Our unforgetable China tour

In the summer of 2005 we decided to make a 4 weeks trip through China.

Since we did not want to travel with in a big group we inquired about the price on our base country Holland . We specified our groupas 4 personsand the itinerary and the hotels. The price was prohibitive high. As an alternative we approached 3 Chinese Travel Agencies through the internet and gave them the same itinarary and specifications. We were surprised that they were much cheaper.

China Odyssey Tours in Guilin was the most attractive and we decided to go ahead with this company. The travel consultant that was appointed to us was Annie Fang. For the next couple of weeks we had contact with Annie on a regular basis to streamline our trip to our requirements.We found her very helpful and eager to arrange things the way we wanted it. We wanted 5 stars hotels at good locations, lunches in local restaurants avoiding big tourist crowds and dinners to be likewise including Chinese specialities. The trip included a 6-day river cruise on the Yangtze River from Wuhan to Chongqing. We agreed on the following itinerary. Beijing, Xian, Wuhan where we boarded a China Regal cruise ship to Chongqing and onwards via Dazu to Mount Emei for a visit to the Golden Summit and the Grand Buddha at Leshan. Then we continued to Chengdu to visit the Panda breeding centre. The trip further included Guilin with the Li River and Yangshuo where we made a great cycling trip though the country and a trip to the beautiful terraced rice paddies of Longsheng. We also visited the Zhuang and Yao minority groups.We then continued to Shanghai, which included a trip to Suzhou and Zhouzhuang. We ended our trip in Beijing for a final shopping spree.

The trip was extremely well organised by Annie Fang. At each airport we were met by an English speaking guide and a driver in A-c car who stayed with all the time that we were in a city to show us all the sites that are interesting to tourists.

We tasted all the Chinese specialities like Beijing Duck, hot pot, dumplings and red-hot chicken and visited various shows. This was all included in the price.

It was just great. Even the weather was in our favour as we had marvellous sunny days during our stay with regrettable one misty day when we were at Mount Emei. We travelled in April 2006.

As we said the whole trip was perfectly organized by Annie Fang with whom we had lunch when we were in Guilin. We were impressed by the personal attention that we received throughout the trip.

Thanks to Annie Fang and her efforts we can look back on a great trip which gave us the opportunity to see the glitter and glare of the great metropoles and rrtheir astonishing architectural and engineering achievements as Shanghai and the Three Gorges Dam but also the country side where the pace of development is much slower but where the scenery is overwhelming.

Annie, thank you very much and hopefully we can return to see other parts of your beautiful country.

Guus Peter & Cornelia Peter
Theo Kraandijk, Simone Kraandijk
(May 16, 2006)