In November 2016 the following groups will visit Xinglin hospital in China.
13 Nov – 15 Nov (practitioners)
16 Nov – 18 Nov (medical treatment)
IMPORTANT: Periods in bold indicate the time I plan to spend in China. On this site you can book a place only for these groups. If you wish to join any of the other groups, please visit the websites of Richard and Aurelian.
The final destination of the trip is Xinglin clinic in the city of Taiping, located at the foot of Yellow Mountain, where Dr. Jiang and his team will diagnose and treat their guests. Meeting point is the city of Taiping where the hospital is located. The announced dates have already been fixed and can be used for trip planning. If additional groups are announced, the relevant periods will be posted on this site in due time.
The activities in the hospital will begin on 12 March in the morning. Therefore it is recommended that all visitors arrive in Taiping a day earlier and leave on the last day in the afternoon of the stated periods. Of course, it is possible to plan a few days before or after the stated periods to devote to local tourist attractions.
The trip to Taiping
It is most convenient to reach Taiping via Huangshan (airport code TXN). There is plenty of convenient internal flights from Beijing, Shanghai or Guangzhou. Roundtrip tickets from Sofia to Huangshan cost around € 1,000 and the most convenient flights in terms of price and connection times are via Istanbul. It is worth checking also the options via Moscow, which are the cheapest possible at the expense of longer connection times.
The alternative is to reach Huangshan by bus from Hangzhou, and fly directly from Sofia to Hangzhou via Doha. The bus departs from the western bus station every hour and the last is at 17:00 local time. The ride to Huangshan takes approximately 3.5 hours. However I do not recommend this option if you organize a trip for the first time and plan to travel alone. Although China becomes more and more open to the West many people still do not speak English and many of the inscriptions on the streets are not translated.
The trip Huangshan Taiping is either by taxi (one way is RMB 400 or EUR 50) or by organized bus by the local tourist agency. The cost of the bus depends on the number of travelers.
Prices during the stay
The journey Huanshan-Taiping-Huangshan and hotel reservations for the periods you specify in both Huangshan and Taiping are all arranged by a local travel agency. The main objective is to facilitate the administration and take advantage of discounts offered by hotels only to local agents. Prices of double hotel room have always been within RMB 320 – RMB 400 (EUR 40 – EUR 50) per night. Although we cannot guarantee that these prices will remain the same in the future, this range appears to be stable over the last few years.
Again, I would like to recommend once again arriving in Taiping a day earlier and departing on the last day of the registration period, as this will let you take advantage of the organized transportation service for the whole group, which cost per person to date has always been within RMB 100 – RMB 150 person. Otherwise, the local travel agent will have to arrange transportation just for you which can be significantly more expensive.
For those organizational services it is necessary to budget a fee of RMB 80 (about EUR 10) per person. This amount will be collected by the agency, together with all other costs of transport and accommodation.
Personal time
People who wish to combine a visit to the clinic Xinglin and a personal journey to local tourist attractions can benefit from the travel agency services for guidance and hotel reservations. These activities are personal and should not affect the group. When extending your stay in hotels, you can enjoy the same conditions as the main group. If you use hotels other than the hotels of the main group keep in mind that prices depend on each hotel management and may vary significantly. Obtaining the best price is guaranteed by the agency, but we recommend you check the available options on sites like www.booking.com
Visa
To visit China you need a visa. If you are a Bulgarian resident and currently live in Bulgaria I can assist you in obtaining an invitation which is a must have document.
Please make sure you indicate in the Registration form if you would like to take advantage of such assistance. Follow the link for more details
Everyone else will have to take care of issuing the visa on his own. I highly recommend finding a local agent who can help you cope with the administration mess of Chinese embassies.
Registration
The form below will help you register.
Registration deadline: 1 October 2016
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