Another French family took a marvelous trip in China in March, 2008

Dear Sherry,
We have safely arrived back home after our lovely tour of China. I want to thank you very much for the work you’ve done, because every thing was as you’d promised me. The weather wasn’t as cool as we had hoped, but it wasn’t your fault.
The landscapes were fabulous and your various guides were very kind. We’ve only seen a little part of your country, but the people there were pleasant and cheerful, even if it was generally very difficult to communicate.
Shanghai is a very lovely and big city with it’s river, the Bund on one side and the Pudong on the other. The Yu garden is amazing and Nanging road offers everything that you could ever need. We visited an interesting silk museum, here we also saw a wonderful acrobatic troupe which added to the program. Even though The Panorama hotel was old (and we had problems mixing the hot and cold water in the bathroom), it was well located down town with an unbelievable view of the city.
Then, we met in Guilin and it was very kind of you to invite us to dinner. We had a wonderful time with you, and we were pleased to get to know you better.
The Li river cruise was rather long and it was very windy and cold. The mountains, along the river were simply astonishing.
But even Helen thought that it wasn’t the high light of the tour.
Yangshuo was a pleasant place, alive at night, here we found lots of gifts for our friends. The bicycle ride was quite funny and easy too. It’s a shame that there are so many electric lines along the road, for the countryside, it’s just incredible. We were too cold to go to the show beside the river at night.
The trip to Longji was a bit long. It would have been nice to stop and visit something like a tea plantation, or an orange, or grapefruit one on the way. It was raining when we arrived surrounded by a deep mist. But we met a cute women there who offered to carry our luggage all the way to the top, with a basket on her back. The people who belonged to the minorities were very kind, they were always smiling and it was a real pleasure to meet them. Fortunately, the next morning there were enough holes between the clouds to let us see the magnificent landscape of terraces. First high light of the trip!
We arrived early in Xian, so we visited the city wall before going to the hotel. That night we crossed the city by foot and saw an abundance of people in a park. Some of them were dancing, playing music, singing or playing cards. There were small children taking their very first steps and old ones practicing Tai Chi; the real life of the city, we were the only foreigners there.
At the restaurant, no one was able to speak English. So the other customers helped us to order as the menu was, of course, all in Chinese. All the people around our table trying to help us was a funny sight. Xian was a delightful city, and our sightseeing was rich and highly informative. The buried army was really astonishing and Lou has added an interesting visit to a jade factory to the program.
In Beijing it was very cold again. We visited a cloisonné factory on the way to the Great Wall. There are not enough words to describe just how giant and colossal it was at the top of those mountains. It’s up there along side the Egyptian pyramids as the number one on the list of my favorite landscapes. A little restaurant in the country gave us a very good meal, witch was followed by a visit to the oversized Summer Palace. The day ended with a succulent Peking Duck Banquet. The next day, we passed through Tian’anmen square and its hundreds of visitors to discover the Forbidden City. I was a little disappointed as it seemed to be very classic and typical with a feeling of deja vu. We also added a trip in the Hutong quarter where we met a very cute old couple and had come tea with them in their home. In the evening Helen took us to the Legend of the Kungfu show. It was a stupendous exhibition. The second day, after visiting the Temple of Heaven, our journey led us to a shopping center and a hand needlework, silk museum. We spent a lot of time caught in the traffic in Beijing. It would be have been more efficient to use the subway and to meet the van in the suburbs. Or we could have spent the first night near the airport as we had to go to the Great Wall.
Helen had forgotten give us her evaluation form. She was very kind and we appreciated her very much for both her knowledge of the French language and also the history of your country. Our four guides were very pleasant, helpful and informative. They were young boys and girls like you and you can thank all of them for their stay with us.
I send you, from my whole family, our sincere and grateful thanks for all that you’ve organized for us. I will recommend you and your company to my friends if they decide to visit your country.
Best regards,
Patrick IRLINGER