China in general

Advantages: Great Sights, Changing Culture.
Disadvantages: Difficult Language

...The Country China is the worlds most populated (1.3 billion) and third largest country (after Russia and Canada). It encompases a huge variety of climates from deserts to rainforests. Temperatures also vary greatly depending on where you are in the country. For years under communist rule, China has begun to relax some of its more stringent regulations and embrace some form of capitalist economy. However politically there is no opposition ...
...There To get to China you will need a visa. This requires contact with the Chinese Embassy and a trip down to London if you do it yourself or a fee to your tour operator to do it for you. (I payed the fee). The visa takes up an entire page of your passport and is stared at curiously by immigration officials the world over. Flights are pretty regular to the major cities, we went with China Air and it was fine, plenty of leg room in ... Read review

Advantages: Great Wall, history, unique experience
Disadvantages: Enormous language and cultural barriers

...of a useful manner. China has always fascinated me and as the northernmost country included in my plans, it was the first country on my trip. My overall plan was to travel through Asia from north to south and I followed the same strategy in China, so for me, first stop Beijing. Getting there A direct flight to Beijing takes ten hours from London and operators include China Air, BA and Virgin. At the moment, the flights cost anything between ...
...visa is required to enter China and this must be obtained in advance, entry to the country must be within two months of the date of visa issue and the usual maximum stay is 30 days. Postal applications are not accepted, I have no desire to queue in the Chinese Embassy so I used the wonderful company Travcour to organise this and indeed other visas I needed to obtain in advance, for this and other trips. I don't recall that much about Beijing airport ... Read review

Advantages: An insight into a totally different culture and way of life.
Disadvantages: Language barriers, Staring, Queuing, Cold.

...so much to say as China is so fascinating, diverse and of course, huge! ********************************************************************* About China. ********************************************************************* China is the third largest country in the World, beaten only by the USA and Russia. Its capital is Beijing and it borders a total of 14 other countries, including North Korea, Laos, Nepal and India. As a result of its size ...
...lands dominate the East. China is divided into 23 provinces (e.g. Taiwan, Sichuan and Yuan), 5 autonomous regions (e.g. Tibet, Mongolia), 4 centrally administrative municipalities (e.g. Beijing, Shanghai) and 2 special administrative regions (Hong Kong and Macau). Nothing is simple in China as you will see. China's 1.2 billion citizens makes it the most populous nation in the world (one fifth of the Worlds total) and today China still follows the ... Read review

Advantages: Ethnic minorities
Disadvantages: Toilets are dirty but this is the same everywhere in China

...tell you this. Toilets in China are very very dirty + smelly and DO NOT GO unless you really need to. There were a few times when I nearly vomited due to the strong smell. One thing about Chinese toilets that I don't understand is why people throw toilet papers in the bin next to the toilet instead of flushing them down the toilet. It's all these toilet papers in the bin that caused the smell and even if you could go in without breathing, you would ...
...the biggest Chinese group in China and they have influenced the minorities a lot causing them to slowly shift away from their traditions. However, the Bai people in XiZhou still wear their Bai traditional costume and speak their language. In the evening, we drove to Lijiang, the World Heritage Town and home of Naxi people. It's about 4 hours and there's no highway between these two towns. All the way it was single lane which was quite dangerous. ... Read review

Advantages: Happy Chinese New Year!
Disadvantages: Happy Dog! Dog Happy!

Chinese New Year (Chinese: 春節, 春节, Chūnjíe; or 農曆新年, 农历新年, Nónglì Xīnnián), also known as the Lunar New Year or the Spring Festival is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. It consists of a period of celebrations, starting on New Year's Day, celebrated on the first day of the first month of the Chinese calendar, i.e. the day of the second ...
...occurs, unless there is an intercalary eleventh or twelfth month in the lead-up to the New Year-in such a case, the New Year falls on the day of the third new moon after the solstice. (The next time this occurs is in 2033.) The Chinese New Year period ends with the Lantern Festival, on the fifteenth day of the festival. Legend has it that in ancient China, Nian ("Nyehn") was a man-devouring predator beast that could infiltrate houses silently. The ... Read review