China tours through the back door

We have been to China three times and only encountered shopping stops on our first trip back in 2001. We stayed outside the stores.
Look at China Advocates in San Francisco and Authentic Asia in Colorado for trips to China that take you out of the ordinard tourist sphere.

We did two China tours through my alumni group, both provided by China Advocates. Both tours were characterized as "Insider" tours and while their first included three days in Bejing and ended with a day in Shanghai, the tours featured "off the Western tourist beaten" paths. However, they did include "luxury western accommodations" but for the most part minimized shopping.

Our first tour (starting in Bejing) was a contrast in modern China and historic village China. Heart of the tour visit Anhui Provence's Huizhou villages: Xidi village, an UNESCO heritage site, Hongcun village backdrop for "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" and Chengkan village. A highlight (literally) was a night at the Beihai Hotel on the top of the Huangshan (Yellow Mountains) reached by cable car and a several km hike. Tour included Hangzhou and a Zhang Yimou "Impressions of West Lake" show.

Second trip started and ended in Shanghai featuring minority villages: "Insider’s China:
Paradise in the Ancient Villages of Guizhou and Guilin". While these villages are starting to be visited by internal Chinese tourist, we were a handful of Westerners touring, and our group of four were the only Americans. This second tour is interesting in that the operator original required 10 guest but guaranteed that it would be a go with only the two of us. A month or two ahead, another couple joined the tour and China Advocates put it on for the four of us. One minivan, one driver, one guide and four clients. While we didn't have a "national guide", we had local guides for each of the three regions. Tour involved internal China flights: Shanghai to Guiyang transferring to Kaili and Guilin back to Shanghai. Highlights including visiting Miao and Dong minority villages and hiking the Longsheng terraced rice fields. Our Longsheng lodging involved a hike to the Li An Lodge. Tour included lady porters carrying our luggage to the Lodge. (The men carry sedan chairs, but we were fine walking). Also included a Li River cruise from Guilin.

As said, no mandatory tourist shopping but we were happy with our "luxury western accommodations" and fusion breakfasts of western and eastern offerings.

I'm happy to recommend using China Advocates. Not cheap but money talks in China.

PS. Trip included internal air and ground transportation and most meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner)

We felt China Advocates did an excellent job of giving us off the beaten path visits. We had very nice hotels but they all were Chinese, not western. For example, in Beijing, we were the only westerners staying in the hotel which was used for dignitaries who visited the Chinese govt in Beijing. We enjoyed this aspect of the trip. We went out to western China on the Silk Road and had the best hotels possible, but none were western. Highly recommend this agency.

"Western" vs "Chinese" hotels in China.

For the most part China Advocates booked us into western style luxury hotels. For the most part they did not appear to be not owned by Western corporations or at least "name" corporations. The exception being a Sofitel in Hangzhou which may be a french chain. And the Li An Lodge in Longsheng is owned by an American Keren Su.

The "western style" hotel were comparable to 4 or 5+ star North American and Western European hotel, if not more luxurious. Breakfasts were very intentional in flavor with foods that would comfort Scandinavians and Japanese as well as North American guest, and included Chinese breakfast dishes. You could have Chinese congee (rice soup) with a french style crescent as a substitution for the traditional Chinese (youtiao) donuts.

Our Kaili Grand Metro Park hotel had both a "western" breakfast room and a "Chinese" breakfast room. We were booked for the "western" breakfast, but on asking were told that we could dine in the "Chinese" room. The Chinese breakfast was limited to the traditional Chinese foods, while the "western" included the same Chinese dishes and the full range of international dishes. The Chinese mostly up-scaled and chose to dine in in the western breakfast room.

And "western style" hotels had western bathroom fixtures, some with toilet bidet combinations with electronic controls and heated seats. Terry bathrobes and slippers are common amenities. The "Western style" hotels were also typical air conditioned. However, during early spring, the hotel may not activate it's room central air.

I will add that it appears that Chinese have caught the travel bug but seem to sign up for group tours.

hmmm this is a hard one...

If you are running about Beijing or Shanghai you can get around without a tourguide. You can book it all yourself- including luxury 4 star hotels. In fact, it will be far cheaper than trying to do it via a tourguide. Also, larger 4 start hotels always have English speaking staff to assist with things. In those two cities it is easy to get around without knowing Chinese on the subway, you can also point at a menu if you need to order.

I think there may be some recommendations if you pick up a Frommers, Fodors, or Lonely Planet guide as to companies that don't suck that speak English.

There are a number of really terrible companies out there ( i went on two such for short day trips which were miserable in Suzhou and Hangzhou--gag)...

I second what the PP said. Me, my brother, and his wife did Beijing and Shanghai without a tour guide with no problem. It was totally doable and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend independent travel in those cities. A lot of the menus have pictures and as long as you are comfortable just having a vague idea what you're eating, you'll be fine. There are loads of accommodation options to choose from too. It was easy to do day trips without a guide as well. We went out to the Great Wall from Beijing and we did a day trip from Shanghai to Suzhou (where we took a terrible boat ride that ended with us being dropped off at a silk store for hours). With enough research you could do it on your own.

Self-guided Beijing and Shanghai is certainly possible with a little help from Lonely Planet guides. Our son and senior citizen aged friends have each done three week self-guided tours of China with Lonely Planet serving as their guide. Our friends toured China with the help of a Mandarin native speaker pre-arranging their hotel bookings. Our son did it totally self-guided and using a phrase book as he does not speak Mandarin.

Now that said, we did it the fully guided way - national guide, local guides and driver. Not having toured China self-guided I can only guess, but my guess is that we saw and did two to three times as much with guide and driver. Several examples. Touring the Forbidden City, we walked the long block from our hotel to Tiananmen Square, entered the Forbidden City through the short tour group line, and on exiting, walked a block to our bus for transport to lunch that was pre-ordered with service starting on arrival.

A second example of efficiency. Our bus arrived in Hangzhou mid-afternoon with streets gridlocked. Our guide changed plans and put us on the boat ride across the lake instead of checking into our hotel. While we rode the boats across the lake to the Gouzhuang Garden led by our local guide, our national guide (who stayed with us the full tour) and driver took our baggage to the Sofitel hotel, had the bags placed in our rooms, then met us at the garden.