China small group tour planning

[mfan]

Suppose I want to go on an organized group tour of China (12 days) (from the USA). How long does it take to comfortably prepare for such a trip, including packing, visas, getting travel insurance, medical, etc.? If I gave myself 1 month to get ready, is that sufficient? Or do you recommend 3 months of preparation? Thanks very much.

[annie24]

i would first and foremost, contact the tour agency, figure out what it is you need to enter china. you can find that online or call your local chinese embassy. do you have a valid passport? these are the things that require the most planning i think.

[Cognitive_Canine]

I honestly think anything less than 3 months is pushing it for travel like this. You have to get visas, passports, tickets, reservations, and inform your employer.

[JonasWaingaro]

If you already have a passport then yes, a month is an okay time line. The only thing I'd worry about is the visa. I'm not sure how they work with China but I'm sure it's not the standard visa on demand, like the US. That's the thing I'd find out about ASAP.

[TooLost]

I presume you might already have found this out, as you posted a while back, but just in case...

 

Me and my family went to China/Hong Kong about 6 months ago ( from eastern Canada). First thing that we did was book our tour, which can take time as you have to compare prices and itinearies. ( We ended up booking with the cheapest company we could find, which was less than half the price of any other around here, pm me if you want some info about that.) Then, we needed a VISA to go to Hong Kong, which took over a month to get approved.

 

Also, we found it cheaper to book our flight seperatly from the tour, but I realise this is not typical, we just managed to get really good prices on everything!

 

Good luck with planning the trip!! Hope you enjoy it!!

[mfan]

Thanks Toolost! I'm sure I will enjoy it, it's just impossible for me to imagine it before I get there. I know once I'm back it'll feel like I dreamed the whole thing, too. Do you ever feel that way about trips you've been on, like you've dreamed the whole thing?

[ibu]

I've lived in China for a year (2004-2005) coming from Europe. My major in college was Chinese and I got a scholarship to study there after my graduation.

 

I don't know how the thing with visas go in the US but for me that went pretty fast. (I had it in about two weeks or so).

You might want to start a little earlier than one month before leaving to get your shots (hepatitis etc...).

 

But if it's an organised trip, isn't the travel agency taking care of a lot of things for you (like getting insurance, visa, passport, etc?)

 

And...have fun! I love China and am dying to go back there!