Dear Max,
Thank you for you email.
Unfortunately, my mother is very ill so I have not had time to reply until now, but I am anxious to respond before too much time has passed and the memories have dimmed!
We had a wonderful week with your guides. Linda in Xi-an and Mars in Beijing were amazing and absolutely went the extra mile to ensure that we had a full, enjoyable experience. Linda's English is excellent as is her general and background knowledge and the car and driver were very good, too. Mars even read about London in the evenings so he could make informed comparisons and his knowledge of the sites was admirable; he also gave us photos he had taken of us on the tour. Again, the driver and car were also very good.
Both guides suggested extra activities on top of the full day (an extra hour at the museum, a boat ride) and recommended restaurants for the evening meal. I was extremely anxious regarding my mother, but these two guides were so friendly, helpful and well-informed that my attention was held in the present for hours at a time.
Had Linda and Mars and their drivers not been so outstanding, Alex would surely have seemed an excellent guide, friendly and relaxed. Shanghai itself did not disappoint, with its energy, ambition and beautiful Shanghai Tower; our day, however, was tour-lite, finishing at 2:30. The best visit was the first, to the Jade Buddha Temple, where Alex was informative. The Yu Garden was interesting but too crowded to be really enjoyable, though Alex tried hard, and our walk through the Old Market led to a tea-tasting, though we really wanted a cup of tea - presumably Alex misunderstood our request - my husband did his best but we were actually thirsty!
Nanjing Road and the Bund were slightly disappointing, as we have similar shopping and architecture in London. The Bund would have been a richer experience with a description of the long and varied history of Shanghai and similarly, the political history of Shanghai and the Communist Revolution would have been helpful in People's Square.
At 2:30, Alex asked if we wanted to do anything else (no suggestion); I looked in the guide book and suggested the Shanghai Museum. Alex was willing to take us there and collect us later but it seemed unfair to keep him and the driver hanging about on a Sunday afternoon, so we settled on being dropped at the shopping mall nearest to the hotel, where we had a cup of tea and walked back.
On the plus side, Alex did take us to a Christian Church and showed me a Chinese embroidery shop, and found a pharmacy for my husband. Perhaps our short day was the result of our not being sufficiently persistent in our pursuit of knowledge but, on the other hand, it would have been good to have had more on the programme. The car and driver were disappointing. The car was taxi standard and though clean, smelled of smoke, and the driver was seriously late twice, causing Alex stress.
In all three cities, the food chosen by the guides was enjoyable and the hotels were fine. One important point, however, is that the Bank of China had just revised its policy with regard to foreign banknotes, requiring hotels only to accept pristine notes for currency exchange. This meant that any blemish was unacceptable, despite the notes being legal tender in the home country. Future British tourists need to know that bank notes from UK cash machines may not pass muster - to be safe, the notes should be new - otherwise, the cash being carried for exchange purposes may be unusable.
Our experiences during the week were truly brilliant. In especial, I found the Shanghai Tower, the Terracotta Warriors and the Forbidden City amazing and smaller but also special, was Mary's introduction to her Hutong home. China is so huge and on such a totally different scale from the UK, that we were thrilled, impressed and overwhelmed. Thank you for organising such an outstanding tour - we were very aware that we were able to see much more due to our guides and drivers than we would have managed on our own, and we were also grateful for their help at busy stations and airports. We had no problems during the stay and can only say how fortunate we have been to visit China with your excellent company.
Thank you, Max, and thank you to our guides and drivers!
Best regards,
Pamela
Escorted tour to Shanghai, Xi'an and Beijing
Day 1 Shanghai Arrival
Day 2 Shanghai: Yu Garden, Yu Market, Jade Buddha Temple, The Bund, Nanjing Road.
Day 3 Shanghai to Xi’an, take a flight to Xi’an. Xi’an: Muslim Quarters, Grand Mosque.
Day 4 Xi’an: Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum, Big Wild Goose Pagoda Park.
Day 5 Xi’an to Beijing, Xi’an: Shaanxi History Museum, Passing the Bell Tower and Drum Tower.
Day 6 Beijing: Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Hutong, Bell Tower, Drum Tower.
Day 7 Beijing: Great Wall at Mutianyu section, Round-way cable car on Mutianyu Great Wall, Chang Tomb.
Day8 Beijing: Temple of Heaven, Yonghe Lama Temple, the Summer Palace.
Day 9 Beijing: Beijing Departure
