China amazes, and the journey keeps getting easier

I have just returned from a trip to China, a destination that millions of Americans will be visiting in the next decade. Your understanding of the world is incomplete until you have made the journey.

This powerhouse of a nation, population 1.3 billion, shows increasing economic strength. It is enjoying phenomenal growth in its largely capitalist economy while maintaining the trappings of a communist dictatorship. It also is receiving millions of tourists from around the world and building hotels at a frantic pace.

Visiting China is no more difficult than visiting many other foreign destinations. Besides a visa, which the Chinese consulates issue in five to 10 days, you proceed as you would in any other overseas nation, passing through immigration and customs and touring as you would in, say, Europe.

Numerous U.S. travel specialists make the arrangements: a San Francisco company called China Focus, (888) 688-1898, for ultra-low-cost group tours; the New York-based Pacific Delight Tours, (800) 221-7179, for group tours in the medium price range; and a New Jersey company called Enterprises in China, (888) 7-BEIJING (723-4546), for meticulously planned, custom-tailored, costlier independent arrangements.

China Focus deserves particular attention. From December through March, you can enjoy 10 nights in six Chinese cities -- Shanghai, Beijing, Suzhou, Tai-an, Jinan and Qufu -- for $999 to $1,099 (depending on date) per person, double occupancy. The price includes round-trip air from San Francisco on Air China (there’s an $80 add-on fee for the United flight from LAX), all touring and transportation within China, hotel accommodations each night and three meals a day. The price is that low because it’s cold in Beijing, but no colder than in many U.S. cities, and if you pack the proper clothing you can enjoy a comfortable stay.

On your own independent tour of China, you’d be wise on a first trip to limit your itinerary to three cities: Beijing, Xi’an and Shanghai. From Beijing you visit the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace and Tiananmen Square. In Xi’an you view that remarkable, chilling Army of the Terra Cotta Warriors from the 2nd century BC. In Shanghai you visit the Shanghai Museum, with a spectacular collection of artifacts, and view the city life of a commercial powerhouse: modern shopping boulevards, traffic like that in New York, skyscrapers and an up-to-date subway.

In all three cities, you can find five-star hotels for $160 per double room, comfortable four-star hotels for $120, three stars for $70 -- and all of them will offer lower rates if you bargain after contacting them on the Web.

Can you really tour on your own in Shanghai? Even though the instructions are mainly in Chinese, it isn’t hard to work the ticket dispenser in a Shanghai subway station. I recently deposited 2 yuan, or 24 cents apiece, for my wife and me, and soon we were speeding in a slickly modern, almost silent train to a glass-and-marble-lined shopping center that rivaled, in contents and appearance, anything on Rodeo Drive or Fifth Avenue. There, amid throngs of well-dressed local shoppers, we purchased stylish cardigans for our daughters at a quarter of the price we would have paid in the United States.