I'm normally a very independent traveler. I've backpacked through Europe by myself, did a solo trip to Japan and visited several places throughout the States on my own. I like the independence if traveling alone. On those trips I could see what I wanted when I wanted without compromising for anybody.
My mom is incredibly neurotic so she would never trust me to arrange travel for the entire family. To save everybody headaches and to avoid my mother's inevitable constant nagging I opted to allow her to sign us up for a package tour via a local Chinatown travel agency for the first ten days of our trip. I'm beginning to regret that decision.
In the best of times I dislike package tours because I can't stand how overly-structured they are. I dislike being herded around like cattle and being so restricted in terms of what is on the itinerary and the kind of time constraints associated with it. I feel "handled" and know I'm only seeing the touristy places leaving no room for authenticity in the experience. Package tours are usually the realm of elderly travelers who don't particularly care where they go or what they see. These people like the convenience of not having to think about anything. These tours are generally not aimed at young, independent-minded culture fiends like myself.
In addition to all the regular disadvantages associated with package tours, in China tours are also centrally coordinated. Very few independent tour operators exist and foreign travel agents are forced to deal with these approved tour operators.
The tour we have the misfortune to currently find ourselves on is little more than a scam to bilk money out of Westerners at a string of asinine tourist traps. Although many of the popular and famous sites are on the itinerary, interspersed are a ridicous number of "shopping stops" where bus tours are herded into these complexes, given these demonstrations (think Vince with Sham-Wow) and then hit up to buy a variety of ridiculously overpriced wares. Everything from Chinese medicine to pearls to cloisonné vases to jade to painted crystal spheres to teapots and more are shoved down these Western tourists' unsuspecting throats.
The less-savvy among them (like my mom) are happily and naïvely suckered into being hosed by these scams. My brother and I argued with my mom for close to an hour in vain before she parted with $300 USD in some snake oil "Chinese medicine" after being examined by this quack Chinese doctor and enduring a high pressure sales pitch. At another tour stop at a "Pearl factory" we were being hawked everything from phoney baloney pearl cosmetic cream to cheap pearl jewelery. My brother found a $70 USD bracelet identical to one he paid $10 USD for at a market in San Francisco.
The tourist trap stops wouldn't annoy me so much if it weren't for the fact that they're so frequent and long. If the actual sites of interest were a TV program and the tourist traps were commercials this stupid tour would be at least 40 minutes of commercials for 20 minutes of actual programming content.
When we get off the tour bus and go into these places we're given cards with numbers so when we buy stuff they know which tour operator to give the kickback to. The tours also get a set amount for every hapless sap they herd into these traps. It's all an elaborate scam and hence operates most of China's nacent tour industry.
Compounding my frustration is the fact that on this particular tour the guides do not speak English. This fact wouldn't be a huge deal if they could at least provide an accurate itinerary I could follow. I hate being kept in the dark and led around blindly. Yet whenever I press the guides for this information they are sheepishly stand-offish to provide it. It seems their state's penchant for controling information has trickled down to them which would also explain why they are surprised and don't seem to know how to handle "dissenters" like me who keep questioning their motives and drilling for more information.
Suffice it to say that these package tours are horribly run. They are also a mess logistically; they don't prebuy admission tickets so we're left waiting in line regardless, their communication of itineraries is horrible, they also have no contingencies in place if members of the group are late or lost. My brother who has worked extensively in the tour industry back home has been constantly pointing out shortcomings in their operations and consequently I'm not impressed.
While it's true we did buy the tour for rock bottom prices it is not the bargain it appeared to be. Instead of seeing the sites and experiencing the China I wanted to see I'm stuck sitting in the corner of a room full of overpriced teapots annoyed and tapping out this note on my iPhone waiting for the tour operators to herd us to the trough for lunch and then likely to the next textile factory or jade shop or whatever.
Sure, the tour was dirt cheap but when it just turns out to be a waste of time you really have to question its actual value.
Luckily we only have to slug it out for another couple days before we reach Shanghai and the end of the package tour portion of the trip.
Obviously I would never have signed up for this tour if not for the fact that I have my parents in tow. There are several younger families with kids here who seem to be able to enjoy it more and maybe I wouldn't have been so annoyed and critical of the experience had my parents brought me as a child or young teen. Whether this experience was worth bearing through to spend time with my parents is questionable. It has defintely been a learning experience and I've learned or re-affirmed a lot of things about myself and my relationship with my parents.
Regardless, I will definitely never sign up for one of these immense wastes-of-time again and I would caution everybody who might be considering it as a quick, easy, cheap option to see China. You'd only be seeing the best of China's ugly budding capitalist bent. Package tours of China are little more than thinly-veiled scams. Caveat Emptor.
I can't wait 'til we get to Shanghai.
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