Fuelled by interesting travel services, international travellers to China are increasingly opting for unique experiential vacations. In fact, more and more people are buying customized travel packages, whether it is a leisurely river cruise, a historic tour, martial arts experience, or exploring the Silk Route. With more and more people becoming travel savvy, the traveller now demands specialists and not generalists.

To meet the demands of the travel-savvy generation, several China travel services are making an effort to entice them with experiential tailor-made packages. For example, the “14-day Journey to the Home of Martial Arts” is an inexpensive travel service for martial arts aficionados. The travel service includes round-trip air transportation from the U.S.; intra-China air and land transportation transfers; China airport departure taxes; 12-night hotel accommodations with daily buffet breakfasts; escorted sightseeing tours; Tang Dynasty show; Shanghai Acrobatic show; and round-trip transfers between airport and hotels; hotel taxes and service charges in each city.

Books written by Stein, Hedin, and others have generated interest in the oriental mystery of the Silk Route, and a number of international travellers are keen to visit these places. Travel services are capitalalizing on the benefits of the country’s ancient culture. Packages like the “15-Day Ancient Silk Route Escapade” offer a distinctive experience of Beijing, Urumqi, Turpan, Dunhuan, Xi’an, and Shanghai. This includes round-trip transpacific air transportation from the U.S.; intra-China air and land transportation; 12 nights in deluxe and superior first-class hotels; one night aboard an overnight train in a private compartment; round-trip transfers between airport and hotels; hotel taxes and service charges in each city; sightseeing tours; and $100,000 Automatic Flight Insurance for transpacific air ticketed by PDT.

Yangtze River Cruises and few other travel services offer a downstream Yangtze River Cruise. The tour includes round-trip air transportation from San Francisco; intra-China air and land transportation transfers, sightseeing; five nights in superior first-class hotels; three nights aboard Victoria Cruises’ ship; hotel taxes and service charges; cultural entertainment; and $100,000 Automatic Flight Insurance for transpacific air ticketed by PDT.

Americans visiting China are advised to register with the U.S. Embassy in Beijing or the nearest U.S. consulate. Registration will aid their posts in China to locate the travelers in the event of an emergency at home or in replacing a lost or stolen passport.

China Travel provides detailed information on China Travel, China Business Travel, China Travel Services, China Travel Agencies and more. China Travel is affiliated with China Guided Tours.

Lately the image of the “Mona Lisa” as occupied a preponderant position in the news around the world thanks to the recently released movie based on Dan Brown’s novel. But there is a small town in Mexico’s province where the religious feelings of its people manifested in a strange cult that would also be excellent material for a controversial novel.

Nequeteje is a small town situated in the Mexican state of Hidalgo in the central region of the country not too far from Mexico City. It has a population of around 3000 people, most of them Otomi indians, that make a living mostly from agriculture and some small business financed by the money sent back by immigrants in the U.S to their families.

For 50 years, believe it or not, the cult to Leonardo’s “Monalisa” was widespread among these people, to the point of having the image of this world famous painting placed in the main altar of the town’s church sharing space with the traditional saints of the Catholic faith. They even used to take the image of “Monalisa” in religious processions to other nearby towns and they attributed many miracles to the new “saint”.

According to the story, “Mona Lisa” arrived in town in the 1940’s when a group of foreign researchers spent some time in town and somehow they forgot to take the reproduction with them. Some one in Nequeteje found it and suddenly “Monalisa” became a new saint to venerate in town.

It has to be said the the Catholic Church never approved the cult but they tolerated the worship of “Mona Lisa” for many years afraid of the turmoil they could provoke if they suddenly invalidated the faith and veneration of Nequeteje’s Virgin by its people.

It was until some 10 years ago that a brave priest removed the image from altar arguing that it needed some fixing, at the beginning people was reluctant to let their highly venerated image of the “Gioconda” leave but the priest kept arguing about the need of the fix and finally he took it with him. To these days he has never returned the image to its altar, but people has never forgot her and still venerates the “Virgen de Nequeteje”.

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China is often left out of discussions of early civilization which is a mistake since it was one of the first. If you are taking a trip to China, here is some background information your should know.

The official name of the country is the People’s Republic of China. China covers a land mass of over 3.7 million square miles, making it a large country indeed. The capital is Beijing. Other major cities include Shanghai, Tianjin, Shenyang, Wuhan, Guangzhou, Chongqing, Harbin, and Chengdu.

With such a massive land area, you can image that there is a wide variety of terrain in the country. Generally, one can find plains, deltas and hills in the east, while mountains, high plateaus and a vast desert exists in the west. The climate ranges from tropical in the far south to arctic cold in the far north on the border with Siberia, Russia.

The people of China are known as Chinese. The most recent population study put the total number of Chinese at over 1.3 billion people, more than four times as many people as found in the United States. Population growth, however, has slowed to roughly half a percent annually. The reason for the slow down is very controversial. Concerned about economic strain caused by population growth, China has implemented a policy of allowing for only one child per family with some minor exceptions. Enforcement of this policy is supposedly done through fines, but forced abortions are known to occur despite government policy opposing them. The government hopes to stabilize the population at no more than 1.6 billion people through 2050. The current infant mortality rate is an astonishingly high 25.5 per 1,000 births.

Ethnicity in China is a hodgepodge issue given its vast size and long history. Han Chinese is the dominant group, consisting of over 91 percent of the population. This is a very loose group, however, as evidenced by various dialects of language in the country. There are seven major Chinese dialects and literally hundreds of localized dialects. Mandarin is the dominant dialect, spoken by over 70 percent of the population in one form or another. That being said, only 60 percent of the Han Chinese can speak it with the remaining 40 percent speaking other dialects. In addition to Mandarin, languages spoken widely included Turkic, Korean, Uygur, Tibetan and Mongolian. It is often said that people in one part of China can’t communicate with people on the opposite side.

From a religious perspective, China is officially atheist. That being said, it takes a lax view towards faiths that work with the government. Buddhism is the largest faith with over 100 million practitioners. Taoism is the second most popular. There is a smattering of Muslim and Christian believers, but nothing significant.

As this overview demonstrates, China is huge and unique. This makes it a great travel destination.

Richard Monk is with FactsMonk.com – a site with facts about everything. Visit us to read more about country facts and facts about China.