Discover the New China with Imperial Tours
Publication: Insider Travel Report
Interview: Discover the New China with Imperial Tours
Interviewer: James Shillinglaw
This interview originally appeared on the Insider Travel Report channel and is republished with permission as part of Imperial Tours’ media archive.
Discover the New China with Imperial Tours
James Shillinglaw talks with Guy Rubin, managing partner of Imperial Tours, the Beijing-based destination specialist in luxury programs to China. Rubin talks about what’s going on in China today, what the hot destinations are, including Chengdu and the western part of the country, and the food scene. He also showcases how China is a leader in such areas as technology, pollution control and transportation. Most importantly Rubin talks the special experiences his company can deliver, such as an individual nighttime visit to the Temple of Heaven in Beijing.
Originally produced by Insider Travel Report and reposted with permission.
Interview Transcript
James Shillinglaw: Hi, I’m here with Guy Rubin, managing partner for Imperial Tours in Beijing, and we’re going to talk a little bit about what’s going on in China today and what’s hot.
James Shillinglaw: Now Guy, we’ve talked before about China, and you have a very great boutique tour operator that provides really special experiences throughout the country. Let’s talk first of all: what are the hot destinations in China today?
Guy Rubin: I think there are two things going on at the moment. More people want to explore off-the-beaten-track destinations, so they want to go further west, using Chengdu as a platform and heading out to northern Yunnan, maybe going to Tibet.
Guy Rubin: Chengdu itself, with its history, the pandas, and also an incredible culinary scene, is really taking off. Sichuanese food is very vibrant. Sichuanese people love food, and the restaurant scene and all the other opportunities that relate to that are really taking off now.
James Shillinglaw: And I hear the food is a little bit hot too.
Guy Rubin: Spicy. What makes the tour operator’s life hard is finding places that are not too spicy for many travelers coming in. That can be a challenge in Chengdu, but for people who are interested in food, it is a place where people love food.
James Shillinglaw: For someone who’s never been to China before, what is the itinerary that you still recommend? Many people have not yet been to China.
Guy Rubin: There are about four or five weeks of travel at the luxury level within China, but for many people going to China for the first time, they are always going to do Beijing and Shanghai. Then about 90 percent after that will do Xi’an and see the Terracotta Warriors.
Guy Rubin: After that, you’re at about nine nights right there. So then it becomes a question of who the people are. Are they a family? Are they a couple? What do they want to get out of it? Then we’ll try to customize a bit more in terms of the destination. If they can head out west and have the time to do it, then we’ll do it.
James Shillinglaw: What about a second visit? What would you recommend?
Guy Rubin: That’s exactly when you head out west. People are heading to Chengdu, to Yunnan, to Tibet. Maybe they’ll go to Dunhuang, where they’ve got the Mogao Caves, things like that. If people are into nature and blue skies, we could go to Guilin or Huangshan, just to kick back as a family and explore the wide open fresh air.
James Shillinglaw: Are you seeing more families visiting on your tours?
Guy Rubin: China is the future. I think what China has as a destination over a lot of other destinations is this sense of tomorrow. I think that’s what’s happening for eastern destinations as well. People are starting to realize that China is leading in a lot of applications.
Guy Rubin: For example: software, architecture, transportation. You’ve got the trains, supercomputers, and all sorts of ways now that China is moving ahead from being the place where you get cheap manufactured goods to being a place that is more of a solution for the world.
James Shillinglaw: For example, if we talk about pollution, most of us think about living in Beijing, and I remember sometimes you would say it was pretty polluted. But that was a few years ago, right?
Guy Rubin: There’s been a 40 percent drop from 2013 to 2017 in pollution. We’re seeing a 25 percent drop year on year. There’s been some very aggressive government action, and I think the government deserves credit for it.
Guy Rubin: Beijing is still growing as a city, but they’ve closed a lot of factories down: battery-producing factories, coal-fired electricity production centers, heavy industry. There’s a whole town that was dependent on heavy industry that has actually been flattened.
Guy Rubin: The government’s been pretty wily. That same town, which had a lot of heavy industry, is now the base for the Winter Olympics coming in 2022. So all those people that may have lost their jobs now have jobs in construction. That’s why I say they’ve been quite wily in keeping economic growth going and at the same time reducing pollution.
Guy Rubin: On the technology side, there are these new apps that have conquered China in terms of people being able to leave their car at home and get on a bike.
Guy Rubin: I met with probably China’s top hedge fund manager for dinner a month or so ago in Beijing, a guy who’s obviously very, very wealthy. I said, “Where do you want to meet for dinner?” and he said, “Could we make it near the Sanlitun area? I’m on my bike.”
Guy Rubin: The great thing these bike apps are doing is encouraging people to move from their car, which is obviously causing pollution, and there are great health benefits. People are going by bike now.
James Shillinglaw: I want to close this out by talking about maybe two or three special experiences. I know there are a lot, and I’ve done these with you. Talk about some of the more unusual things that you can do as part of your tours.
Guy Rubin: There are all sorts of things. James, as you know, we have a new experience at the moment.
James Shillinglaw: Okay, tell me.
Guy Rubin: We’re now able to offer the Temple of Heaven, which is the most sacred site in China. It’s 300 hectares large. Usually if you go there, you’re going to be there with about two thousand or three thousand other people within that site.
Guy Rubin: However, we can now get you access at night to that destination.
James Shillinglaw: That’s a very small group, right?
Guy Rubin: It’s you. That’s it. You’re on your own. Three hundred hectares, illuminated for you. There’s nothing quite like it. It’s shockingly good.
James Shillinglaw: I know, and I was able to see things like lunch on the Great Wall. You have fabulous experiences in very private restaurants in Beijing and elsewhere. But I think what people don’t realize is that you also have these incredibly modern Michelin-star restaurants throughout the big cities too, right?
Guy Rubin: Absolutely. The Michelin Guide has now come to Shanghai. I think they’re in Beijing, though I’m not 100 percent sure about that. The food scene in Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shanghai has definitely taken off.
Guy Rubin: Obviously Michelin looks more at Western food than Chinese food. I would be very interested in someone starting a Chinese food guide, because Chinese food in China is nothing related to Chinese food in the U.S. or outside China. Chinese food in China is absolutely great, and I would like to see someone take up that baton and increase understanding of Chinese food.
Guy Rubin: I was talking about Sichuanese food earlier, which is just an amazing food scene. But it’s not the only one. There’s a lot of great Chinese food and a lot of great regional food.
James Shillinglaw: Believe me, if I go to China, yes, it’s interesting to go eat in Western restaurants occasionally, but I really am there for the Chinese food, and what very different Chinese food, as you mentioned.
Guy Rubin: James, I gave you a pretty good world exclusive there about the Temple of Heaven.
James Shillinglaw: That’s great. That sounds like an incredible experience, and hopefully people will now be calling you and saying, “I want to go to the Temple of Heaven.”
Guy Rubin: We’ll see what happens.
James Shillinglaw: Guy, thank you very much for taking the time to give us once again a view of the new modern China that I don’t think people still realize is there. There are advancements all the time and investments in travel, and obviously new places to go everywhere in the country.
Guy Rubin: People have to change how they think about China. In terms of what I was talking about with technology, it’s a place that’s really moving forward. You have to get to China to see the future.
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