Our tour director was attentive and interesting to listen to. He shared a lot personal stories and information about China throughout the tours. We had a chance to visit the Shanghai Museum, the Bund, and Old Town Shanghai where we toured a stunning garden. We were taken to one tourist trap, a "silk factory" where we were served some mediocre Mongolian barbecue and taken on a tour to learn how silk is made and how their artists create their silk embroidery paintings.
The hotel we stayed at was the Ritz Carlton Portman in Shanghai, and it was a comfortable five star hotel with all the expected amenities and great service.
Most of the meals organized by Viking were just okay. We had breakfast in the hotel most mornings, which was buffet style and very good. Lunches and dinners were at large event halls primarily, so I didn't feel we got a true taste of the local cuisine. The lunches and dinners were mostly in touristy places.
The Viking Emerald is actually leased by Viking from a Chinese company called Century, so the experience and service standards on this ship are not equivalent to what you would find on Viking's European river ships.
Cabins: Comfortable but a bit dated.
Service on Board: Servers were kind and helpful, but many were inexperienced.
Food: Not great. The meals were decent, but I had expected better from Viking. The best executed were the Chinese dishes. But everything they cooked, with a few exceptions, was mediocre.
Wine: Wine list was acceptable, and it was nice to have free flowing wine at lunch and dinner. The house selections were nice, and the beverage package offered additional choices. The bar manager on board was very good.
Scenery: The first few days we saw nothing but industrial sites on either side of the Yangtze. Not exactly scenic, but interesting. The gorges were stunning, and we had about three days of those. Excursions included visits to the Three Gorges Dam, a Pagoda, and a boat ride into one of the lesser Gorges.
Entertainment: Pathetic. Most evenings the same servers who took care of us at lunch and dinner put on costumes and danced around for us. Not great, and I felt bad for them since I know many of them worked all day and now had to entertain us at night.
In Xian we stayed at the Sheraton North City, another wonderful five star hotel in a great location. The highlight in Xian was our visit to see the Terra Cotta Warriors, which was every bit as impressive as I had expected it to be. Our tour guide did a great job for us, and got us into the site early so we could beat some of the crowds. After the tour, we were taken to another tourist trap restaurant for lunch where they make ceramic and Terra Cotta replicas of the warriors. Food was again mediocre, and the sales people were very aggressive.
Food in Xian was the same as on the rest of the trip, mediocre. They took us to a lot of banquet rooms for "lazy susan" style Chinese buffet meals.
Beijing was the highlight of our trip. We stayed at the Ritz Carlton, which was an exquisite five star hotel. The food here was the best we had on the entire trip.
Our tours in Beijing included The Great Wall, the Sacred Way of the Ming Tombs, a tour of an old Hutong neighborhood by rickshaw, Tienanmen Square and The Forbidden City. Our tour guide is from Beijing, and he did a great job of showing us the sights in his city.
If you are looking for a good vacation value in China, the Viking River Cruises tour is a good option. Don't expect it to be like Viking's cruises in Europe. The Viking tour guides were great. They are all locals, and they are there to not only show you around, but also to take care of anything you need. Our guide even helped us replace a data card for our camera that went bad halfway through the trip.
But, while the vacation was good value, it was not a luxury experience. Being taken to mediocre "restaurants" that were really banquet halls catering to tourist groups was not that enjoyable. I also didn't enjoy the outings to tourist traps for lunch and high pressure shopping for jade, silk, rugs or ceramics. We had several of these "factory tours" during the trip. While the places offered beautiful items of great quality, I did not appreciate the high pressure sales tactics we were subjected to. It was impossible to look at anything without being accosted.
Overall, I don't think a river cruise is that great of a way to see China. Most of the important sights in China are centered around the major cities of Shanghai, Xian, and Beijing, and while seeing the Yangtze was interesting, five nights was too long to be on a boat. My recommendation is to skip the river cruise and just do a land-based tour of China to Shanghai, Xian & Beijing.
If you have respiratory issues, you may want to avoid China altogether. Due to pollution, they have very poor air quality. We also didn't see blue sky the entire time we were there, which took away from the beauty of the scenery.
Topics: China, Vking River Cruises