Physicians' Travel and Meeting Guide - November/December 2007 - (Page 10) FAMILY trAveL by CandyCe H. Stapen Dream Trips: China n august the olympic games debut in china. Despite the hoopla, summer is much too hot to visit china. Take your family in may, early June or in the fall to visit this fascinating country. airfares—outside of the time period around the olympic games—range from $800 to $1,100, not too much more I than a high-season ticket to europe. but once you arrive, china, with the yuan about 7.52 to the dollar, is eminently affordable. luxury hotels cost much less than comparable places stateside and a good meal for four costs about $20 total. see the Forbidden city, tour ancient gardens, raft on the river, hike terraced rice fields, and shop for bargains. a china visit is a trip you and your family will long remember. here’s a primer of some typical and offthe-beaten path sites to see. Skyscrapers rise in Shanghai (above). The Great Wall inspires awe (left). The Big Cities Shanghai: Sweeping Views Westernized shanghai is our favorite large chinese city. on a scenic 90-minute cruise of the huángpu river, we gain an overview, realizing how far the city sprawls, how relentless the construction is and how high Pudong’s skyscrapers rise, including the oriental Pearl Tv Tower, among shanghai’s tallest structures. For more great views, in the evening take your teens and twentysomethings to cloud 9, at the hyatt shanghai. along with drinks, tapas and table-side magic tricks, China Tours: Asia Transpacific Journeys because of their depth of knowledge, we chose asia Transpacific Journeys to arrange our custom 12-day tour of china. The agency listened to our needs—art, culture, shopping as well as the typical sites plus time in the country—to create a personalized itinerary. our custom trip included a private car, driver and guide in each city. custom trips, depending upon lodging, start at about $325 per person, per day, including lodging, breakfast guide and transportation. although group tours are available, these trips, typically in april and october, are often too long to coincide with school schedules and kids’ needs (800-642-2742; www.asiatranspacific.com). shuTTersTock 10 • November/December 2007 • PhysiciaNs’ Travel & meeTiNg guiDe shuTTersTock the eighty-seventh-floor lounge sports a near circle of windows, offering spectacular, sweeping views of the lit-up city. it’s worth watching china’s renowned acrobats tumble, jump and juggle as well as perform impossible balancing acts at the shanghai center Theatre. even our blasé children liked the quirky acts carrying tiers of filled wine glasses and forming six-deck-high human pyramids. at the off-the-beaten path children’s museum, (sometimes called the children’s Palace), a facility that teaches youngsters music, painting and dance, we happened to arrive on performance day. along with camcorder and camera-wielding moms and dads, we applauded the kids in tutus, sat in a class of four-yearolds playing the Zhuang runa, a kind of http://www.asiatranspacific.com
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