Who Can Join the trip

The trip does not only involves Tai Chi training but also cultural visit to many magnificent places with long history and cities or towns with beautiful scenery, therefore anyone who are interested in Chinese Culture, traditional architecture, Tai Chi or just want a holiday in China are welcome to join us.

If you are flying in on your own or from other part of the world, don't worry our English speaking representitive or driver in China will meet you in the airport and transfer you to the hotel.

Deadline for booking the trip

The deadline for booking a trip is 7 days before departure date, however, cost of international flights are subject to change and availabilities are not guarantee for bookings made within two months prior to departure date.

In order to keep numbers of participants under a manageable level, we therefore work on a first come first serve basis. it is always worth making bookings as early as possible by printing out and filling in the booking form and return it to us with a deposit of £150.00 and the remiander can be pay by instalments. However, all payments must be paid in full before departure date.

Payment Schedule

A minimum deposit of £150.00 is required upon the booking of our trip, the remainder of the payment can be paid either in full or over 3 instalments.
Deposit (£150.00) - to be paid when making reservation
Half of the outstanding payment to be paid 14 weeks before departure
Remainder of the payment to be paid 6 weeks before departure

Payment must be paid in full for reservation made in less than 14 weeks before departure date .

Cancellation Charges

Flight tickets - non refundable and non transferable once purchased
Deposit of £150.00 are not refundable once booking is made
10 weeks before departure £300.00
4 weeks before departure - 40% or £400 (whichever is greater) of total cost
2 weeks before departure - 80% of total costs
1 week before departure - 100% of total costs

The cancellation charges does not include international flight tickets, which are based on the terms and conditions and refund policies of the relevant airlines.

Applying for visa

Anyone who is not a Chinese citizen is required to obtain a visiting visa. The fee for for a visitor's visa is about £35.00and application should be submitted to chinese embassy in London, Chinese Consulate in Machester or Chinese Consulate in Edinburgh, members reside in the EU, the US or rest of the world, need to contact the Chinese embassy in their respected countries. Passport must be valid for a minimum of 6 month from the date of travel.

Application for a visa can be made three months prior to travelling. Applicant need to submit his/her application in person or through his appointed agent(eg. travel agent). and it will normally take 3-5 working days for the visa to come through. Application form is available on the embassy's website.

For more information visit the chinese embassy website.;

Visa Office in Chinese Embassy in London
31 Portland Place, London W1B 1QD
General inquiry: 020-76311430 (2:00pm—4:00pm, Monday to Friday).
Fax: 020-74369178
Web Site: www.chinese-embassy.org.uk

Visa Office of the Consulate-General in Manchester
Dension House, 49 Dension Road, Rusholme, Manchester M14 5RX
Tel:0161-2248672
Fax: 0161-2572672

Visa Office of the Consulate-General in Edinburgh
55 Corstorphine Road, Edinburgh EH12 5QJ
Tel: 0131-3373220 (3:30pm---4:30pm, Monday—Friday)
Fax: 0131-3371790

For list of Chinese embassy throughout the world Click Here

Vaccination & health

Vaccination is vital in protecting us from catching diseases we are not immuned to in the west, therefore it is important to consult your GP prior to travelling. People with medical conditions should consult their GP and obtain neccessary medicines needed for the journey.

Western medicines are available in many pharmacies in China, nevertheless, it is worth taking some general medicines for common sickness. eg. diarrhea, travel sickness etc.

Travel & martial arts Insurance

It is absolutely necessary to have travel insurance in place; everything costs money in China, even medical treatments, and no cash, no talk. Should there a time (which I hope won’t happen) one of us need go see a doctor or to the hospital, only certain hospitals are for foreign tourists and they are expensive. One of the group members in one our previous trip had an ear infection and it cost her nearly fifty pounds for medicines. Although you still have to pay for it in cash, but you can claim it back when you get back to the UK (that’s if you had travel insurance).

Adequate travel insurance is therefore compulsory for our trips, please check carefully the terms and condition on the travel insurance before you purchase it, it should cover you for any injury, death, accident, loss, damage, or irregularity which may be occasioned by neglect or default of any other company, or additional expenses due to delays or changes in flights, trains, coaches or other services, or because of sickness, weather, quarantine or other causes. You will be responsible for arranging your own travel insurance.

For people who are planning to compete in Martial arts competitions should also check if relevant insurance is in place to cover any neccessary costs in case of emergencies. The fesitval and trip organisers (Tai Chi Link Travel) are not responsible for any injuries during competitions or the trip.

International and internal Flights

Anyone from the UK who join our trips has the option to purchase International flights sepeartely and just pay for the cost of the trip, however all internal flights in China are included in the price. Members reside outside the UK will have to organise their own international flight tickets, however, our representitives will meet you at the airport and take you to the hotel to join the rest of the group.

Pleases note that whether the international or internal flights are purchased through Tai Chi Link or not, we are not responsible for any delay or cancellation of part or whole of the journey due to circumstances not under our control, it is therefore important to have travel insurance in place so that claims can be made against members' own insurances or the airlines concerned.

Trains and Coaches

Part of the journey in some of our trips may involved travelling and sleeping overnight on trains, we will make every effort to organise our customers to stay together on soft sleeper cabins (4 Beds each cabin). Please bear in mind that due to difficulty in getting soft sleeper cabins, you may have to stay in different cabins and should there be shortage of soft sleeper cabins, we will organise our members to stay in hard sleeper cabins (6 Beds per cabin) without prior notice. Also unlike flying, the condition of cabins on trains are basic.

Our air-conditioned coaches will take you to and from your hotels to where our programmed activities take place and tranfer and pick up to and from the airports or train stations.

Local Guides

You will be accompanied by local English speaking guides in each city or town you visit and they will meet the group at local airports or train stations and stay with the group in all excursons except free acitivity time and Tai Chi and Kung Fu training sessions.

There will also be a team leader from Tai Chi Link travelling with the group throughout the trip, and the team leader will always be at hands to answer and questions or sort out any problem that may arise.

For groups under 10 people, there will only be either a team leader or local guides. And in case of local guides, they will meet you at the airport or train station and take you back to the airport or train to continue your next part of the trip.

Hotel

Hotel will normally be 3 - 4 stars depending on the location of our visits and activities taking place and standard of hotels do vary from one another. In most hotels standard rooms have one double or twin beds, air-conditioning, en suite shower/bath room and television. Some hotels offer facilities such as choice of restaurants and pubs, Health and Fitness club with gym, therapeutic body and foot massage etc.

Chinese Currency & exchange rate

In most major cities department stores and tourist shops will accept credit cards. You may want to inform your credit card company you will be using your card in China. Some establishments may have a surcharge for accepting credit cards. It is wise to have alternative forms of spending money in your local currency.

The currency in China is the ¥ Renminbi (RMB) and the basic unit is the Yuan. The exchange rate is around £1 - ¥14.50 yuan, Cash and traveler's cheques in Sterling or US dollars can easily be exchanged into Yuan at hotels or banks. There is no need to change Sterling into dollars. Bring a small amount of cash and also traveler's cheques as they are safer. you should also be able to change chinese RMB in most banks in the UK. At the airport it is possible to convert any unused Yuan into US dollars or British Pounds (exchange receipts required).

Shopping

if it is your first time visiting China , it is a must that some part of the trip will spend on buying lots of presents for family and friends. China is one of the best places to shop for good quality oriental gifts or low cost famous brands of clothing or watches. Our guide will take you to a few places in which quality of products are guaranteed, although they may not be the cheapest. Some of these shops even show you how they make some of their products or how to separate the real thing from the fakes. So even if you are not buying, it can still be a nice cultural experience. The bottom line is, it is not obligatory to buy anything.

You will also see lots of market stalls at places we visit, you can hackle and get the best price for the things you want, we normally start with 40% of the asking price and work our way up. Very often you can get it for around 50-60% of the asking price.

Food

Breakfast in the hotel mainly Chinese, however, there would still be plenty of choices. We will be sampling all types of Chinese Food from different part of the country, but don't worry, nothing extreme. Lunches and dinners will all be Chinese cuisine from different region of China , and they are the real things not the fakes we get in the UK .

Some of us might eventually feel our taste buds are a bit home sick and want to sample a bit of western taste, then McDonald's and Kentucky will be your favourite choices and they are everywhere. You might even find Pizza Hut doted around here and there, feel free to sneak out in the evening, at your own costs of course. Just make sure you let our guide know you are not joining the group for dinner,. And most important of all, remember your way back or at least the name of the hotel.

Diets

Meals on the trip will be Chinese dishes from different regions of China, Breakfast in hotels are normally Chinese breakfast. All restaurant have beer, table wine and coca cola available for purchase. Participants with special conditions or requires special diet (vegetarian, diabetes etc) need to notify us when making reservation.

Some hotels have drinking water taps, and it is important to use them for drinking water. We strongly recommend members to buy bottle water when out visiting since water from normal taps are not safe to drink.

It is quite difficult to buy tea bags or the type of coffee people in the UK drink, anyone who can't live without a cup of coffee is advised to bring some to China. However, Chinese tea is a great alternative and it is all over the place.

Gratuities

During our stay in China , We will have coaches taking us around Beijing , Xian, Shaolin and Wudang. It is customary to paid gratuities to the coach drivers and guides since it is their main source of income.

We will have various drivers and guides throughout the trip, it would be easier to collect gratuities daily and give to the drivers and guides.we recommended £2 (about ¥ 30RMB) per member of the group per day; it works out about £28 ( ¥420RMB) for 15 day or £20 ( ¥320RMB) for 11days.

Free activities

There are many nights free of any activities, I feel it is important to have good nights rest in order for everyone to recoup from the busy days. However some of us might still feel energetic and want to do more, maybe going for a drink, have a massage in the hotel, karaoke or just have a night stroll at the town nearby. Remember to bring the address of the hotel with you and be careful not to wonder into quiet streets or alleyways. If you need any assistant in finding places, our guide should be able to help. All expenses at free activities' time are at your own costs.

Right of Cancellation

We reserve the right to cancel or alter holiday arrangements at any time up to and including the departure date. Full refund of all monies will be made in the event of cancellation. Cancellations will be notified to clients without reasonable delay.

Liability

Tai Chi Link acts only in the capacity of Agent for the clients in all arrangements. Expressly the Tai Chi Link Travel shall not be liable for any injury, death, accident, loss, damage, or irregularity which may be occasioned by neglect or default of any other company, or additional expenses due to delays or changes in flights, trains, coaches or other services, or because of strike, war, sickness, weather, quarantine or other causes.