You're going to have an incredible time either way! I'd suggest just reading the summary page then and not the individual daily posts....
I got back from my China Adventure a few weeks ago and I've finished reading your blog. I'm glad I didn't read it in advance -- some of the surprises were the same, and some were different. We had 30 people on our trip and it was a really fun and compatible Adventure Family. Unlike my last two adventures where most everyone was a married couple in the same age range, this group had a wide mix. About half were not married couples -- female friends, father/son, mother/daughter, sisters, parents with their young adult children, four solo women. And the age range was wider -- people in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s. I found it a lot easier to remember everyone's name this time, even after just a few days.
Our guides were Christian and Fred (a Beijing native) and they were fabulous. Our local guides were Bruce in Hong Kong, Fred in Beijing, Alice in Chengdu, Jessica(?) in Xi'An, Jenny in Guilin, and Joyce in Shanghai.
The biggest difference with our trip was the schedule. In May we were told that our itinerary was changing from the original Beijing-Chengdu-Xi'An-Guilin to Beijing-Xi'An-Guilin-Chengdu which is what you did and what the 2019 itineraries show. Then less than 6 weeks before our departure, we were told that the itinerary was changing back to Beijing-Chengdu-Xi'An-Guilin (though with the same rearrangements in Beijing), with a "fast train" from Chengdu to Xi'An. A lot of adventurers, including me, were excited about the train ride. The night before the train was the only time we had to have our bags out the night before. The train left around 7:30 and arrived around 11:30. We had been given a bag of breakfast from the Ritz Carlton for the train and then were given pre-ordered boxed lunches from Starbucks on the bus to the Terracotta Warriors. We had chosen sandwiches and all had the same fruit cups and chocolate muffins. I thought the food was fine and with an hour bus ride ahead of us it was a good use of time. I'm a little disappointed in missing out on the tea demonstration. I asked Christian if Disney would use the train again but he didn't know. As I had assumed, both schedule changes were due to flights being cancelled.
Because of the schedule change our time in Chengdu was different. We were given a box lunch from the Beijing Peninsula for the plane and then Disney paid for our OYO dinner at the same buffet restaurant where we would have breakfast the next morning. We had some OYO time in the afternoon and Alice gave us ideas of where we could go. We walked to a few of the places she suggested including what might have been the same park you went to. One of the things we saw was a marriage market. I wasn't sure until I showed Fred the picture I took and he translated some of the signs. Also, because we didn't have to leave Guilin so early, we had our Tai Chi lesson that morning at the Shangri-La.
Other things:
We weren't able to go onto Tiananmen Square. Fred didn't know why exactly, only that in China, sometimes things are closed. We walked along the sidewalk on the other side of the street, took the underpass, and then spent some time on the sidewalk under the Mao portrait near the entrance to the Forbidden City.
I didn't make any dinner reservations for OYO time since I didn't know when we'd be getting back from our daily adventures and I thought there would be a good chance that I wouldn't be hungry after our big lunches and bus snacks. I was right about that. My OYO dinners were mostly cocktails and bar snacks/appetizers at the hotel bars with a view. Even though it was chilly at night, both the Beijing and Shanghai rooftop bars were open. I also tried scorpions on a stick on the snack street near the Beijing Peninsula. Had I not been told by one of our guides that the texture was like a stale potato chip, I might have been too intimidated to try them.
I thought all the group meals that featured local foods were really good. And I liked that the dishes came out to the lazy susan rather than as a buffet which are so frequent on other ABDs. There was very little I didn't eat and what I didn't eat were things I don't like anywhere. I thought the western style meals were fine and were a lot better than most of the meals on my last ABD (Arizona-Utah).
I never once used my mainland China-specific plug adapters. I only brought plugs with 2-prongs (no laptop) and used them as is, with a UK adapter, or use a USB port instead. The hotel plugs were essentially universal adapters but sometimes using a US plug didn't work so I used a UK adapter.
Shanghai was hosting a China Import Expo from Nov 5-10 and the Russian delegation including Putin were going to be staying at the Peninsula. When we arrived on 10/30 there was already a bulletproof "tent" covering the porte-cochere and airport-like security in the vestibule. They didn't start using that until 11/1 which was the last day of our Adventure (though we stayed two post-days).
Hi
@notaprincess!