Final Thoughts On The Trip

I thought it would be good to give a final wrap up to the trip with some big picture observations.

First, I would like to commend Travel With Alan for putting together a fine tour.  It was reasonably priced.  All of the tour guides were wonderful (especially Patrick).  We had enough free time to explore on our own particularly in Hong Kong.  The accommodations were excellent in terms of quality and location.  The food for all of the meals was off the chart good.  In fact the tour might have been called a China Food Tour. On the negative side, the only tour component that I didn't care for was the jewelry manufacturer, but others seemed to like it.  I would have liked to see more "man themed" opportunities.  For example when we went to the porcelain  factory, it would have been nice to be able to explore some of the little shops outside the factory which sold all sorts of goods.

I was really impressed with how modern mainland China was.  There are freeways and modern cars and huge high rise apartment buildings literally everywhere with many more under construction.  I was left wondering where did all of the sewage go?  The people were all so friendly.  It was also very impressive all of the lighting that appears at night.  Huge buildings would entirely be lighted in moving electronic displays and TV screens. In Hong Kong, they add a laser light show each night at 8pm.  However, I found that laser light show to be a bit lame compared to the sheer magnitude of the building lighting.

Cheap food is everywhere.  While most of it was a bit bland for our taste, it was all quite good.  The grocery stores were quite well stocked.  McDonald's and Starbucks outlets were plentiful along with fewer numbers of Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut.  We only found one Subway.  

Health wise, we didn't suffer any illnesses, but we heard that several people did get sick.  We freely ate the food and drank the tap water in the hotels.  We didn't drink any water from other sources other than bottled water.  One person thought they may have contracted their illness from ice cubes in one of their drinks, but who knows?.  

WIFI coverage was plentiful so we didn't use our portable SIM card at all.  The connection speeds were excellent.  We didn't find Facebook or Google blocked at our hotels in China.  There were no WIFI issues in Hong Kong. It's important to bring power adapters  to fit the local power outlets.  All of our electronic chargers and my CPAP machine will run on both 110v or 220v power and automatically switch between the power sources.  

Culturallly, I was ignorant about one of China's heros:  Dr. Sun Yat Sen.  Fortunately we visited several sites devoted to recognizing his contribution to modern China.  Essentially he was to China like George Washington was to America.  I have a new appreciation for the Chinese culture.

The new and now 20 year old  Hong Kong airport is huge and thoroughly modern.  No longer do the airplanes have to weave their way through the skyscrapers to land at the former airport.  

Smog wise, it was hazy during the entire trip.  There might have been a couple of days in China that we saw blue sky.  On our last day in Hong Kong, we went walking and at one point I wiped the exterior of my nose and there was black all over the tissue.  I now understand why so many people wear filter masks when walking around.

Immigration checks occurred at every border.  Crossings were always busy but went pretty smoothly.  Since we had 10 year Chinese visas in addition to a group visa with the Travel With Alan group, This presented a problem for my wife when the immigration officer at the Chinese border from Macau spotted her 10 year personal visa.  She ended up needing to sign a withdrawal form to be dropped off the group visa and use her separate visa.  They didn't see mine, so I used the group visa.  I'd recommend that Travel With Alan scrutinize this in advance for future trips.

It was a great trip.  We are looking forward to returning in a couple weeks to do a longer  cruise trip which will add stops in Shanghai and Beijing as well as Korea and Japan before sailing to Vancouver via Alaska.  Stay tuned for that report.