My mother and I had an incredible 10…
My mother and I had an incredible 10 day trip to China for just the 2 of us. The tour was booked and managed by Nora Zheng who created a tour that was customized to my individual interest for an Ancient China experience. She booked us in traditional hotels and later in luxury hotels. We had guides and drivers in each city. Our guide/driver in BeiJing was Judy and Mr. Zhang. Both of them went above and beyond their duties. They were kind and accommodating. Mr. Zheng drove safely and went to extra effort to drive down the narrow Hutong alleys in BeiJing. Judy was knowledgeable, spoke great English and entertained my mother, who who had mobility issues, when I wanted to run ahead and see the sites that were too taxing for my mother to get to. In PingYao, we had Peter as our guide and Mr. Cheng was our driver. Mr. Cheng also navigated narrow, ancient alleyways safely. Peter was incredibly knowledgeable about China, impeccably polite, great English and gave of himself graciously when called upon to help my mother up and down the ancient stairways. His presence was reassuring and he was absolutely charming. In Xian, our guide was Lucas and our driver was Mr. Yang. Mr Yang was a safe driver and very friendly. I liked him a lot. Lucas was an incredible guide. He knew so much (all the guides did)! He downloaded his brain to me on subjects ranging from Daoism in ancient and modern times to the ancient poet, Li Bao - not to mention the vast amount of information he imparted on the sites we were attending. I thoroughly enjoyed his company and companionship - as I did all the guides. Finally, we went to Shanghai and met our guide, Summer and driver, Mr. Xuan. Mr. Xuan was a safe driver and went to extra trouble to accommodate my mother's mobility challenges. Summer has an excellent command of English and made sure all our needs were met and that we had a good time. I am misty-eyed upon writing this because I never expected the tender-hearted, personalized service from Nora Zheng and all the guides and drivers. These folks are going way beyond service. They are connecting as individuals from the heart. The only thing I could wish for my experience was that it had been longer.