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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 30, 2007

Media Contacts:
Margot Kong
Imperial Tours
888-888-1970
web_inquiry@imperialtours.net

Imperial Tours Offers Services to Lijiang and Shangri-La
San Francisco, Calif. – Imperial Tours is now offering services in Yunnan province for the luxury traveler. New or returning visitors to China can now enjoy bespoke private tours which include Lijiang and Ringha/Shangri-La.

Lijiang
In the shadow of snow-topped Jade Dragon Mountain, Lijiang is best known for its ancient town center and Naxi minority people. Nearby, Baisha is a small village where guests can marvel at a beautifully landscaped temple and its Ming dynasty (1368 – 1644) frescoes depicting the celebration of Lamaism, Chinese Buddhism, and Daoism side by side.

Imperial Tours' guests also have the opportunity to meet with a local doctor who gathers herbs from Jade Dragon Mountain to heal local residents of their medical ailments. From this octogenarian, one can hear about the criticism he received during the Cultural Revolution for treating Deng Xiao Ping.

The history of the area is brought to life by world renowned director Zhang Yimou in his production "Lijiang Impressions." Taking place on a stage nestled upon the slopes of Jade Dragon Mountain, this impressive show utilizes hundreds of local farmers from various ethnic minority tribes to illustrate the region's culture and traditions.

Ringha
Passing gorgeous scenery, the drive from Lijiang to Ringha is approximately 4 hours long, during which one can actually witness the ethnicities change. At about 10,000 feet elevation, Ringha is an untouched and beautifully verdant area located in a fertile valley approximately 40 minutes from the fabled Shangri-La.

Guests in Ringha may choose between a horse back ride or a gentle trek down into the valley below to learn the art of yogurt making or textile weaving from local villagers. The old town of Shangri-La is a wonderful place to explore and perhaps enjoy a private performance of Tibetan music.

Shangri-La provides a fascinating introduction to Tibetan village culture and Lamaism. Nearby, one may visit a working monastery, buzzing with life. Inside, visitors meet with a lama to learn about the daily life of a monk and witness a religious ceremony.

"We have chosen to add Lijiang to our portfolio of destinations because it is a wonderful place for our guests to learn about the area's local ethnic traditions and the history of the Tea and Horse Caravan Route," said Imperial Tours Managing Partner Guy Rubin. "Shangri-La and Ringha, on the other hand, offer a great view into Tibetan village life and Lamaism. These new destinations make an excellent addition to any luxury China itinerary."

Banyan Tree Resorts
In both destinations, Imperial Tours' guests stay at the beautiful Banyan Tree Resorts, among the most luxurious resorts in all of China. In Lijiang, each villa has its own private yard with a heated pool. The resort offers stunning views of Jade Dragon Mountain. The Ringha property, made up of traditional farmhouses, feels like a Tibetan retreat overlooking six small villages in the valley below.

A private tour with Imperial Tours includes 5 star accommodations, all meals, sightseeing, domestic flights within China, ground transportation, services of local guides and drivers, most gratuities, luggage handling, airport/hotel taxes and personal concierge service from a bilingual Western China Host for the duration of your time in China.

About Imperial Tours
Imperial Tours offers luxury set-departure and private tours of China, combining local expertise with the high levels of service and quality expected by sophisticated Western travelers. Imperial Tours has first-hand knowledge of world-class hotels and restaurants as well as the history, culture, arts, and little-known exclusive destinations within China. Founded in 1999, Imperial Tours operates out of Beijing, China; San Francisco, California; and Frankfurt, Germany. For more information, visit www.imperialtours.net or call 888-888-1970.

by Andrea Bennett

In this age of information overload, when destinations, flights, and hotels are a click away, turning to a specialist to help plan your trip is essential. On the following pages you’ll find T+L’s 2005 A-List: 125 travel super-agents, arranged by area of specialization, and their ultimate dream trips. Nearly a quarter of these agents are new this year, a result of our intensive search for experts who have insider knowledge and who go the extra mile for their clients. In addition, we’ve highlighted trends that are on their radar—a preview of where we’ll all want to go in the coming year.

CHINA GUY RUBIN Dream Trip

Visiting the contemporary-art centers of China—Including the prestigious Sichuan Academy of Arts, where some of the country’s most renowned artists were trained—whit ample time allowed for exploring Shanghai’s and Beijing’s up –and-coming galleries. Years as Agent 6 Consulting Fee $150.* Imperial Tours, Beijing:86-10/8440-7162(or call U.S. director of sales Margot Kong at 888/888-1970 );web_inquiry@imperialtours.net

© September 2004, TRAVEL & LEISURE

 

China News

Contents Luxury Travel News Hotel/Restaurant News Calendar Odds N' Ends – David Spindler Interview Discovery – Sanxingdui

 

Dear Guy, From our founding, Imperial Tours' Monthly Group tours and FITs have challenged the notion that there are no sophisticated venues in China. Seven years later, it is widely accepted that China boasts some of the world's most avant-garde architecture, restaurants and contemporary art. Now, Imperial Tours is challenging the presumption that China provides few sophisticated venues outside the major cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. In our last two broadcasts, we publicized a new and incredible contemporary art park near Guilin. We dedicate this broadcast to re-gearing your expectations ofChengdu, the thrilling capital of Sichuan province. Home to one of China's most famous cooking traditions, this town's top restaurant is currently hosting Prince Charles' personal chef! With a history of thousands of years, Chengdu is home to much more than the famed Panda Research Institute. Sanxingdui is a nearby tourist site that in artistry and mystery surpasses the Terracotta Warriors. In addition to a review of Chengdu's wonderful restaurants and top hotels, this broadcast contains: Interview with Great Wall Specialist, David Spindler Imperial Tours' World Exclusive On the Yangzi River Update on Beijing 2008 Olympics Introduction to Sanxingdui, a stunning archeological site near Chengdu First, some luxury travel news:

Virtuoso's China Onsite  Traveling China…in style  Phone us at 888 888 1970  Or come visit our website!

 

Luxury Travel News A World Exclusive From Imperial Tours Imperial Tours is delighted to offer passengers on its Monthly Group tours and FITs the opportunity ofan exclusive, private visit to the turbine generator room and hi-tech control center at the Three Gorges Dam, the largest dam project in the world. This tour finishes with a walk along the top of the dam. Normally these areas are restricted, off-limits military areas, so Imperial Tours is thrilled to be able to offer this unique opportunity. Imperial Tours Announces Partnership With Viking River Cruises Customers on Imperial Tours' Monthly Group and FIT tours are now able to book Viking River Cruises' boats on the Yangzi River. Viking's superior facilities and cuisine have established it as the Yangzi River's leading cruise provider. Preparation for 2008 Olympics Affects Beijing's Tourist Sites Renovation of the temples on Longevity Hill at the Summer Palace is scheduled to soon finish. However scaffolding has gone up around the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests at the Temple of Heaven, where it will remain until May 2006. Similarly, many of the side corridors in the Forbidden City are covered in scaffolding and are off-limits. Booking the 2008 Beijing Olympics Many of you are wondering about hotel bookings and tours for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The situation is that the Beijing Olympic Committee is still finalizing plans to reserve up to 23,000 hotel rooms for the Olympics Games period. This will account for up to 80% of the city's total guestroom inventory for three-star and above hotels, giving it near monopoly control of bookings. Only when such arrangements are finalized can the remaining 20% capacity be allocated. Until that time, the best you can do is have your bookings placed on waiting lists that the better hotels are keeping. We will keep you abreast of further developments. China Becomes World's Fourth Most Popular Destination In 2004, China became the world's fourth most popular destination (42 million arrivals) after France (75.1 million arrivals), Spain and the United States. Italy fell to fifth position. Meanwhile, Hong Kong climbed in the rankings to become the seventh most visited destination in the world. Similarly, speaking at the 10th Annual Institute for Travel Writing and Photography, Arthur Frommer noted that China would rank first as Americans' most popular overseas destination this year. Imperial Tours runs Educational Tours in March and November each year. Please contact Margot Kong at 888 888 1970, to book your place on the Educational trip for March 2006, so that you can learn more about selling China. New Flight Routes China Southern, China's largest airline, is doubling capacity on its Beijing to Hong Kong route to offer two flights daily on its new Airbus A330. From November, Qantas is adding a fourth weekly service to Shanghai from Sidney. Next January, it will begin flying three times a week from Sidney to Beijing. From December, Cathay is to launch a fourth daily direct flight to London from its hub in Hong Kong. Air Plus Comet, a Spanish carrier, has begun operation of weekly flights between Barcelona and Shanghai and between Madrid and Beijing. The top 3 ranked airlines in Skytrax 2005 World's Top Airlines Awards were 1. Cathay Pacific, 2. Qantas and 3. Emirates. Go to top

 

Hotel/Restaurant News Restaurant News May 2006 Culinary Tour We congratulate Jereme Leung, chef and owner of Shanghai's Whampoa Club on being described as a culinary "genius" by author Patricia Wells in the "International Herald Tribune" this May. Imperial Tours used Jereme's fabulous restaurant as soon as it opened last year, and is delighted to announce that Jereme will be demonstrating his skills on the Shanghai portion of Imperial Tours May 2006 Culinary Tour. Please click here for details. Chengdu Restaurant Review Gingko Restaurant has long been home to Sichuanese dining excellence in Chengdu. Their fashionable new restaurant on Renmin Street, designed by the company responsible for the interiors at Shanghai's Grand Hyatt (a Virtuoso property), really puts them on the map. Currently, Prince Charles' personal chef is the guest chef at the Western section of this restaurant, which also offers Japanese and Cantonese food. My Humble House is the brainchild of award-winning Singaporean restaurateur Andrew Tjoie. Although his Beijing restaurant is equally well known for its excellent cuisine, the ambiance of the Chengdu restaurant within a bamboo-lined park is more scenic. The cuisine at Han She is not typically Sichuanese. The menu, as exciting as the interior design, reaches out also to Hunanase, Cantonese and South-East Asian traditions. No visit to Chengdu is complete without indulging yourself to a Sichuanese Hot-pot. We would recommend Huangcheng Laoma Restaurant. Its wonderfully-designed restaurant offers a highly enjoyable experience. Additionally, this restaurant is sensitive to foreigners' palettes and can tone down the spiciness of its soups on request. Hotel News Peninsula Hotel, Beijing Opens Its Presidential Suite At last! The Peninsula Hotel in Beijing has finished a long series of renovations to its 6,000 square feet Presidential Suite. Most stunning is the false Chinese traditional roof that spans the entire length of the suite. Equally successful is the delightful fretwork of the wooden screens that accompany the baths in both bedrooms' ensuite bathrooms. The intricate mosaic in the smooth, marble floor is beautiful. These features accompany hi-tech features such as a short-wave radio center and an impressive array of entertainment and business equipment. New Luxury Hotels In China Ritz-Carlton signed a contract for a new property in Shenzhen in southern China. (Beijing will get two new Ritz-Carltons in 2006.) Four Seasons Hong Kong hotel is to open later this year. (Please note that plans for a Beijing property have been shelved.) Sheraton is planning to open in Xiamen, a port city close to Taiwan, this August and is finalizing plans to open in Urumqi, the capital of the far western province of Xinjiang. W Hotels, meanwhile, continues to move ahead on deals to open properties in Hong Kong and Shanghai. Hyatt International has announced plans for a Hyatt Regency in Dongguang, a commercial town in southern China. On Hainan Island, a southern beach resort being marketed to Chinese vacationers, Hilton is soon to open its new hotel. This follows in the wake of Marriott's opening last year. (Sheraton had previously opened there, and other hotel chains, such as Sofitel, are soon to follow suit.) Review of Chengdu's Five Star Hotels Chengdu's Kempinski Hotel makes up for a lacklustre lobby with the most modern and spacious bedrooms in the city (a standard room is 340 square feet large). While the design of some of the public areas could be improved, this hotel offers good service in the bedrooms, restaurants and at the front desk. Although the Kempinski is not situated in the very center of the downtown area, it is in a highly gentrified part of the city close to some of the city's best restaurants and bars. The glass-fronted lobby at the Chengdu Sheraton provides a bright entrance to the reassuringly calming tones of its well-designed lobby. Its bedrooms, which are now looking a little worn, are generally smaller (300 – 330 square feet) than those at the Kempinski and the bathrooms, though serviceable, feel a little tight. For example, they do not have a separate shower stall. The hotel is well-located in the center of the downtown area.  Go to top

 

Calendar Beijing July 23: Real Madrid, the world's most expensive soccer team sporting stars of the caliber of David Beckham, Luis Figo, Zidane and Ronaldo amongst others play an exhibition match against Beijing Hyundai at the Worker's Stadium. Price; RMB 180, 380, 680, 1080, 1580, 3000, 5000 July 26: Manchester United, the world's most famous soccer club, brings its star-studded team to play Beijing Hyundai at the Worker's Stadium. Players such as Rooney, Giggs and Ronaldo will delight Chinese fans. Price: 80, 280, 480, 780, 1180. July 30 – 31: With the assistance of French Director, Daniel Mesguich and conductor Francois-Xavier Roth, the Chinese National Opera puts on a suitably surreal performance of Offenbach's "Les Contes De Hoffman" at the Poly Theater. Price: RMB 80, 180, 280, 380, 580, 680. August 2 – 7: Jungle Adventures, Disney's On Ice Show that combines tunes from The Jungle Book, The Lion King and Tarzan will be on at the Workers Gymnasium. Price: RMB 80, 180, 280, 360, 380, 500 August 12: leading Celtic instrumentalists, the Battlefield Band, dazzle Beijing audiences with their bagpipes and fiddles in a Scottish musical extravaganza at the Century Theater. Price: RMB 280, 380, 580, 880, 1280, 1680 August 20: The First IBA World Boxing Championship takes place in China at the Capital Gymasium, culminating with a Man's Heavyweight Championship bout. Sep 10 – 26: Marat Safin, Carlos Moya and Rafael Nadal will be amongst the competitors for the 2005 China Tennis Open takes place at Beijing's National Tennis Center. Price: Not yet available. October 2: Acclaimed Japanese conductor Seiji Ozawa leads the Japanese National Orchestra for a performance of "Il Barbiere Di Siviglia" at the Poly Plaza Theatrer. Price: RMB 180, 280, 380, 580, 880, 1280 Shanghai July 19 – 24: Jungle Adventures, Disney's On Ice Show that combines tunes from The Jungle Book, The Lion King and Tarzan will be on at the Workers Gymnasium. Price: RMB 100, 200, 280 July 22: Los Angeles Children's Chorus performs a wide variety of songs at Shanghai Concert Hall . Price: RMB 60, 80, 120, 160, 200 July 26: Bloc Business, the deep house Austrian band combining live music with dj-line, perform on the Shanghai Grand Stage. Price: RMB 80, 120, 160, 220. Sep 30 – Oct 1: "Ode to the Autumn Modern Dance Series III" collects contemporary Chinese dancers from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou in an exciting, avant-garde series at the Shanghai Oriental Art Centre. Price: RMB 80, 120, 260, 320, 380, 580 October 16: 2005 Shanghai Formula One Grand Prix takes place at the Shangahi International Circuit. Price: RMB 160, 330, 370, 450, 970, 1080, 1880, 2880, 3580, 3980. Please note that you must book as early as possible to be assured of getting hotel rooms in Shanghai over the Formula One Weekend. Go to top

 

Odds N Ends Great Wall Specialist David Spindler has more achievements under his belt than most of us dare to dream of: he followed his Dartmouth College degree in Asian Studies with an M.A. in Han dynasty history (in Chinese) at Beijing University. After graduating from Harvard Law School, he joined the consulting firm McKinsey & Company in Beijing. Since leaving consulting in 2002, he has dedicated himself full-time to researching the history of the Great Wall of China. We caught up with him in Beijing. 1) How did you become interested in researching the Great Wall of China? I went on my first overnight hike on the wall in the fall of 1994: being in the outdoors, visiting remote places, getting away from a crowded city have always been attractive to me. Hiking on the Great Wall allowed me to do all of these things at once. Over the next six years, my wall hikes continued with increasing frequency until in the summer of 2000, I started work on a book about the history of the Great Wall in the Beijing area. 2)Surely this is a crowded area of academic interest. What do you aim to add to it? Actually, it is a surprisingly uncrowded field. I do not know of a single academic anywhere whose major field of interest is the Great Wall, leaving open the possibility that I may be able to make a real contribution to our understanding of the Great Wall. I hope to explain how Mongol action shaped and changed China's defenses against its northern neighbors through the use of border fortifications during the course of the Ming dynasty. 3) People think of the Great Wall as one continuous fortification stretching across the breadth of China. Is that right? The idea you mention is a common myth, both inside and outside China. First, the "one wall" issue. Many different dynasties built walls, in different places, and at different times during each dynasty. The result is a web of roughly parallel walls stretching across China's northern border, from points as far east as Pyongyang in Korea to as far west as the region of Xinjiang in northwestern China. Next, the "continuous wall" myth: none of these northern border walls, later collectively termed "the Great Wall," are, or ever were, continuous, unbroken structures from their origin to their terminus. They were only continuous in the places most susceptible to attack-flat areas, valleys, mountain passes. Outside of these areas, in more rugged, mountainous terrain, builders of border fortifications commonly built a series of signal towers with no wall connecting them. 4)How would you describe the Great Wall of China? I like to use three concepts when thinking about "the" Great Wall. The first, and most inclusive, I term the "Great Wall Line." This delineates the border that defenders were trying to prevent raiders from crossing. It may or may not have border wall or any other structure on it. The second, narrower concept is "Great Wall Structure," which I view as encompassing both walls and signal towers, whether or not there is continuous wall between them. The third concept refers to continuous walls termed "Border Walls" in places deemed likely to be raided. All three of these concepts are important in describing what I like to call a "Great Wall Defense Line." 5) In your opinion, did the Great Wall work or was it a waste of manpower, time and money? First, let's talk about what the Ming rulers were trying to do in defending their northern border and what resources they had at their disposal. After the 1420s, the Ming army no longer had the capability of going on campaigns far north of their territory to engage and defeat powerful Mongol groups. They were thus left to defend their border by deploying troops along it. In doing so, they needed to choose a border whose natural features like passes, ridges, and mountains made it most easily defendable. Once they had determined where they were going to defend against raiders, the Ming had to permanently station soldiers along the border to fight and send along signals of enemy movements. The Great Wall, with its towers and parapets, provided a way to house troops and serve as a permanent, fortified, line of defense. If one wants to consider the question of whether building and operating border fortifications was justified, one has to think of the Ming empire's alternatives, which were to pull back from its northern border or simply to defend people by enclosing them in small forts. Given the Ming dynasty goals of territorial control and protection of the livelihood of its population, there was really no alternative to a permanently fortified line of defense. Empires and nation-states tend to defend their territory at all costs, and the Ming is no exception. States throughout history have nearly always viewed a loss of territory as an unacceptably high cost. Your question also brings up another frequently mentioned, though I believe misguided line of inquiry about the Great Wall, by focusing on whether "it" worked. In fielding this question, I like to borrow a line from gun rights lobbyists in the United States: "Guns don't kill people, people do." I change that slogan around a bit to say, "Walls don't keep raiders out, people do." By that I mean Great Wall fortifications were simply a capital asset, that when used in conjunction with a well-informed, well-trained military, could be a significant deterrent to Mongol raids. 6)What types of sources do you use in your original research? Source materials about the Great Wall for the pre-Ming period are quite limited. The Ming dynasty is an entirely different story. The challenge for the researcher is that materials are scattered widely. The types of sources I find most helpful are official petitions and proposals (called memorials by Western sinologists), specialized Ming works on the Great Wall, and a day-by-day history of the Ming dynasty compiled after the reign of each Ming emperor called the Veritable Records of the Ming Dynasty. Some of these works have been photographically reprinted within the past fifty years and are available in libraries worldwide. Others have not been reprinted, and it is necessary to visit the library (and it may be just one!) that holds any extant copies of the work. To that end, I have visited libraries in China, Japan, and the U.S. as part of this project. 7)Your guided tours and lectures teach visitors how to view and understand different sections of the Great Wall. Which section of the Great Wall do people most enjoy? People frequently ask me what my "favorite" section of the Great Wall is. I don't have one-I simply like them all, though for different reasons. Where you should visit the Wall depends on how much time you have, your level of interest in seeing the sites of important Ming battles along it, your interest in hiking, and your level of aversion to seeing other people when you're there. I find that people who have the opportunity to learn about the history behind the Wall and why most of the popularly-held conceptions about it are false, and who make an informed choice based on the above factors thoroughly enjoy their visit. My own interest is in history, so I certainly prefer to take visitors to spots along the Wall where there were important raids and wall construction projects during Ming times. For the Beijing region, that usually means going northeast, where a major river valley provided attractive access for potential raiders to the city of Beijing. 8) As interesting as the Great Wall may be to some people, history can be pretty dry. What do you do to bring the Wall alive for your audiences? During my research, I pay particular attention to collecting interesting tidbits about vice, cruelty, corruption, and natural resource overuse along the Great Wall. I share these nuggets with visitors in the form of anecdotes, direct quotes from Ming officials about the Wall, and ballads composed by ordinary (and therefore illiterate) soldiers that reflect their own experiences on the Wall. David Spindler is available to accompany guests to the Great Wall on FIT itineraries. Go to top

 

Discovery – Sanxingdui Sanxingdui is a stunning archeological site close to Chengdu, the capital of China's westerly Sichuan province. The first artifacts to be discovered at Sanxingdui were 400 different colored jade pieces, dating as far back as the fifth millennium BCE, hence contemporaneous with the earliest Egyptian relics. These were serendipitously uncovered by farmer Yan Daocheng while he was out digging an irrigation ditch with his son in 1929. Authorities were quickly informed of this find, but excavations begun in the early 1930's were interrupted by China's civil war. It was not before 1986 that China, now under a Communist government, again had the academic stability and financial resources to fund a major archaeological dig. In light of known Chinese archeological evidence of the time, the results of these extensive digs, which unearthed two sacrificial burial pits, went well beyond the highest expectations of the most demanding of the gathered academics. Who could have dreamed of finding a six foot high cast bronze shaman figure dating back to the late Shang dynasty – over 3,000 years old (pictured left) – or a series of three foot by three foot cast bronze human heads covered in gold leaf? These have since become an emblem of Sanxingdui. Perhaps the most remarkable set of objects are a series of cast bronze "sacred trees" on which stand molded bronze singing birds! All these stand apart from the 100,000 earthenware pieces, and hundreds of bronze, jade and lacquer wares. Nor do they include the 400-piece gold scepter, jade tablets, jade dagger axes or various ivory objects, including over 60 elephant tusks. Compounding the archeological wealth of Sanxingdui is the silence of any historical record positioning this self-evidently, advanced civilization within the context of China's pre-history. The collision of archeology with history – of discovered artifacts of obvious cultural sophistication with a totally unexplained provenance- has wrapped the stunning Sanxingdui site and museum in a shroud of mystery. It is an enigma as perplexing, intriguing and compelling as that of the Egyptian pyramids. To view a Chinese national website showing photographs of Sanxingdui artifacts, please click here. Imperial Tours includes a visit to Sanxingdui in its FIT itineraries to Chengdu. Go to top

 

We hope you enjoyed this newsletter. As always, please do write back with any feedback that you would like us to incorporate. Alternatively, please call Margot Kong, our Director of Sales and Marketing, in San Francisco, at 888 888 1970.  With Best Regards,  Guy Rubin  Managing Partner, Imperial Tours  To forward this newsletter to a friend, please click here.  To subscribe to this newsletter, please click here.

 

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by Hilary Stafford-Clark

Once in China it becomes obvious that for all but the most intrepid first-timer, a guided tour is almost essential. There is just too much to see, too much to absorb, in this vast country where 5,000 years of history are colliding head-on with the 21st century. Guidebooks, particularly those to Shanghai, are mainly out of date; few people speak English; and signs, except in the cities, are in Mandarin. The Beijing-based Imperial Tours, run by Guy Rubin and his wife, Nancy, specialises in luxury guided tours for groups and individuals. Having met at Beijing University in 1997 and after two years of acting as unpaid host and guides to a growing flood of friends and acquaintances, they decided to put their knowledge and expertise to work.

Our tour of four cities –Beijing, Xi’an, Guilin and Shanghai- is seamlessly planned. We turn up, as if by magic, in all the right places at just the right time, always accompanied by local experts. Our foray to the Great Wall is a spectacular success. We have an entire stretch-winding dragonlike from horizon to horizon through misty hills-to ourselves, with lunch laid on starched white tablecloths on one of the great watchtowners. Tow days later, after internal flight to Xi’an and a night at the Sheraton-and while the hordes of mainly Japanese tourists are still in bed-we have a private view of another wonder of the eastern world: the terracotta warriors.

After a short flight south, we check into the perfectly named Paradise at Yangshuo, nestling among lush, tooth-shaped green hills outside Guilin. Here we float on bamboo rafts past cormorant-fishermen in coolie hats and sleek, grey-brown water buffalo, standing knee-deep to drink between ploughing shifts. 

In our short time in China we have consumed a staggering eight lunches and nine dinners. There was a 10-coures banquet at Beijing’s China Club: a 17th-century palace, converted into a restaurant 45 years ago and now owned by the entrepreneur David Tang. After a performance by red-robed, cartwheeling mentalbar-breaking Shaolin monks(one of Imperial Tours’ little surprises), we were led into the lantern-lit interior to be served shark-fin soup in a papaya, and peking duck, by the same waitress who regularly served Mao’s successor, Deng Xiaoping. Then there was the glorious anarchy of the Green T House in Beijing, with its 30ft dining table, around which our chairs with their 10ft-hight backs formed a virtual cage, penetrated with difficulty by the waiters. Succulent, slow-baked leg of lamb is a speciality of one of Shanghai’s hottest tables, the Conranesque M on the Bund, with its balcony overlooking the lights along the waterfront, besides the restored deco building where Armani recently set up shop.

Above it all, the elegant pagoda-like pinnacles of the Jin Mao Tower reigns supreme. And after three nights in Room 6017, thought I still haven’t parted the curtains, my knees no longer turn to jelly when the lift shoots me here at an ear popping 1.3 floors a second. After a couple of glasses of champagne, sitting with my bake to the windows, I’ve even managed a banquet on the 88th floor. And I’ve swum, all alone, in a palatial pool on the 57th. On my last morning, I think the time has come to open those curtains. I draw them aside, sit back in the armchair and take in that magnificent view.

©January 23, 2005 The Sunday Times Magazine

by Leslie Chang 
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

ABOARD THE MV EMPEROR ON THE YANGTZE RIVER — Shortly after our cruise ship set sail from the Sichuan town of Fengdu on its way down the Yangtze River, its hardworking crew began to entertain us. Four women in harem pants and navel-baring tops performed a lantern dance. The chief tour guide pressed several audience members into a potato race. Three young women danced in hula skirts, one batting her eyelashes at the audience while the other two looked on with dour expressions.

As I got up to leave, I checked my watch: Only 58 hours to go.

For countless travelers, no trip to China is complete without taking the storied cruise through the country's Three Gorges area. This 120-mile stretch of the Yangtze has been celebrated by Chinese poets for centuries, and in recent decades cruises along its steep limestone cliffs and treacherous rapids have practically become an automatic part of the itinerary, along with the terra-cotta warriors of Xi'an and Beijing's Forbidden City. In the past few years, the region has attracted some 60,000 Americans annually.

But now, at a time when travelers can freely visit China's remotest corners and cities like Shanghai are building a cosmopolitan reputation, these trips can feel like a throwback. Westerners accustomed to luxury cruises should expect tight quarters, odd excursions and, for breakfast and lunch, self-serve noodles and other dishes from steamer trays. The cruises have the kitschy feel of other entrenched tourist attractions, from Venice's gondolas to bateau rides on the Seine. And the ships now ply a changed landscape: The world's largest hydroelectric dam is being built here, and when it started partial operation last year the Yangtze's waters rose — flooding towns and villages, turning much of the once-rushing river placid, and draining the landscape of much of its drama.

Increased Competition

At the same time trips on these ships, some state-owned and others privately owned, have upmarket competition. Longtime U.S. operator Abercrombie & Kent now runs three different group tours in China, offering stays at Shanghai's Four Seasons hotel, stops at an out-of-the-way stretch of the Great Wall and access to a pavilion inside Beijing's Forbidden City usually closed to outsiders. (It also has its own, more personalized Yangtze trip, 19 days for $6,685.) Imperial Tours of Carson City, Nev., offers trips for art collectors or families and promises Western tour directors, while Beijing-based WildChina hits offbeat destinations, including panda-spotting in a Sichuan nature reserve.

To read the whole article, rather than this short excerpt, please click here for the Wall Street Journal ONLINE .

20 February, 2004 Copyright 2004 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved

by Melinda Allman

What's Cool: The Great Wall could stretch from Florida to the North Pole.

China's Great Wall, stretching more than 4,500 miles (7,300 km) across the northern Chinese countryside, was built originally as a fortification to protect Chinese lands from invasion and to keep the nation's people from leaving the empire. In the centuries since, however, it has become both a symbol of tyranny – thousands of slaves were sacrificed during the building process-and a tourist attraction, drawing thousands of visitors each year.

Construction of the wall began in the seventh century B.C. and additions we added and sections rebuilt until the 16th century A.D. It stretches from east to west from Shan-hai Pass near Po Hai (Gulf of Chihli) to Chia-yü Pass (in the modern Kansu province).

Large sections of the wall are now in ruins or have disappeared, but there are good viewing points just a short drive from Beijing. At the Mutianyu section, visitors can take a cable car to get a better view of the wall.

Some visitors choose to walk part of the wall, while others simply marvel at its ingenuity. In a time when there were no bulldozers, cranes or flatbed trucks, the Chinese transported tons of brick and granite rock to the countryside to build the wall that would protect them from the onslaught of invaders (most notably the Mongols). Many tour companies offer tours to China and the Great Wall, including the Imperial Tour Company, which treats travelers to a candlelit dinner on the Great Wall itself.

2004 Travel Channel and Travelchannel.com

Copyright © 2004 Discovery Communications Inc.

Published on 12 August 2003 by Travel Age West & Travelagewest.com

Although the Athens Olympics are less than a year away, many travel professionals are already ramping up for the 2008 Games in Beijing.

"We plan for it to be a major part of what we do here for the next few years," said Gilbert Whelan, director of marketing for China Travel Service U.S.A. in San Francisco.

By all accounts, China is using the Olympics as catalyst to transform its tourism infrastructure.

As many as 50 new hotels are expected to open in Beijing by 2008. More than 800 hotels in Beijing are scheduled for upgrading in order to qualify for Olympic certification.

In an attempt to ease Beijing's notorious traffic congestion, a fourth ring road has already opened around the city. A subway line connecting Olympic sites to tourist areas is scheduled for completion by 2006, and an additional five light-rail routes should be ready by 2008.

While the Olympics are traditionally an important economic and cultural event for the host company, few have had as much at stake as China, which views the game as something of a "coming-out party" to the world community.

As part of the Olympic effort, more than 2 million trees were planted in Beijing last year.

"It is an issue of national pride, representing this country's rite of passage into global acceptance and recognition," said Guy Rubin, managing partner of Imperial Tours.

Rubin says the Olympics will transform the luxury hotel market, his primary target.

A new Park Hyatt is reportedly set to open in Beijing in 2006, while rumors persist that Ritz Carlton and Four Seasons will either manage or own new facilities, he said.

"It is counter-intuitive to suppose that a Communist country could offer better luxury facilities than many capitalist countries, but this is part of a 30-year-long historic process," Rubin said.

Although hotels are not yet taking reservations for the Olympics, they are starting waiting lists, Rubin said.

More so than past Games, the Beijing Olympics are expected to impact China long before the events actually begin. The government has decreed that all major Olympic projects be completed by 2006. Travel executives say the Games are already affecting business. They say the decision to award the games to China helped change many of the perceptions of the country, from the availability of facilities to security issues.

"It's easier for us to advertise and promote China travel," said Chris Lee, owner of China Plus Travel, a tour operator based in Irving, Texas. "It also makes it easier for us to provide better service."

In September the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee announced its initial marketing plan, including details for sponsorships and exclusive supplier rights, a key step in organizing the business side of the event.

The process of selling sponsorships has already started, and the awarding of supplier deals is expected to begin soon after the Athens games.

In September, the Olympic organizing committee also launched a new annual cultural event in Beijing, the Olympic Cultural Festival, spotlighting Olympic-oriented activities and the history of China.

The festival will offer a variety of events each September through 2008.

With the Olympics as a key economic driver, China tourism is expected to boom in the next few years.

Boeing recently predicted the country will need more than 2,000 new passenger planes to handle both the internal and external flow of tourists.

"If Beijing builds new rooms they will be used," said Whelan of China Travel Service. "The Chinese government has seen the impact tourism can have on China and the Chinese people."

12 August 2003 Travel Age West & Travelagewest.com

By Guy Rubin

Centuries ago, in a cliff-face in the midst of China's vast Taklamakan desert, artists hollowed, sculpted and painted 492 caves, creating over 450,000 square feet of spectacular murals, or more than thirty times the mural area of the Sistine Chapel. But whereas the Sistine Chapel was painted over a few years, the works at the Mogao Caves began in the fourth century and were completed over the next millennium.

Given that over that thousand year period competing Imperial dynasties, local aristocracies and even foreign nations conquered the nearby city of Dunhuang, it would have been an astounding feat, perhaps even a miracle, for the painted caves to have survived the subsequent wars and mayhem. However, the Mogao caves – in spite of the unavoidable cultural differences between these different religions and peoples – did not just survive, they prospered through this period. For although rival dynasties, families, tribes, religions and nationalities dominated the area, the sheer magnificence of the Mogao Caves was so overwhelming as to prevail over any differences in its successive rulers. Rather than destroy all vestige of their predecessors, a new ruler would instead fund local artists to incorporate his image into the mythological chorus of the caves' hallowed murals. The ruler would thereby use the caves' beauty to legitimize his new administration. In this way, art served as a bridge linking different peoples to each other; the murals provided a space in which alien cultures could make compromises to each other and salve potential sources of enmity. They were used to finesse contradictions between rich and poor, between Confucianists and Buddhists and between Tibetans, Han and other ethnicities. As such, the murals of the Mogao Caves, bespeaking a universal harmony, herald the triumph of transcendent beauty over the destructive dynamic of temporal orders.

Compare this example of cultural intercourse and compromise with another of Dunhuang's famous sites – the remnants of the earliest sections of the Great Wall. This 16 foot high wall of stamped earth, reinforced with wood, appears as spectacularly random in the midst of the world's second-largest desert. Over two thousand years old, this sinuous fortification, as weathered and cracked as the gargantuan rock formations it purports to divide, now seems more a product of nature than of humanity. Even though the power and scale of the seemingly infinite desert mock the Great Wall's pretensions to mastery, it is an achievement for this human endeavor to have been constructed and have survived for so long in such a hostile environment.

On the one hand, the Mogao Caves create a space for cultures to meet. On the other, the Great Wall was intended to keep cultures apart.

From its inception thousands of years ago, the Great Wall has been a touchstone for debate on how China should deal with her fierce neighbors. Opponents of the Great Wall claimed that peace could only be assured through economic, social and political engagement with China's borderland tribes. When this policy of engagement was preponderant, the borderlands were peaceful. However, at just these times, proponents of the Great Wall argued that Chinese prestige was suffering as a result of China's continual concessions to the warlike tribes, and thus the pendulum swung the other way.

Let us leave the ancient remnants of this Great Wall to travel along the local trade route that led Chinese culture to clash for its first time with a foreign civilization. The Silk Road brought great economic and military benefits to China. The westward export of goods from China fostered terrific fortunes: silks, teas and jade products as well as such brilliant inventions as paper, gunpowder and the compass reaped unimaginable financial rewards. The eastward import of goods most importantly introduced the legendary horses of Central Asia's Ferghana valley; their speed and stamina giving China the military edge in the region. However, the benefits of this trade came at a cost, namely commercial and ideological exchange with alien peoples, societies and cultural values. The homegrown religions of Daoism and Confucianism were threatened by the eastward spread of Buddhism. Han Chinese were forced to deal with the growing military threat of Tibet and the semi-nomadic tribes of the Western regions. Meanwhile the rapid economic and territorial growth of the Chinese Empire was drawing an ever increasing diversity and number of peoples' and thought systems into its sphere of influence. There was a clear danger that this crucible of heterogeneous admixtures would so overheat as to blow the Chinese Empire asunder!

So, how did governors of Dunhuang, the wealthiest and most significant of the borderland areas on the Silk Road, deal with the challenge of managing so much diversity? To understand the factors of their successful strategy, you should firstly put yourself in the saddle of a traveler of the time.

The first time you, yourself, journey to Dunhuang, the closest you will probably come to the vicissitudes of the desert, will be in the flickering shadow of your airplane as it fleets across the pitiless expanses. However, not far from Dunhuang, at the Dunes of the Singing Sands, you can mount a camel and recreate the experience of traveling along the Silk Road two thousand years ago. Even when you are lulled into reverie by your proud-nosed camel's lolling sway, you will still feel the heat of the sun parching your skin. In your imagination, you might see yourself within a large caravan of traders. There may even be a protecting contingent of soldiers accompanying your group. However, it is early morning and the hum of the tall, shifting sands fills you with foreboding. You open your eyes to see the dunes rise out of the air before you; instantly you are dwarfed by the immensity of the desert. One foul sand storm is all that is needed for you to lose your group, your family and your bearings. You recall the stark warning of Fa Xian, that famous monk of the fourth century, who writes from this spot, "the only signs of a road are the skeletons of the dead. Wherever they lie, there lies the road to India." Though you have heard tell of brigands along the way, you now feel all too keenly that your greatest threat lies not from other people, but from nature itself.

The perennial threat of the desert hung over every oasis town, inhabitant and traveler. This constant reminder of life's transience and death's arbitrariness acted as a break on any dispute; it added a broader dimension to life along the Silk Road. Although this factor naturally calmed social unrest, Dunhuang's governors did not need to rely on it. At any given moment, they could enforce their will through a forceful military presence. The threat of their strong garrison was softened however by conciliatory cultural policies. It is the syncretic give and take of this cultural policy of engagement that is exhibited in the murals of the Mogao Caves.

In the shadowy caves (take a torch with you), there is no apparent contradiction between the thousands of Buddhas painted on the lower walls and the Daoist symbols painted on the ceiling. Nor is there one between the Confucianist veneration of ancestors on one wall and a representation of the historic Buddha running away from his family on another. Instead of analytically challenging components of each others' belief systems, the artists have assimilated all aspects of the faiths in a rich mythological tapestry. What appears irrational to one person will surely seem inspiring to another – both will agree that the representations are dazzlingly rich and beautiful.

Hegel observed that we learn from history that we do not learn from history. As we enter an age which the historian Samuel Huntingdon has characterized as being afflicted with the clash of competing civilizations, we do well to remember that civilizations have clashed many times before. They did so along the Silk Road approximately two thousand years ago, and the principle fruit of this encounter were hundreds of cave paintings of spell-binding harmony and beauty.

First published March 2003 in Culturaltravels.com under the title "A Study In Harmony".

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, each of which claims to offer much the same product. This brief article describes 5 critical factors to help travelers read between the lines of glossy brochures and help them better assess the relative merits of rival tour operators.

#1: Trustworthiness & Security – the first filter

Typically, tour operators will ask you to pay for your tour in advance, in which case you will want to be sure that the operator is trustworthy and that your funds are secure. Such security works on a number of levels. On the most basic level – if your intended tour operator is not registered in a country with a reliable legal system and does not offer some sort of financial guarantee in your home country (surety bond or trust account scheme), then your deposited funds are as liable to disappear as whisky on St. Patrick's Day.

On a secondary level, especially in an industry as susceptible to risk as the travel industry, you want to be sure that even if the operator goes bankrupt (the fate of many after September 11, 2001) your funds will nonetheless be returned to you. For this reason, look for companies which are adequately bonded or – for greater security – for companies running industry-approved trust account systems, where your funds are independently held, usually by a major bank, until after the end of your tour.

Conclusion: For your own peace of mind, it is advisable to only deal directly with tour operators from countries with reliable legal systems, and then only with those tour operators which advertise surety bonds or industry-approved trust account systems.

 

#2: "Boutique" tour operator" versus "The Jack Of All Trades" tour operator

The tour industry divides into innumerable countries and activities. Whereas one tour company might specialize in one niche area, such as walking tours in the Loire valley ("Boutique" tour operator), another might offer every sort of luxury vacation in every country ("Jack Of All Trades" operator), including several walking tours in France. In this scenario, it is unlikely that the generalist tour operator can deliver a better like-for-like product than the specialist. Certainly, the generalist should offer a lower price since they are a high volume player. In terms of quality and service however, the specialist will always have the upper hand.

Conclusion: Ask your friends and travel agent, research the internet – if service and quality is what you value, find a boutique tour operator focussing on your specific region or activity.

 

#3: Expert Status – the tour operator must be an expert on the destination

How well a tour operator knows their destination or activity will feed directly into your enjoyment of their product. If the operator simply sub-contracts all aspects of their tours to a local groundhandler, then you should expect abysmal service since the local groundhandler has a free hand to minimize costs at your expense. If the tour operator is simply decorating a local groundhandler's product with sophisticated features, the tour will share much in common with a tourist class tour apart from price. Instead, you should seek a tour operator, who is so familiar with the destination that they have a wide selection of hotels, restaurants and special events exclusive to that operator. You should aim to find the tour operator that specializes in your particular interest.

Conclusion: Test your tour operator with difficult questions. Find out if they really know their stuff.

 

#4: References – the best judge of a tour company is a past customer

Good PR is available to any company at a price. Advertising in its various forms is not necessarily indicative of the quality of a company's tours. The best source of such information is past customers. When interviewing such a referee, you need to bear two things in mind. Since no company is going to forward a dissatisfied customer as a reference, what you need to look for is a customer who reports services over and above their initial expectations. Secondly you should value a referee's response in relation to their background. The response of an experienced luxury traveler should be given greater weight.

Conclusion: Request references, interview them thoroughly and weigh their responses accordingly.

 

#5: Watch out for exclusions, particularly in tours to "difficult" countries

First, make sure you understand what is not included in your tour price. If the itinerary appears vague, contact the operator to find out exactly what the situation is. Areas where tour operators often scrimp are:

(i) Accompanying Tour Director – will they send your group with a tour director. If so, is the tour director local or Western? How much training have they received? 
( ii) Meals – count how many are included and find out what their quality is. 
(iii) Domestic Airfare – often this is presented as an add-on. 
(iv) Tips to guides and drivers – if excluded, find out how much you are expected to pay per person per day. 
(v) Optional Add-ons – find out the per person price of each optional add-on you are interested in.

When you understand your tour's exclusions, think about the distinction between visiting "easy" and "difficult" countries. Even without language skills, the savvy tourist can handle himself effectively in Europe or North America. The same person will most probably be at sea in such countries as Russia or China. It is in these countries that exclusions for meals, accompanying tour directors or else "optional" add-on tours can become sources of displeasure.

For example, in "difficult" countries not having an accompanying tour director creates two problems. The first is logistical. Typically, the travelers will fly from airport to airport meeting local guides at each one. Should something go wrong during the airport transit, for example a cancelled flight, the customers will be stranded with no one to turn to for help. Anyone who has passed through a Russian airport knows how how unsavoury this can be. The second problem is that in these cirumstances, the tour operator is trusting the local guide not to take advantage of their customers. They are hoping that the guides, usually supplied by the local groundhandler, will not abuse the customers time and enjoyment by taking them to commission-paying restaurants and souvenir shops . This is a common problem with even the most respected luxury tour operators. Therefore, those traveling to "difficult" countries should note whether or not they are going to be accompanied on the tour. A well-trained, accompanying tour director adds to the price of the tour, but so does wasting your money and time on a disappointing tour.

Conclusion – Avoid tours to "difficult" countries that exclude meals and an accompanying tour director.

 

Guy Rubin is Managing Partner of Imperial Tours , a boutique tour operator offering luxury tours to China.

© Imperial Tours July 2002

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. Having arranged for the relocation of Emperor Puyi's ashes to this newly opened cemetery, Hong Kong entrepreneur Zhang Shiyi is now selling burial lots in this fengshui-enhanced vicinity.

And not a bad idea it is too. For a visit to this beatific valley, adorned with more than seventy Imperial tombs, affords a rare pleasure. These Qing dynasty tombs echo and embolden their surrounding landscape. Austere courtyards mimic the graceful sweep of a wide, valley floor. While their raised "Soul Towers" lead your eyes upwards to the rugged mountains behind, their intricate, marble bridges invite you to glance down at their picturesque, moss-covered moats. The buildings' deference to their setting however, does not impugn their Imperial hauteur – for though they harmoniously blend in with their surroundings, their sheer size is spell-binding.

Unlike the Ming dynasty Emperors whose tombs are collected in one lush valley, the burial grounds of the Qing dynasty have been split between two main locations – the Eastern and Western Tombs. But why did the Qing dynasty require two separate burial sites?

The reason dates back to a Dostoevskian tale of love and hate; of physical crime and spiritual punishment. When the Emperor Kangxi (r 1662-1722) bequeathed his empire to a younger son, Yongzheng (r. 1723-1735) usurped his father's throne and, to stave off their potential challenge, executed all his brothers as well as his father's ministers. Subsequently ridden with guilt, this ambitious ruler couldn't bear the thought of being buried next to his father. By selecting a burial site diametrically opposite the established Imperial Tombs, on the western as opposed to the eastern side of Beijing, Yongzheng instituted the Western Qing Tombs.

After comparing both sites, you will be in little doubt that Emperor Yongzheng was as frenziedly competitive in death as he had been in life. His tomb, the first at the Western Qing tombs, makes his father's at the Eastern look penny-pinching by comparison. For though Emperor Kangxi's tomb is expansive, his son's is built on an altogether more massive scale, reminiscent of the imposing majesty of the Forbidden City's southern courtyards. Its aesthetic merit lies as much in its appealing form as it does in embodying the unquestioning authority of its all-powerful occupant. Ironic then that so great an achievement should be inspired by so petty an ambition.

This narrow-mindedness is counterbalanced by the largesse of the second Emperor to be buried at the Western Qing Tombs, Emperor Jiaqing (r.1796-1820). Unwilling to surpass and thereby call into question the glory of his ancestor, Emperor Jiaqing thought it politic only to equal him. Except that he took his idea to an unnecessary extreme.

His tomb, Changling, relinquishing all individuality, is to every degree an exact copy of that of Emperor Yongzheng. So much so that when we arrived there, our navigator bet another friend 100 dollars that we'd taken the wrong turn and had, in error, returned to Yongzheng's tomb. It was an easy mistake to make. For the design of the bridges, the positioning of the well-preserved outhouses, even the brown mule and the souvenir stalls in front of the ticket office looked precisely the same – as if an age-old hoax were being intentionally perpetuated to the present day. Our bewilderment only intensified as, strolling though the tomb, we confirmed its similarity to the tiniest detail.

Jiaqing's Empress, fortunately, had no such pretensions to modesty. Her immaculate tomb next door, at Changxiling (Western Changling), sports the only Echo Wall I have ever had the joyful opportunity of testing. Indeed, as promised by Chinese guides at Beijing's ever crowded Temple of Heaven, if a message is whispered on one side of the circular wall, this will be perfectly audible to someone standing on the other. And by altering your position within the centre of the circular wall, you can adjust the number of echoes returned to you. Great fun when it works.

Having spent two days exploring its curiosities, we were thoroughly charmed by this 800 km² Qing dynasty burial site. So pleasant is its setting and so magisterial its tombs that we could deeply sympathize with Emperor Puyi's last words, whispered to his wife, Li Shuxian, as he lay dying of cancer in 1967. "Please, please bury my ashes at the side of my adoptive father," he pleaded. It is wonderful that, after so sad a life, his last wish came true.

As it could for you on down payment of $40,000.

Getting there

The most direct route to the Western Qing Tombs is to drive south west along the "Jingshi" highway, which links Beijing to Shijiazhuang. After about 80km, on arrival at Gaobeidian, head west for Yixian. The tombs are 16km west of Yixian on highway 112. Expect the journey from central Beijing to take over 3 hours.

original publication May 2000, Chinanow.com