If you are looking for China Tours Subsidized by the Chinese Government, you should read this.
Before COVID-19, several tour companies peddled “China tours subsidized by the Chinese government” all over the internet even though such subsidized tours never existed. These deceiving companies all went belly up in the wake of COVID-19. However, it is almost certain that the “entrepreneurs” behind the scheme would resurface somewhere under different corporate identities to take advantage of gullible consumers.
The unscrupulous merchant sells you a China tour package below cost and tells you it is all because the trip is sponsored or subsidized by the Chinese government. Being someone who speaks no Chinese and knows very little about China, you accept what you are being told, thinking what a bargain you’ve just gotten yourself.
What happens afterward goes like this. The guide and driver at the destination buy you from the tour company for the right to “serve” you. Once you are in their hands, you’ll be paraded through endless shopping stops and scams disguised as immersive activities (tea ceremony, jade appraisal, herbal medicines, you name it) throughout the trip. Instead of visiting historical landmarks and learning about Chinese culture, you end up spending most of your time fending off aggressive sales pitches. You say, well, I’m not going to open up my wallet no matter what. What can they do about it? Only people who put no value on their time would think this way. They will not let you out unless you spend at least 90 minutes in the shop and there are actually people from the shop recording your group’s arrival and departure time.
In such places, everything is outrageously overpriced so that you can bargain the price down. A $1,000 jade bracelet can be bought for $200 and you say to yourself what a bargain it is without realizing that the piece of fake jade in your hand is worth no more than $20 elsewhere.
These tour companies would tell you that the stores are owned by the government and they have to take you there because your trip is being subsidized by the Chinese government. What a fat lie! It just makes no sense for a government busy running the world’s second-largest economy with a huge US dollar reserve in its control to waste time and money on such laughable attempts. The Chinese government got out of the retail business geared towards foreign tourists decades ago through the privatization of their “Friendship Stores”. To think that the Chinese government owns tourist stores is just crazy.
You may have read somewhere that all China tour companies include shopping stops in their tours. Such misinformation is understandable if it comes from credulous tourists. When this nonsense comes from a tour company, you know you are dealing with a dishonest business.
To sum up, China tours subsidized by the Chinese government simply don’t exist. Now you know why.
