China Adventure: Seeking Adventure Tours in China
Our China Adventure Tours cover the entire range of China. These include the most remote, wild and exotic places in the “middle kingdom” that are not otherwise easily accessible. We aim to show you the rugged outdoors of China that western adventurers often miss. Our adventure tours range from a personal jeep tour of the western wilds of Tibet and the famed Silk Road, exploring the Muslim markets of the Chinese far west, horse-riding in the grasslands of Inner Mongolia, hiking through the world’s deepest gorge at Tiger Leaping Gorge, exploring the tropical jungles and rice terraces of Yunnan, and biking to the remote minority villages in Guizhou and Fujian. If you want an up-close look at Mt. Everest, we can provide that too. By signing on with our China Adventure Tours, not only will you have an experience of a lifetime, but you will also learn more about the world’s greatest rising power, and begin to understand its complexity and diversity. With our China Adventure Tours, Great Wall Adventure club guarantees the same high standard of quality and service that apply to our other tours and excursions.
On your China Adventure Tour you will have a local English-speaking guide with you, so you will get the best possible value for your tour. As usual with Great Wall Adventure Club, we will take care of arranging the transportation and accommodation you want for your trip.
We also have more conventional China Adventure tours to the former imperial resort of Chengde, famed for its splendid resorts and Tibetan temples, and to Pingyao, a city in central China where being there is like walking back in time to the golden age of the Qing dynasty.
Great Wall Hiking: 21 Best Great Wall Hiking Programs
It is unfortunate that to many people and visitors their only exposure to the Great Wall is at Badaling. While it does have some excellent sights, this section is overcrowded, over-commercialized, and often overwhelming. This is not a true Great Wall experience. We want to show you the true Great Wall, with its mighty peaks and valleys, and its beautiful and mysterious ruins. With the Great Wall Adventure Club you can explore the real Great wall, one that is often unknown to foreign visitors. With us, we can provide you with memorable and lasting trips, hikes, treks and odyssey all across the Great Wall of China, and not just at its sections near Beijing.
If you there is something with your hiking itinerary that you’d want to change, then you can custom design your own journey, giving you the experience you want. Want to spend the night and camp in one of the wall’s watchtowers and watch the splendid sunrise from the Great Wall? We can do that. Want to go on a week’s journey from the wall’s easternmost point all the way back to Beijing? We can do that as well. Even if you want to go for just a day’s stroll to one of the sections near Beijing, we can make it an exciting and fulfilling trip. Whatever you want to get out of your time on the Great Wall we can provide it to you. And on our trips and hikes, we promise no “shopping tours” to any “jade factories” or “silk museums”.
Introduced and recommended by Fodor's China Guidebook (right), our company has received high marks and praise from all comers, from international tourists and hikers to the Wall Street Journal and NBC, which documented one of our hikes. If you are looking for some excitement and adventure, along with some fun, then don’t just be another brick in the wall, come along and see what all the fuss is about!
The Great Wall Adventure Club is committed to environmental sustainability and historical education
Great Wall Hiking: 21 Best Great Wall Hiking Programs
It is unfortunate that to many people and visitors their only exposure to the Great Wall is at Badaling. While it does have some excellent sights, this section is overcrowded, over-commercialized, and often overwhelming. This is not a true Great Wall experience. We want to show you the true Great Wall, with its mighty peaks and valleys, and its beautiful and mysterious ruins. With the Great Wall Adventure Club you can explore the real Great wall, one that is often unknown to foreign visitors. With us, we can provide you with memorable and lasting trips, hikes, treks and odyssey all across the Great Wall of China, and not just at its sections near Beijing.
If you there is something with your hiking itinerary that you’d want to change, then you can custom design your own journey, giving you the experience you want. Want to spend the night and camp in one of the wall’s watchtowers and watch the splendid sunrise from the Great Wall? We can do that. Want to go on a week’s journey from the wall’s easternmost point all the way back to Beijing? We can do that as well. Even if you want to go for just a day’s stroll to one of the sections near Beijing, we can make it an exciting and fulfilling trip. Whatever you want to get out of your time on the Great Wall we can provide it to you. And on our trips and hikes, we promise no “shopping tours” to any “jade factories” or “silk museums”.
Introduced and recommended by Fodor's China Guidebook (right), our company has received high marks and praise from all comers, from international tourists and hikers to the Wall Street Journal and NBC, which documented one of our hikes. If you are looking for some excitement and adventure, along with some fun, then don’t just be another brick in the wall, come along and see what all the fuss is about!
The Great Wall Adventure Club is committed to environmental sustainability and historical education
Shanghai World Expo and China Tour 2010
Shanghai World Expo 2010
May 1st 2010 — October 31st 2010
World Expositions are galleries of human inspirations and thoughts. This years World Expo is going to be held in Shanghai, China and is expected to be the largest ever since the beginning in 1851. Come tour the spectacular City of Shanghai! ·Learn More
Shanghai China
Shanghai is a fast growing city and the most populous city in China. With it’s 20 million population this city is growing too fast for any travel to keep up! Visit us now and find out what you have been missing. If you also want to visit or re-visit other parts of China just shoot us an E-mail or visit our site at China City Tours.
World Expo Packages
Customized Tours
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2-Day, 3-Day, 5-Day and 7-Day Great Wall Adventure Hiking Programs
The long-waited overnight hiking on the Great Wall is made possible by the Great Wall Adventure Club now.
Backpackers who wish to stay on the Great Wall overnight in order to enjoy the sunset and sunrise now have the opportunity to do that.
Backpackers with GWAC will be walking from GuBeiKou to Jinshanling and to Simatai for about ten to eleven hours at your own pace. Most people can finish the walking without a problem, but elderly-aged people are encouraged to climb the Wall at only one end of Simatai for about an hour or two.
Price starts from RMB1,299 per person. The cost will include: Entrance fees to all the three parts of the Wall; Service charge, one English tour leader, rope, flashlight, two talker, matches/lighter, meals (two picnic lunch, one dinner and one breakfast), transportation fee for the two day.
It does not include: water, snacks, personal items, tourist Insurance (RMB30/pax) and extra cost for unforeseen event.
For more information, please visit the program page.
The New Face of Tourism in China
China's tourism experience has changed dramatically in the last few decades —for the better
by Chase Poffenberger and David Parry, China Business Review
The January issue of China Business Review, the official magazine of the US-China Business Council, noticed the travel heat of China. Here are some excerpts. For full text, please click here.
Beginning with a trickle of intrepid pathfinders in the late 1970s, foreign tourists have been making China a "must-see" destination in rapidly increasing numbers. In 1979, China hosted only 5.7 million foreign visitors, nearly all of whom were from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan. By 2005, China received 120.3 million foreign visitors, more than 80 percent of whom were from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan. Like the rest of its economy, China's tourism sector has changed dramatically in the last 20 years.
According to the World Travel and Tourism Council's April 2006 report on China, the country's travel and tourism industry generated $353.7 billion in 2006 and is expected to grow to $1.3 trillion in 2016, or roughly 8.7 percent per year on average. In 2006, foreign visitors were expected to spend $75.1 billion and account for 7.4 percent of China's total exports. The travel and tourism industry was expected to account for 2.9 percent of China's total GDP directly (13.7 percent when indirect effects are included). Tourism provides 17.4 million jobs in China, or 2.3 percent of total employment in 2006, and is forecast to support 20.4 million jobs, or 2.5 percent of the total, by 2016. In total, 10.2 percent of all jobs, or 77.6 million, in China depended on travel and tourism in 2006.
Most tourists to China still go on a package tour. The most common itineraries visit Beijing; Guilin, Guangxi; Shanghai; Xi'an, Shaanxi; and the Yangzi River over 12-14 days. Tourists are rushing to see the Three Gorges area before the reservoir created by the Three Gorges Dam floods it completely. With a new fleet of luxury river vessels available, the Yangzi River has become a centerpiece of many mainstream itineraries. Hotels for these tours tend to be joint ventures and range from three to five stars.
New demand for luxury
The US Baby Boomer generation is far more sophisticated and educated than its predecessors, and the same characteristics are true of boomers in other Western countries. These characteristics, combined with the trend among mid-market consumers in the United States to selectively purchase luxury goods and experiences that used to be reserved for the wealthy, are creating a broader market of travel buyers who are willing to pay a premium for an upscale travel experience to China. (Luxury tours often start at $500 per day. These tours also last about 14 days on average.)
Better service
Chinese tourists with increasing amounts of disposable income have helped raise China's service levels dramatically in a relatively short time. In many cases, Chinese tourists spend more per capita than Hong Kong tourists in China, although Hong Kong tourists still have higher incomes.
Another welcome change stemming from China's focus on the economy is the increased openness of the guides. For the most part, tourists are no longer subject to a closely scripted delivery of information, and many foreigners unfamiliar with China are surprised when their local and national guides speak their mind. The approach of local guides tends to fall along generational lines. Older guides who remember the Cultural Revolution often share stories of survival and tend to view Chinese history since the 1970s as positive, in contrast to the hardships they endured earlier. On the other hand, guides who are too young to remember the Cultural Revolution tend to be more critical of China.
E-ticketing To Be Used On All Chinese Domestic Flights
The days of multi-layer air tickets appear numbered, as the China Air Transport Association (CATA) has stopped providing paper tickets and instructed sellers to issue e-tickets.
The decision is in line with an International Air Transport Association (IATA) move that requires its 261 member airlines to abandon paper tickets by the end of 2007.
E-tickets will be issued once the current batch of paper tickets has been used up. The change currently only applies to domestic flights.
'We haven't received notice from the CATA that paper tickets for international flights will be stopped,' said He Hua, a ticket agent in Beijing.
Customers will book tickets through airlines or ticket agents as usual, and will be given a booking reference.
They will then be able to use automatic check-in facilities at airports, and receive an invoice for reimbursement. They can also check-in as normal at the counter.
Foreigners buying domestic tickets will also be given e-tickets. They will have to go to the check-in counter at the airport, give the booking reference of the ticket and show passports.
Special passengers like infants and those flying to small airports without automatic check-in machines can still use paper tickets.
The wide use of e-ticketing is expected to lower operational costs, which could lead to lower prices, said Li Qi, an expert with the safety technology centre of the General Administration of Civil Aviation (CAAC).
A survey by civil aviation website www.CARNOC.com between August 28 and October 15 showed widespread concern over the new system.
Despite having the Internet proficiency to take part in the online survey, 43 per cent of respondents said they would prefer to receive a paper ticket.
While some feel more secure without the worry of a ticket, others said they did not trust sending personal details over the Internet, or worried they would not get reimbursed.
To help ease these worries, the CAAC has operated an invoice service since April, which provides documentation of flight times and costs.
Airlines have also opened hotlines to deal with concerns over online payment.
Great Wall Adventure Club is now assisting international travelers to book E-Tickets for China domestic flight tickets at 40%-70% discount.
Jinshanling-Simatai Great Wall Hiking Resumed
The popular Jinshanling-Simatai Great Wall hiking is now back. New service now features an English-speaking tour guide to ensure team members safety. Departure is now on demand while the more hikers, the cheaper.
We still offer alternative Mutianyu section tour, which is more suitable for senior tourists.
Please visit the program page at http://www.greatwalladventure.com/aboutus.htm for the update.
Beijing Hotels during the 2008 Olympics
Beijing pledged when bidding for the Olympic Games that there would be 800 star hotels with altogether 130,000 guest rooms in Beijing in 2008. Therefore, the quantity of guest rooms in Beijing star class hotels has to grow at an annual average rate of about seven percent to reach goal. Now the Olympic Games will be held in two years, how far are we from the goal?
The latest statistics show that at present, there are 658 star class hotels with 109,000 guest rooms in Beijing. Thus, there is still a gap in comparison with the goal of 800 star hotels with 130,000 rooms needed for the Olympic Games. However, relevant authorities in Beijing are confident to realize such a goal. Du Jiang, the director general of Beijing Tourism Administration, said recently that there were 110 star class hotels under construction or to be constructed in Beijing; with some of the existing hotels/resorts inferior to star class hotels reconstructed and upgraded, it is expected that star class hotels needed by the Olympic Games will amount to 800 by the end of next year.
Old Hotel Reconstruction bringing forth great business opportunities
In order to draw a whole picture for the Beijing's hotel industry, Beijing Tourism Administration spent over half a year carrying through a half-year hotel census in cooperation with commercial institutions and administrative institutions of industry and commerce. The census shows that there are over 4,000 hotels inferior to star class hotels with 160,000 guest rooms and 360,000 beds. Du Jiang, the director general of Beijing Tourism Administration, expressed that making full use of the existing reception resources in the lodging industry while introducing investment to upgrade some hotels inferior to star level hotels, the accommodation needs during Beijing Olympic Games will be met without leaving exceeding hotels resources unused.
Both investors from abroad and domestic investors have seen the great business opportunities in the reconstructing lodging facilities inferior to star class hotels in Beijing. During the recently held Trade Fair of Investment Management in Beijing's Lodging Industry Before 2008, 35 domestic and overseas investors, financial organizations, famous hotel groups, and real estate investors had in-depth negotiation with 103 lodging facilities from Beijing's 18 districts and counties having demands for cooperation. They have signed 11 agreements and letters of intent with a total sum of RMB212.62 million yuan.
With prestigious overseas investors and hotel groups introduced to reconstruct and upgrade the existing reception facilities of the lodging industry, services and management can be improved on one hand; on the other hand, Beijing hotels can be included into the global reservation network of well-known international hotels in virtue of such an opportunity. For instance, the Beijing Jufeng Super 8 Hotel, which was a very popular guesthouse with traditional Chinese style architectures among foreign tourists and signed a contract this round, suffered an insufficiency of potential customers before due to its location in an alley near the Qianmen area. After it joined the Super 8 chain hotels, the hotel can utilize Super 8's global reservation network to come onto the stage of the Olympic Games.
To meet the needs of guests at various levels during the Beijing Olympics, the management over lodging facilities inferior to star class hotels is also placed on the agenda. A local industry standard called Beijing Lodging Industry's Service Quality and Evaluation has been lately approved by experts and will be published and implemented soon. According to Xiong Yumei, vice director of Beijing Tourism Administration, that standard is targeted on the lodging and reception facilities inferior to star class hotels with prominence given to standards on security, hygiene and services. Accommodation facilities in Beijing will be rated according to this industry standard so as to regulate the operation and management against the standard and improve service level. Hotels that fulfill the standards will be conferred the title of "Beijing Qualifying Accommodation Unit".
Mushrooming investments in new hotels
Besides restructuing existing hotels, the construction of new hotels is mushrooming in Beijing. Many grand hotels are under construction in Beijing CBD now. The Thai Solapan Investment Company and Beijing GuoHua Real Estate Co., Ltd. jointly set up the Beijing Huamao-Solapan Investment Limited Co. to build two grand luxe hotels, the Rits-Carlton Hotel and JW Marriott Hotel, which are anticipated to be completed in June 2007; the project of 63-floor Beijing Yintai Center is also under construction and Park Hyatt Hotel, the high-class and the most expensive luxury hotel brand of Hyatt International Hotel Group, will open on the top of Yintai's 63-storey main building in the spring of 2007; in addition to the China World Hotel and Traders Hotel, the Phase 3 of China World Trade Centre project, which occupies an area of 6.27 hectare with a total investment of US$800 million, is under construction. As introduced on the website of China World Trade Center, the project including a grand five star hotel is expected to be completed in the end of 2007.
The high-class hotels in the area of Yayun Cun and Olympic Sports Center are under construction like a raging fire in order to meet the demands in the market during the 2008 Olympic Games. It is reported that a five-star hotel with a floor space of 198,300 square meters will be built nearby the Olympic Park; a four-star hotel will be built near the Mingren Hotel at Yayun Cun; and a high-class hotel will be constructed, about 500 meters north to the Piaoliang Shopping Mall.
At present, there have already had 33 hotel brands from 22 famous hotel groups, such as Inter-Continental, Starwood, Cendant and Accor in Beijing. It's estimated that five-star hotels in Beijing will account for 33.5 percent of all hotels in 2007. The hotel of Hyatt, Marriott and Rits-Carlton will be open. There will be two Rits-Carlton Hotels, two JW Marriott Hotels, two Inter-Continental Hotels and one Four Seasons Hotel in Beijing by then. Beijing will become the second Asian city where there are both brands of Hyatt and Park Hyatt at the same time.
Market trend after the Olympics
The Olympic Games will bring tremendous opportunities to the Beijing's hotel industry and other related industries. As analyzed, only hotel decoration and reconstruction of the existing hotels in Beijing will cost RMB10 billion yuan.
As estimated by relevant institutions, the 2008 Olympic Games will bring the opportunities worth RMB280 billion yuan. It is expected that 4.6 million overseas tourists and 96 million domestic visitors will travel to Beijing in 2008. During the Olympic Games, a large amount of visitors will come to Beijing in addition to Olympic officials, journalists, sponsors and working staff. It is expected that there will be possibly about 600,000 overseas tourists and 1.1 million domestic tourists coming to Beijing during the 2008 Olympic Games.
Great Wall Adventure Now Moves to Mutianyu
The Great Wall Adventure Club now are altering her Great Wall Hiking to Mutianyu Great Wall section.
As of August 10, we have altered our Great Wall tour service to trip to Mutianyu (see introduction and pictures) section of the Great Wall. The government is improving its administration on the road condition and tour management due to a recent traffic accident in Jinshanling-Simatai section during a hiking tour conducted by another travel agency. The Great Wall Adventure Club has NEVER been involved in any accident, but in order to continuously provide a safe and joyful ride for our members, we are now bringing our team to Mutianyu section.
Tour to Mutianyu will be handled by private taxies that we connect. Our experienced driver will send you to the Great Wall and bring you back round-trip. We'll group you and other tourists together to fit into a taxi in order to lower your cost. You may opt to go with 4-people, 3-people, or 2-people team. We'll try to match the dates of everyone who is interested in the tour, so that we can go with one car. Depart at any time if a team is formed. We'll pick you up at where you stay. Certainly, you do not have to stay in our hostel or Homelodge to join the tour. Any tourist is welcomed.