A Bustling Shangri-La In Winter.(China)(Brief Article)

It can be bitterly cold in Beijing in November, and yet the hotels last month were jammed with tourists from around the world.

China is now a major travel destination (the Chinese boast it'll be the world's most heavily visited place in just a few years), and the job of getting there isn't hard at all. Your visa is issued in five to 10 days; you need no vaccinations or immunizations unless you are going to rural areas (my wife and I quite unnecessarily had hepatitis A and B shots about a month before flying to Beijing, Xian and Shanghai). Your room reservations can be made online, where sharply discounted winter rates are as low as $55 a night for doubles at modern four-star hotels in Beijing, $70 in Shanghai, from english.ctrip.com or asiatravel.com. And dozens of airlines fly there at reasonable rates from every major country--often for less than $800 round trip. (Lufthansa flies direct from Frankfurt to Beijing for $672, British Airways for $711 out of London.)

You can spend even less on air fare by purchasing an air-and-land package to China or by contacting one of those vaguely spooky air-fare consolidators (like the German-owned TISS--log on to tiss.com) that cut the normal fares to the Middle Kingdom from virtually every continent. A raft of well-regarded carriers also offer land-only tours. China Focus (chinafocustravel.com) takes you to five cities (Beijing, Suzhou, Shanghai, Qufu and Taian) in 10 nights, for $699 per person from January through early March, including three meals a day and all transportation. Groups like General Tours (generaltours.com) and China Silk Tour (chinasilktour.com) also offer single-city visits of five or six nights, including daily breakfast, one or two lunches and sightseeing from $280 to $349 per person through February.

But why should you make a winter trip to China? Apart from viewing the wonders of a 4,000-year-old civilization (the Great Wall; the Forbidden City; the terra-cotta warriors; the stunning ceramic, jade and bronze art of the Shanghai Museum), the answer is usually phrased ...