China

Photos & story by: Debbie Stock

Coming from Southern California, many things about the largest cities in China seem familiar. Air quality, traffic and housing all make me feel I am looking in a mirror at where I am from, or into the future of what it will become.

We visited China during smoke season in March. I never heard of it, but boy, did I feel it first-hand! The poor air quality amplifies the price paid for rapid growth. Chinese emissions continue to increase while the world's leading emitter of greenhouse gases and mercury since 2006 hasn't readily disclosed data. The U.S. created ZephAir app tied to monitoring at its embassies in China and other countries, allowing users to connect to the EPA's Air Quality Index during their travels.

With the largest shopping mall in the world, the biggest skyscrapers, and cities that tout populations of 20 million plus—this means you can see portions of a city or highlights during a visit, but you can't see it all. My tour combined historic and famous icons such as The Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, pagodas & temples, along with factory visits to see manufacturing of silk apparel, rugs & bedding, pearl & jade jewelry, tea, pharmaceuticals and other items China is known for.

While the quality of products vary from top notch to inferior, luxury hotels are easy to come by. Marble flooring, quality fixtures and prime city locations often cost less than you would pay in the U.S. We stayed at the equivalent of four to five diamond hotels, generally for $150 or less per night in Beijing, Shanghai and Suzhou.

Most quality hotels offer personal in-room massages with prices a mere fraction of the cost of such services in the United States. In an upscale Suzhou hotel our rooms came equipped with condoms and Playboy-style magazines. Catering to Japanese businessmen, we were told, massages and other services were offered, with one special floor of the hotel featuring an x-rated lounge and bar.

When planning a trip, you'll need a Visa, of course, and you should especially travel light, preparing for the things you may buy. One of the best deals we found was clothing, rugs, sheets and comforters in a silk factory in Suzhou.

Our journey began with a 13+ hour overnight flight from LAX to Beijing International Airport. We spent time in and around Beijing with a flight to Shanghai and drive to Suzhou. Beijing and Shanghai are two drastically different cities worth seeing and flying between takes only a few hours versus driving 750 miles (1,200 km).

Our trip included famous historical sites, a visit to someone's house to dine and learn about their lives (the man was an opera singer who played female roles,) several stage shows, factories making silk, cosmetics, Cloissone, jewelry, tea at a plantation and even a Chinese WalMart.

The People's Republic of China is close to the size of the United States ... read more>

For now, here are a few ....random photos from China trip