Travels within China, Sanya and Sichuan Province

[Cerberus]

This posting has been delayed long enough, due to a variety of time constraints and numerous commitments on my part. I wanted to post it so that the members of this forum are given a wider range of travel opportunities at a lesser cost to themselves and their Families.

 

This June I traveled to China, in my wife’s hometown of Chengdu, Sichuan Province. There were numerous informative items that I wanted to break down into 4 separate and distinct categories:

 

1) Travel from China to the United States.

 

2) Domestic travel within China.

 

3) Alternative spot to stay in Sanya, Hainan Island, China

 

4) A separate distinct category for the City of Chengdu:

 

Each of the individual sections will have hyperlinks leading the reader to more information, so that the forum’s bandwidth is not needlessly wasted.

 

SECTION 1)

 

There is a copy of a business card of a travel agent that I use frequently in Chengdu, PRC. The business card is contained in my CFL gallery and is available to anyone who uses it. The link is; http://candleforlove.com/forums/index.php?..._album&album=65. Some of the member’s SO’s can call her for question. Her mobile number is also listed.

 

Mrs. Lee is a highly respected agent in the Chengdu area. Several times I have used her and she has never failed to provide Yin and myself the greatest of service. I spoke briefly with her in regard to travel for our family members from China to the US. Unfortunately, Mrs. Lee does not handle travel cases such as this. However, she did advise me that there are numerous international travel agents available in all cities in China. The primary “modus operandi” of them was to have a client approach them, generally 2 weeks prior to departure date, and book tickets to the US. The prices can vary and Chinese travel agents quite often are last minute bookings. This is contrary to the US style of booking well in advance of the flight.

 

She added that the tickets process could vary due to “high season” rates. (e.g. December through the Chinese New Year and other important holidays.) Another variable bearing on the price, is whether the ticket is round trip or one-way. The buyer needs to compare both prices. For further questions, Mrs. Lee’s telephone number is on the card, which I have placed in my photograph album. in the CFL gallery.

 

SECTION 2)

 

Mrs. Lee is able to provide a variety of services throughput the People’s Republic of China. The trips that she is able to provide will be determined by the place desired, time of flight, accommodations, etc, etc.

 

Using myself as an example, Mrs. Lee provided us with roundtrip airfare from Chengdu to Sanya. The same travel package also included five nights and four days in a five star leading resort on Dadonghai Bay, in Sanya. Transportation was provided to and from the airport by the same travel agency. The total cost for Yin and myself was $532.00 USD. I will describe the hotel and other amenities in section 3.

 

SECTION 3

 

There have been numerous occasions that the “Rivera of China,” Sanya has been discussed. I have been to many of the large name resorts and compared to where I was staying and the amenities that they provided paled in comparison to the resort I stay at, which had been arranged by Mrs. Lee. The link for Resort Intime is http://www.resortintime.com/en/kuaisu.htm. There is a complete photo tour for those of you that are interested. I DO NOT suggest attempting to book this resort on the Internet. The rates are “sky-high.“ It is best to be booked through a travel agent such as Mrs. Lee or other travels agents if they are available. If you need other information such as telephone, please PM and I’ll respond as best I can.

 

The hotel does offer exercise facilities, sauna, and in-house physician. There is a breakfast buffet that is free to guests of the hotel and all other meals are very good quality of taste. There bare five separate restaurants in the hotel. Although, they are a bit pricey. This personally didn’t bother Yin or myself, since we generally prefer to eat Chinese cuisine elsewhere, as we travel the island. The greatest amenity that we enjoyed is that there are few people who know about the resort. They had approximately 20 beach lounge chairs on the beach itself. We never had a problem finding a chair 24 hours a day, the entire time that we were there. The beaches at this end of the bay are almost considered as being desolate. However, the water is surf is good enough for surfers up to the medium classifications. Jet skis, boat rides and parasailing are all available were available. The fishing trips are at best lackluster, unless your SO is thrilled about catching an 6 to 8 inch fish. Scuba dives rental equipment is available to the novice diver. If you have an open water diving permit, it is best to bring your own equipment. The Chinese dive operators are extremely reluctant to have a guest drown, or suffer from the bends. Exotic mixtures of air (e.g. He2 and O2 for extreme depths) for diving are not available.

I will finish with this narrative of the resort. However, I will add one final comment. The photographs that one’s sees on the Internet, DO NOT do the resort justice.

 

SECTION 4

 

 

I’m sure that there are some members of the forum that travel within Chengdu area. Many of the hotels in the downtown area are increasing in price. Examples are the Sofitel, Jin Jiang and Minshan hotels. Meanwhile services have dropped appreciably.

 

Myself I have been staying at a hotel in the Wenjiang area. This is approximately a 20 to 30 minute ride by taxi to the downtown area of Chengdu. Prices are substantially cheaper in this area, including food in restaurants, lodging, clothing CD/DVD sales. A particular hotel that I stay in the area is the Ocean New City Hotel. There are a variety of room sizes, for occupants. Internet access is easy; there is a tearoom, salt/mineral water sauna available, and restaurant. A room that I stay in has three rooms: restroom, living room with all amenities and bedroom with all amenities. The grounds are very well maintained; the staff is positively amiable and courteous. On a side point, Yin and I stayed in hotel for our wedding in December 2004. In June of 2005, Yin and I both returned. Almost every single one of the staff, remembered us and we were greeted very warmly as a member of their “Chinese family” returning home to their loved one‘s. I have traveled extensively and I have never seen such an attitude demonstrated by any hotel staff. The average cost of the hotel is about 220 Rembi (approx $26.00 USD) a night. Unfortunately they do not have an Internet site to contact them at or make reservations. The telephone number is 028-8-271-2345 or 028-8-276-5676. They only speak Mandarin Chinese and I believe three of the clerks speak Cantonese, so unless one is very versed in Chinese, a better option would be to have the SO call them. I should mention that rates are negotiable, depending on the length of the stay

 

With the upcoming China Flower Exposition that is being hosted in Chengdu, near the WenJiang District, a new five star hotel has been built. This hotel is called the Huandau Yufu Hot Springs Hotel. It is an offshoot of the Yanfu Hotel in Yancheng, Jiangsu Province.

It is rated as five stars, and is a bit pricey. However, the price is

off-set in the hotel’s unique nature and amenities. Hot mineral water seeps up from the Earth’s crust heating the water to approximately 110 degrees. The water begins trickling down cooling as it drops to 38 separate different pools. Waiter service is available at all of the pools for meals, condiments and drinks. Has teahouses and restaurants are very comparable to what finds in Beijing, Shanghai, etc. There is a small golf course available to guests. For families they have condos that they rent to guests. However, I suspect that they are very expensive.

 

However, the hotel is situated a fair distance from any outside servicing outlets. Simply put, one should have a rental car, or make arrangements with the hotel staff for driving in the city. This being said, it is an excellent place to take the SO for a surprise for a two-day visit, and pamper them.

 

The hotel is so new that the Website has not been established for it yet. However, the telephone for the hotel is 28-8-278-2698/8-278-3518/8-278-4218. The primary language’s are all dialects of Chinese, Japanese and some English although, the English is a bit limited.

 

I hope that this will be information that member’s can use. I can be reached by PM via this forum, and I’ll try to answer all questions put forth.

 

Cerberus