We're F.I.T.s

It's official. CTS (China Travel Service) has identified us as 'fully independent travellers'. This is how we are identified on many of our travel docs. What this means is that we prefer to travel without the benefit of 24 hour a day assistance. By being F.I.T.s we are also spared the jade factories, the cloisonne shops, and the tourist (crap) food. But being a F.I.T. in China is not particularly easy, especially when you have a lot of ground to cover and your priority is keeping two kids happy and engaged while dealing with squat toilets, intrusive crowds of people, and jetlag.

One major reason I wanted to start this blog was to document and provide links for the many resources it took make this trip come together. And to prove that one can travel like this with smaller children.

The most challenging aspect of arranging independent travel in China is booking trains. This cannot be done online. You have to identify an agent to do this for you. Some will gladly do this for you, but others will only secure your train tickets if you purchase a package tour. CTS could arrange Beijing/Xian tickets for a $40 surcharge. That was fine! But when we asked them to arrange Xian/ChaoHu tickets (on the Xian/Nanjing line) they insisted on tacking on a private tour with car and guide, shopping trips and lunch included. This would have tacked on $240...about the price of the train tickets. And there was no discount for children...I tried to bargain with them, but was unsuccessful.

We will be on our way to Beijing a week from today, but have not ONE train journey booked or confirmed. I've paid the money up front, but those tickets have not yet gone on sale, and so I wait anxiously for those confirmation emails from our agents. Hopefully we will begin to get our travel confirmations this weekend. At this point our our meticulously planned trip is really just a house of cards.

Here were the three links that proved to be the most helpful:

http://www.seat61.com/China.htm A good overview of train travel in China. Very helpful.

http://www.china-train-ticket.com/#beijing These tickets were quite expensive

http://www.travelchinaguide.com/china-trains/ Th most helpful site!!

More on trains later. We are taking four overnight trains, so we will be experts at this by the time we are done!