Short but Wonderful Cultural Tour

Dear Andy, Good morning from sunny France.

Our trip to Pingyao was wonderful and everything was nice: train,hotel,visits .....

The guide Michelle was a very nice person, with a good experience, speaking a very good english and explaining the visit with accuracy. She knows very well this Province (Shanxi Province) and knows a lot about history and religions. She organized the programm very well because the first day on the way from Taiyuan Railway Station to Pingyao we met a very strong cold sand wind (even with some snow) and she modified the route.

During the three days, we have visited all what was planed (Qiao Family Mansion and Wang Family Residence, Shuanling and  Zeshou Temples, Rishengchang Exchange Shop, visits in Ming and Qing Street of Pingyao......)  and we asked for an extra visit to Jinci Temple (south west of Taiyuan) wich is a very interesting temple with Taoist-Budhism-and Confucius parts. We recommend you to include in a future  programm such a visit.

The driver had  also a very good experience of drive, carefull, polite,.....

Thanks a lot for your help in organizing everything from Beijing to Shanghai (through Pingyao).

Our stay in Shanghai was also nice,three days to visit World Expo (very tiring-queueing-walking!!!), the Bund, Yu Garden, the city, Art Museum, French Concession....... We have been also to Hangzhou (wonderful Xihu Lake  and surrounding areas) and Nanjing where our son-in-law's family lives.

In Beijing, we have re-visited Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace....and Olympic sites and enjoy the new Peking Opera and walk in the Hutongs of the city.

All our three weeks spent in China were marvellous.
We take our Air China flight  from Shanghai wenesday morning and arrived in Paris (after a stop in Beijing) the same day in the evening.

Thank you for all & Best wishes!

Jean Luc and Marianne Renard