China: 'Go before you get too old' – because so much walking is involved
Simon Calder's Independent Travel Podcast
The Independent
3.6 • 628 Ratings
🗓️ 2 February 2026
⏱️ 6 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The first UK tour operator to China in the 1970s was Regent Holidays. Neil Taylor, now a tour leader and travel guide writer, was the man behind the trips behind the "Bamboo Curtain". He contrasts then with now, and offers advice for anyone seeking to take advantage of the new visa-free status of British holidaymakers.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | So, hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast with me, Simon Calder. |
| 0:06.8 | It's Monday the 2nd of February. |
| 0:10.2 | And if you were kind enough to listen on Friday, you will have heard the news that, |
| 0:15.7 | well, China is suddenly going to go from one of the countries, |
| 0:19.0 | which has the toughest red tape for British |
| 0:22.1 | visitors to one of the easiest. You just turn up and show your passport for a stay of up to |
| 0:28.6 | 30 days. It's something I wish to discuss rather more depth with, I think, the man who started |
| 0:36.6 | tourism from the UK to China, Neil Taylor, |
| 0:41.2 | former director of Regent Holidays. |
| 0:44.5 | Nice to be talking about such a happy topic, really? |
| 0:47.4 | Yes. |
| 0:48.1 | Well, tell us about the history of tourism to China because it was basically, you were the only show in town? |
| 0:54.3 | Well, it was very intense group tours and totally political. |
| 0:59.5 | So with reluctance, I think, in the early 70s, one was taken to the forbidden city of the Great War. |
| 1:05.7 | In the very early days, of course, the warriors were not open in Xi'an. |
| 1:09.9 | The terracotta warriors, one of the great sites of China. |
| 1:12.9 | But they weren't available until the late 70s. |
| 1:16.4 | That was how cut off China then was from tourism now. |
| 1:20.7 | And you had no choice as to the hotels you went to. |
| 1:24.1 | You were just told on arrival, which hotel you had been, |
| 1:26.8 | no single rooms, for instance, |
| 1:29.2 | entirely group visas, there was no deviation. And of course, since then, things have become on |
... |
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