travel will bring the romance of long distance rail journeys to China.

Travel agents should note that only passenger service has started. The sightseeing train is not yet in operation. The stories soon to be in circulation about the nature of services currently available on the route only refer to the passenger service and are not a meaningful indicator of the future luxury sightseeing train.

Based on our current information, we estimate that the sightseeing service will begin operation in summer 2007. The sightseeing train's luxury carriages are rumored to have only 4 berths per carriage, a ratio that truly validates its claim to the highest luxury. The hotel operator which has been invited to service the luxury carriages has an excellent reputation and will bring cachet to the project. Therefore, we hope there will be a high quality product to sell next summer to rail enthusiasts who like to travel in style.

In our November broadcast, we touched upon the logistical and capacity problems that Lhasa will have in accommodating an influx of visitors. To help reduce the strain, various luxury hotel groups are moving in to top-up luxury accommodation. These include Banyan Tree, Park Hyatt, Hotel Of Modern Art, Starwood and others. It seems, however, that the Tibetan religious authorities are reluctant to expand the areas of the Potala Palace that are to be opened to the public, and are not as yet making any initiatives to help absorb the 4,000 or so visitors that are projected to arrive in Lhasa on a daily basis. One pressure valve to ease Lhasa's burden is already being worked on by the Rail Authorities. They have started to extend the railway line from Lhasa west to Shigatse, the home of the Panchen Lama, and east to Dali, a scenic area. (Those interested in Tibetan affairs will note that Shigatse in western Tibet is also home to Tibet's historic gold mines and boasts natural reserves of many valuable minerals, including uranium and chromium.)

Hangzhou Maglev Rail Project Making Tracks

In passing, we should mention that a high speed rail link has been approved for the Beijing to Shanghai route. In a few years this 13 hour journey will be reduced to 5 hours with trains traveling at up to 220 m/h or 350 km/h!

A sexier and more glamorous rail project that is more likely to impact the luxury travel industry is the construction of a 110 mile Maglev (magnetic levitation) line from Shanghai to Hangzhou. This is mooted to be finished by 2010 at a cost of $4.3 billion and will reduce the 2 hour journey to less than half an hour. If the recently built Shanghai airport Maglev is anything to go by, the new train line traveling at speeds up to 260 m/h will become a tourist site in itself. (For Chinese people, because Emperor Qianlong so loved it, Hangzhou's West Lake is China's most celebrated tourist site. It is offered as part of our Imperial Tour.)

Planes

Helicopter Tours of the Great Wall

Imperial Tours introduces helicopter tours of the Great Wall. Aerial visits can be made to Badaling, Mutianyu or Jinshanling/Simatai sections of the Great Wall. (The helicopter is unable to land at these destinations.) There are two models of helicopter available – one is the European-manufactured Eurocopter 120 and the other is the American-manufactured Bell 206. These helicopters carry 4 or 5 passengers, respectively. The operator began operation in 2000 and has passed its yearly Chinese safety inspections. It has never had any reported incidents and has received yearly commendations from the Aviation Administration Bureau, a subdivision of the CAAC, for good safety performance.

China Eastern Airlines, one of the biggest airlines in China, is soon to offer international service to Xi'an, home of the Terracotta Warriors and the Yangling Mausoleum, from eight international destinations: Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Bangkok, Delhi, London, Paris, Vancouver and Los Angeles.

In April, American Airlines started direct flights from Chicago to Shanghai.

Other News

Xi'an Archaeological Institute Opens Its Store Room

Imperial Tours can now provide access to the private store room at the Xi'an Archaeological Institute. Under the guidance of an expert and having donned gloves, guests can handle invaluable relics, some of them nearly 3,000 years old. Relics include a bronze urn from the Zhou period, gold ingots from the Western Han dynasty, celadon porcelain from the Tang dynasty and many other items. For people interested in art history, this is the experience of a lifetime.

You haven't yet been on the Imperial Tours' Fam?

According to the U.S. Office of Travel & Tourism Industries, China is the sixth most popular destination visited by Americans. Annual growth in U.S. departures to Asia through August 2005 was up 10%, outstripping growth rates for Europe (3%) and the Caribbean (just 2%). (There are one or two places left on our November 2006 FAM. Book your spot now and learn about China first hand.)

Saks In The City

Saks Fifth Avenue is planning to open a 300,00 square foot luxury department store in Shanghai in 2008. Triple the size of the existing Fifth Avenue location, the China store will also contain restaurants, bars and possibly a nightclub.

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Hotel/Restaurant Update For Hong Kong, Shanghai & Beijing

Restaurants

Hong Kong

Spoon – The pressure on an Alain Ducasse restaurant to perform is intense. We had heard great things about Spoon and so booked ourselves into a window table to help celebrate a friend's wedding. The setting from inside the Intercontinental Hotel on the harbor shoreline was phenomenal, the silver spoons suspended from the ceiling a piquant decorative theme. Our expectations by now were about as high as the Bank of China building across the waterway. It is great credit to Alain Ducasse that his restaurants are able to consistently cater to these levels of expectation. Although we were not blown away by the food, the service was flawless and we enjoyed the gastronomic experience of the tasting menu. While the artichoke custard with black truffle shavings at the outset of the meal was disappointing, the layered, jellied limoncello under a raspberry mousse at its conclusion was as unexpected as it was delicious. The quality of the ingredients of our meal from the lobster to the scallops to the venison and sea bass was high. We are not raving about it, but we will recommend it.

The Kee Club was everything Spoon was not. It was a personalized experience and the food WOW-ed us. The restaurant setting, Venetian in inspiration, is ornate but informal nonetheless. We booked via the concierge at the Mandarin Landmark Hotel, and as a result the maitre d' and part-owner greeted us, introduced his menu and tailored its dishes for our order. Cudos to both. The dishes prepared by Chef Bonelli, whose resume includes time at four Michelin three-star restaurants, was marvelous. We liked the look of the soups and enjoyed equally the lobster bisque, the camembert soup and the clam soup. The lobster tagliatelli were delicious as was the veal with black truffles. While the Caesar's salad was somewhat ordinary, the chocolate souffle was excellent. To be highly recommended.

Hutong – Perched on the top two floors of Kowloon-side on 1 Peking Road, Hutong owns commanding views of Hong Kong's emblematic harbor. Named after the alleyways of Beijing, the restaurant echoes the Beijing Grand Hyatt's Made In China in fusing northern Chinese food with other culinary traditions. Although it is not at the same level as its Beijing inspiration, it is nonetheless a solid lunch restaurant.

Caprice – The French restaurant at the newly opened Four Seasons, Hong Kong boasts Michelin 3 star rated chef, Thierry Vincent, from the George V Hotel, Paris. We were unable to devote an evening dinner to the restaurant, only a lunch. Our impression echoes the experience of Spoon, namely fantastic service, wonderful view and a high standard. The food was of a high standard, but not surprisingly good.

China Club – a review of Hong Kong's better restaurants would be incomplete without inclusion of the China Club. This has previously been included in our Hong Kong restaurant reviews and so we remind readers of its wonderful contemporary art collection and consistently good Chinese food.

In future trips to Hong Kong, we will be sampling Isola (Italian with a fantastic ambiance), Lumiere (South American) and Cuisine Cuisine (Cantonese but in somewhat mundane surroundings).

Shanghai

Jade on 36 – Atop the Shangri-la's new hotel wing struts a bold and challenging new restaurant. The beautifully crafted interiors by Adam D. Tihany combine disparate, somewhat shocking elements in stylish harmony. Paul Pairet's "cuisine de voyage" is an eclectic meta-cuisine to match. Fusing the world's cooking traditions into global union with the same chutzpah that he pairs seemingly incompatible ingredients such as tomato sauce and ice cream, Monsieur Pairet stands outside normal culinary traditions. He is as likely to shock you with sardine mousse packed into a tin can as he is with foie gras balanced on a teetering chop stick. Definitely bold, unquestionably fun, but did the preparation of delicious food get lost in the razzmatazz?

South Beauty, Yanan Lu, Shanghai – Sichuanese restaurant chain, South Beauty, takes its restaurants up a notch by locating their latest offering within a colonial mansion. With some clever ordering, it is possible to provide chilli-fearing visitors with a meal that is not too spicy. However, the service is wanting and so despite its fine surroundings, this eatery is not a reliable partner for the luxury visitor.

Beijing

The opening of the new Philippe Starck-designed South Beauty Sichuanese restaurant in Beijing continues to be imminent.

Ja-an is the French restaurant in the recently-opened Raffles Hotel, reviewed below. We will review this restaurant in the next edition of our newsletter.

Hotel News

Hong Kong

We start with the new entrants to the scene:

Landmark Mandarin Hotel – A boutique hotel catering to the hip, return visitor to Hong Kong. The glamorous bar, excellent spa, well-respected restaurant, fine service and designer bedrooms (starting at 450 square feet) make for a sizzling cocktail right in the heart of Hong Kong's center. However, the lack of harbor view bedrooms makes it a tough sell for first-time visitors to Hong Kong. Also, those guests – typically Ritz Carlton or Four Seasons customers – who crave familiarity and simple luxury – will be somewhat non-plussed by the unconventional bathrooms, double electric curtains and state-of-the-art media systems. (This begs the question – when is more too much?)

Four Seasons Hotel – With its deluxe rooms at 500 square feet, this is a powerful new entrant to Hong Kong's luxury market, in some ways eclipsing the current market leader, the Peninsula Hotel. It boasts elegant, spacious bedrooms with harbor views and a breathtaking club lounge. Its location is a ten minute walk east of the traditional center of Hong Kong. However, the neighboring IFC Tower, the hottest property in Hong Kong right now, pulls the commercial center towards it. With all the minimum requirements for success in the Hong Kong market, such as flat-screen tv sets, a fantastic spa and a world-class restaurant, the brand new Four Seasons Hotel only comes second to the Peninsula Hotel in terms of the heritage of the latter property.

Peninsula Hotel – By merit of its heritage (and with the Mandarin Hotel closed for renovation), the Kadoorie-owned Peninsula Hotel, is currently the primus inter pares of Hong Kong's luxury hotels. First-time visitors to Hong Kong will appreciate the heritage of this fine, colonial property. Even though it is no longer right on the harbor front, the recently renovated 440 square foot, harbor view bedrooms of the new wing boast excellent harbor views, and with the addition of the new spa, flat screen tv's and the continuing pull of Felix, the popular Philippe Starck designed restaurant, this historic property is up to date in terms of facilities. However, a victim of its own fame, the exclusivity of the hotel ambiance is being mortgaged to its popularity amongst tourists.

Intercontinental Hotel – The spectacular harbor views and fine dining facilities attract many cruise and incentive visitors to the Intercontinental. After its last renovation, Imperial Tours extolled this property's 450 square foot Deluxe rooms and its 750 square foot Executive Suites, and urged travel agents to consider its excellent value ahead of the Peninsula Hotel. However, the years have not been kind and the fixtures have lost their contemporary edge. The lobby atmosphere is touristy and the hotel has lost its luster.

Grand Hyatt Hotel – Although its new spa is noteworthy, many years have passed since this property opened. As the sheen of the new has been effaced by the passing of time, so has the Grand Hyatt focused more and more on servicing the needs of the adjacent Convention Center. Though it might have once been amongst the top tier of luxury hotels in Hong Kong, this property is now looking tired.

Shanghai

Regent Hotel – Located on the western side of Shanghai close to Hongqiao airport, the recently opened Regent Shanghai is a value proposition for the mid-level, five star corporate market. The 511 bedroom hotel, managed by Carlson Hotels, is housed within a stunning, dark-blue glass, jagged-edged, polygonal skyscraper. The central, sparse first floor lobby leads up a central stairwell to circular public areas, including restaurants, on the second and third floors. The bedrooms and corridors are characterless however, and feel like they were commissioned by someone more interested in property plays than in interior design. This structure is a wondrous addition to Shanghai's skyline, but Imperial Tours would only use this property with a budget constrained incentive group.

Beijing

Raffles Hotel – After years of lobbying, the Singapore-based Raffles hotel group has been engaged to manage "the middle building" of the Beijing Hotel. In 1917 this was the "Grand Hotel de Pekin" comprising 105 luxury suites, and host to such luminaries as writer George Bernard Shaw and Field Marshal Foch. On the one hand, Raffles have been fortunate to get their hands on the only heritage hotel building in the city. On the other hand, having the city government, in the form of Beijing Tourism Group, as the owner is not an easy undertaking. The latter two sentences encompass our initial view of the recently soft-opened property. On the one hand, the Landmark Rooms and Suites do have a marvelously historical feel. On the other, there are simple infrastructural faults (lack of sound-proofed windows, need for better plumbing, noisy air conditioning) that require some additional investment if this property is to prosper in the increasingly competitive Beijing luxury hotel market.

And a bit of hotel gossip

In a joint venture with Beijing Tourism Group (already mentioned above), a somewhat secretive luxury hotel operator is transforming the former kitchens at the Summer Palace in Beijing into a set of individual luxury villas and rooms. Ground was broken about a year ago and this luxury project is expected to begin operation in 2007.

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Imperial Tours News Blast

"Hotel arrangements were excellent, and who can complain about the restaurants and the meals we were served. First row seating to see the acrobats! Special access here and there. The list goes on. Imperial Tours is the paradigm for group tours."
WR, New York, New York, June 02, 2006

Tour News

Places remain on our August, September and the second of our October group departures. (The first October departure is now sold out.) Click here for details.

Also, as mentioned above, one or two places remain on our November 2006 Fam, and many more places remain on our March 2007 Fam. Contact Margot for details.

Company Events

Imperial Tours hosted a lunch for Maria Shriver during her recent visit to China with Governor Schwarzenegger, and was fortunate to have local Chinese business tycoons Zhang Xin and Ting Liu in attendance.

Company News

This year has seen buds of growth for Imperial Tours in various new directions. Four new China Hosts joined our team. Biographies of the richly talented Moira Ramudo, Nic Linton, Andrew Papas and Ian Rowen can be found by clicking here.

Priscilla Tan, who has been a China Host for several years, steps into the office to become a Tour Manager operating a portion of our tours.

Meanwhile, Mr. Fu Yang, with 17 years of Chinese travel industry experience and two post-graduate degrees from universities in Japan and the UK, bolsters our Beijing back office, and Ms. Cai Ying joins our Finance Department.

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Odds N Ends – Interview With Last Emperor's Brother

On June 28, I was fortunate to meet Pu Ren, the younger brother of Pu Yi, the last Emperor of China. Pu Ren is a startlingly placid individual. He has been through so much, three revolutions in all, each of which turned his world upside down, yet he views the world with equanimity. The transcript below is a record of my conversation with him.

Since Pu Ren is largely deaf, I wrote down my questions to him and he spoke his replies.

Q: Do you like Americans?
A: Yes, I like Americans. I have been to Hawaii. It was beautiful.

Q: Anywhere else in the U.S.?
A: In the 1980's, I represented a school at a conference in America.

Q: What do you think of the recent reforms and what do you think of China today?
A: Life in China is improving. I have a pension from the government and my sons & daughters have their own pensions. One of my sons is a government official, and so I am satisfied with my recent life.

Q: What was the happiest period of your life?
A: Now is a good time.

Q: Do you think the Japanese tricked Pu Yi, the last Emperor?
A: Yes, I think so. Pu Yi wanted to regain his dynastic power and so he needed the support of the Japanese but he lost control of the situation. He sent some of his family relatives to Japan to study in order to prepare to help him manage his dynasty in the future.

Q: Did you try to dissuade Pu Yi from making an alliance with the Japanese?
A: With my father, we went to visit my brother at Tianjin. After fleeing from Beijing, Pu Yi took residence in Tianjin, a port city east of Beijing. My father tried to convince Pu Yi not to continue his contacts with the Japanese, but Pu Yi in his turn tried to convince my father to go to the Northeast of China with him. They could not agree on this. However, the Japanese would not let my father return to Beijing. They kept him in Tianjin and tried to force him to accompany Pu Yi to establish Manchukuo in Northeastern China. My father did not want to do this. He stopped eating so as to fall ill. When he became very ill he asked the Japanese to let him return to Beijing to see a doctor. While they were considering this, I secretly supplied my father with biscuits so that my father could keep his strength up.

Q: The liberation of China (1949 Communist revolution) must have been a very difficult time for you?
A: This was not a very difficult for me personally, because I was assigned a job as a school teacher and principal of a school. My family had no option but to sell our big palace to the government and we received some money. After the Republic was declared in 1911, the Emperor received next to no money from the state, and so we received no income from the Emperor. We lived by selling our property.

Q: Did you suffer during the Cultural Revolution?
A: Not me personally. I was able to continue working, and premier Zhou Enlai (Foreign Minister) signed a document to protect me and my two brothers. The Red Guard came to my home and confiscated my property but this was not so bad.

Q: Have you seen the Bertolucci movie, "The Last Emperor"?
A: No, I don't know what are you talking about.

Pu Ren's Daughter intervenes: The depiction of some of our family in the movie is so inaccurate and upsetting that we have never shown this movie to my father. Other members of the family are considering a lawsuit against the movie.

Q: Have you read Pu Yi's book, "From Emperor to Citizen"? What did you think of it?
A: Yes, I did. It was his own personal experience and written by him so it's true.

Q: Have you thought of writing a book?
A: I've never thought of it. But I do sometimes write articles.

Q: You seem such a calm and happy person. Are you a Buddhist?
A: No, I'm not religious.

Q: What do you like to do in your spare time?
A: Gardening and walking. Because Im so deaf, I read a lot. I walk a lot every day.

Q: How many children do you have? What do they do?
A: I have 5 children, 3 sons and 2 daughters. One son is the governor of Chongwen district, one son is a professor at the university, another daughter is a teacher at a high school.

Q: Did you ever meet Song Qing Ling? (Song Qing Ling is the middle daughter of Charlie Song. She was married to Sun Yatsen, the founder of the Republic in 1911, and was Vice-President of China for many years.)
A: Yes, I did meet her several times in the 1950's and 60's, because she lived in the Western Garden of my family's former palace, not far from the place I lived after the 1949 communist revolution. So, I met her several times.

Q:Did you ever study foreign languages?
A: Yes, when I was young I studied English but I have not had many opportunities to use it so have forgotten it.

Our interview finished with Pu Ren showing me around his rock garden and his plants.

Imperial Tours is pleased to be able to offer to a limited number of guests the opportunity to meet with Pu Ren, younger brother of Pu Yi, the last Emperor of China.

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Discovery – Chinese Museology's Brave New World

Yangling Mausoeum – A Wonderful Step Into The Future of Chinese Archeology

Unfortunately, modern Chinese art conservation is replete with tragic failures. Several times, archaeologists have excavated sites of major importance and have unearthed objects of unparalleled value to discover that the corrosive atmosphere of modern times quickly fades the color or decomposes the form of the unearthed antiquities. Ancient textiles have disintegrated before conservationists' eyes. A perfectly preserved peach was eviscerated by the air in seconds. Ancient texts painted onto bamboo batons were lost to history in minutes as the bamboo split and crumbled into dust. Most famously, the Terracotta Warriors, when they were first dug up, were all painted.

Xi'an, home to eleven dynasties and thousands of years of art history, has slowed down its archeological digs as it waits for scientists to learn to deal with this issue.

In 1999, after receiving help from German scientists, the Terracotta Warriors Museum announced a breakthrough. It claimed that a newly developed chemical would treat the problem. This chemical was immediately painted onto newly excavated Terracotta Warriors, and from 2002 was also used at the archaeological excavations at Yangling. Yangling is the mausoleum of the Han dynasty Emperor Jing Di, the fourth Emperor of the Han dynasty who reigned from 188 BCE to 141 BCE. The Yangling Mausoleum at this time was excavating a great number of fabulous tomb figurines. These are smaller in size than the world-famous Terracotta Warriors of Emperor Qin's Mausoleum but they have far greater variety.

As time passed, regular visitors to the Terracotta Warriors Museum and Yangling Mausoleum saw the colors slowly fade from the statues, i.e. the chemical didn't work. When the experiment was eventually declared a failure, the opened excavation pits at Yangling were quickly covered up again. (Imperial Tours was already taking its guests to Yangling by this time.)

Recently, in March 2006, Yangling Museum opened its new exhibition hall and displayed a stunning new approach for dealing with the issue. Although the idea is disarmingly simple, it has been executed so tastefully that it has not only placed Yangling on the map but it has also increased the credibility of Chinese archaeology. The new concept is to leave the pieces in situ in their excavation pits and to enclose them within enormous glass cases whose temperature and humidity is constantly monitored and controlled.

Visitors to Yangling walk beneath ground level into an underground vault. They walk over the top of and next to glass-walled excavation pits in which sit the priceless treasures, one after the other. It is stunning. Meanwhile, behind the glass, the air humidity is maintained at over 90% and the air temperature between 18 – 20 degrees Centigrade (64-68 degrees Fahrenheit) exactly as it would be if the objects were still buried in earth.

This approach is still in its early stages. However, if it proves successful it will give a new lease of life to Chinese archaeology. I strongly encourage you to spread the news about Yangling.

As a post-script to this article, I want to share my excitement about Jinshan Museum, which is scheduled to open in Chengdu this October. This dig, dated between the third and first millennium BCE, is complementary to Sanxingdui (see July '05 broadcast). Whereas Sanxingdui has fantastic bronze and gold masks and trees, Jinshan Museum has a collection of contemporaneous jade and ivory pieces. If the Jinshan collection proves to be comparable to Sanxingdui, Imperial Tours will strongly promote Chengdu as a tourist destination.

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