The quite busy and crowded 7-day “golden week” holiday just ended yesterday. You cannot imagine the difficulty to buy railway, bus tickets or China Hotels, if you 
have never been travelling during this hot season. One of my friends tried to buy a railway ticket for independent Guangzhou Tours a week before the “golden week”. But she failed undoubtedly and turned to scalpers by adding 100 RMB to original prices of only 300 RMB. The top news every day in this week were always that tickets of most long-distance lines, such as to Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, had been sold out. Moreover, the regular 20% discount of flights was not available during this week. So if you happened to travel during these Chinese “long weekends”, the first suggestion would be choosing a travel service rather than backpackers.
The first benefit is obvious and described above: Cheap Price. Besides the expensive tickets for not joining a travel service, all the other expenses are also not cheap for individual tourist. Especially if your destination is Shanghai, where the tourism is booming this year because of 2010 World Expo, you are likely to end up with full-priced rooms even in 
hotels of 2 stars or below. The worst situation might be the same as the experience of another friend who was backing to China during the off-season period. Because of the flights delay, he was unable to catch the transferring flight and had to stay in Shanghai for one night. He tried at least 10 hotels to get a room, but unfortunately all the rooms had been booked and most of these were ordered by travel agencies. Therefore, he had to go for a rather expensive room which was three times expensive than usual rooms. As travel services often book a stack of rooms or tickets together and have long-term relationships with various hotels and airlines, they can easily get a lower price even in the “black-out” periods, like the “Golden Week”.
The second advantage which is my favorite is the Professional Guides. Being a backpacker means you need to collect much information, so that you could understand and explore local cultures, stories and histories behind the sights. 
But sometimes backpackers are too busy or lazy, like me, to do “homework” before setting off. As a result, they might miss some interesting places or spots. What is even worse, they may be trapped by some local business operators who are aiming to extort money from tourists. However, if you are in the group of travel agencies, you will receive reminders of these common tricks or traps and introductions of those historical stories, local cultures on road. Though you may also “sneak” into a tourist group and pretend to be a member to get introductions at one attraction spot.
The last, hope not the least, is unusual Featured Tour Packages. Thanks to the tense competitions among travel services, many new featured tour packages are coming up these years. You may be wondering to 
drive by yourself and travel in China, but you are worrying that you are not familiar with the road conditions and maps in China. Now the self-driving tour packages are provided by some travel agencies. They will arrange the groups, facilities, guides on the road which could release you from those worries. Also, you can ask them to rent a proper car in a local rental house. Otherwise you may not be able to get a car rented after your arrival. Moreover, the agritainment tourist programs are becoming popular in China. You can hunt crabs, fishes or chickens and pick up fresh fruit and vegetables on your own or with your family. No need to worry about language obstacles, since the travel services have arranged everything for you. You can have a taste of farmers’ lives of Chinese style.
If you are interested in finding more information of legitimated travel services and their attractive tour packages, you can go to the CYTS official website for China Tours.
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