Travel
A Family Trip to
CHINA Written by: Janine Mergler (Editor)
China might not immediately spring to mind as a ‘family friendly destination’ but we were actually very surprised at just how family friendly China really is!
B
efore you travel with your family, if you are anything like me, you research, research, research. By checking out the internet, visiting a travel agent in person, reading guides books from the library and speaking with Chinese friends I soon learned most of what I needed to know about when to go, which sights were worth seeing, how to get to them. Because I was travelling alone with a young child, I decided to hire a personal tour guide. Through friends’ of friends we arranged our own guide who, for a mere $100 AUS a day + his expenses, arranged our travel in/around China and travelled with us every day. Being a local of Beijing, he knew all the short cuts, helped us avoid any scammers, haggled to get us good prices when necessary and could take us to the authentic, non-touristy locations to have a genuine (more reasonably priced) experience. We highly recommend hiring a reputable personal tour guide!
When to go: China has seasons opposite to Brisbane. We went in April, which was their spring. We also went just after the Easter holidays to avoid the bulk of the tourists travelling on school holidays. We booked our flights through Qantas, travelling via Hong Kong and on to Beijing. It took approx. 13 hours. We arrived quite late into Beijing – around 11pm which made for a very tired family upon arrival. Luckily our
There must be more to life than laundry!
aforementioned tour guide was there to meet us upon arrival to whisk us away to our hotel.
Sight-seeing for families: There are so many awesome things for families to do in China. We divided our time amongst 3 cities: Beijing, Xi’an and Shanghai. Like most sight-seeing activities, be prepared to do lots of walking! One of the best tips ever is: children under 120cm tall are FREE on public transport and most sight-seeing entry fees! Beijing: Subways are the fastest transportation in Beijing and they are a good way to avoid frequent traffic jams. Each journey is approx 40
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Your Local Families Magazine – Brisbane Issue 8 - February/March 2015
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