01-07 Maha Qidwai from Australia

Tourist nationality: Australia

Tour itinerary: 11-days HK / Beijing /Xian / Shanghai / HK

Tour Reviews:

Hi Jason, 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Sorry about the delayed response, I have been so busy since my return, and telling people about China!

Anyway, I would just like to thank you very much for organizing such a fun, fantastic and enjoyable tour. It is definitely something I will never forget, and I am very keen to come back to China to discover more that the great country has to offer! 

Overall, all 3 of us were very happy with the tour. Everything was organized really well, and it ran very smoothly. I will leave the detailed comments for each day as outlined below.

Day 1

Arrive in Hong Kong, met KK Au, who was nice and transferred us to the hotel, and back to the airport in the morning. No problems!

Beijing

Day 2

Met my Reeves at the airport. He took us straight to lunch. The lunch was fantastic!! We have never had fish as good as the one we ate at that Wahaha restaurant! I will return to China just to eat that fish! And the restaurant was delightful with a nice atmosphere. 

We then traveled to the Forbidden City and Tian An Men Square. Both places were amazing. Reeves did a fantastic job of giving us detailed history of these 2 places.

The Temple of Heaven was then visited at about 4.45pm. The place was closing as we got there, so we didn't get much time to spend there, but nonetheless, we did have a good look around, and enjoyed the marvelous surroundings. Perhaps getting there slightly earlier would have been better. 

Then we went to the hotel, which was very nice. The initial issue of having the rooms on the same floor was very quickly resolved by yourself, so no problems there.

Day 3

Went to the Jade factory on the way to the Great Wall of China. The factory was nice, and I made a purchase for myself.

We also visited the Ming Tombs on the way, which was a rather speedy visit, but was interesting nonetheless.

The Great Wall was absolutely amazing!!!! We all loved it! No matter how many pictures you see, you never really know what it's like until you go there. It was truly amazing!

We then went for lunch, and Reeves managed to get us a private room at the restaurant (the tourist place - can't remember its name). This was very nice of Reeves, and the lunch there was superb! Reeves ordered us a great selection of foods, all of which we very tasty! We also made a few purchases from the store attached to this restaurant. A nice place to visit. 

Then we went to the Summer Palace. Wow!!! What a beautiful place!!!! Reeves gave a good history about the background of the place. Reeves was quite knowledgeable and fun to listen to. We were amazed about the history regarding this beautiful garden. 

Day 4

Free day which we spent shopping at 2 locations which Reeves directed us to. We were happy with his recommendations.

Xian

Day 5

We were greeted at the airport by our tour guide, Frankie, and immediately went to check in at the hotel. We then had lunch at a place across the road from the hotel. 

After lunch we went to the Shaanxi Museum, which was quite interesting to see. Frankie gave us some good background history at certain points in the museum. We then ended the day and went back to the hotel because of tiredness.

Day 6

We started off at the Ancient City Wall which was great. We also had a quick talk by one of the staff members at the City Wall about Feng Shui, which was truly very interesting!

We then proceeded to the Terracotta warriors site via the terracotta museum, where we were shown how the warriors were constructed. This was quite interesting to see.

We then had lunch at a restaurant near the terracotta warriors site, which was quite nice. The variety of food ordered was good.

Seeing the terracotta warriors was amazing!!!!!! We all were in absolute amazement about the history surrounding this site.

We were taken to the viewing room by our tour guide to watch a video on the history of the warriors, but the whole 20 minute movie was in Chinese, so we didn't understand a word! This was disappointing, as the next movie playing straight after was shown in English, this is better.

We then went to the Pagoda. It was about 5pm at this stage, and the Pagoda was just about closing. We did manage to get inside the Pagoda, and climb up a few levels to have a good view of the city. The Pagoda was beautiful. Absolutely amazing, especially the view!

Shanghai

Day 7

We were met by our tour guide, Maybel, and taken directly to lunch. Lunch was fantastic! We tried a couple of things we had never tried before, and the food was fantastic.

We then went to the Shanghai Museum which had so much to see! We only had 1 hour here, which simply was not enough. We were rushed because of all the other items to see on the itinerary.

We then went to Yu Garden, and this place was probably the highlight for me of the whole tour! I absolutely loved this place! It was just so beautiful… simply amazing!!

We then quickly dropped by The Bund and drove past Nanjing Rd, as Maybel showed us a couple of shops to go to on our free day on Nanjing Rd.

We then went to the hotel, and soon after went to see the Acrobatics show (which we asked to go and see). This show was amazing!!!!!!!!!!!! We had so much fun watching this!!!! It was like something I had never seen before!

Days 8 & 9

Most of these 2 days we spent shopping. We also visited the TV Tower, which was fantastic! Wow, what a view!

We also managed to get in to an illegal taxi, and got charged 118 yuan, rather than 48! We asked our hotel's lobby manager to look in to it, and she informed us that the taxi was part of an illegal taxi company. Oh well! We learnt our lesson! 

So there is my feedback about the tour. I trule had an amazing time Jason, and want to thank you once again for all your efforts in organizing this tour for us, and for making sure it was as comfortable and enjoyable as possible. Your company has been great to us, and has made China a country I will definitely be visiting again! 

Please find attached the photo of us, which turned out quite good! I will also attach a couple others for your enjoyment.

Once again, thanks for all your help, and I would love to keep in touch! 

Take care,

Maha