Viking China

[Minnesota Nice x II]

Thinking of each of us checking a 26" bag (1 ea) and carrying on a 21" rollaboard.

 

On intra-China flights, a passenger may carryon one piece only with dimensions not to exceed 8x16x22 inches and a total weight of 11 lbs. The checked bag is not suppose to exceed 44.2 lbs.

Our travel info went to our travel agent so I won't be able to see intra-Chinese info until after work on Tuesday. Maybe Felicia aka Osnab received her packet and can answer. We're both on the Imperial Jewels trip and fly from our home airports on 9/15.

[couchking]

I really haven't seen a post on this. Is there perked regular coffee at breakfast in the hotels and on the boat? Need it to get our get up and go.

Thanks

[Osnab]

When we went to China in 2004, we brought with us about 100 $2.00 bills. Because these are rare, but legal tender, they are much appreciated as tips. Just ask the head teller at your local bank branch to get them for you. They need a few days to a week heads up to get the bills from the Federal Reserve.

 

I'd be nervous about taking $2 bills, because they are so rare, and I'd be concerned people would find them suspicious. I don't even like them here in the US. LOL.

I got $400 in ones and about $200 in fives. It's probably more than I need, but better more than less. I just hope there are "safe" safety deposit boxes since I can't carry around all those bills at once (too fat.)

 

Do you tip the escort at the end of the tour or per day?

 

Felicia

[Osnab]

We actually did get some Yuan in advance.

 

Yikes, I forgot to mention this a second ago........I for $300 US equivalent in Yuan the other day. My bank, being ever so nice, waived the fee, but it would have been $15 to do this. I feel safer carrying a little w/ me (local currency). You never know when you can exchange it later.

Felicia

[Osnab]

Pat - First of all, why carry all that stuff when you can ship things easily?

Our intra-China flights were on various airlines like Cathay, South China, & West China Airlines. Seat were larger, planes were new and clean, airports all new.

 

WIT

 

Did you have the hotel concierge ship your items, or did you use a local post office? If you used the hotel, how much would you tip the concierge for a service as that?

 

When I got my docs the other day, I noticed there was nothing mentioned (for intra-China flights) re: checked luggage as far as size was concerned. They just mentioned they cannot weigh more than 44.5 lbs. I called Viking and they said any ole size you want is fine for checked luggage, but the weight was extremely important.

 

They also mentioned that they will use China Southern Air, DragonAir and/or one other airline (something like China West) and they are all the same size planes as Southwest's planes.

 

Felicia

[Osnab]

Maybe Felicia aka Osnab received her packet and can answer. We're both on the Imperial Jewels trip and fly from our home airports on 9/15.

 

 

Sorry, no such luck. They just state that the flights will be determined when you are in China, and also you can't get the boarding passes until then. Only coach seats, no first or business class seats. Also, you may not be able to sit beside a traveling partner, even if you have the same surname.

Felicia

[travelsfun]

Yes, that's true about the seating on the flights within China. Your tour escort will get the boarding passes for you and you never know who you will be seated by. Really, it's kindof nice to sit with different people and the flights are rather short anyway. Can imagine how excited you are, Felicia...it will be a wonderful trip.

Dorothy

[Imelda & Mario]

Wow - what a great trip! Thanks to all who provided information in the past - it was very helpful.

 

The trip is very taxing - almost no free time until you get on the ship. Our tour bus had 37 people and it was hard for the guide to keep us all corralled. There were several people on each of the 8 busses that were not capable of doing some of the tours because of their physical condition, the number of steps, heat, air quality and/or exhaustion.

 

We were very careful about hand-washing (take the packaged wipes or purell with you everywhere) and neither of us got sick at all. There were several others who dropped out for a couple of days because of stomach upset, Mao's revenge, or colds.

 

We took about 100 $1 bills and about 40 $5 bills with us and that was plenty for misc tips, and trinkets. There are ATM machines at the hotels, but all the instructions are in chinese characters, so you have to stumble along. I took larger bills to tip the guide. I only remember one or two places where they didn't take US$.

 

The air-conditioning on the boat worked fine - cabins were cool, but the humidity was high, so if you are doing any hand-washing of clothes in the sink - you will have to hang them on the balcony to get them to dry. (bring a few clothespins). We did send some jeans to the ship laundry and we got them back later the same day.

 

Chinese staff on the boat is fabulous. They couldn't have been more helpful or friendly.

[Minnesota Nice x II]

We were very careful about hand-washing (take the packaged wipes or purell with you everywhere) and neither of us got sick at all. There were several others who dropped out for a couple of days because of stomach upset, Mao's revenge, or colds.

Thanks for the updates. I'm so glad neither of you got sick. It's one of my only concerns because I know we'll be on the go from the moment we get off the plane in China.

 

We took about 100 $1 bills and about 40 $5 bills with us and that was plenty for misc tips, and trinkets. There are ATM machines at the hotels, but all the instructions are in chinese characters, so you have to stumble along. I took larger bills to tip the guide. I only remember one or two places where they didn't take US$. This is helpful. Thanks.

 

If you are doing any hand-washing of clothes in the sink - you will have to hang them on the balcony to get them to dry. (bring a few clothespins). We did send some jeans to the ship laundry and we got them back later the same day. We've got one of those stretchy clotheslines from previous trips. I keep forgetting to drag it out so I appreciate the reminder. Tell me more about jeans in China. Did you see many? I'm all packed and decided not to bring any.

 

Thanks for the post.

D&D

[Minnesota Nice x II]

I really haven't seen a post on this. Is there perked regular coffee at breakfast in the hotels and on the boat? Need it to get our get up and go.

Thanks

 

This is one thing I've been obsessing about. Not truly, but there have been a few posts about coffee. Jerry recommended travel mugs for onboard ship because they don't have disposable cups. I'd love to be able to sit on deck with a cup of coffee. My boss gave me a huge can of Wm Sonoma chocolate covered coffee beans. I'm thinking of throwing a bag of those into my pack. I'll drink hot fresh tea over instant coffee (yuck) anytime but it doesn't have the same punch. My husband will probably be grateful sitting with someone else on the intra Chinese flights if I don't have caffeine in me!

PS: has anyone found a truly good instant coffee? I know I could grind my own and bring a filter but we are packing very light.

[Minnesota Nice x II]

:o The board has covered so much information but one thing I haven't seen addressed is feminine hygiene products (tampons). Of course, I can bring my own supply but I'm wondering if others have noticed availability in hotels and on the ship.

 

Also, the following link may be useful to women "a-feared" of using the Chinese porcelain toilets. I remember experiencing similar toilets in the train stations and, yes, even a Mom & Pop restaurant in Italy. Not sure I'll go this route but others may benefit.

 

http://www.freshette.com/photos.html

 

D

[Cheesi]

Thanks to all for answering some of my questions on the luggage, etc.!! I was thinking of the bigger carry-on versus two smaller carry-ons, but we'll see. Good point on the shipping, Wit. Even though I'm not much of a shopper we did buy a few things on cruise last year. Issue was more bulk than volume as the vase from Rhodes was bigger.

 

O.K. I admit I'm spoiled from doing some private tours on our Med cruise, so 37 to 1 (Imelda and Mario's post) seems a huge ratio to me, but we'll go with the flow. Everyone's comments seem positive.

 

I've been checking the weather in Beijing and Lasha (Tibet) so I know we'll be in for a big change in temps between those two areas!

 

Hoping to get our documents this week (I hope by Wed) since only 2 weeks to go from Thursday.

 

All these posts have been so helpful the planning phase. Will be interesting to see if we run any to any CC people on the trip.

 

Thanks again, Pat

[MSEm]

I know I am limited to 1 carry-on on the Intra-China Flights.

Questions: Does a ladies purse count as a carry on or is the carry-on in addition to a small purse?

 

Will I need to put a small purse inside the carry-on?

Thanks for all the great help and info here.

[Imelda & Mario]

I didn't wear jeans, but my hubby wore jean shorts. Both shorts and jeans were plentiful during the day. I wore crop pants made of very lightweight cotton and 2% spandex. They dried quickly and were comfy. It is HOT and HUMID along the Yangtze - there were a couple of days that we showered again before lunch and changed clothes again.

[Imelda & Mario]

:o The board has covered so much information but one thing I haven't seen addressed is feminine hygiene products (tampons). Of course, I can bring my own supply but I'm wondering if others have noticed availability in hotels and on the ship.

 

Also, the following link may be useful to women "a-feared" of using the Chinese porcelain toilets. I remember experiencing similar toilets in the train stations and, yes, even a Mom & Pop restaurant in Italy. Not sure I'll go this route but others may benefit.

 

http://www.freshette.com/photos.html

 

D

 

I didn't see any machines anywhere. The only thing I saw in the hotels was a "sanitary bag". Bring your own supplies.

[coasters]

I really haven't seen a post on this. Is there perked regular coffee at breakfast in the hotels and on the boat? Need it to get our get up and go.

Thanks

 

In my opinion, the coffee in all hotel restaurants and in the dining room and bar on the ship was very good to excellent. The instant coffee in the rooms was poor to fair.

Jerry

[WIT]

Did you have the hotel concierge ship your items, or did you use a local post office? If you used the hotel, how much would you tip the concierge for a service as that?

 

When I got my docs the other day, I noticed there was nothing mentioned (for intra-China flights) re: checked luggage as far as size was concerned. They just mentioned they cannot weigh more than 44.5 lbs. I called Viking and they said any ole size you want is fine for checked luggage, but the weight was extremely important.

 

They also mentioned that they will use China Southern Air, DragonAir and/or one other airline (something like China West) and they are all the same size planes as Southwest's planes.

 

Felicia

The hotel concierge handled everything, including producing the correct forms for the shipping agency.

 

Weight was only an issue when entering/leaving China, the intra-China flights never counted carry-ons nor weighed checked bags.

 

Your group guide gets the tip at the end so you can unload any extra yuan or HK dollars.

WIT

[goer71]

Who know Victoria Anna's moblie phone number or their local agent phone number ?

I need help.

[Imelda & Mario]

Agree with WIT that there seemed to be no limit to what you could carry on the intra-China flights.

 

Also, I highly recommend "Airborne" to stay well while in China. We started taking it a week before we left and took it everyday during the entire trip and we had no problems what-so-ever. A package of 10 tablets costs around $5.50 at Target.

[voljo]

I know I am limited to 1 carry-on on the Intra-China Flights.

Questions: Does a ladies purse count as a carry on or is the carry-on in addition to a small purse?

 

Will I need to put a small purse inside the carry-on?

Thanks for all the great help and info here.

 

We could carry on as many small bags as we wanted! I took two small ones plus my purse on the flights within China. The weight limit for the checked baggage is apparently applied to the entire group's luggage and then divided by the number of bags. I know at least one woman whose bag weighed, she told me, a little over 50 lbs., and she didn't have to pay any extra fee. The only time any of the weight mattered, it seemed, was the flight from Shanghai to Hong Kong.

For that flight our carry-on luggage was searched fairly thoroughly; no drinks, even an unopened can of Coke, were allowed. The security guards seemed to disagree, I figured later, about whether we had put too much stuff in our ziploc plastic bags. They let it go, thank goodness. When we did find out their rules, we had filled the bags more than their rules allowed. We simply didn't know the rules! We thought they were scrutinizing all of our medications, which were indeed a bagful.

You are going to enjoy your trip so much! It was one of our very favorite vacations.

 

Jo

[Osnab]

The air-conditioning on the boat worked fine - cabins were cool, but the humidity was high, so if you are doing any hand-washing of clothes in the sink - you will have to hang them on the balcony to get them to dry. (bring a few clothespins). We did send some jeans to the ship laundry and we got them back later the same day.

 

Chinese staff on the boat is fabulous. They couldn't have been more helpful or friendly.

 

I am glad to hear your trip was fun and you enjoyed yourself. Glad to hear you didn't get sick.

But you wore jeans? Wasn't it really hot?

Felicia

[Osnab]

:o The board has covered so much information but one thing I haven't seen addressed is feminine hygiene products (tampons). Of course, I can bring my own supply but I'm wondering if others have noticed availability in hotels and on the ship.

D

 

D:

What a great question!

Felicia

[Osnab]

[quote name=Minnesota Nice x II;11482091lso' date=' the following link may be useful to women "a-feared" of using the Chinese porcelain toilets. I remember experiencing similar toilets in the train stations and, yes, even a Mom & Pop restaurant in Italy. Not sure I'll go this route but others may benefit.

 

http://www.freshette.com/photos.html

 

D[/quote]

 

Good site........I purchased something called "urinelles" which are like those pointy paper cups you see at water coolers, except they are flat. Then you can open them up and use them standing up. I think I got them from Magellans.

Felicia

[Osnab]

We thought they were scrutinizing all of our medications, which were indeed a bagful.

You are going to enjoy your trip so much! It was one of our very favorite vacations.

 

Jo

 

Jo: Question about meds.....I plan on taking some Echinacea and vitamin C, but I am just going to put them in baggies since that takes up less room than the bottles. Will this be something they will question (since they won't be in their original bottles?) If so, I'll just put the baggies in my checked luggage. Just would like to know in advance.Thanks. Felicia

[Minnesota Nice x II]

Good site........I purchased something called "urinelles" which are like those pointy paper cups you see at water coolers, except they are flat. Then you can open them up and use them standing up. I think I got them from Magellans.

Felicia

 

I've been tempted . . .they sure seem convenient. I'm probably better off practicing my squats - famous last words!