Outstanding China Tour Company
We are a married couple who selected China Culture Tour based on numerous excellent reviews, and they did not disappoint. We worked with our trip coordinator, Lydia Huang, from the very start of our planning process. She provided us with great suggestions and comments on our personal desires and interests. Together, we developed a customized itinerary which worked very well throughout our nearly one month in China. We could not have made it work without Lydia's input before and during the trip. She did an outstanding job of making our trip worry free and enjoyable. We found China to be very safe. The people of China are very friendly and helpful even when they speak little English. We recommend that other Western visitors continue to plan and come to China. It is a fascinating country. Don’t let the unpredictable political climate intimidate you to not come to China. You will enjoy the adventure. Our itinerary, which included a guide and driver at nearly each stop, started in Beijing where we stayed in a traditional style hotel, had a city tour, and hiked the Great Wall. Our guide, Jin, was outstanding, spoke very good English and was very knowledgable. He made us feel comfortable in China from the start. We easily and comfortably travelled by high speed train throughout China. Our next stop was Xi’an where our guide Amy expertly showed us the sites of that area to include the Terra Cotta Warriors. We then took the train to Chengdu to see the Pandas. Our guide here, Donna Lin, was outstanding and the visit to the Panda Research Center was a learning experience. We quickly developed a comfortable friendship with Donna and other guides. Having drivers in each location is a must. Driving (and riding) can be very stressful and having someone else do it was absolutely necessary. Money well spent! Our next event was a 3 day relaxing cruise on the Yangtze River. The boat was comfortable and clean, and the food was very good. We made several new friends who were independently traveling like us. After the cruise, we flew to Hangzhou where we had one of our trip highlights. We visited a local Tea Village where we experienced picking tea leaves and had an elegant tea ceremony by Nana our host. Another highlight of our trip was visiting the Yellow Mountains and hiking the long, steep staircase mountain trails. The scenery was breath-taking especially at sunrise. After leaving the rugged mountains, we stayed in a remote village, Xidi, at the Pig’s Inn. This was another highlight of our trip since we experienced a rural village where we picked and cooked vegetables from a local farmer’s garden. Even though the family did not speak English, we thoroughly enjoyed our interaction with the local family with our guide’s helpful translating. We highly recommend that others experience this rural adventure. We visited Shanghai where our guide, Martina, and driver drove us to Suzhou to see the beautiful gardens and Tongli Water Town. Even though Shanghai is a big westernized city, we thoroughly enjoyed the city especially strolling at night along the Bund. We rode the very fast Maglev train to the airport for our flight to Guilin. The Maglev is a quick experience not to be missed. Guilin is home to China Culture and we had the pleasure of meeting our tour coordinator Lydia. We enjoyed the city and its beautiful lakes and gardens. From here, our guide, Jay, and driver drove us to the Longji rice terraces for a day of hiking. This was another highlight of our trip. We also ventured down the Li River on an enjoyable cruise. We highly recommend that others consider these two side trips from Guilin. From here, we took a high speed train to Hong Kong where we independently toured the city and sites for two days. We completed our China adventure on the 28th day by flying to Tokyo for another adventure in Japan. We spent 28 days in China and thanks to China Culture Tour, our itinerary went exactly as planned from end to end. This speaks very highly of our tour company and coordinator who expertly exceeded our expectations. We thoroughly enjoyed our China experience and would use China Culture again if we return. We recommend that you use them too!