Best of China with Yangtze Cruise Reviews

To start with we had a wonderful tour director in Li Gezhou. He gave us an information sheet with advice of things to be aware of on the first day and as the tour went along he always kept us informed with options etc. At all times Lee was there to help and happy to sort out any problems, he is one of the best tour directors I have had and there have ...read more been quite a few on all the tours we have done. Beijing was over whelming at first as we had never been surrounded by so many people before. So many cars and people on bicycles and people trying to cross the roads! Even a green walk sign meant nothing! and horn tooting like I have never experienced before - not even in Italy! Nearly drove me batty! After a few days it became part of the norm but there was always something to surprise me and even make me laugh. The hotels ranged from "time to close down" to really top grade. The beds in all of them are hard, but we got use to them. The breakfasts were the same as the hotels ranging from really this is breakfast to wow really is this breakfast?

I managed to climb the first part of the Great Wall. I don't know what I expected but it was amazing, a must do on anyone's bucket list. It was a Chinese holiday so very crowded but I think it would have been crowded anyway considering it is a country of 1.45 billion people, China is a world of its own! Be prepared for crowds wherever you go in China. Also I suggest you need a level of fitness although I wouldn't call myself fit but I did manage to keep up...just! I was really impressed with the shows that we went to so I suggest that you go to them as they were excellent! The lighting and acting etc....don't miss them! The buses and the drivers left a lot to be desired....we felt they needed to think about our comfort and nerves rather than the speed to get anywhere. The state of most of the buses were poor, little or no suspension. We were a small group of only seven so maybe if there were more we would have got bigger better buses. Being a small group had lots of good points to it. We really enjoyed the visit and meal to a family be my guest. China is a place to visit but go with no expectations.