Sorry for the delay, but as promised here are my impressions of our Viking River Cruises China trip. The one we took was called the Imperial Treasures of China. It was a 12-night cruisetour from Beijing to Shanghai that included three nights in Beijing, one night in Xian, seven days on the Yangtze River aboard the Viking Century Star and a final night in Shanghai.

We’ve taken several ocean cruises, but this was only the second river cruise we’ve taken (the first was the Viking Tulip cruise in the Netherlands). Our favorite ocean cruise line is Radisson, however, we have also been on Ren, Oceania, NCL, Carnival and Holland America. We very much enjoyed the Viking cruisetour and will definitely take more Viking cruises, but still prefer the ocean cruises. There are a couple of differences.

· We never take the cruise line pre or post packages; instead we make our own reservations and go on our own or get a private guide. Therefore the biggest difference for us was the structured land tour portion of the trip prior to boarding the ship at Chongqing. Every minute was accounted for with basically no free time.
· Your guide stays with your group for the entire trip from the Beijing airport to Shanghai airport. Our group, which consisted of about 40 people, was one of two that were going from Beijing to Shanghai. There were two other somewhat smaller groups. One of eight people who took the pre-trip to Tibet and a fourth group of about 30 people going on the post trip to Hong Kong. Our guide was great and essentially all the people in the group were very friendly. Except for eating on the ship at night, you spend all of your time with your group, including eating out at night during the land portion. This is certainly different from the ocean cruises.

Comments on the land tour portion of the trip:

· China would have been extremely difficult without a guide (English is rarely spoken). Therefore this is certainly a good way to see China.
· Though somewhat of a “forced march”, the tours were excellent. Our favorites included the Great Wall, the Sacred Way of the Ming Tombs and a visit to an elderly lady’s home in Old Beijing. The Terra Cotta Army in Xian was fabulous and the immensity of Shanghai was overwhelming.
· Not once did we feel insecure or threatened. The Chinese people were very friendly.
· The airlines in China (we were on three different airlines – China Air, China Eastern, and Shanghai Air) all used modern Boeing planes and were as efficient and clean as any U.S. airlines. The flight attendants were very pleasant and generally spoke English.
· The cities we visited were very large. Each had several million people in the city proper with many more millions in the outlying suburbs (for instance, the population of metropolitan Chongqing is in excess of 30 million people).
· The cities were extremely clean and had a lot of beautiful green spaces. It is our understanding that the areas of China outside of the larger cities are much poorer and not nearly as advanced.
· The only downside of the land portion was the hectic pace and too much Chinese food (thankfully only two nights on the ship were Chinese, with the rest Western).

Comments on the cruise portion of the trip:

· The pace on the cruise portion was very relaxed. There was a tour of some sort each day (a Buddha Temple, scenic cruise of the Lesser Three Gorges, Three Gorges Dam tour, visit to a school sponsored by Viking Cruise Line and a museum of Warring Period artifacts). We could not go to the Snow Jade Cave in Fengdu due to flooding. All of the tours, except the 6-hour cruise to the Lesser Three Gorges, were approximately 3 hours in length. This shorter time in port meant more free time on the ship. All of the river tours were nice, with the highlights being the Lesser Three Gorges, the Three Gorges dam and the Warring Period museum in Wuhan.
· The cruising on the river was done mostly during the day to allow maximum time to enjoy the beauty of the Yangtze River and to observe the villages and towns along the river. One of the most unique aspects of the trip was to see the construction of the “new” towns that have been built to accommodate the people displaced by the rising waters from the new Three Gorges Dam. With completion of the first phase of the dam, the water has already risen 60 feet and covered most or all of some of the villages. With completion of the second and final phase of the dam, the water will rise another 40 feet.
· The ship’s public spaces were well designed and very adequate. Comparable to a small ocean cruise ship. The Century Star was either built or completely renovated in 2003.
· The cabins were nice (each with a balcony), except for an almost total lack of drawer space and a pitifully designed shower that made it essentially impossible to keep the bathroom floor dry.
· The food was adequate. The breakfast was the best.
· The crew was extremely pleasant and accommodating. I’m certain this is partially due to the fact that the Viking jobs are highly sought after and appreciated by the crew.

Final comments:

· We will take additional river cruises along with our ocean cruises.
· We were very satisfied with Viking Cruise Lines and will use them again.
· If you have considered going to China, you may wish to do so now. It is an interesting country whose government, economy, people and general culture are rapidly changing. Our feeling was that if we hadn’t witnessed it now, we would have missed something unique. We hope to return in a few years to see the changes.

Carolyn

Thank you, Carolyn; very interesting! Did you do a stay in Hong Kong also?

Thank you, Carolyn; very interesting! Did you do a stay in Hong Kong also?

Superb review Carolyn. I nominate you to do our Silver Whisper review in December.......but only of course if you want to. ;) :)

Carolyn, this is so interesting. wish I could convince hubby about this. I like your evaluation of the river cruise ship - I second Pat's motion about your reviewing our Whisper cruise 12/6.....one must take advantage of good talent when you find it!

:D :D

Carolyn - thanks for the review! I was hoping that somebody would come back and review the Chinese Yangtze river cruises and especially Viking since I was very interested by this. We may be looking at doing this with Amanda's parents at some point in the near future. I could eat Chinese food every night so doesn't sound like I'll have much problems with the food ... :D

Olivia - did you see this review??

Masaki

Caroyln - not only a great review, but timely as well! We are booking the four day Yangtze river cruise for late September and then go on to Hong Kong to meet Ngaire's group for the Mariner's Oct. 4 sailing to Beijing.

If you can share any details about getting the visa to enter China, I'd appreciate it - ie, which visa service did you use? How long did it take? Thanks very much, Anne

Carolyn, thanks so much for that interesting review. If you took pix, could you share them on our photo site? I will be talking with you about it when we are on the Black Sea cruise!

Olivia,

Let me know if you are taking a laptop on the Black Sea cruise, if you are I will bring a CD with all our pictures from China. We don't have one so thats why I am asking if you will have one on the ship. It was a great trip. Don's afraid at 600 dpi that our photos may take up to much memory on the photo site.

Got my email yesterday, document for Black Sea are on the way. See you on the Diamond.

Carolyn

Carolyn, I will probably be bringing my laptop, however, you could find a way to share them with all of us on this board! I managed to get my photos shared, with the help of KarenS and my CD of the Voyager shakedown cruise, on our HOF site. Karen? Can you help?

My docs for Ngaire's Black Sea group cruise are also on the way, and will be delivered Friday at the office!