Orientation Thursday for Spring Break Trip to China

By Mary Castagnozzi

After two years without a spring break China trip, Piedmont Mandarin language students will again have an opportunity to visit China this April 7-16. (Check-in at SFO will actually be at 10:20 p.m. April 6; the plane departs at 12:20 a.m. April 7.)

The itinerary will include Hong Kong (with an optional add-on tour of Macao), Shanghai, Hangzhou, Thousand Islands Lake, Huangshan, and a return to Shanghai.

After arriving in Hong Kong, the group will be taken on a half-day to Victoria Peak, Aberdeen fishing village, Repulse Bay, Stanley Market and Sky100. That afternoon and the next day, participants will be free to explore Hong Kong on their own, or join an optional jet-foil trip to Macao with a guided tour and Portuguese lunch.

Highlights of the subsequent tour within China include Yuyuan Garden, the Bund, Shanghai Museum and Town Gods Temple in Shanghai; West Lake, Lin Yin Temple, General Yue Fei’s Mausoleum and Liu He Pagoda in Hangzhou; a cruise along Thousand Islands Lake on the way to Huangshan; Tunxi Ancient Street, 800-year-old Hongcun Village (where Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was filmed); and sunrise atop Huangshan while in Huangshan.

The tour is limited to 40 people; priority will be given to current and   Mandarin students and their families, but non-Mandarin PHS and PMS students and community members are welcome as well.

PHS/PMS Mandarin teacher Sunny Yu will lead the tour, accompanied by English-speaking tour guides on all legs of the trip (with the exception of one and a half free days in Hong Kong).

The cost is $2,645 per person based on double occupancy, and includes international and two domestic flights, air fare and taxes, guided tour April 10-16, all entrance fees, two breakfasts in Hong Kong and three daily meals within mainland China, a half-day tour of Hong Kong (with an optional $100 tour of Macao via jetfoil), hotel/airport transfers and no factory shopping.

Excluded costs are a China visa and gratuities of $70 per person on the mainland tour, and $6 on the optional Macao tour.

An orientation session will be held Thursday, Feb. 16, at 7 p.m., in Room 23 at PHS.

Those needing visas should bring passports, photo and completed visa forms. If applicants are under 16, they also need to submit a copy of one parent’s passport; if it is their first time to China, they also need to submit a birth certificate.

China visas are $140 for a one-year multi-entry visa; the travel agency can process visas for an additional $15 per person.

Additional forms (behavior agreement, medical/insurance information and waiver of liability) will also be distributed at the orientation.

Travel insurance will be provided free of charge if payment in full is received by Feb. 19; after that it will be $45 per person.

A copy of each participant’s passport (which must not expire before Oct. 16, 2012, six months after the return date, due to new TSA regulations) must be submitted when making a reservation, as well as a non-refundable $300 deposit (checks only).

Upon confirmation of air reservation, it is recommended that tickets be issued within five days to avoid change in air prices. Airline tickets may be paid by credit card.

For more information, email Sunny Yu at xsunnyyu@aol.com or Mary Castagnozzi at nozzim@comcast.net.