6 Days Beijing and Chengde Tour

Thank you Top China Travel for a fabulous visit to your wonderful country.
I was apprehensive about visiting China, but thoroughly enjoyed our travels if this beautiful country.
What made the trip was having a guide in 4 of the 5 cities we visited.
Our guides meet us at the airport, took us to our accommodation, picked us up for our daily activities, returned us back to our accommodation and made invaluable recommendations for our evenings. Then made sure we not only got back to the airports, but ensured we had the right terminals, flights and saw is right through to customs.
Having a guide made sure we went to the best sights, at the best times to avoid the queues, getting tickets in advance, making sure we got the best photo opportunities in the best places. And all with informative information about sights and history. 
If we had tried to see what we saw on our own, we would have missed so much and spent a long time trying to find it all.
Thank you to Jeremy in Guilin. It was great to get out into the country side and see the hard working farmers tendering their crops, and witness up close the celebration of families remembering their departed families.
To Linda in Beijing. Your warm manner as you taught us about the history of your country, and accepting the challenges of walking the steepest section of the wall with us. Thank you.
Olivia in Xian, the Terra Cotta soldiers was awesome and your making sure we went to government stores so we we're not ripped off, when we brought a soldier and tea.
And Summer in Zhangjiajie, the glass bridge, the glass pathway on the side of the stairway to heaven and your lovely singing. Thank-you for a wonderful tour.
Our guides made our visit to China, a wonderful holiday, thank you all. We wish you well for your futures.
Kind regards from Leah, Angus, Cameron, Maree and Todd

With Bonnie in TCT we organized a 12 days private tour, and she was really amazing. She organized more than 5 times our trip!!! She helped us with all duties, questions, everything!! All our guides were really good, high professional behavior, knowledge and advice. All of them did their best to let us to see as much as possible and gave us the best suggestions!!! Thanks a lot to Kurt in Beijing, Lee in Xian Susan in Guilin, Ken in Chongqing, Amber in Yichang and Vicky in Shanghai!!! GREAT!!! If you can ask for them, do it!! They were very professional, flexible and helpful. Thanks a lot, all of you, to make our trip unforgettable!!!

Arrived in Beijing, took high speed train to Xian and then plane to Shanghai. Beautiful weather, good food and great sites. Would have liked an extra day in Beijing and Shanghai.

Hotels and local tour guides were fantastic. Bus drivers got us around each city with amazing skill and precision.

Top China Travel provided an intense 15 day tour of China. Now that we look back we realize how much we accomplished. It was more expensive than a regular tour, but it was worth it. Very few local people actually understand and speak English, so having a guide to take us around was a great help. We had a different guide in each area, but all were great; Alex, Liang, Kellie, Annie, Gerry, Adam, among others, really made each city trip enjoyable. They provided an overall view of their area, including the main sights and picked an excellent restaurant for our lunches so we were able to sample lots of different local foods. We had a car just for us and the guide basically picked us up at the airport/train station and ended his assignment after checking us in for our flight/train ride to the following city in our itinerary. We couldn't have done everything we did had it not been for the organization of this custom tour. Only issue we had is that we were only 1 day in Xian and therefore missed the cultural night show since we arrived too late into Xian to make it that night; and the following day after touring the Terracotta Soldiers we left in the afternoon for our next stop. Would have liked to have been told about this famous show so we could have maybe rearranged something. Other than this, Top China Travel made our China experience a memorable one.

My wife and I booked a private tour with Top China Travel for 6 days , From the outset the help we got from TCT was first class and Joyce our representative in China answered all our questions and tailored the tour accordingly . On arrival at Beijing airport the guide Venus and driver Mr Howe were there to meet us and take us to our very comfortable hotel which TCT had arranged. The second day we visited the Great Wall which was fantastic. Neil the guide for this trip was knowledgeable and very informative and later in the day we wandered around the beautiful Summer Palace at leisure. The Forbidden City with Venus our lovely guide was incredible as was meeting local people in the Hutong and market. A trip to Xi An to see the Terracotta Warriers taking the bullet train from Beijing was incredible travelling at 306 kilometres an hour. Comfortable and spotless taking just 4hr 20min to cover 1,200 Kms . Again when we arrived in Xi An station our guide Vincy and the driver Mr Toa were there to meet us and take us to our hotel. The next morning our car driver and guide took us to the Buddhist Pagoda in Xi An the first to be built in China, Very Interesting and so peaceful. The terracotta warriors were incredible, a massive site with five pits. We cannot thank Top China Tours enough for helping us to have an experience of a life time and we recommend them unreservedly. Clive and Lynne..

We had a wonderful tour of Beijing, Xi’an, Lhasa, Chengdu and Shanghai. Our tour guide/ planner , Joyce , was so pleasant and helpful from beginning to end. We kept in touch throughout our tour through what’s app when any questions arose. Our personal tour guides in each city were knowledgeable and friendly as well as all of our drivers. We would highly recommend China tours. ( ask for Joyce!)

From the 1st point of contact till the end Joyce was great and helped plan a perfect trip which I was for a short time in Beijing. I was traveling alone and was recommended to join a small group of fellow travelers which was perfect. Great tour guide with a clean bus. Pick up on time and overall a great experience.

After doing a long long internet research about the best itineraries and competitive prices for private tours, I decided to book with Top China Travel. My tour advisor was Lily, from Guilin. Always there to help me and accommodate my expectations and needs. I decided to visit Guilin, Yangshuo, Zhangjiajie and Fenghuang. My tour guides, Annie (Guilin) and Linda (Zhangjiajie) were outstanding; together with the drivers. I felt safe and very well looked after all the time. Unfortunately I had very bad luck with the weather, so the only thing I would encourage Top China Travel to do in the future is to advise on the weather and which are the best seasons or months to travel to each scenic spots. Anyway, I had a great time and because of weather conditions I could get some of the itineraries changed without much issues...LILY YOU WERE GREAT! The suggested hotels and restaurants were very good and exactly what I expected. MANY THANKS...I will keep the best memories from this trip. Maria (From Argentina)

When planning our China trip we read many trip advisor reviews and noticed Janet Chan’s name came up a number of times so we asked for her to arrange our journey across this fascinating land. What a great choice we made, she listened and responded to our questions and arranged all our trip that went off without any problems. We didn’t want shopping nor group travel and she responded brilliantly. Two days hiking on the wall with fabulous guide Miko, in fact all our guides and drivers were just excellent. High speed train meant we saw lots of China’s varied countryside and went to some out of the way places. We can only say great things about TCT and especially Janet Chan if you are planning a trip. Thank you Janet for an exciting and memorable trip! Chris n Jools Winstanley

We traveled to China and southeast Asia for 33 days starting in Shanghai and ending in Kuala Lumpur. For the mainland China portion of our trip we spent 11 days with Top China Travel. It was a wonderful time and we were very happy we choose TCT. All of our guides were prompt, courteous and very knowledgable, especially William Zhang in Beijing and Snow Yu in Shanghai. Cherry Ma also did a fine job in Xi'an. We are very grateful that TCT changed our Yangtze River cruise ship from the Victoria Grace to the Century Sun 2 weeks before the start of our journey. We met a number of people on our Princess Cruise who were on the Victoria Grace and were very unhappy with their experience. Our cabin's on the Century Sun were mini suites and they were very nice. Also, the food and tours were excellent. So was the crew. We did find the boarding process to be a bit chaotic. We were not sure how our luggage was going to find it's way onto the right boat. Finally, we found a waiter from the Century Sun who assured us that our luggage would be put on board. It would have been less of a hassle had the TCT guide who met us at the Yichang airport taken us directly to the boat instead of us having to go on tour bus to the upstream part of the Yangtse due to the closure of the locks at the 3 Gorges Dam. However, it was only a minor inconveniance. We saw so much and had such great experiences. We would not hesitate to recommend TCT to any of our friends if their future travel plans included a trip to China.

We were met at the airport by Christina Xiena from TCT at Xi'an train station. She was curtious and extremely knowledgeable. She started telling us the history of our scheduled itinerary in the car on the way to the hotel. That inspired and excited us for our upcoming visit to Xi'an. She was enthusiastic, energetic and protective. The hotel was great too. She took us to the Terracotta Army excavations, the Huashan Mountain, Thai Chi demonstration on the Wall of the City, calligraphy at the TangBo Museum, arranged our massages at her local salon (amazing!), Muslem area trip, pearl factory, lots of food and shopping. She was so willing to accommodate our every whim. She put me and my friend on the plane to Shanghai and helped us get our extra luggage on the plane using contacts from her travel company. In Shanghai we were met by Vicky. Another great guide. She knew how to get us around the city and most certainly spoke very good English. She took us to the Silk factory, Bottle opener building (Shanghai financial center) , Water city (unexpected add-on to the tour), Buddhist temple, plenty shopping and food. The hotel was great again. We recommend this travel company. You will never be disappointed. You can trust them from all angles.

Enjoyable busy day!7 am start covering Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City early on amidst tight crowds followed by an unexpected stop at Pharmacy institute where we were able for a small “tip” enjoy a short foot massage and consultation with a Chinese medicine expert. Unfortunately this turned into an embarrassing pressure sell of his prescribed medicines which left us underwhelmed!Lunch was acceptable followed by a wiz around the Temple of Heaven. On the way to our final destination the Summer Palace we had another unexpected stop and “selling” opportunity at a pearl factory (store actually). Guide had his own sense of humour and opinions which were often unintelligible or off the wall and his English Weaker than other “English” speaking guides that we have experienced in China.All that said, we had a good day out in some very worthwhile places to visit and felt it value for money. Our favorite was the relative peace of the Summer Palace surroundings and in particular watching the old guys flying kites at heights I could not imagine possible.

We were travelling in China for 2 weeks (we're a couple on our 60's), through TCT company organized by Janett Chan. The trip that was booked in advance, and designed to our requests and her brilliant reccomendationes. Every planned activity was sucessfull- the private driver, private guide, flights, hotels and few group tours as per our request. We higly recommend Janett's services.

I’m going to begin by saying we highly recommend China Travel, specifically our tour director Janet Chan, for your travel arrangements in China. They offer value, quality, professionalism and even friendship. And if you run into trouble, they are there to help you out. Four of us experienced it all during our 21 day tour of the country. And after using a tour company for nearly month with seven amazing tour guides you really get to know their worth – this one went above and beyond. Now the details on why we loved this company. Our totally custom tour of China took in the breadth of Central China, from Shanghai, Guilin, Hangzhou and Beijing to Xian, Chongqing and Chengdu. Leon collaborated for several months before the trip with our group leader, Alan Holtzman, on the itinerary. Alan did a lot of research on where we would go and would submit his ideas by e-mail to Janet who would in turn make suggestions about alternatives if there was something we missed or warnings if one particular venue was too far or too physically demanding. After months of back and forth, they came up with an incredible itinerary that would include the major cities of China, well known destinations like the Forbidden City and the Great Wall in Beijing, the Terra Cotta Warriors in Xian and a three day cruise down the Yangtze to the Three Gorges dam. Our tour also took us to some not so traveled paths to places like Leshan with its giant Buddha, and an incredible journey to Mount Emei and the Monastery of Ten Thousand Years. We saw old and new China in ways packaged tours could not approach. Each place was fascinating – some magical, like our short cruise down the Li River and other’s just fun like exploring the ancient river town of Wuzhen. The price for the entire tour, not including hotels and some meals, was surprisingly affordable – less per person than our 14-day cruise we took to get to Shanghai from Hong Kong. The fee included the Yangtze cruise, flights, train tickets, tours, guides and drivers, attraction fares and lunches. A word about lunches. Many of our friends who visited China via tour packages complained about the bland food served day after day. We had a totally different experience. Our lunches were wonderful. Each reflected the region or city we were in and included as many dishes as we wanted off extensive restaurant menus, plus tall beers on hot days. Our wonderful guides helped us out with the dishes knowing our tolerance for spicy heat and weird food. None of us had any health issues due to food or drink on the trip. We were provided with English speaking guides and experienced drivers for every destination. They were heart and soul of our experience – a joy to be around and learn from. I will go into detail about each tour in other TA reviews about specific destinations. But our guides became our friends in a very short time. Their English names were Dream, Melody, Tony, Kenneth, Jim, Li Li, and Helen. All made sure we were greeted at the airport or train station, checked into the hotel and got our plane or train when we departed. They were on-time, funny, entertaining, knowledgeable and above all, caring. If you needed anything, they would go out of their way to find it. They helped you bargain when shopping, select dishes from exotic menus and get you into the priority check-in lines at the train stations and airports. They even helped my wife find Western-style toilets – not an easy task. (The Chinese version was too hard on her knees.) Our drivers were very experienced driving in the chaos that reigns in Chinese roads… roads full of inexperienced drivers who do things that are jaw dropping and dangerous. Wear seat belts; you’ll feel a lot safer. The cars and vans provided were all in good order and mostly newer models. Before our tour we took a cruise from Hong Kong to Shanghai, so we had a lot of luggage. So much that Leon had to order a second car and driver just for our luggage after the tour began. AND HE DIDN’T CHARGE US ANYTHING MORE! I titled this review “our guardian angels.” When you travel as much as we do you know that there’s always the possibility of unexpected “adventures.” After our cruise down the Yangtze we stayed overnight in Yichang, and then were scheduled to fly back to Shanghai, where, a day later, we would catch our flight back to San Diego. We boarded the Yichang plane on arainy morning and waited on the tarmac for nearly an hour before the captain announced that the flight was weather-delayed. We deplaned, and waited in the terminal for the flight to be cleared. We called Leon to alert him to the delay, so he could contact our guide in Shangha about the change in plans. We waited in the airport for four hours before it was announced our flight was cancelled. The staff at the airline spoke little English and we worried it would be hard if not impossible to find another flight or alternative transportation, since the bad weather was affecting much of western China. But we had a friend in China. Janet had been keeping track of our flight and working on alternative arrangements. She booked us on a flight to Hangzhou where we would take a high-speed train to Shanghai. After another brief delay, our new flight took off for Hangzhou. When we landed there, our former tour-guide Tony and his driver met us and took us to the train station an hour away. He led us to the platform, handed us the tickets and made sure we got on the right train. An hour later, we were met in Shanghai by a new guide and driver who took us to our hotel. A three hour journey turned into a 1- hour odyssey, but thanks to Janet and her team we made it to Shanghai in time to enjoy a half-day there before catching our flight home. There we many things we loved about China, the history, art, culture and especially their people who were universally friendly and caring. There are also dark sides, like pollution, explosive growth that erases historic districts and information censorship (although the people were very savvy about current affairs and recent history). We agreed that many of those issues are being addressed by a more enlightened leadership. In the end, it was a magnificent adventure, made possible by China Travel’s Janet Chan and her talented team. We thank them and look forward to seeing our China friends again soon.

Both my husband and me booked a 8 Days tour self designed, no shopping China tour with TCT in Nov 2018. Yocky is the best consultant that I have worked with. She is so responsive and patient with all my request from the planning stage to the end of the tour. I was so impressed with Yocky answering my message even at 6am in the morning due to flight delay. We are so thankful that she had always tried her best to help and take action with some unhappiness with hotels and other issues. Without hesitation, I would strongly recommend TCT to everyone interested to tour China.