The China Travel Company’s Blog Articles & Latest News
Keep up to date with what is going on in the China travel world with our articles and latest news written by us and regularly updated. Here you will find useful information and travel tips to both help explore the possibilities China has to offer and learn about and plan your trip to the Middle Kingdom.
China Blog Post Listing
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China Hotels
One of the things I concentrate hard on at The China Travel Company while putting together our tailor made China tours is to give people hotel options that are interesting and a bit different.
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Chengdu Tours
Chengdu is the capital of Sichuan Province, which is found in the South West of China. It is Sichuan’s key economic centre and indeed that of Western China.
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Beijing’s Temple of Heaven
Tian Tan, the Chinese name for the Temple of Heaven, literally means the Altar of Heaven. Most China tours that are taking in Beijing will also include a trip to the Temple of Heaven.
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Shanghai’s Bund
The majority of first time China tours I book at The China Travel Company take in mainland China’s richest city of Shanghai. Perhaps the most famous “sight” in any tour of Shanghai is going to be the Bund itself.
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Yangshuo Tours
When people are planning their China tour, the emphasis often seems to be on taking in as many of the sights as possible. Of course China has plenty of these with global icons such as the Great Wall and the Terra Cotta Warriors to name but two of the many.
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Chinese Music
For many of us Chinese music is a bit of a mystery. It is either seen as “new age” and for relaxing or as a bit random with lots of seemingly out of tune bells and gongs that don’t necessarily sit to well on the western musical palette.
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History of Xian
Xian is one of the must visit cities in most China tours. This is mainly down to the fact that it is the resting place of the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, and his dynamic army of soldiers, ready to blaze his path into the otherworld on his death.
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Tai Chi Chuan
Tai chi ch'uan or taijiquan as it is written in Pinyin, is a Chinese martial art that is used both for defense and as a system to improve one’s health.
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Yangtze River Cruises
The Yangtze River or “Yangzi” is part of many China tours and holidays but how much do you know about this mighty river. In this short article I will attempt to bring you up to speed with some of the things you ought to know about Asia’s longest river.
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Essential Shanghai
Shanghai is China’s largest city by population, in fact it is the largest in the world and is the financial capital of the Middle Kingdom. It is a must-see on most China tours or holidays.
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Touring Beijing
Most China tours are likely to visit Beijing, the capital of the People’s Republic of China. Beijing was my home for over a decade and a place that remains close to my heart.
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Visit Hong Kong
Hong Kong remains one of the world’s most important cities and certainly one of the most dramatically located anywhere on the planet. It is an Alpha + city, ranking as the 3rd most important financial centre in the world after New York and London.
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The Silk Road
The Silk Road, or Silk Route as it is also known, refers to a series of trade and cultural routes that connected the West and East from the Mediterranean Sea to China. Getting it’s name from the highly lucrative silk trading that occurred all along the 4,000 miles it stretched.
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Beijing’s Summer Palace
The Summer Palace is situated in the North West of Beijing in Haidian District, an area famous for it’s universities. Both Peking and Tsinghua University, two of the most famous in the country, are in Haidian but this isn’t the reason why most tourists come here.
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Chinese Inventions
As a British person I often marvel at the amount of inventions and discoveries that have come out of our small set of islands but most of these have happened in the last 500 years or so. What about some of the more ancient Chinese inventions?
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Chinese Language
In a country so densely populated and with many regional dialects it’s actually fairly amazing that the vast majority, estimates of around 70%, speaks and understands one language, Mandarin Chinese or “Putonghua”, meaning “the common tongue”.
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Guide to Chinese Dynasties
Although China has been a republic for roughly a century now it has spent most of it’s history under Imperial rule and many of the great tourist sites visited every year in China are remnants of that Imperial dynastic past.
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China Tour Planning
When looking to plan your first China tour it is best, rather obviously, to first have a think about what it is you most want to see when you are there.
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Peking Duck Guide
One of China’s most famous culinary gifts to the world and a dish with an etiquette and a craft to it as well, Peking Duck is an essential part of most China tours & holidays.
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Walk the Great Wall
Without a doubt the most famous attraction that there is in China and quite possibly one of the most famous attractions in the whole world is the Great Wall of China.
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Beijing’s Forbidden City
One place certain to be on anyone’s “To-do” list on their first trip to Beijing is the Forbidden City. China tours will always have this, along with the Great Wall, at the centre of the Beijing section of the holiday.
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Chinese New Year
By far the most important festival or National Holiday to the Chinese is the Spring Festival or Chinese New Year as it is also called. It is a time for families to come together and as such could probably be most related to Christmas in the West.
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Scenic China
Now most people are aware of China’s famous sights such as the Great Wall, Terra-cotta Warriors of Xian and the Forbidden City and, of course, they are all “must-sees” but what about where to go for the best natural scenery?
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Suzhou’s Gardens
Traditional Chinese Gardens – the path to enlightenment through horticulture. The Zen gardens of Japan derived from China.
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A Visit to Pingyao
One of the places that I’d usually recommend to someone who wants to visit somewhere a bit different on China tours is Pingyao.
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Evening Activities in China
A common question I get when people are looking to book China Tours is “Are there any shows that are worth seeing?”.
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Visiting Shangri La
I was sent to this mythically named town in the clouds in 2012 on one of our regular fact finding missions at The China Travel Company.
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Meeting the Terra Cotta Army
One of the main attractions of most first time visitors to China is the world famous Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses known to most as the Terra Cotta Army that is found in Xian.
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Best Time to Visit China
One of the most common questions I get, while working for The China Travel Company, when people are booking China tours is "What is the best time of year to visit China?"
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China’s Yunnan Province
Many people have a picture of what China looks like in their head before they embark on their China tour and for a lot of people that will be the look of Yunnan Province.
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Public Holidays in China
China has many different public holidays but the two that most people booking a tour to China should try to avoid are the "Golden Week" of the National Day Holiday and The Spring Festival, or Chinese New Year holiday.
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Shopping in China
Shopping is often a big feature of China tours and the golden rule is "Everything is negotiable!" In reality the whole process of shopping in one of China's innumerable markets is best thought of as a game, and it's a game you well may lose if you don't go in there with your wits about you!
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Chinese People & Ethnic Minorities
One thing that you'll undoubtedly notice on a tour around China is the mix of different cultures and peoples that exist within what is known as the People's Republic of China.
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Chinese Food & Regional Cuisine
Chinese cuisine is renowned all around the world for it's gastronomical complexity as well as containing pretty much anything edible you can think of as well as plenty you'd never even imagined!
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Trains in China
Train services in China, much like everything else in the country, have undergone a major overhaul in recent years leaving the country with a system that would be the envy of many a country.
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Why Visit Beijing
When planning a tour in China there really isn't an itinerary that isn't going to include the capital city of Beijing.
