CHINA CULTURE TOURS Anmeldelser 

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

After an incredible vacation, I had to take a few minutes to write a thank you and compliment China Culture Tour for doing a wonderful job on an incredible trip. 5 stars’ guys! All the guides and accommodations were wonderful. Special compliments to, Nora who booked the tour and took time after work to come say hello, meet us in person, and Jessica in Chengdu. Translation (our Chinese was very limited) was great, and understanding of the people and history of what we were seeing was awesome. Now, being honest the trip we booked was not for the plush, feet up in the air, vacationers. Maybe China Culture Tour does that, I don’t know. But this was myself and my 17-year-old son, hiking at Least 7K every day, through cities, mountains, etc. That being said, to meet the people, culture, taste real Chinese food, and see raw beauty of China, we could not have asked for more. They even rallied all forces at a moment’s notice and got us back on track when we missed a bullet train. Thanks for a great vacation China Culture Tour.

If I can give China Culture Tour 6 stars, I would. We recently returned from a 14-day private tour of China which included 2 internal flights, 4 train rides and one river cruise. Now that we are back, I can honestly say that this is the best tour company we have dealt with in our decades of travel. We started planning this trip with Nora @ CCT 10 months ago. Due to unexpected injury, we had to postpone it for a month. She was responsive, patient and insightful as we made changes through 8 revisions to the itinerary. My hats off to her for her excellent planning skill as well as operational flexibility as we navigated through various unexpected problems caused by my wife's limited mobility and after she got sick 9 days into our tour. Nora worked with us and stayed on top of things throughout (and followed up after) the trip. We saw wonderful things in Beijing, Tianjin, Chengdu, Three Gorges, Shanghai, Suzhou and Hangzhou. The hotels, food and transports were excellent. We had no problem communicating with the guides in English, they were knowledgeable and attentive especially to my wife who was on a wheelchair for most of the trip. We want to give special thanks to our guides Bill who helped me locate the building where I was born in Tianjin 70 years ago, Vivian who followed up with our progress 2 days after we left her in Chengdu, and petite Leaf whose endless energy resulted in my wife calling her Mighty Mouse in Hangzhou. CCT has a strong team of consultants and guides. We would highly recommend them to anybody interested in private tours to China.

It was our first tour to China ever for our family and the first question was which kind of trip we wanted. We couldn’t travel on our own since we don’t speak chinese and that could be a problem. Then we contacted some danish travel agencies but finally we decided that the right thing was to choose a chinese company and China Culture Tours was our choice because of the good opinions from other tourists on the web. But it was in away to take the chance! And now, after our great trip to China, I can say that our choice was absolutely brilliant because everything worked perfect. It started very well since the very beginning when I contacted them by mail and they gave me a very good and profesional impression. Nora is the person working at their office in Guilin and she was very helpful and efficient in all the details. I explained what we wanted to see since we had already organised a little program and she came with many good ideas to complete the trip and make it better. The hotels, the restaurants and the organization of domestic flights or trains were perfect but I specially want to remark the guides from China Culture Tours. I specially want to name Penny from Suzhou and Linda from Guilin. They were very sweet and clever really well prepared, we talked a lot together and it was really a pleasure to learn so many things from China through them. Our trip it was a two weeks journey where we visited the first week from Shanghai to Hangzhou and Souzhou. Then the second week we took a flight to Guilin and we visited that area including the Lin River, Yangshuo and the rice terraces in Longshen. Next time we come to China we’ll visit Beijing, the Great Wall and Xian. And what it is 100% sure is that we’ll again choose CHINA CULTURE TOURS to arrange our trip!! Thanks a lot!!

Lydia planned a comprehensive, amazing 15 day holiday for us and her communication was thorough & timely both before and during our holiday. Nothing was too much trouble for her. We arranged to meet her in Guilin to personally thank her. A delightful young lady with a passion for her job and her country. Thanks again Lydia.
We chose 4 star accomodation which was good quality & centrally located. The smaller hotels were superior to the larger ones with the best ones being Mountain Retreat in Yangshuo (river views) and Aroma Tea House (in Guilin across from the lake). Cars were clean and the drivers safe & punctual (Mr J in Beijing treated us like royalty!); water provided and lunches included, with menu suggestions from the guides meant we tasted local specialities - simply delicious.
The highlights were Guilin, Li River cruise and Yangshuo. Spectacular scenery and our guide Mike was top class. Such a friendly funny guy who went out of his way to make our stay memorable. Nancy, our Beijing Guide was also wonderful. Young, enthusiastic and so knowledgeable. An absolute delight.
All the main tourist attractions (Great Wall, Terracotta Warriors, Tianamen Square, Forbidden city etc) were great and the guides ensured easy access & at times that suited the crowds and hot weather.
The Yangtze Cruise was good and the Three Gorges are well worth seeing but the cruise boats no longer go through the locks (disappointing) and the service on board was lacking at times (due to lack of staff that spoke english, and a tendency to give priority to the Chinese on board). This was of course out of China Culture Tour's control.
We travelled in China on local airlines and bullet trains. The guides assist with tickets and checkins so it took all the stress out of travel. We wouldn't do China without an English speaking guide!
Overall our holiday was trouble free and an amazing experience thanks to the excellent service, planning and guidance of Lydia at China Culture Tours and their wonderful guides and drivers. We will be back!

I had booked 21 days tour through china culture tour. had an amezeing experience with china culture tour every thing worked perfectly the hotels they chose were excellent,especially Tibet hotel in Chengdu.there guide used to be there before we could arrive add wait till you depart. cars they chose for us were also excellent,most of the guides had good knowledge of the subject,which they communicate with us in English,also they chose good restaurants for us .we will travel with them again in near future.
Thank you Grace

I found out about China Culture Tour on Tripadvisor. Now it is my turn to pass on the recommendation for the benefit of others. The destinations on my trip were: Beijing, Xi'An, Guilin/Yangshuo. At each site, I made multiple sightseeing trips e.g Great Wall, Forbidden City, Terracotta Warriors, throw in a couple live shows, etc and it all adds up to a lot of moving parts. Given the situation, one would expect something to go wrong. Amazingly, my entire trip was 100% flawless from start to finish - thanks entirely to China Culture Tour and their staff.

There is no doubt in my mind that China Culture Tour put a great deal of time, planning, thoughts and consideration in selecting the hotels, food, drivers, guides and vehicles. All you have to do is show up at the airport with a pulse and they take care of everything from that point on to make your trip a complete success. You simply cannot go wrong with China Culture Tour.

Sincere thanks to Helen, Beijing; Summer, Xi'An; Linda, Guilin/Yangshuo. And of course all of the drivers. I worked with Nora months ahead of the tour. I had many questions and she answered every single one promptly and in great detail. You are the star of the show in my books, Nora. Thank you so much for everything. I came away from China with memories that I shall cherish for the rest of my life.

Ram Persaud
Toronto, Canada

I was very pleased by Nora’s service. She provided an excellent quote for an all inclusive tour when our travel plans changed, and we had to arrange an extra day in Chongqing before our flight to Lhasa. She is also prompt at responding to emails and ensures all boxes are checked for the trip to run smoothly. Keep up the good work!

We just returned from our second trip to China. This time we visited Shanghai, Huangshan area, Guilin area (incl. Longshen Rice Terraces and Yangshuo) and Hangzhou.

We contacted Nora at China Culture Tour to help us with the areas outside of Shanghai. It could not have been better. Complements to Nora on making this an unforgettable trip! Everything turned out to be excellent and we were surprised by the quality of service provided to us. We travelled by train and plane from one location to the other and were picked up by competent drivers and excellent tour guides.

In the Huangshan (4 days) area (incl. Yellow Mountains), April showed us around. She showed extreme pride and love for this area and was able to share this with us. She became our friend who travelled with us and who happened to know everything about that area. She even bought small food samples for us to try out. What an outstanding tour guide!

In Guilin (4 days), we were picked up by Linda. She took us to the Longshen Rice Terraces and Yangshuo. She was very knowledgeable about the area and we enjoyed the hike to and from the terraces and the Yangshuo bike ride along the river.

In Hangzhou (1 day) we were shown around by Leaf. She also loved this area and made our trip extra special, attending to all the details (she helped us change rooms in the hotel as the room was not as expected).

Overall the trip was more than what we expected. Nora made the trip effortless and all arrangements were made with our comfort in mind. I will definitely use Nora again for a future trip and would highly recommend her to other travellers.

We selected China Culture Tours from three enquires we sent out by email. CCT responded promptly to our initial request and then continued to be attentive and timely throughout the whole process - from itinerary development, payment and the resulting tour. Thanks especially to Nora Zheng who helped us finalise destinations and experiences and made us feel comfortable with whatever it was we were likely to encounter in China.

The name says it all: its China Culture Tour - tailor-made luxury culture tours. We got to see and experience a lot of Chinese culture and history in the relative luxury of private cars, staying in great hotels all facilitated by our extremely knowledgeable articulate local guides. Amazing.

To our guides: Thanks.
Michael in Wuhan who in a very short time span gave us some extremely useful tips and pointers about the area we were staying in and these formed the basis for some our exploration of downtown Wuhan (excellent).

Libby in Huangshan/ Tunxi and Yellow Mountain. Libby just handled the whole experience with enthusiasm and a light personal touch. For instance even though it was her 600th visit to Yellow Mountain she allowed us to experience the mountain as through it was her first. Wow. Libby also loves all things flora and herbal medicine and she has a rather endearing trait of disappearing into the bushes for a bit of foraging – often to appear with (for instance) delicious wild strawberries or tasty mulberries. Nice.

Rainbow is Hangzhou kept the whole experience fun and light with a cheeky relationship building style and a flexible approach to our visit. She gave us an insightful tour of her beloved city and its sights and found us the excellent Zhejiang Art Museum as well. Thank you.

Our Shanghai experience started with a pick up by Mooney and our driver. Thanks for that. And then on Monday morning our guide for Shanghai, Daniel, picked us up. His first task was to work out what it was we wanted to do and what we could do in the two days we had with him. He did that with style and grace. He made some excellent suggestions, like attending the Shangcheng Acrobatic Show - sourcing the tickets and guiding us there and back. Shanghai is Daniel’s hometown and his passion for the city shone through. Thanks Daniel.

We stayed at three great hotels – the Marco Polo in Wuhan, the Pigs Heaven Inn in Bishan (a standout experience) and the Intercontinental Ruijin in the French Concession area.

When we decided to try and get back to Shanghai a few hours ahead of our schedule (we were meeting friends at our hotel) Nora at CCT along with Rainbow in Hangzhou made that possible without complaint. Thank you.

The drivers: all our drivers were very accomplished and had a keen eye on passenger safety and comfort. The vehicles were all modern, spacious and comfortable. While the drivers had little English they were pleasant people to be with and in a couple of instances share a meal with. The roads in China are excellent and the whole on road experience feels safe and unhurried.

Finally: the sights, sounds and smells of China.
We were privileged to experience some very unique insights on our tour and we acknowledge those who made those interactions possible. Thank you. While we have three friends living and working in China we were still pleasantly surprised by our experience of getting around in China, the courteousness of the people we met and the incredible sights, especially of ancient China. We were particularly taken with rural openness of the Huangshan area, the post-card beauty of the Yellow Mountain and the painterly ancient villages. We saw some inspiring Chinese contemporary art and engaged with a couple of spectacular theatrical experiences.

We will be back. Thank you Nora and China Culture Tour.

Our family (nine people aged 14-81) just returned from an amazing 2 week trip to China where we visited Beijing, Xi'an, Shanghai and Hong Kong. The trip was organized by China Culture Tour under the dedicated, detailed work of Lydia Huang. She was very patient and made sure that the trip was what we wanted. We went through 6-7 different itineraries before we were happy and through it all, she was very helpful and patient. She stayed in touch with us (via weChat) throughout our trip. She updated us with the name and contact numbers of our guides for each city 2-3 days prior to arrival which allowed us to contact the guides directly to confirm meeting places. This made for no confusion and we were met by each of our guides as expected. Overall we were very happy with the service of our travel consultant (Lydia) and most of our guides and hotels.

We started our trip in Beijing. Our guide here was Jin and he was exceptional. His English was great and his knowledge and passion for his city was great. He was very patient with us and made sure that we saw what we wanted. He did some minor changes in the itinerary due to some political events happening in Beijing at the time we were there. This avoided huge crowds in the city and made our visit more enjoyable. He even took us to the train station and helped us get onto the train carriage before he left. We stayed at the Regent Beijing which was very nice and had a great breakfast buffet. The lunches supplied were also very good selections of local food. One highlight of our trip was the Great Wall. We went to the Mutianyu part of the Wall and got to freely walk along a good portion of the wall. We even got to toboggan down the final bit which was a fun way to descend. Next we saw the Hutongs and enjoyed a quick rickshaw ride through them to our next stop which was learning about and painting our own Chinese Opera Masks. Jin was able to get us tickets and a ride to see a Kung Fu show. We also wanted to do some shopping and he made it work with his driver so that we were able to fit all of this in, in addition to our scheduled events. I would highly recommend Jin as a guide next time we visit Beijing.

We next took the High Speed Train to Xi'an. There we were met by Robbie. He was an adequate guide who was very knowledgeable about his city. His English was ok, but he did not communicate clearly with us at times, and at times both sides got a little frustrated. Overall, we had a good time in Xi'an. The Terracotta Warriors is a must as is the Xi'an wall. If you have time, biking the wall is a great way to see it. Muslim Street Market was very interesting. It was a great place to shop/barter and to try some local street food. We visited a local family who taught us how to make local dumplings. This experience was wonderful as we not only learned how to make dumplings, we got to meet a local family in their apartment and got to enjoy a feast of homemade food that she made for us.

We took another High Speed train to Shanghai. These trains are a great way to travel in China. Lydia booked us second class seats and they were very roomy with lots of space nearby for all of our luggage. We did not hire porters and managed easily (even our 81 yo) with our luggage in the train station. In Shanghai we were met by Candy. She was a great tour guide. Her English was very good. Her passion and dedication to her job was wonderful and she felt like part of our family. Shanghai was wonderful. We visited Fuxing Park, Yuyuan Gardens, the downtown core and the Bund. We stayed at the Grand Central Hotel which was conveniently located just off of Nanjing road which was wonderful for evening strolls. We also did a trip out to Tongli Water Town which was very interesting and beautiful. Candy was a wonderful guide and ambassador for Shanghai, and has become and remains a friend.

Next, we flew to Hong Kong. In Hong Kong we were met initially by David who was wonderful. Our original guide, Lily, was ill, so had arranged for David to meet us. He was able to meet us and orientate us to this city. We had only a half day tour arranged as we had planned on making our own arrangements for the rest of the trip. Lily met us the next morning and provided us with the tour of Hong Kong Island. We visited Aberdeen, Victoria Peak and Repulse Bay. We were a bit disappointed in that we had mentioned to Lydia prior to our travels that we had wanted to see Stanley Market in place of Repulse bay, and she had told us to talk to our guide on our arrival and she could make adjustments to the itinerary. When it was brought up with Lily, she said we couldn't make the change and she wasn't told of this. She was not very flexible with her schedule. It was also a bit odd when we were in Aberdeen on the Sampan boat rides. She got us there, bought our tickets and sent us on our way. She did not come on the boat with us so the ride was silent and we did not get any interpretation of the sights from the boat.
The rest of Hong Kong we saw and explored on our own. Hong Kong is an easy city to get around and explore on your own. Get an Octopus card and you can ride the Metro, bus, ding-ding and pay for food/groceries. It is very convenient and you can get back what money you have left on your card before you leave the country. Here, we stayed at the Harbour Grand Kowloon. The location and view from the hotel was great, as was the roof top pool. However, the hotel was having a major renovation and this greatly impacted our experience. The elevators were not working well and often it would take a long time just to get to the lobby. The rooms were dark and dated and musty.

Overall, we had a wonderful 2 week vacation in China and Hong Kong. China Culture Tour was wonderful and took care of everything from the moment we arrived in China to the time we left. I would highly recommend China Culture Tour, and Lydia in particular, to anyone planning on traveling to China. Your trip will be a trip of a lifetime.

Amazing support through our holiday with perfect bookings. When a flight was canceled, they sorted out an alternative for us asap and we still got to our final destination at the same time. Also went out of their way to surprise me with a little something on my birthday. Awesome company & people that are very reliable. Thanks team!

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biljo65

Atlanta, Georgia

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Pending review

Trip of a Lifetime

My husband and I had always wanted to go to China but I do not like group tours. I went online and researched several tour groups and I must say "We hit the jackpot!". I found Nora Zheng with China Culture Tour and she truly planned the trip of a lifetime for us. She was readily available before the trip to answer all of our questions and she demonstrated enormous flexibility in working out our itinerary. She kept in touch with us daily while we were in China (wechat) and had lunch and spent the afternoon with us while we were in Guilin. Even though she was on Holiday, she took the time to join us.
We began our journey in Beijing where we were met by our guide, Jin, a truly extraordinary young man! He is knowledgeable, articulate, kind and caring. We developed an instant love for him and the city of Beijing. Due to weather concerns he altered our itinerary to make sure we could safely experience the wonders of Beijing. Our safety and enjoyment were always paramount to him. After planned outings he took us on several local shopping excursions, one of which was the Silk Road Market and he stayed with us long after his time of departure for the day. He arranged for our cab trip back to our hotel. We shared stories about our families and our life experiences. Our visit to the Great Wall and The Forbidden City were all that we had hoped they would be and more. We took a rickshaw ride through a historic hutong which was an amazing ancient village right in the middle of modern fabulous architecture in downtown Beijing. Jin rode a bicycle right along the side of us. He took us to the train station where we boarded the Bullet train and he stayed with us until we were comfortably seated with our luggage safely secured. After a bittersweet good bye we were on our way to Xi'an. The Bullet train was awesome. It was spotlessly clean, extremely comfortable and an enjoyable ride. We could see the country side along the way. We actually found it more enjoyable and comfortable than flying. It was definitely an easier journey.
We were met in Xi'an by Summer, a beautiful, extremely knowledgeable and charming young woman. Again, instant love! Her knowledge about the terracotta warriors, one of the highlights of our trip, was exceptional. What an amazing site - made even more vivid by all of Summer's expertise. After completing our tour of the warriors, we went to a nearby teahouse for lunch. We were educated about "all things tea". Summer was a super barterer and made sure that we were never taken advantage of with our purchases. Another highlight of our trip was visiting Madam Hou's home where we learned how to make dumplings, after which we ate a delicious lunch prepared by Madam Hou. Even though we had no common language, we shared stories and photos of our families. There were five cell phones in the room, all actively taking photos and sharing pictures. What an incredible experience! Summer was so much fun to be with that we wanted to take her with us on the rest of our trip. Our sadness at leaving her was ameliorated in the person of our next guide, Ben.
Ben was our guide in Chengdu. He was a caring, charming and extremely knowledgeable young man. His love of the pandas was contagious. His knowledge of Chinese history was extensive and his enjoyment of sharing it with us was quite evident. We spent time in the People's Park where we saw groups of people practicing Tai Chi, others doing exercise routines and/or dancing lessons. One really interesting observation we made was parents of young single adults advertising the attributes of their unmarried children who were seeking matrimony. Very interesting! Our final event before leaving Chengdu was being educated on the joys and PAIN of a Hotpot meal. Emphasis on hot, but what fun. We ended up with a delightful lunch and the pleasure of Ben's company. We had become accustomed to being escorted to the airport, going through customs and security. Ben did not fail us in that regard.
Off we went to our next destination, Shanghai, a beautiful modern city with a population of a mere 32,000,000 people. The Yuan Gardens were spectacular. The Bund, with its collection of 1930s buildings was reminiscent of New York City.
Our next destination was Guilin, one of the most unexpected pleasures of our trip. Words can't describe our affection for our guide, Linda. She took us to unexpected and unplanned sites which made our visit there even more enjoyable. Our visit to the Reed Flute Cave was enjoyable. After visiting the cave we met Nora, our tour coordinator in person. She joined us for lunch and then we were off to visit an organic tea research center where we learned about tea growing. Another highlight of our trip, not in our original plan, was a visit to Asian Town, a centuries old fishing village with one main street lined with stalls selling food and goods to the locals. Linda introduced us to an aged fisherman who lived in a house his family had occupied for over 200 years. He gave us a tour of the house and as we were leaving he calligraphed a note to us wishing us a safe and happy trip. Our time spent with the old gentleman was very special.
The next morning we cruised the Li River, being exposed to some of the most breathtaking natural scenery we have ever seen, gorgeous mountain peaks. We reached our destination, Yang Shou, 3 hours later. We made our way to the Yang Shou Mountain Retreat situated on a mountain stream with mountains on the horizon. What a treat! Our final excursion in Yang Shou was a visit to a local market, not a grocery store, which was an amazing an educational experience. We went through the meat market, sometimes with eyes only partially opened. We, along with our cooking instructor and another couple made our purchases and proceeded to the cooking where we prepared and enjoyed a delicious lunch. Rest assured our family will be sampling some of our new recipes. We drove directly from Yang Shou to the airport. Sadly, we had to leave Linda behind. She promised to visit us if/when she visits her friend who lives in Tennessee.
Our flight to Hong Kong was uneventful - the BEST kind of flight. What an amazing city! The weather was rainy and it was quite foggy but that did not interfere with our enjoyment of the city and all of the temptations that a shopping trip entailed.
Though this review is long, it only touches on some of the exciting and extraordinary experiences we had. The hotels were beautiful. The food was delicious. The restaurants that Nora planned gave us an opportunity to sample the different cuisines of China. Nora and our guides made this a trip we will never forget. We were ready to adopt five new grandchildren, four of our guides and Nora! I can say without equivocation that this is the way to visit China, and Nora and her team are the crew to plan it.

We were a group of 10 friends who visited Beijing, Tianjin & Xi'an on Mar. 15-23, 2018. Being seniors, we were particular about our transport, tours, train scheds, hotel and other travel details. Nora, our China Culture Tour coordinator went through every single detail patiently and efficiently. We were met by Wendy, our guide, in Beijing airport on time and also in all train stations. Our fast train 1st class seats were comfortable (like business class airline seats!). Ride so smooth you hardly felt you were moving until you see the countryside whizzing by. However, we all wished that the coasters used for transportation were newer and better maintained. Unfortunately, being seniors, the bumpy rides were uncomfortable especially when we had to endure it for long periods. Our Xi'an guide Amy was great, giving us a lot of info on rich history and the various sights we passed. Xi'an was a pleasant surprise, it is a beautiful city. It has much more to offer aside from the unbelievable diggings of Terracotta soldiers. The important city sites are lighted up at night, making the city look like a fairyland! Definitely Xi'an deserves a longer more leisurely stay. Tianjin is also interesting since it has a European feel since it was divided into concessions by diff. countries that occupied it. However, we stayed only 1 day and didn't hear much info about it. We had been to Beijing before so we enjoyed it esp. its different excellent Roast Duck restaurants! Thank you Nora and China Culture Tours for another over-all great experience.

Our tour was last minute, due to travel arrangements. However, Grace made it happen when we contacted her on Friday and arrived on Monday. We were picked up by Linda at the airport on Monday and transferred to our hotel. The next two days we toured the highlights of Beijing. Linda (Ling-Ling) was very flexible in adjusting timing or the arrangement during the day. The van was very comfortable and the driver was very safe. During our tours, Linda was very knowledgeable, informative and pleasant. The planned lunches for our trip were outstanding.

We worked with Nora for several weeks getting our itinerary perfectly planned. We went to Beijing, Xi'an, Chengdu, Guilin, Yangshuo, and Shanghai. It was very easy to work with Nora and she customized everything we asked for. She was fast with her responses. In fact, when our flight TO China was canceled and rebooked to the next day, she was on WeChat with me immediately making arrangements and adjustments to our tour so we could still get the most from our trip.

Our guide in Beijing was Jimmy - he hit it off with our 10 year old son and the two of them had a great time. He patiently answered every question a 10 year old could think of! Our hotel was OK.

In Xi'an, our guide was Summer. We really enjoyed our time with her. She was funny, polite, and very knowledgeable. She guided us with bartering, and knew everything about the Terra Cotta Warriors. Our hotel was fantastic.

In Chengdu, we were with Donna. She was so patient while we took our time seeing the pandas. This was our son's favorite part of the trip. Our hotel was great.

In Guilin and Yangshuo, we worked with Linda. By this time in our tour, we were a bit more slow and our walking pace was not as quick. She didn't mind with it took us longer than expected to climb to the top of a mountain. The bike ride through the countryside was amazing and our hotel, the Yangshuo Mountain Retreat was our favorite of all of them. The hotel in Guilin was being remodeled, so it was just an "ok" experience.

In Shanghai, our guide was Jimmy. He seemed a bit less knowledgeable when compared to our other guides, but he was happy to share what he did know. The hotel was gorgeous.

In each location, our guides were waiting for us at the airport, train station, or hotel lobby before we got there. The food was fantastic and they each guided us to things we would like.

This was the trip of a lifetime for our family, and my recommendation of China Culture Tours couldn't be higher! Our experience was top notch. Thank you Nora, Jimmy, Summer, Donna, Linda and Chris!

My husband and I travelled to China last October, from the 4th through to November 6th. We really didn’t want to do one of those large organized group tours where you’re stuck following the Tour’s itinerary. I had a pretty good idea of where we wanted to go and what we wanted to see so that style of travel just wasn’t going to cut it for us. However, seeing as it was our first trip to China and there would be the inevitable language barrier, I thought it would be wise to get some help with bookings and finding private guides. After contacting three such travel agencies based in China who say they specialize in private tours, I was most impressed with how flexible Grace from China Culture Tours was. She was able to help me create an itinerary that fit our needs. I’d already booked our plane tickets to arrive October 4 thinking the October 1 national holiday festivities would be all done by then. Little did I know they lasted 8 days! Grace assured me that it would all be fine, and it was. It wasn’t a crushing experience as many online would lead you to believe. Don’t get me wrong, there are huge crowds, but everything flowed extremely well and we never felt as though we were missing out on anything because of the crowd. Our guide in Beijing, Jin, was terrific. We had 7 days in Beijing, but could have used at least another 2 days. We loved Beijing. From there we took the train to Pingyao. I’d read much about it online and really wanted to go. I’m glad Grace convinced me that 2 days was plenty. And it was. It’s a lovely little town, but it’s now set up as a tourist attraction where most shops are selling souvenir type goods. ( I do regret not buying some of the malt rice vinegar that’s made there though. A must for dipping dumplings.) We stayed at the Jing’s Residence in the ancient town. The accommodations were lovely, the food was terrific and the staff were delightful. I am glad we saw it, but in hindsight we could have taken a pass on Pingyao. We then took the train to X’ian to see the jaw dropping Terracotta Warriors. We were warmly greeted at the train station by our terrific guide, Summer. Her English was impeccable and her knowledge of X’ian is amazing. She is a great ambassador for her city. I wished we’d had more time in X’ian. It’s well worth 4 days if you can swing it. From there we went to Luoyang where we were greeted by Lisa, another terrific guide. Her English as well was terrific. The walled part of the city is well worth exploring. But the pièce de résistance is the Longmen Grottos. A must see. We left Luoyang wishing we had more time. Always a good sign. Then off to Shanghai for 6 days. We probably could have done it in 3 days. From there to the surprisingly beautiful Qingdao. There’s more than just the beer factory/museum to enjoy there. We flew to Nanjing from Qingdao, then down to Guilin where we were greeted by our outstanding guide Linda. Guilin, Yangshuo and surrounding areas of minority villages and Rice Terrasses were the highlight of our time in China. I’d go back there in a heartbeat. Spectacular! And the food was great. Wishing we could bring Linda with us for the remainder of our trip we sadly had to say goodby to her and her fabulous part of the country, to fly to HongKong for a few days before heading home to Canada on Nov.6. The trip was all we expected and much, much more, thanks to Grace from China Culture Tours, and our amazing guides Summer(X’ian), Lisa(Luoyang) and Linda(Guilin-Yangshuo-Longsheng,etc,..)

China is a very safe country. We never once felt unsafe. It’s also a spectacularly beautiful country. If you’re planning to visit China you can’t go wrong enlisting Grace from China Culture Tours’ help.

Ask danielledupont52 about China Culture Tour