The Chinese Tour Group Experience

On the last day Sam and I had together in Urumqi, we decided to head up to the famed Tian Chi "Heavenly Lake."  Having spent the week traveling independently, we decided it would be nice and easy to take the day off from making our own arrangements and take a day tour.  It turned out to be....well, kind of your worst nightmare. We signed up for the tour, paid our $20 (the low rate turned out to be a teaser.....)  We thought our $20 covered our transportation to the park and at that point would need to pay an entrance fee.  Nope.  The $20 covered only the cost of the bus ride to the base of the park.  At this point our tour guide asked us for another $35.  WHAT?  I tried to get her to explain what that was for.  We thought that we could simply enter, and hike to the lake.....

This is the two of us at the top...finally.  The fog blocked any view of the lake.  But the story getting there is all the fun because by this time, we had been defeated by the tour that we simply had to accept our fate and laugh at the situation.

This was the entrance to the park, from which we were "extorted" another $40 dollars. It came with extras that we didn't want, but after arguing I simply was defeated.  So here's what we got....

In our group...a man who wore his bathrobe all day.

On our way from the entrance to the lake we "got" to stop by a traditional Kazakh village.  We got to see yurts and were lead around by a guide with a flag.

At this point we're just making fun of everything.  Our guide....spoke with the microphone like EVERY Chinese tour guide.  NO ONE LISTENED.

The Kazakh Village was a demeaning experience to the Kazakh's (assuming they were actual Kazakh's).  Visitors got to "dress" up in "traditional" dress and pose for pictures.

Oh, and OF COURSE, there was going to be a sales situation.  Here we were being sold tea.  This woman actually had the balls to tell our group to "shut up."

Every few minutes, a couple of Kazakh dancers came out for people to watch. It felt just.....demeaning for the dancers.

A meal...again more money extracted.

That's all we saw of Tian Chi

Chinese and the outdoors.  It's a speaker masked as a tree stump.

And you ALWAYS run into wedding pictures being taken.

And on the way back, we stopped by to go shopping AGAIN. But at that point Sam and I simply bolted and took a local bus back into town.  Ohhhh, a Chinese tour group, a once in a lifetime experience...I hope.