Respect for older travelers in China? Yes. Concern for them? Yes, but one senior found it a little too protective

Regarding “Wind Your Way,” by David Swanson, Feb. 5: As a senior, I found traveling in China several years ago to be filled with new experiences, tastes and some challenges: Although “old people” are venerated, offered opportunities to participate in tai chi classes and dance the waltz in public parks, when I tried to undertake any activity that did not “correlate” with what was perceived as age appropriate (for example, climbing the Great Wall), my undertaking was not only frowned upon but actively discouraged.

Cultural differences overruled my definition of being “in shape.’”

Ruth Kramer Ziony

Los Feliz

Swanson’s article certainly made me long for a second trip. We too found the section of the Great Wall that is on most tour providers’ list crowded with tacky kitsch. Still, it was a must-see.

Also on our list is the Three Gorges Dam and the terra-cotta warriors and a return to a less-traveled part of the Great Wall.Paul BrownSanta Ana

Sharing tax burden

In the Feb. 5 Letters column, writer John Williams comments on transient taxes and calls them "taxation without representation.“ From his tone, it’s possible that he was being sarcastic, and in today’s political climate we could all use a little humor.

But on the off-chance that folks take him seriously, I want to ground this discussion in a bit of reality.

I am a part-time resident of a small town (population 420) in rural Oregon. Our principal form of income is through tourism: whitewater rafting and fly fishing. The tourist season lasts just four months. During that time, our population swells to as many as 3,000 every weekend.

Although many of the visitors camp in Bureau of Land Management sites, the majority stay in motels and small bed-and-breakfast places in town. Because the huge influx of tourists over the weekends overtaxed our small-town sewage-treatment plant, a new one had to be built to handle the weekend volume.

All of us residents pay a flat $84 water-and-sewer fee each month to cover the costs of building and running that plant. Contrast that with my monthly bill from Irvine Ranch Water District here in Orange County, which (in the days before I moved to Silverado and now have a septic tank) hovered between $25 and $30.

A few years ago, our City Council finally voted to institute a transient tax on those visitors to help pay for not just the new sewage treatment plant but also to help cover the costs of the increased volume of waste disposal and recycling.

Those extra few dollars tacked onto each hotel bill make a huge difference in the quality of life in my little rural paradise, and I (and other residents) think it only fair that the majority of folks who are using our services ought to help pay for them.

Julie Whetzel

Silverado Calif., and Maupin, Ore.

Plant enthusiasts catalog wildflowers blooming at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

The National Park of American Samoa, a haven of rainforest and empty beaches that includes pieces of three South Pacific Islands, is about 2,500 miles southwest of Hawaii.

Giant snow dump in the Sierra

Botanical wonders abound in the wild Sonoran Desert of Organ Pipe National Monument and Saguaro National Park. Just mind the heat. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

The next president will find a Washington, D.C., that’s dramatically different from the city Barack Obama saw at his inauguration in 2009, or even the one in 2013. Museums and hotels, new and renewed. Restaurants left and right. Lower crime and rising neighborhoods, too.

travel@latimes.com

@latimestravel

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