4.5 stars: Beijing, X'ian, Shanghai and Hangzhou
Excellent professional booking experience with Maggi...adequate details, flexible to our needs, great patience with all our issues, timely communications before and during our 11 day trip, and great value:price packaging. 2 of our 3 guides were great. The 3rd was very knowledgeable, but not attuned to our expectations or wants. When we hit a challenge at the end of our trip, an off-duty China Highlights guide, Wang Rui, who happened to be near us, dropped everything to successfully meet our needs. As first time travelers to China, both of us definitely will recommend China Highlights to others. A few notes about our trip: -get a local SIM card; even the "best" VPN service is not reliable -yes, cash is king. don't leave home without it. -a "golden triangle" agenda is worthy of your time, but allow yourself unstructured days to explore other areas -know that China is very modern and very focused on building tourism and glitz, often at the expense of historical communities -while toilet facilities left something to be desired, the 4-berth sleeper trains offered a chance to meet others and save travel time -the metro is your trusted friend for moving around without a guide -we'd describe each of our hotels as clean and generally comfortable 3 star US-type properties in safe, but a bit off the beaten track. be prepared to walk to get the most out of each area.