CHINA CULTURE TOURS Reviews 

We used China Culture Tour to organize a four day family trip to the Guilin China area. Our principal guide, Mike, did an excellent job in structuring activities, Presenting details on China’s history and culture, and supporting all of our needs. Hotel choice was superb, as was the choice of activities and restaurants. We really appreciated the flexibility to modify activity choice and duration, based upon our own reactions to sites and activities. All financial transactions were handled well and with integrity. Really enjoyed having dinner with Grace, who is the lead employee in the region. Would highly recommend this company for any length of a China tour. China is a beautiful and amazing place to visit

Although intrepid in travel, I always have a worry that the company I have researched on the internet will turn out to be dud and my money will be lost. This most certainly did not apply to China Culture Tours. I sent our wish list to the company and within 24 hours had a reply from Nora Zheng, with all the hotels we asked for (boutique Chinese style), the flights, itinerary, trains and price. She got the job. This got better ... we tweaked the itinerary slightly with Nora's help; she called me to establish a good connection, which was terrific. She spelled out how to get our visa, in fact everything we needed to know about a three week tour to China. We were not disappointed. Our tour, from Beijing (guide Jin), to Xian by train (Amy, who was resourceful when we were gridlocked by the marathon) to Guilin (where we met Nora as CC Tours are based there) and then with our wonderful guide Linda to Yangshao and the Li Valley; by plane to Shanghai then Hangshao (sweet Rachel) and finally to Suzhou, Venice of China, with Mrs Deng whose English was superb. Not once was there a hitch. The hotels were great, the 'extras' Nora found - making dumplings, cookery course, Tai Chi lesson, rickshaw rides, were so interesting, especially as we made the dumplings in a private home. Several meals were taken with families who are doing private enterprise, all excellent. The whole nearly three weeks we had three average meals and the rest were very good. The parks and streets were clean and manicured; the public loos (a revelation to me) were clean - though bring your own tissues for occasional need - and we are in awe of Chinese enterprise and scale. I couldn't be happier!

I have wanted to visit China for almost two decades and I finally got to do it this fall. My husband and I traveled for 27 days with the assistance and guidance of Nora with China Culture Tours. From the very beginning I could tell that Nora's goal was to make sure I got to do exactly what it is I wanted to experience. We did not want a group tour and we did not want a "shopping tour." We wanted a guided custom trip just for the two of us. They make it easy for you by listing the many destinations in China you could select from. After creating a wish list we refined it by eliminating areas that were very similar to one another, being careful that Nora knew our limitations (my husband has balance issues), problems with past travel (altitude sickness); and most importantly sharing what I hoped to see. In all cases Nora came up with a way to make it happen. Since our trip would be a total of 30 days (we added 3 days in Hong Kong on our own) Nora suggested that we build in a few free days. What a blessing these were! We had one after 8 or 9 days and the 2nd free day was at the 18 day mark. I worried about our age (both my husband and I just turned 70) but we are active so I did not want to slow the pace of our travel. I thought we could "do whatever the average person could handle in a day." We did it but I must admit we were very tired at the end of the day. We stayed in boutique hotels and loved the experience. Here are some tips: 1. You will see many ancient historical sites, ancient towns, pagodas and temples. It is also fun to see the locals in action. I suggest going out in the evening to see the beautiful lights and find out where everyone is going! People in China don't stay home at night. 2. In Beijing when at the Forbidden City be sure to allow enough time to have at least 30 minutes in the garden. It is stunning, shaded and relaxing. Enjoy it! 3. In 30 days we saw many sights, including volunteering for a day at a panda center (cleaning out enclosures and yards, making food for the pandas and learning about China's efforts to introduce them to the wild) and the Terra Cotta Warriors. However, the three not to miss spots in my opinion were the Yellow Mountains (if you are lucky the peaks of the mountains will be jutting above the clouds), the Longji Terraced Rice Fields and Guilin/Longsheng. We photographed the cormorant fisherman in Xingping after the absolutely wonderful Li River Cruise. The karst mountains are not to be missed. Nora put this all together without one hitch! I can't recommend China Culture Tours highly enough.

We recently came back from our very first trip to China and can I just say that China Culture Tours was simply the best in business. I highly recommend this for anyone visiting China for the first time, or even those who have been before. Grace was outstanding in tailoring the trip to suit our requirements. After reading positive reviews about CCT, I gave Grace a phone call. She listened attentively to my request and within the next few hours in the same day, she forwarded me the suggested itinerary, including the quotation. Her experience and professionalism were reflected from the detailed information she outlined on the quotation. From there onwards, all my subsequent enquiries were met only with a speedy response. She was even there to remind us when to apply for a visa, when to pay for the tours etc. As everything was taken care of by Grace, the whole process proceeded easily and smoothly from start to finish. She was just remarkable.

My parents and I learned so much through the history and culture of every place we visited. The variety of food and cuisines offered was great and the dumpling making experience with locals was a highlight.

All of our guides went above and beyond their duties, in particular Eva, in Beijing, and Linda, in Guilin and Yangshuo. We loved having you as our guides and truly enjoyed your company during our China trip.

The whole trip went incredibly fast. All we have left was sweet memories and special bonds with the people who we’d remember for years to come. We know for sure that this won’t be our last trip to China but the first of many more to come. When we are ready for our next trip, we will definitely be going with China Culture Tours again.

We have just finished our Silk Road trip in September, 2018 from Xi’an, Dunhuang, Turpan, Urumqi to Kanas. This was a very pleasure trip. Ms Nora Zheng and CCT arranged all of the trip including scheduling, tickets of flights and trains, hotels and local tourist guide. Nora handled and followed up responsibly during our trip. We got some problems in Xi’an airport when we checked in. The local tourist guide,Mr Yuan, called Nora and she responded very quick. Nora contacted the airline company immediately and finally solved problems so that our trip could be continued。I really appreciate Nora and CCT. I would like to give the rating of five star for their high quality services. Also I would like to recommend Nora and CCT to my friends when they are going to visit China.

I just completed a 14 day trip with China Culture tour and I must say they exceeded m.y expectations. We had tailored a trip to non touristy hotels and some hiking and biking. Hiked on the great wall without tourists, saw pandas up close, stayed in historic villages and saw great scenery among more traditional sites. Every experience was great. Pick up, drivers and tour guides were reliable and informative about locations and history. I can't praise the ease of travel and organization of the trip enough.

My parents wanted to visit me in China and see the sights, and not wanting the headache of organising everything, we chose to travel with China Culture Tours. Nora was our trip organiser and was helpful in adapting the trip to suit our needs while making sure that we got good value for our money. She always responded to emails promptly and patiently answered any questions that I or my parents had.

We had an 11 day tour through Beijing, Xi'an, Guilin and Huangshan. We saw a good mix of the famous cultural and natural historical sites in China. My family enjoyed the natural sites better, it was enjoyable to be out in nature and seeing sites that can't be seen in Australia. Also, the cultural sites tend to have more tourists (the Terracotta Warriors was packed!). My parents loved Guilin the most and I now plan to visit Huangshan in every season.

I was thoroughly impressed with everything to do with the trip. The tour guides were knowledgeable, friendly and spoke excellent English. They answered all questions we had, whether asking for more details about our current stop or about their life here in China. We enjoyed everywhere went and the meals were excellent, whether we were in big restaurants or tiny family restaurants. My dad was quite brave and was willing to eat chicken feet with me (which are quite nice, if bony) and thoroughly enjoyed it.

If you're thinking of traveling through China, China Culture Tours is the only company that you need to contact.

Customized tour for about 15-16 days, including Beijing, Xian, Chengdu, Yangtze cruise, Shanghai, Guilin, Hong Kong and Macau. Nora of China Culture Tour has done an outstanding job arranging the tour. On a tour of this magnitude, a few slip ups are to be expected, but we liked the speed with which Nora addressed such issues.

I went to China for the first time to meet my son who has been working there. I got to see where he lives and tour Tibet with him. The trip of a lifetime!

Lydia was very helpful from the very beginning planning my trip to China and to Tibet. She made arrangements for a guide to meet me at the airport when I landed and helped me with every aspect of the tour. The guides were very knowledgeable. Pasang was our guide for Tibet. He knew all the details about everything! Amazing!
Lydia checked with me every day or two to make sure everything was going well. And when my passport went missing on the way home she was available on the spot to help. She sent me the documents I would need and guided me to the correct police area in the airport. Luckily, the passport was found and turned in to security.. but it was so nice to have an ally who would help!

The trip was amazing! When our ticket to potala temple was cancelled due to government visitors, they rearranged our schedule to accommodate. We visited so many temples! Saw a glacier.. and a holy lake. We Had our pictures taken with a Tibetan mastiff and sat on a yak! We stood at base camp on Mount Everest! Amazing!! And walked on the Great Wall. I never dreamed I would see and do these things..

We did have some affects of the altitude sickness. My son was very sick one night and vomited on the way back to our hotel. I had diarrhea for a couple weeks.. lasting after I got home. Luckily Lydia had given me a list of recommended things to bring. that was very helpful! I had Imodium in my pack. And Zofran. I had also visited my Dr before I left and got a prescription of diamox that we took. I think it would have been much worse. I would recommend bringing several small packs of kleenex and baby wipes.. the bathroom situation is very different than in the US. Often no tissue and sometimes no running water. Especially due to the diarrhea, it was good to have these on hand. I will be better prepared next time!

I can’t thank the guides enough! Pasang in Tibet, and Jin in Beijing.. and especially Lydia for paying attention to every detail and being there to guide me in one of the most amazing adventures I have been on!

This was our first time in China, and we were so lucky to have China Culture Tour and their private guides throughout our entire almost three-week stay! They handled everything, from the moment we contacted them to inquire about their tours, recommendations, and pricing and all the way until we returned to the U.S. They held our hands throughout the entire process, including obtaining our visas, and even checked in on us throughout our stay to ensure everything was going well and we were happy. We couldn't believe the great service that they provided! Grace was so helpful and communicative and caring! She responded immediately to any questions we had, even when our plane was delayed leaving Europe for Beijing. Everything went so smoothly! And we really appreciated how well Grace planned our day tours down to the last detail. The company thought of everything, including recommending activities that we could do in each city in the evenings. All of our lunches were also included during the tours as well as our transportation, fees for sites, etc. What was also fantastic is that they didn't have a cookie-cutter approach to creating our tours. They truly took the time to ask us about our interests, the type of food we enjoyed, etc., and continuously revised our itinerary until we were completely satisfied. They also came up with suggestions that we had never thought of. For example, we had never heard of Xi'an before, but based on learning of our interest in history, they recommended that we spend several days there. And we were so happy that we did! It was such an amazing experience, and we highly recommend that people visit Xi'an in addition to other cities in China. We visited Beijing, Xi'an, and Shanghai, and this was the perfect itinerary for us. All of our tour guides were top-notch, including Lucy in Xi'an. She was so knowledgeable about this city in which she grew up in, and we could tell that she truly enjoyed taking visitors around the city so they could see just how breathtaking it is. Lucy and our other guides felt just like close friends who were excited to have my husband and I visit and spend days with them. In Xi'an, we also had one of the most memorable experiences of our time in China, a private dumpling-making lunch in the home of a wonderful woman. She made us feel so welcome. It really touched our hearts, and it just made us feel so happy that you can have such wonderful connections with people in other countries. She even told us we were like family from another country. This experience was better than we could ever have anticipated. We have traveled all of over the world, and without a doubt, China Culture Tour is of the utmost, highest caliber of private luxury tours and for a wonderful price. For anyone visiting China for the first time or even after many times, we would highly recommend this company to customize an amazing tour for you. You will be in great hands with a company that truly cares about each of its customers!

We recently returned from a trip with China Cultural Tours, visiting six cities (Beijing, Luoyand, Xian, Guilin, Yangshuo and Shanghai) over twelve days. We told CCT the highlights we wanted to see and Lydia (we love Lydia) took care of all of the details. As you can imagine we were quite apprehensive dealing with an agency in a foreign country where we did not know the culture, speak the language or have any clue as to the meaning of the written symbols. Lydia provided the perfect itinerary and patiently put all of our many concerns at ease.

Upon arrival we were immediately met at each location by a guide and a driver without ever having to look for them or call. All of the guides were friendly, informative and spoke English very well. We were delivered to our hotels and assisted by the guide with check-in. A time to meet in the morning was set (our choice and never too early) and the guide was always in the lobby waiting. When it was time to move to the next city our guide took us to the airport or train station, purchased our tickets, and stayed with us until we boarded.

Every hotel was top shelf. Spacious rooms with all the amenities and large breakfast buffets of both American and Chinese fare. Hotel locations were perfectly located in the city within a short walk of many shops and restaurants. We ventured out each evening and never felt threatened or uncomfortable. In fact, you will find that the people are fascinated by you, especially the children, and may want to take your picture!

Every day our driver dropped us off at the entrance to each attraction, including restaurants, and promptly picked us up when we were done. There was a lot of walking so you will be very grateful that you are not on a large bus tour waiting in line, in the sun, for who knows who that is missing. Our guide was with us at all times, including lunch, where we suggest you let them help you order. The food was fabulous and beyond plentiful and in twelve days we did not have one thing we did not enjoy.

Overall, China Cultural Tours provided an incredibly organized and well planned trip. We can honestly say that we would not have changed a single thing. We never had to wait for our guide or driver and we never felt rushed. A special thanks to our guides Majorie in Bejing and Fei in Shanghai. They went above and beyond and we just wish we could take them home with us. Thank you!

Lydia of CCT was more than patient as we planned and revised our itinerary! She was able to arrange all the activities we wanted and the all-inclusive price for our 17 day in-China trip was very reasonable. We visited nine cities and stayed in as many hotels (all were very nice and some were outstanding!). We traveled as a group of 7 (two families) and visited three different orphanages during our trip. All the CCT guides and drivers were professional, punctual and very friendly. We particularly enjoyed Eva, Summer, Caroline and Linda. We have many fond memories of our time and China and, when we return, will not hesitate to use CCT again!

My wife and I booked an 8 night, 3 city tour of Guilin, Xi'an and Beijing after a 5 day business trip ending in Guangzhou with China Culture Tour after reading online reviews and investigating other tour companies specializing in China. We booked our flights to and from China from Boston. Our requirements were that we wanted only 5 star hotels, all transfers and transportation within China included, breakfasts and lunches included, and non-smoking rooms, transportation and guides. China Culture tour was not the most or least expensive and we picked them based on the quality of the hotels that they proposed. Lydia of China Culture Tour was efficient and responded quickly to a number of changes in our plans due to last minute changes in our business travel. She picked the hotels and arranged the train and plane travel between the three cities - other than a flight from Guilin to Xi'an, we wanted to travel by the Chinese high speed trains. Her hotel selections were superb and perfectly located. She also selected the guides and drivers. Nancy who we met briefly for the transfer from our hotel to the train station in Guangzhou was enthusiastic and very helpful. Mike, our guide in Guilin, was great and very knowledgeable and accommodating; he also helped us make great lunch food selections. Sarah, our guide in Xi'an, was excellent and very enthusiastic about her city. Jen, our guide in Beijing, was superb and like a historian about the great sites in Beijing. He also made some great recommendations about restaurants in Beijing for our evening dinners. All the drivers, Mr. Lai in Guilin, Mr. Young in Xi'an and Mr, Wu in Beijing were competent and courteous.
Considering the quality of the hotels, the competence of the guides and drivers, the fact that all admission tickets and intercity transportation were included and that all breakfasts and lunches were included and very good, the value was outstanding.

We highly recommend China Culture Tour

Wonderful! Very easy to work with. Accommodated all of our requests and responded quickly to questions. Price is reasonable. The guide we received (Susan from Wuyishan) was fantastic! Fluent in English and Chinese. Very knowledgeable and flexible with schedule and activities. We had my 2 year old son and my elderly parents with us and she found activities we could all enjoy together. I would recommend China Culture Tour for anyone looking for easy and affordable arrangements and a guide for their trip.

We (my husband, 13 yr old daughter and 10 yr old son) recently returned from a 5 day tour of Xi'an and Beijing with China Culture Tour. I was referred to China Culture Tour by a friend who booked a tour with them the previous summer. Nora was very professional, patient and responsive with me as we exchanged multiple emails to finalize the itinerary and final quote. She was very accommodating and flexible with my modification requests. She also responded quickly via WeChat both before, during and after our trip.

Our tour guide for Xi'an was Sarah and she was very friendly and knowledgeable about Xi'an's history and the terracotta warriors. She was very upbeat and energetic and we enjoyed our lively conversations about various aspects of life in China and how it's changed so much in the last 10 years. Our tour guide for Beijing was Shirley and she was also very good about explaining the significance of each of the places we visited throughout Chinese history. Also, given the very high temps and humidity during our visit, she was helpful in changing our schedule so that we could visit the Great Wall early in the morning when it was less hot and crowded. The kids especially loved the toboggan ride down from the wall at Mutianyu. We were disappointed to miss out on the Summer Palace boat ride due to thunderstorms but overall, we enjoyed our tour.

Both Sarah and Shirley were helpful in recommending places to eat that could accommodate our children's preferences. Both hotels were very nice and centrally located. Nora was able to find a hotel in Xi'an that could accommodate all 4 of us in one room with two queen beds, which is hard to find in China as most only accommodate 2. One of our rooms in Beijing was upgraded at no charge due to the standard room selling out. Our drivers for both cities were very friendly and took good care of us.

When my sister and parents wanted to book a last minute tour to Wuyishan from Xiamen, I didn't hesitate to contact Nora to help arrange a tour for them. She was able to accommodate their needs in customizing their itinerary on short notice. While you could save some money by booking everything yourself on your own, it was worth the extra cost to have the private tour take care of everything so we could just relax and enjoy our vacation stress free.

Thank you to Nora and our wonderful guides for an enjoyable trip!

I worked with Nora for several weeks getting our itinerary perfectly planned. We (my wife and I with our 23 year old son) went to Beijing, Xi'an, Lhasa, Chengdu, and Shanghai on a 14-day tour. It was very easy to work with Nora and she customized everything we asked for. She was fast with her responses. In fact we reversed the order of the cities traveling 30 days before travel date because of cheaper international fares. She re-did the whole itinerary again without any fuss. She was in touch with us throughout the tour on wechat. When our son got sick in Lhasa and could not join tours for a day Nora made arrangements to refund his attraction fees for the day even without asking. She also made arrangements to get us a gift. Then when our flight from Chengdu to Shanghai got delayed by 4 hours due to bad weather, she worked with the Shanghai agency to re-arrange our itinerary so that we won’t miss anything in Shanghai. Keep up the great work, Nora!

It was a very exciting trip with excellent itinerary customized to our interests. Hotels were great with good breakfast. Guides took good care of our lunches, especially two of us being vegetarians. Good choice of restaurants. Guides, Michael in Beijing, Bing in Xian, Tenwong in Lhasa, Kevin in Chengdu and Fei in Shanghai, were great. They were very knowledgeable and with a good command of English. Drivers were also good with comfortable Buick minivans in most places. Our trip included a bullet train from Beijing to Xian and flights from Xian to Lhasa to Chengdu to Shanghai. Surprisingly (for us in North America), even a two hour flight comes with a hot meal! Nora has ordered vegetarian meals for us. Michael in Beijing helped me to purchase a Local SIM card for my phone at the airport (100 Yuan package included 25 GB (in Beijing)/12 GB elsewhere with 60 min of local calling. I was able to send international text. No Google in China, used Bing instead. FB/WhatsApp/Viber doesn’t work but Skype works)

We highly recommend China Culture Tours and Nora for private tours in China.

Just returned yesterday from a 7-day trip to China with my family (wife and kids (8 and 10 years old). Nora from China Culture Tours is absolutely the best. She is incredibly responsive and put a perfect itinerary for us. We travel all over the world and have worked with travel groups every where. I have to say that Nora and her team are the best we've ever had.

We did a private tour that entailed 3 nights in Beijing, 2 nights in Xi'an and 2 nights in Shanghai. The trip was perfect and the kids had a blast. Everything happened (everyone driver and guide was punctual) as planned and we were always taken care of. No hassle. No fuss.
In Beijing, our guide Olivia was absolutely amazing. I highly recommend you ask for her. She won the hearts of our kids and exuded so much joy. Speaking of Joy, we had a wonderful time with our guide Joy in Xi'an who was a local and knew so much about the local history and culture. Our last guide was Bright in Shanghai and she too was best in class.
Our guides spoke great English and were smart about planning. Olivia got us to the Great Wall of China in Beijing before the rush so we had sections of the wall all to ourselves. Joy got us to the Terracotta Warriors in Xi'an right when they opened, so we were the first ones to visit Building 1 and had basically the entire place to ourselves.
Bright was able to accommodate our son's passion for ancient coins and managed to alter our itinerary on the fly to make it happen.
Overall, we had an amazing trip.

Have been working with Grace Wang for over 3 years now and every trip has been so effortless due to her help. I have planned family trips, business trips and friends trip with her. She will make sure your trip is executed to the highest standard, no stress involved. A detailed oriented, patient and efficient lady. Highly recommend her service!!

Grace Wang with China Culture Tour is the consummate professional throughout, starting with our initial phone conversation, organizing the wonderful itinerary for a 2 week private tour, providing so much helpful information to prepare for the trip, answering all questions quickly and thoroughly, making the arrangements for payment, and providing excellent private guides in each city. My 17 yr old daughter and I went to Beijing, Xi'an, Chengdu, Yangtze River Cruise and Shanghai. All of the guides were friendly, helpful, knowledgeable and focused on our positive experience. Several went even above and beyond (see below). I was able to stay in touch with Grace and the guides throughout our time in China via WeChat, and she always responded quickly and resolved the guide changes in a couple of locations.

The very interesting and varied itineraries included all of the key places, as well as so many others that I would not have known about. We especially enjoyed dumpling making with a family in Xi'an. The restaurants overall were very good as we enjoyed the various cuisines throughout China. Grace and her network across China made our trip very comfortable, and they removed so much potential stress with their quality service and care. We traveled from city to city with ease and knew someone was waiting at the next stop. I would definitely book a private tour with Grace and China Culture Tour again, and I so highly recommend her and the agency!!!

Beijing Guide – Nancy: Nancy is so knowledgeable and professional. She was able to provide so much detail at each site, she was so warm and kind to my daughter and me, and she went above and beyond so many times, including literally taking us all the way to our seats on the train! She took us to a wonderful place on the Great Wall in inclement weather, and never complained – even took pictures with her own phone with pretty heavy wind and rain. She sent pictures to us via WeChat at the end of each day. Nancy did a lot of walking and talking during our Beijing itinerary, and she never tired; instead she maintained her enthusiasm and attention. Nancy speaks English very well, and it was such a pleasure to spend 3+ days with her. She set the bar for all other guides.

Chengdu Guide – Molair: We spent a couple of days with Molair in Chengdu including the Panda Reserve. Prior to our arrival, we communicated via WeChat, and she recommended the Sichuan Opera – she bought the tickets in advance, and it was a wonderful addition to our time there. She and the driver worked late to take us to the Opera and back to the hotel. She picked us up early for the pandas before it got very crowded, and she knew all of the viewing sites. We also enjoyed a couple of beautiful parks. She, too, is very knowledgeable, personable, warm and caring. When I wasn’t feeling well, she was very concerned and even sat with us at the train station to make sure all was OK. She and my daughter got along really well, like sisters. Molair was a lot of fun during the two days – she is genuine, loves her work as a tour guide, loves her city and the pandas, and made us feel so comfortable. Molair also speaks English well.

Shanghai Guide – Fei: We only had one full day with Fei, but we immediately felt so comfortable with her. Like Molair, she got along so well with my daughter, and felt like a friend and sister. She took us to the Shanghai Museum early so we could enjoy the beautiful exhibitions before the crowds. She is enthusiastic about Shanghai, and added to our enjoyment of the city throughout. The night we arrived, she and the driver were waiting at the airport, and it was late, but we got to our hotel and got to sleep in before starting our tour the next day. They also took us to the airport on our last day for our flight home, and Fei made sure we got through the ticket and boarding process before saying good-bye. Fei is sweet, friendly, compassionate, caring and genuine. We would have liked to spend more time in Shanghai with her. Fei also speaks English well.

The guides were all professional, took great care of us, and made sure we enjoyed our time, and got to the next destination. They made suggestions to improve our experiences throughout, including restaurants and food choices.

Thank you to Grace and our our wonderful guides with China Culture Tour!

First, thanks to Grace Wang (Wang Yu 王瑜) at China Culture Tours for organizing our first trip to China. We loved it! She did a great job and we would be more than happy to recommend her services to others. Meanwhile, here are some general and specific comments that might be helpful in planning ours or your next one.

At the outset I should warn you that my wife, a college professor born in France, and I, an oil trading company president born in Texas, have traveled all over the world and are VERY DIFFICULT. I have also studied Chinese for two years.

The trip lasted four weeks, from May 7 to June 6, 2018. We flew from our home in New England to Beijing and returned via Hong Kong. We visited Beijing, Luoyang, Xi’ian, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Shanghai and Hong Kong.

We stayed in five star hotels (better than five star hotels in the USA). The itinerary was organized to reduce sitting and stress and emphasize hiking. At first we thought we would avoid the polluted cities of the north but in the end we decided that a little pollution was worth discovering the soul of China. This trip first focused on ancient China leaving modern China of Shanghai and Hong Kong for the end.

The accommodations, food, means of travel, sites, even weather: all turned out good or great.

The pollution in Beijing was bad, less bad in Luoyang and Xi’an, but a 3M 95-particle mask with air escape valve worked very well. No asthma problems which I feared. We didn’t feel the pollution in the south at all, some days glorious.

The itinerary was laid back, we never felt stressed. I swam and lifted weights in the hotel most days. My bad back and pulled hamstring (too much tennis) actually improved during the trip. We were very glad to ride business class in trains and planes. Not checking luggage was a great luxury. Need to have private guide or “Red Cap” guide in train stations to find your train car. Track numbers are well indicated but car positions on the platform are not and prone to last minute changes. No one speaks English in train stations, neither at domestic airports. If you miss your train or plane, it’s a problem. Having said this, we made all our trains and planes, and the flights, despite warnings to the contrary, were all on time.

The jet lag at the beginning of the trip was difficult but bearable. After five days the worst had passed. By the time we reached the end of our trip in Hong Kong, we didn’t want to go home.

My one comment for next trip is in the form of a question: how to balance visiting tourist sites with seeing and experiencing how the people actually live? Not sure how best to do that yet…a command of Chinese and visiting the countryside would seem key. Reading Chinese classics and seeing Chinese films and TV all helpful.


Here are some brief comments about the stops, drivers and guides, of supreme importance in your experience, along the way. The guides and drivers were all good, all very flexible for changes (e.g. in case of rain).

Beijing: Jin (Jin Qiang 靳强) guide, among the best. Very attentive, knowledgeable, English good too. Excelled at anticipating our needs rather than just responding to them. Very thoughtful person. Give him a 5++ (on a 1-5 scale). Renaissance Beijing Wangfujing Hotel was great, perfect location/facilities. Fabulous restaurants in Beijing. City beautifully landscaped. If they would just fix that pollution…!

Luoyang: Cherry (Du Ying 杜瑛） guide. Very good English, slow to warming up to us, but by the second day, we were all very comfortable with each other. Give her a 5+. Christian’s Hotel very good, good location too. Live shark swimming in tank in lobby.

Xi’an: Lucy（Zhang Xiao Ping 张小平）guide. Also very good English, very flexible, experienced, extremely nice, made extra effort to make us comfortable and to see some night life. Give her a 5+. Sofitel Legend Peoples Grand Hotel Xian Hotel was the best of all the hotels, good location, great facility and the best hotel service we have ever experienced anywhere.

Hangzhou: Gerry（Zhu Xiao Bo 朱霄波）guide. His English very good, seemed experienced. Give Gerry a 5. Whndham Grand Plaza Royale Hangzhou Hotel not quite as good as other hotels, so big, but well located near West Lake.

Suzhou: Deng（Deng Ying Ying 邓映英）guide. Deng and Cecilia Mak (Hong Kong) seemed the most experienced guides. Both elegant and excellent English. Give Deng a 5+. Tonino Lamborghini Hotel Suzhou: facility, gardens and room were superb but service a little weird and location pretty far from the old town.

Shanghai: William (Chen Hailing 陈海梁) guide. Also experienced and knowledgeable, very nice. Attentive, anticipated our needs and questions. Good English. Very smiley…Give William a 5+. Shanghai Fairmont Peace Hotel full of tradition and great service, well appointed, well located and as a result a little pricy but well worth it.

Hong Kong: Cecilia Mak guide. Very good English, very knowledgable. Only a day and half spent with guide in Hong Kong, so hard to judge longer stay. Give Cecilia a 5+. Harbour Grand Kowloon Hotel, killer view of Hong Kong Island and harbor. Wonderful friendly swimming pool on top of roof. Hong Kong Island might be better location.

We look forward to Grace Wang arranging our next trip, maybe Silk Road in conjunction with a longer stay to study Chinese later this year…and then the south, the north and Tibet…

Glancing back at the other stellar reviews of China Culture Tours, I wonder if some of our readers might question who could be this good? If our own recent trip experience is any measure, CHINA CULTURE TOURS IS THAT GOOD.

Robert January
陈波