Have just returned from a wonderful and spectacular 2 week trip to China and it was just out of this world!.
Jiawen and the team kindly put our amazing itinerary together and it all ran like clockwork, no problems or hassle at all.
All the guides we had, (in date order) David in Beijing, Andy in Xian, Cecile in Chengdu, Tao in Guilin and finally Peter in Shanghai, were all very very friendly and charming, very professional, spoke perfect English and their local knowledge was amazing, I can’t thank them enough really, they were all just brilliant.
We started our trip in Beijing where we met David and saw over 3 days walking tours of the 798 art district, the Temple of Heaven, Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Olympic Park and visited the Great Wall - Mutianyu Section and the Summer Palace back in Beijing and enjoyed some wonderful food too which David recommended all the traditional restaurants to us and the orientation of Beijing city also.
From there we caught the bullet train to Xi’an, where we met with Andy and we visited over 2 days the drum and bell towers of Xi’an which were all lit up at night, the muslin quarter, cycled along the old city walls (14 kilometres in total and totally worth it) and was driven to the spectacular Terracotta Warriors which was just amazing.
Caught another efficient bullet train to Chengdu where Cecile met us at the train station and we visited and had a walking tour of the Jinli Street district in Chengdu and the Buddhist temple round the corner from our hotel in the evening and the following day we were driven to the massive Grand Buddha at Leshan and it’s surrounding buildings and a boat ride on the Min River and early the next day a trip to the amazing Panda Breeding Research Base to watch the cute Panda’s eating and rolling around.
A quick flight to Guilin where we met the delightful Tao who took us to the mystical heights at Lognji, and she told us in detail about the village of Pingan and it’s wonderful and peaceful residents there, where we had such beautiful and peaceful views of the rice terraces from our hotel room and balcony - just amazing ! The following day we enjoyed hiking with Tao to Dazhai village with it’s amazing peaceful views where Tao showed me how to plant rice and explained to me the local floral which was so interesting and amazing. The next day we were driven to Yangshuo and had a fantastic peaceful bamboo raft ride down the river and ate delicious local food in a farm house which a Tao recommended and a hike up Moon Hill for spectacular views of the beautiful surrounding countryside.
Another short flight to Shanghai where Peter met us and we had a walking tour of the classical Bund district which was a short walk from our hotel and also visit City God's Temple, Yuyuan Garden, French quarter, a trip up the Shanghai World Financial Center for an amazing view of the city and in the evening enjoyed the famous Shanghai Acrobat show. On our last day we had a boat ride along the Huangpu river for great city views and then trip up the Shanghai Tower and the second tallest building in the world for outstanding views of the massive city of Shanghai.
We had such an amazing time in China, many thanks to all our wonderful guides who were all faultless and incredibly and extremely helpful, they were always on time and well presented and nothing was ever too much trouble at all for them, they were always there for us like guardian angels. The drivers were all excellent and friendly, again always on time with very new and clean vehicles and drove very safely indeed, and finally many thanks to Jiawen and the amazing team who put together such an amazing itinerary for us and made things run so smoothly every step of the way - a million thank you’s to you all, it was certainly a trip of lifetime ! Thank you!
Thanks again for everything and I would highly recommend this service, they’re brilliant !
Many thanks again and best wishes,
Stuart (UK)
