Review for Gems of China
Another great tour with Wendy Wu from start to finish. The tour shows a lot of the best parts of China from the Great Wall to the mountains of Zhangjiajie and as much in between as possible. The national guide Jacky was on hand 24/7 and delivered an excellent tour with his knowledge and experience. The local guides on the way were also knowledgeable and friendly. Various local cuisine all tasted good, I’m did like the Peking Duck 😊, and the hotels were of a high standard. Nice size group of 18.
The pandas were fun to watch as well.
All in all a great tour, fantastic people and amazing time 😊
Apr 22, 2025
Review for Natural Treasures of China
This Wendy Wu trip was a wonderful mix of experiencing both some of the most amazing natural scenery in the World and the hustle and bustle of Chinese city life.
Our prime reason for booking this tour was to visit places like Zhangjiajie and Jiuzhaigou and these places were indeed AMAZING! For us, however, we found that the two weeks were extremely "full-on", action packed with one visit after another after another, with very little opportunity to come up for air. We would have loved a little more down-time, with opportunities for us to opt out of some of the city visits to go and explore a little more for ourselves. For example, squeezing in visits to some of the extremely crowded places like Hongyu Dong in Chongqing after a long day was not a lot of fun.
We have come home with fantastic memories and photos, but also really exhausted, far more so than after our previous Wendy Wu "China Delights" holiday in October 2019.
The highlights:
1) EVERYTHING in Zhangjiajie, from the National Forest Park to the Glass Bridge and especially the visit to Tianmen Mountain - just breathtaking! LJ, our local guide was exemplary, guiding us as best he could through the crowds and queues around for the Qingming Festival. He was so informative, a great communicator and a real "people person", an absolute gem.
2) the visit and walk in the Black Mountain Valley was an unexpected delight. So tranquil and picturesque - a perfect day!
3) The simple breathtaking visit up to the astonishing Huanglong area, so high up in the mountains and just the most amazing sight to behold - and such a sense of achievement ascending to 3500 metres altitude!
4) The Dazu Rock Carvings were so interesting and awe-inspiring! I now need to read up on all the history and origins.
5) Inevitably, the pandas in Chengdu were just a joy to see.
6) All the meals were excellent (except the Farewell HotPot dinner in Chongqing which was arranged for 4:30 pm, far far too early to enjoy, particularly as we had tucked into a good lunch just a few hours before with no knowlege that dinner would be so early! Such a shame, as we would have loved to indulge fully in this special meal).
We also particularly enjoyed the odd occasions where we had time to go off and explore by ourselves, away from the organised schedule and experience the sights and sounds in our own time, in a more relaxed manner. These included:
- travelling on the subway over to Orange Island in Changsha, and then trying some of the street food
- our scheduled free evening in Chengdu after the panda visit, strolling along the riverside and trying food at one of the street food restaurants.
- an early morning hour's stroll around the little city park below our hotel in Chongqing, at Louis' suggestion. Such a peaceful start to the day, watching groups and individuals doing their early morning exercise, inspiring us to do some of our own stretching exercises by the lily ponds!
- The scheduled free evening stroll around Fenghuang, taking in all the beautiful illuminated sights and sounds along the river. A really vibrant and colourful scene.
- it was just great fun interacting with Chinese people, trying to talk some mandarin with them, and enjoying their requests to have photos taken with us westerners! We found them so helpful and friendly when trying to master Alipay, or buy tickets for the metro or select food in the street food restaurants.
The downsides:
We felt that the tour was just a bit too relentless, with too much being squeezed into absolutely every day. There were moments when we were too exhausted to appreciate everything. It would have been preferable to have some of the visits, particularly in the cities, as optional extras that you could either partake in or opt out of. Being jostled by crowds and crowds of people, trying to "follow the flag" and not lose the group were not our idea of fun, or time well spent. Maybe the tour could be a extended by a couple of days to allow for a bit of "recovery time" between places and activities.
Specific suggestions:
- maybe have an opportunity to see the night life of Chongqing from a river boat cruise (rather like the experience in Shanghai), rather than in the thick of the crowds?
- maybe in the Nine Villages Valley have a private shuttle bus for the Wendy Wu Group to take us from lake to lake, rather than having to join the manic jostling for a place on the shuttle buses with everyone else. This was exhausting! A private mini-bus would also give us more flexibility on timings and walks we could do between lakes?
Finally, a word for Louis, our Wendy Wu national ******. He was wonderful, quietly efficient and friendly and patient and very very knowledgeable. Our group of travelling companions were great fun. A group of strong and very individual personalities who all gelled very well together right from the start.
Thank you Wendy Wu for such a wonderful trip. Now the task of sorting through all the photos ....
Apr 22, 2025
Review for Natural Treasures of China
An excellent itinerary packed with breathtaking scenery and magical places. Our national ******, Louis and the local guides, LJ, Viola and David were all fantastic to run the tour, very knowledge and well organised.
A huge thank you to Louis who went extra miles to show us more beautiful landmarks in his home city, Chongqing.
Hotels were all excellent except the ones in Fenghuang and Nine Villages Valley. Our farewell dinner Hot pot was so much fun!
Food was mostly very good.
Physical level for this tour should be 5 not 2! Most days involve walking 4-5 hours. In Nine Villages Valley the public shuttle buses should be replaced by private mini buses. The days are long enough and involve lots of long hours walking so waiting in long queues for public buses make days more tiring....
In Zhangjiajie, VIP services should be used all the way to avoid waiting in long queues.....
Dazu Rock Carvings on the last day of the tour should be an optional excursion to give chance for some to have free time to spend in Chongqing.
Airchina was not aware of our special meal request.
The optional show in Zhangjiaije was an amazing performance. Must see!
I highly recommend this tour. Every day of this tour was a highlight from the spectacular national parks to vibrant cities and of course adorable panda. All superbly organised!!
Thank you so much Wendy Wu and the team for giving us such a memorable fabulous holiday!🥰
Apr 21, 2025
Review for Glories of China
from booking to the end of the tour.it was well organised . the group of fellow travellers where great you could not wish for a better group. Britney was fantastic as our tour guide nothing was to much trouble and we always had the details and times of the next day and the information she gave us about china and the people was interesting.
Apr 17, 2025
Review for Magnificent China
Excellent holiday. Visited some very interesting places. Hotels on the tour were very good. National tour guide, Ivan. Was excellent, he went above and beyond to meet people’s needs. Most of the local guides were very knowledgeable also
Apr 16, 2025
Review for Majestic Yangtze
We have wanted to visit and see China for many years. Wendy Wu's Majestic Yangtze fitted the bill, it was an escorted tour, it covered some of the major cities of China and took us to the must-see sites such as the great pandas, the terracotta warriors and the Great Wall. Our tour guide, Jackie, was knowledgeable and took care of us throughout the trip. We thoroughly enjoyed it.
Apr 14, 2025
Booking Experience for Magnificent China
Clear, customer focused information and advice. I explained our needs for this long haul trip and Julia the adviser instinctively honed in on solutions that removed all barriers to booking, so we did
Apr 13, 2025
Review for Wonders of China
Top destination, excellent accommodation, top quality food and the best guide I’ve ever encountered, in 28 years of travelling.
Apr 11, 2025
Review for Wonders of China
A fabulous tour incorporating all the key elements of China in one tour. It’s an action packed itinerary taking in all the key sites and carefully managed by your national guide, with local guides at each other main location to assist.
We had 24 on this tour group and everyone got on pretty well. Our National guide George took great care of us - he was super organised and his level of English was really impressive. He diligently catered for the various dietary requirements within the group and gave us rich insights into how China is. My last trip to China was in 1992 and the advancement is amazing! Certainly the standard of food and service facilities have improved massively!
There are several early morning starts but all understandable given that we had to cover vast distances using the various transport options - bullet trains, internal flights, cruise boats and we took a ride on the maglev train in Shanghai too! Beijing and Xian were amazing and stepped in history of course but beware that it’s full on with lots of walking as the sites are vast. The Great Wall is spectacular but that is pretty steep so those that are super for can get a challenge!
If would have been good to have a little break or chill day but we used the first day of the Yangtze River cruise to do this. The optional excursions are good - especially the acrobatics show and the night performance in Guilin if the weather permits it - go! We had a mini heatwave whilst we’re were there this March so be prepared and bring summer clothes!! Or buy some at Yangshuo!
Would highly recommend this tour and will definitely go with Wendy Wu Tours again.
Apr 07, 2025
Booking Experience for Wonders of China
The person I spoke with was very knowledgeable and helpful and I felt very confident that the holiday I booked would be a great success.
Apr 02, 2025
Booking Experience for China & Tibet Discovery
Excellent telephone manner. Information provided in a timely, efficient and courteous way.
Apr 01, 2025
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