I've never been to China so know very little. I would advise to be careful of the water for drinking. If you do not know the source of the liquid in the glass, do not drink it. Use the same precautions you'd use to visit Mexico. More than one tourist has been surprised by the ice in cold drinks. The water may have been safe, but contamination can come with ice made with contaminated water.

My daughter travels to Asia for work. She prefers Hong Kong.

Can't wait to "Hear All About It!" I've never visited and am not apt to ever get there, so you will have to give us your impressions.

I went to China about ten years ago with a tour group. The air isn't very good but I don't think you need to wear a mask. It's a fascinating country with lots of really exotic things to see. As other people said, don't drink the water or eat anything that may have been washed in water. We drank Chinese beer which was very good. The plumbing leaves lots to be desired but if you are on business staying in good hotels it will be okay. It's another story out in the countryside. I found the food very monotonous and not at all like American Chinese. Every meal consists of communal dishes served on a lazy susan in the middle of the table. I actually came home having lost weight.

China has had unbelievably explosive growth and development over the last 15 years. It reminds me of the setting of the Beverly hillbillies- simple people who have enormous newfound wealth and they're not quite sure what to do with it. The heavy hand of the totalitarian government is surprisingly absent in some respects yet present in others.

Its modern cities are a wonder. But when you scrape away the surface, it remains a Third World country with many problems and peculiarities for a Westerner to deal with. I've been there and I don't care for it.

I guess I'm just a romantic, or I love trains, but the train rides sound interesting to me. One of the five listed:

Xi'an to Urumqi — Silk Road Journey in a Vast Desert Landscape

• Length: 2,526 km (1,570 mi)
• Duration: 33½ hours approx. (2 nights and 1 day on the train)
• Price: 747.5 yuan (120 USD) for a second class seat
• Train schedule: 15 normal trains (depart from 02:54 to 23:25)
• Scenery: the Yellow River, Jiayuguan Fortress, the Gobi Desert

Heavenly Lake, Urumqi

Xi'an has a long history, being the first of China's four Great Ancient Capitals. There are many historical buildings and heritages. Urumqi is the largest city in Western China, with colorful Uyghur ethnic group culture and the Silk Road culture.

This is a Silk Road journey, as well as an adventure journey. It is
full of Western China's scenery and delicious food on the way. You will
be in the wilderness of the Gobi Desert.

Travel tip: If you love animals, you definitely want to stay away from chinese zoos and animal attractions.

My good friend is a fairly well known cardio thoracic surgeon who specializes in beating heart open heart surgery. He has traveled all over the world teaching surgeons and visiting hospitals. He and his wife had to spend quite a bit of time in China teaching. They said the conditions were deplorable. In the hospitals there were squat toilets and absolutely no place to wash your hands. He was going to perform surgery, went to the bathroom and no running water there was a pail of dirty water. In the surgery area was a small sink that was their scrub area! He said the amount of people will hepatitis was astounding including the surgeons. She said walking around they saw little children that had pants with open crotch and they would squat in the streets and use the bathroom. They had brought an entire suitcase of toilet paper, wet wipes, disinfectant, bottles of water. And she was terrified they were going to run out. She said she was never going back. Some of the hospitals were gorgeous show places but had very few patients, the ones that were packed, standing room only were disgusting and dirty. They were able to experience the extremely wealthy and the poorest of the poor. Very political. She lost a lot of weight because she would not eat anything. She said in one town there was a McDonald's and she was never so happy to have a big Mac. Their hotel was fabulous and looked like a 5 star resort. They stayed in a lot. It's not on my travel list. Now I would love to see the terracotta army, they did that and spoke highly of it. So packing you should take those items.

Interesting, Raven. I have no travel plans to China (or anywhere else), but that was a piece of information I didn't now about the country.

For a plant oriented person the main attraction would be what is left of the amazing vegetation in the mountains - it is actually still possible to find or at least reintroduce new hardy plants of garden merit, the Chinese temperate flora is so rich. Omei Shan for instance - a single Chinese mountain peak - has more species of plants native to it than my entire State. (And my State has a diversity of environments, with a pretty fair number of different plant species as a result).

Unfortunately as mentioned above in later years they have had absolutely explosive growth, with formerly and quite recently still pristine natural locations being developed into mass tourist destinations with trams, hotels etc. The time interval between moderately sized city and sprawling metropolis, between isolated hilltop sprinkled with rare plants and entirely covered with a resort hotel can be very short. Western plant explorers are now returning to previously visited locations a few years later and finding such changes.

Have a friend that visit the city with the Terracotta army, about 15 years ago. No photos were allowed at that time. Will be interesting to see if that has changed. I would guess it will be a great experience.

I should add, I'm not leaving the town of Xi'an. The conference I'm attending is in a 5 star hotel, and I'm also staying there. I won't have time to get and go sight-seeing, too far, due to time constraints. I'm pretty confident the hotel has Western bathrooms and toilet paper.

I haven't been but a co-worker/friend of mine has been several times since he has been dating a woman from China. One problem he faces, that may not be an issue for you, is that because he is terrible with chopsticks, he has to bring a fork along with him. At one restaurant he didn't realize that when they cleaned the table they took his fork away with the dirty dishes. Luckily when they went back to the same place the next day, the waitstaff recognized and smilingly brought out his shiny clean fork.

He remarked frequently that many places are just dirty, with trash everywhere. And crowded -- even the small village where his girlfriend's mother lives has a population of 200000. The town of Xi'an has over 8 million.

He also has said there seem to be two separate, parallel economies there. One with outlandish prices commensurate with New York or London or Tokyo, and another one with comparative bargain prices for locals.

One cabbie thought his girlfriend was a locally hired guide, and suggested to her massively overcharging him for the cab ride, and splitting the "take" with her.

>He remarked frequently that many places are just dirty, with trash
everywhere. And crowded -- even the small village where his
girlfriend's mother lives has a population of 200000<

Supposedly there is constant coughing, farting and spitting in public places. It's a trip back in time, with a huge population providing it. London used to be an absolute Hellhole. Europe was ravaged by the Black Death because of poor sanitation and other bad practices.

My friend said that in one restaurant a man took a couple of steps toward the corner, and spit on the floor in the restaurant. As if he realized that spitting on the floor in the middle of the restaurant would be inappropriate, by felt that a few steps away in the corner would be perfectly fine. And what's worse is the staff in the restaurant made no comment.

My parents spent six weeks there in 2000. They sent me 2 VHS tapes with 8 hours of video of their vacation. They had the time of their life. I was surprised they did that vacation, and so were they actually. But they really enjoyed the country and the people.