A Trip of A Life Time !!!
My husband and I had talked about visiting China for several years. Finally, this Spring (early April to early May 2019), my husband and I along with another couple whom we have been friends with for many years, decided to write up a list of sights we wanted to see (Beijing, Datong, Pingyao, Xian, Chengdu, Chongqing (Yangtze River Cruise), Zhangjiajie, Shanghai, Xidi, Tunxi, Huangshang, and Hong Kong)and visit in the different parts of China. We checked out the various tour companies, and based on the great reviews, we decided to contact China Cultural Tours via email to see if CCT would be able to provide an itinerary, at a reasonable cost, based upon the various sites we wanted to visit in China. Nora Jung of CCT was great in providing us with a great itineary, at a reasonable cost. She even suggested to apply for a 10 year China Visa; as it was the same cost as a 1 year China Visa, which would allow us to visit China as many times as we wanted within the next 10 years. Nora also suggested setting up the WeChat app, to test between us before we left the US, as a way to communicate with her during our time in China. Our trip was what I call "a trip of a life time!!!", one of the most memorable trips in my life. I attribute this to the excellent and seamless arrangements made by Nora Jung of CCT. Nora worked hard to make sure we were happy with the itinenary; both with the tours and the lodging. Nora gave us some very experienced and well informed tour guides with fluency in English. The tour guides were very helpful not only in arranging some fantastic restaurants where we could try some of the local cuisine, but also in actually helping us with the food selections. Most notable among the tour guides, was Nancy in Beijing, whom I would highly recommend. She was very professional; suggested adjusting the schedule when the weather warranted it; willing to adjust schedule to meet our needs, etc. She even went as far as to take us onto the train, into our sleeper car, help put the luggage up, and provided us with a souvenir and snacks before seeing us off to our next stop: Datong and Pingyao. The other tour guides that I would recommend are Jessica in Chengdu and Libby in Xidi,Tunxi, and Huangshang. Jessica was very enthusiastic and very helpful. She volunteered to take photos and videos during the entire time we spent in the Panda Preserve, working as part of the Panda Keeper Program. Libby was another very enthusiastic guide, who was very knowledgable of the towns of Xidi, Tunxi as well as Yellow Mountain. I would highly recommend China Cultural Tours and Nora Jung of CCT to anyone who plans to visit China. I would definitely use their services again should we ever make a return visit to other parts of China.