Which Luxury Tour? 5 Critical Factors For Choosing A Luxury Tour by Guy Rubin You've paid top dollar for your "luxury tour" but find yourself continually eating in shabby restaurants, puzzled that tourist sites shut early each afternoon while souvenir stores seem permanently open. You are angered not only by your guide's increasingly obvious dishonesty but also by the waste of your valuable vacation time. This disappointing but common experience springs from the confusion people often have in choosing among a plethora of luxury tours,  » Read more »

A Review of "Genghis Khan" by James Chambers Reviewed by Guy Rubin "Seven hundred years ago a man almost conquered the earth. He made himself master of half the known world, and inspired mankind with a fear that lasted for generations. In the course of his life he was given many names – Mighty Manslayer, Scourge of God, Perfect Warrior. He is better known to us as Genghis Khan."  » Read more »

Finding commonality at Beijing's West Qing Tombs by Guy Rubin What is it that you, me and the last Qing dynasty Emperor, Puyi, could all have in common? Absolute power at the age of two? Two wives for our sixteenth birthday? A flawed come-back in our thirties? Or maybe it's that now we can all be buried together. A commercial cemetery is the latest addition to the impressive Western Qing tombs.  » Read more »

Why take home a taxi-load of anonymous self-assembly flat-pack furniture, when for much the same price you can fill your apartment with elegant traditional Chinese pieces? (This article is for information purposes only. Imperial Tours is not in involved in any capacity with the antique or reproduction furniture business. We advise caution when contacting these companies.) Opening the door to your astronomically-priced expat housing, you are appalled by the gaudiness of the furniture inside.  » Read more »

Two hours from Beijing, Baiyangdian in summer metamorphoses from a drab swamp into a colorful checkerboard of lotus patches and fish nurseries The sun may have taken the weather forecasters by surprise, but not the lotus flowers. Attuned to the barest climatic fluctuation, they are already on the threshold of their summer bloom. A gathering tide of flowering lotuses is now sweeping across China, transforming seemingly destitute marshlands into scenic tableaux of white,  » Read more »