Документ взят из кэша поисковой машины. Адрес оригинального документа : http://www.atmob.org/events/travel/TTChinaNewsletterATMoB-2.pdf Дата изменения: Mon Mar 24 05:21:23 2008 Дата индексирования: Mon Oct 1 21:19:29 2012 Кодировка:

China Solar Eclipse Expedition Newsletter # 2
Greetings and Happy 2008 to all the members of the July 2009, Twilight Tours/ATMoB solar eclipse expedition to China. I hope that everyone has had a happy, healthy, and safe holiday season, and that the New Year is bringing you every good thing that you wished for. Things continue to shape up well for the tour we have arranged, just over a year from now, on July 19th of next year. This second newsletter is being sent out to all those currently registered/under deposit for the tour (both the short itinerary returning on July 24th, and the extended tour, returning on July 29th). Those of you who attended the open orientation session held last October 27th on the Harvard University campus in Phillips Auditorium were able to learn more about the tour itinerary, potential observing sites, and other important information relevant to our upcoming trip 17 months from now. For those who may have missed the orientation session, or who were not registered for the tour at that time, Bernie Volz has captured my MS PowerPoint presentation (in .PDF format) and placed it on the ATM web site. The URL for that presentation is: http://www.atmob.org/events/travel. php . The presentation is listed under the October 27, 2007 heading. As it has been a stretch of time since our first newsletter, I'd now like to dive into those items which are important and need your attention, as some of them are of a timecritical nature.

Cancellation Fee Schedule
Just as a friendly reminder, "officially", according to the registration form which all of you have completed and returned to Twilight Tours (either by mail or fax), the published cancellation fee schedule is now set to "kick in" the beginning of next month/March. While the schedule cites that beginning on 1 March, the cancellation fee shall be "equal to 30% of the tour price", I am now going to reduce this fee rather substantially, to now equal $100 per cancelled space. A caveat here: as previously arranged with Bernie and Mario, in instances where space(s) are 1


cancelled, and the next person(s) residing on the official waiting list for the tour takes those spaces being surrendered, the cancellation fee shall be waived. Another important point, however... Any transfer of reserved space MUST be coordinated through Mario Motta, as Mario maintains the official waiting list, and thus he, and only he, holds the authority to approve of and affect such transfers of reservations. This is very critical, folks, as we need to maintain order and ensure that the next rightful "waitee" on the list gets their opportunity to join the tour.

·

space you currently are holding for the July 19th ­ 24th trip. For those participating in the longer tour, from July 19th through the 29th, we are now requiring a progress payment of $750 per space currently reserved.

Both these payments are designed such that they will bring all tour registrants to about a 50% deposit level, give or take a few percent. I would like to request that all progress payments, as outlined above, be sent to our offices (the address is at the end of this newsletter) by the close of business on Friday, March 28th. For those who intend to pay by credit card, I will need to have your card information (card number and expiration date) and a brief note okaying the charge, in hand (email, fax, or telephone authorization are all acceptable) by that date, please. That said, I once again wish to remind ALL tour participants that the tour costs currently indicated (e.g., $1100 for the short itinerary and $2575 for the extended tour) are still subject to change/increase between now and the spring of 2009. I have asked our inbound tour operator for some type of guesstimate of the percent of increase to expect for 2009/our final price, but they will not have those figures until after this summer (due to the total focus being placed on the Beijing Summer Olympics this August). 2

Near Term Progress Payment Schedule
To refresh everyone's memory, your initial deposits made for the short/condensed tour itinerary (July 19th to the 24th) or the extended tour (July 19th to the 29th) were $300 per reservation. In order to ensure that all tour costs are paid off well before the tour departure, I intend to have tour participants "pay down" their respective balances, through a series of progress payments, over the next 14 months. Thus, I am now announcing that the following progress payments need to be made: · For those on the short tour, we are requesting an $300 additional deposit/payment for each


As soon as I have final, NTE ("Not to Exceed") price information for the tour, I will convey that information to you as quickly as humanly possible. I should also remind all tour participants that while the tour prices (both versions of the tour) include the major costs of hotel, most meals, baggage transfer, ground transportation/surface transfers between venues, observing site use, and intra-China air flights (for the extended tour itinerary), they do NOT include any international air transportation.

To help you plan for future progress payments and other key tour milestones prior to our departure, I am providing a handy time line of major tour events below.

Timeline for ATMoB 2009 Eclipse Tour

9/2006 Registration Begins for ATMoB Tour

2/2008 Second Newsletter Distributed 9/2007 First Newsletter Distributed

7/17/09 - 7/19/09 ATMoB Tour Departs for China 3/2009 Final Tour Payments Due

9/06

10/2007 Orientation Meeting at Phillips Auditorium

3/2008 First Progress Payment Due

7/09 5/2009 Final Newsletter Distributed

11/2008 Second Progress Payment Due

3


Chinese Visas
One very crucial requirement for our trip that ALL tour members will need to have (along with a valid, current U.S. Passport) will be a Chinese Tourist Visa. This document is mandatory for all visitors to the People's Republic of China, regardless of their age or the purpose of their visit (business or pleasure/vacation). There are several means by which you can obtain a Chinese Visa. First, you can apply in person by visiting one of the official PRC/Chinese consular offices in these six cites: Washington D.C., New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Houston, or Los Angeles. Second, you can submit your visa form, passport-sized photo, U.S. passport, and the required fees, to one of the many visa processing services that abound on the web. Third, our inbound tour operator, China Travel Service (CTS), will process your visa application for you (again, provided that you send in all required documentation and fees with your completed form). Let me make several very important comments here regarding visas for our trip: · Twilight Tours receives NO fees or profit from China Travel Service for their processing of your visa ·

application(s). This is a totally independent activity, in no manner associated with our company. · For the next six months, the Chinese government is totally focused on the Summer Olympics activities, and thus, any application for a tourist visa is sure to be buried in a mass of visa requests. And again, as we are not departing for over a year from now, you must NOT apply for this visa until spring 2009. You must ensure that U.S. passport is valid minimum of 6 months our dates of travel to (e.g., good until at January 26th or January 2010 --- depending which itinerary you are to be following). your for a after China least 29th, upon going

The current fee for a Chinese tourist visa, valid for 90 days from the date of issue, is $130. This entitles the bearer to make one entry/exit into the country from abroad. Again, in addition to the visa cost, you must furnish a passport-sized head and shoulders, color photo of yourself (no hat or other ancillary artifacts can be worn in the photo). You need to be aware that this current price of $130 has changed significantly from what the fee was last August (2007) during our site visitation to Shanghai/Hangzhou. This change is yet another excellent

4


reason why you are advised to WAIT until applying for your PRC visitor's visa until next year. Should you elect to use a visa service (or our tour operator, CTS) there will be an additional processing fee beyond the visa cost itself. Also, you must furnish a pre-paid, return envelope for the return mailing of your passport when using a visa service expediter. You can learn more about the requirements and procedure for obtaining a tourist visa for PRC at the following PRC embassy web site: http://www.chinaembassy.org/eng/hzqz/zgqz/default. htm

with one of their airline travel partners (United, American Airlines, China Airlines). In either instance, you will need to ensure that you have made arrangements to get to Shanghai, China, no later than the afternoon of Sunday, July 19th, 2009. Also, you will then need to arrange your return flight back to the U.S., from Shanghai, no sooner than Friday, July 24th, 2009. For those taking the extended tour, which concludes in Beijing, you will need to arrange your flight back to the U.S. no sooner than Wednesday, July 29th, from Beijing (NOT Shanghai, as Shanghai is your entry point, but serves as the return gateway only for those on the short tour program). Additionally, I need to stress that you must arrange your inbound flights to dovetail with the land tour, such that you are in Shanghai, China, no later than the afternoon of Sunday, July 19th. I make this point emphatically, due to the fact that the tour group shall be "a rapidly moving target", and we do not know the degree of highway congestion we shall encounter in China during the period of the eclipse. You also need to be aware that generally, most air carriers will not begin booking flights before approximately 330 days prior to your initial departure date. I mention this, as the foregoing information is meant to be largely notional at this point in time, since the fact remains

International Air Flights
As mentioned earlier in the newsletter, the tour cost for both the short itinerary and the extended tour do NOT include any international/transpacific air arrangements. Thus, you have basically two options with regard to this matter. One, you can arrange your own international air tickets, either using your own travel agent, or by finding the best air tickets available on the web using such firms as Travelocity, Expedia, or others. Two, the other option you have of course, is to have Twilight Tours (actually CTS) set you up with the required flights, using space they have "blocked" as a tour wholesaler,

5


that you cannot make bookings for the tour now.

any

air

Conclusion
That about wraps it up for this edition of the newsletter. Expect to see the third installment of this publication this coming summer. In that newsletter, I will be covering items such as recommended/required inoculations, general health precautions to follow during our tour, and more details about our primary and backup observing sites for eclipse day. Should you have any questions or concerns about the material covered in this newsletter, please feel free to contact me, using the information listed below. Until next time, stay well, be safe, and clear skies!! - Joel Harris, President, Twilight Tours Inc.

Twilight Tours Inc. 31555 Rustic Oak Drive Westlake Village, CA 91361 Phone: (818) 575-9580 Fax: (818) 575-9588 Email: twilighttours@pacbell.net

6