This Sunday, I will be joining an exclusive group of travel industry professionals invited to experience and write about Century Cruises. The event is organized by Century Cruises in collaboration with Travel Weekly and TravelAge West.
I’ve been informed that this will be the largest group of travel professionals visiting China since the pandemic. As a result, there is considerable enthusiasm from both the government and local tourism communities, so several special events and dinners are expected, along with a truly packed eleven-day schedule.
Century Cruises is a Chinese company with a long history of working with the Western travel industry; something that has seriously quieted since the pandemic. It is now making a significant effort to establish itself in the United States, including opening offices in Miami, Florida, setting up a sales team, and more. Century Cruises is focused not only on its Chinese river cruise and land tour products, which I will be experiencing, but also on expanding into the European and Egyptian river cruise markets, though primarily for its Chinese clientele. Hence, its goal is to develop both the number of Western tourists visiting China and the number of Chinese tourists traveling abroad.
Here is my recent article explaining this in a bit more detail: Century Cruises – A “Reimaged/New” Cruise Line – China and Far Beyond
The basics of my itinerary are:
- September 8-11 – Beijing
- September 11-12 – Xian (Terracotta Warriors)
- September 12-15 – Century Voyage Yangtze River Cruise
- September 15 – Yichang
- September 15-16 – Shanghai
- September 17 – Suzhou
- September 18 – Shanghai and fly home.
The part of this journey that I am most intrigued by, and something I have long wanted to experience, is the Yangtze River cruise. Starting in Chongqing (famous for its evening light shows), then Fengdu Ghost City, White Emperor City, Shenv Stream, Three Gorges, and Yichang.
You know I love multicultural experiences and am pretty comfortable being in the minority, but how Century delivers its river cruise in a way that goes beyond merely accommodating Western desires (more than just Western cuisine) will be of great interest. Either way, I will be soaking it all in.
This will not be my first trip to most of these cities, but I am genuinely excited to see it all from a different (Chinese) perspective, post-pandemic, and, keeping it authentic, how different the philosophies of the Chinese and American governments are today than in 2019.
To give you some perspective, here are some of my articles from my last visit, which was part of a Windstar cruise and land tour:
While the photographs are mine from my prior visit in 2019, my memories, culinary and cultural inquisitiveness, and enthusiasm for this journey are very much in the present. This is definitely going to be a unique experience!
