The 10-day tour of China in September of 2012 had a lot going for it. The travel agency that posted the deal on Groupon was based out of Vancouver Canada and focused exclusively on travel to Asia; they would know their stuff! The price sounded almost too good to be true; the cost alone would have covered the airfare had we made the arrangements ourselves. All lodging, meals, transfers, and even an intra-country flight were included. The tour would hit the two major Chinese cities (Beijing and Shanghai) as well many of the famous attractions (The Great Wall, The Forbidden City, etc.). Best of all, the deal had a direct flight option from Seattle; no additional costs or hassle of having to fly down to LAX (Los Angeles) or SFO (San Francisco).
So why was I not really that excited to go? Well, because it was China. Not the first place I thought of when I thought vacation.
Bob, on the other hand, was ecstatic; his first ever visit to the exotic Orient.
The fried rice meal on the Hainan Airline flight over should have clued us in to what was in store.
