Marco Polo should have had it so easy. 888 International has teamed up with the People’s Republic of China and the Henan Provincial government to offer a unique tour, “China by Motorcycle,” to motorcycle enthusiasts.
The three-week China tour begins with three days in Beijing visiting the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, the Great Wall, Ming Tombs, the Summer Palace and Beijing Zoo for the pandas before setting out by overnight train to Zhengzhou, the starting point for the motorcycle expedition. Tour members will spend two days sightseeing in Zhengzhou and practicing on their 750 c.c., twin-opposed, air-cooled police motorcycles (sidecars optional) before setting out on Day 8 with van support. Stops along the tour are steeped in Chinese culture and history, and include visits to important archeological sites, a porcelain factory and Shaolin Temple, to name a few. Each day’s drive will vary between 50 and 120 miles, although there is one 185-mile ride planned, for a total of about 1,200 miles on motorcycle from Zhengzhou to Xian. The tour concludes with a flight to Shanghai for the next day’s flight to New York.
Tours are led by Noah Mandell, who has spent the past 11 years traveling in China. Tours are scheduled for November, and next year in April, June and November. Space is still available for this November. The cost for the China expedition is $5,888 for the rider and $4,888 for the sidecar passenger, based on double occupancy (single supplement, $488). The price includes New York-Beijing-Shanghai-New York air fare, all hotels, about 60 meals and banquets, and a tour of the Great Wall. It also includes all transportation, motorcycle rental, no-deposit/no-deductible group collision insurance, a Chinese motorcycle operator’s license and license fees. Call 603-883-0037.
`CHUNNEL’ TO OPEN
Forget the ferries, forget the Hovercraft, and definitely forget swimming the English Channel this time of year. The oft-delayed, much-anticipated beginning of regular passenger service between England and France via the “Chunnel,” the rail tunnel under the English Channel, is set to begin Oct. 23.
In anticipation of this historic occasion, Rail Europe will begin selling tickets and on-line reservations for the Eurostar direct train service between London and Paris or Brussels on Oct. 3. Fares will be announced in later this month or in early October, when the schedules become available.
Preliminary reports place the London-Paris run at three hours and 20 minutes, and Paris to London at 3 1/2 hours. Rail officials hope to have the running time down to three hours flat by the time commercial service begins. For information and tickets, call 800-94-CHUNNEL.
AMAZON EXPEDITION
There will be no white Christmas on this December vacation. Dustin Becker, naturalist, ecologist, experienced Amazon guide, and associate professor at Indiana University, will escort a group of 23 nature enthusiasts to the Peruvian Amazon Dec. 17-24.
The trip will cover some 300 miles on the upper Amazon River and its tributaries. Tour members will explore parts of the Amazon rain forest that contain the highest diversity of bird and tree species in the world, including a view from a 1,500-foot treetop canopy walkway that offers safe access to a seldom-seen part of the jungle. In addition, tour members will visit native Indian villages, explore the rain forest at night and even fish for piranha.
The trip, which is offered through Explorations Inc., costs $2,095 per person, double occupancy (single supplement, $100) from Chicago and includes air fare, lodging in remote jungle lodges, meals and daily excursions. Call 800-446-9660.
ON THE ROAD
What has nearly 650,000 miles of roads, about 125,000 cities and town, and thousands of attractions? Answer: The Rand McNally TripMaker, a computer program that will plan your leisurely or hurried road trip across the United States, Canada and Mexico. TripMaker includes thousands of recreational activities and attractions, along with pre-planned scenic tours. The program will print complete driving directions on how to get to your destinations as well as detailed itineraries and maps to take with you on the road. And if all else fails, it also comes with a North American road atlas.
For example, TripMaker plotted the quickest trip from Elgin to South Bend, giving the driving distance of 132 miles and a driving time of two hours and 13 minutes. The route begins on the Northwest Tollway and proceeds through the Kennedy and Dan Ryan Expressways, the Chicago Skyway and the Indiana Toll Road. The printed directions and map were clean and easy to read, but as any Chicagoan knows, the estimated travel time is wildly optimistic except in the dead of night.
TripMaker costs $79.95 and requires Microsoft Windows 3.1 or higher, EGA, VGA or higher graphics card, DOS 3.3 or higher, 80386 or higher PC, four megabytes of RAM and a minimum of 11 megabytes of hard-disk space. The program comes on 3.5-inch high-density disks with a mail-in card for 5.25-inch disks. As a plus, Rand McNally gives free, unlimited technical support via telephone or via CompuServe. The program is being developed for Macintosh and CD-ROM, but is not yet available for those systems. To order, call 800-671-5006.
