May I tell you how wonderful our trip to China was! I think about it every day and wish we had been able to spend more time there. The tours were well planned and the people we met could not have been kinder or more helpful.

Starting in Hong Kong was a stroke of genius because the weather was warm and balmy, a pleasant change from what we left in New York. Our guide there, Bill Lau was absolutely perfect. He was very professional giving us so much information about Hong Kong and China, meeting us promptly, provided excellent transportation, gave us ideas about what to do in our spare time, taking care of all our needs, created a full and interesting itinerary, and all in English too! Who could ask for more? He even helped me with my Mandarin! He was also kind enough to arrange hotel accommodations for my son Anthony's trip to Hong Kong later in December. We felt fortunate indeed and were sure we wouldn't be so lucky again. Happily, we were wrong.

Shanghai had a different feel because of the traffic, I think. Upon our arrival, the driver had to take back roads and alleys to get us to our scheduled show and it was very exciting indeed! We were able to get to the show but the trip to the Bund once again, was extra long because of traffic. This is what it's like here, in New York. Here, events tend to be planned around the traffic situations so we felt right at home! Our guide, Vivian taught us alot about Chinese gardening and she even caught the attention of other visitors at Tiger Hill. They were following us listening to Vivian's explanations of the various exhibits.

I cannot seem to find the name of the guide we had in Guilin, but I believe his name was Li and he was wonderful too. Very informative and protective; for instance, he insisted on waiting to walk us back to our hotel after a dinner show when it was only one block away. We learned so much about Chinese culture and society from him. He was truly a wealth of information.

Our guide in Xi'an, Alex Fu, was amazing. He was very energetic, confident and spirited. He made us feel that he could accommodate anything we wanted. He gave us a wonderful tour of the Terra Cotta Warriors the Great Mosque.

Beijing was fascinating with so much to see, but once again, traffic was an issue that had to be dealt with. The Great Wall was breathtaking and I loved our tour of the Hutong. I'm sure we could have spent another week in Beijing and still not have seen all there is to see.

I must apologize for the length of this email, but even so, I have merely touched on the wonderful places and people we encountered. There was so much more to our trip than I could possibly describe in an email. I just wanted to let you know how wonderful it all was, how indispensable the guides were and all the hotels were perfect. I also wanted to let you know about a restaurant in Beijing that my son Anthony took us to where the food was very good: it's called Bai Jia Chang and it's located in the Chaoyang District, Huixinli Jia 243. It's in walking distance from his school.

I would highly recommend your services to any traveler to China and sincerely hope some day to come back and see you all again.

Author: Denise Intravaia   Date: October 23, 2005

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