The link I had provided didn't work.

Here's the correct link:
http://community.webshots.com/album/232065795OEOnAf

"MeNmyself" wrote in message
...

"Dennis McCrohan" wrote in message
...
Hi-

I'm looking for some net.wisdom on traveling to China with my wife and
two kids (8 and 11). My wife has been looking at some of the
package-tours that you can buy here in the States. From the description
of these, it looks like you would spend most of your time in 5-star
Western hotels (Hyatt, et al), eating western meals, riding around in
tour busses with a bunch of other Americans (and I'm guessing that most
of them would be, ahh, "mature"), and basically running from one
tourist-trap to the next. And that after the first day or so my kids
would be bored and tired of it. And we mostly eat Cambodian, Thai, and
Viet food, not hamburgers, so McDonanld's is not considered a treat in
my family.

If you wife is native Chinese, you might want to consider free-and-easy
package.
I, my wife and 3 kids (11, 10, 8) went to Beijing and Xi'an.
http://community.webshots.com/script...umID=232065795

Not difficult to move around if your wife can speak and read chinese
language.

My wife is ethnic Chinese, speaks some Mandarian (in addition to her
parent's dialect), and our kids have been taking Mandarian classes for
several years. So I'm thinking that we would be better off with a tour
designed with children in mind (nothing like having other kids to talk
to/play with during long bus/plane rides) or just putting a package
together ourselves and hiring a private guide. I'd still like to stay in
higher class hotels (yes, I know about the Chinese attitude about
bathrooms) but other than that I'd rather eat in local restaraunts
(assuming food safety isn't an issue) and do things that would be of
more interest to the kids (say visiting an amusement park, or a school)
rather than trouping thru the 17th Imperial bedroom of the day.

The bathrooms are pretty nice with amenities like disposable shavers, comb
and the other standards items.
Public toilets are pretty decent and nice. We tried local food,
McDonalds, KFC and BreadTalk and other local deli. No problem.


Anyway, I'd be interested in feedback on all this, particularly from
folks who have taken their own school-age children to China.

try this webpage of my trip to China:
http://www.virtualtourist.com/m/88598/