We arrived home safe and sound and here is my promised feedback.

The overall itinerary: First of all I have to congratulate you on the web site that allowed us to choose this extensive and interesting tour. I downloaded every scrap of information relevant to our itinerary that eventually filled a binder, our personalized guide book. We were not disappointed. China is so big and we managed to see such a variety that most tourists who go to Beijing - Xian - Yangtze - Shanghai dont see. We feel lucky to have had the chance to go to Lijiang, it was one of the highlights of our trip.
And thank you for all your helpful e-mail messages.

Local itineraries: Our local itineraries were changed here and there, I think to our advantage:

* departure from Guilin at 6 pm instead of 11:20 pm avoided the long wait in the evening without a place to rest;
* in Shanghai the Mandarin hotel was in a better location than the original Shanghai Huating.

As you know, we had a problem with late evening departures, with no place to rest in comfort. In similar situations on other tours we had hotel bookings extended by half day. In Datong the guide and driver found us a two-star hotel room. You might be hesitant to offer it to guests who are staying in 4 and 5 star hotels, but we found it clean and comfortable. Sitting room, bedroom, bathroom for 80 yuen, very reasonable. You may have other ways to solve this problem, but we feel that it needs a solution for folks who are beyond the age of backpacking.
I think it would be useful to have options and suggestions for things to do on the rare "time at leisure" occasions. That includes local maps. We would have liked to see more of the cities of Kunming and Chongqing. A possible city tour? In some places the local guides took some initiative that was appreciated: David in Xian took us out in the evening; near Taiyuan the Qiaos Compound was included at our request and additional entrance fee; at Yangshuo a motorcycle rickshaw tour of the country side and a village (exorbitant price of 150 yuen per person); performances in Xian and Guilin, Naxi music in Lijiang.

The guides: All the guides were competent, some had excellent English, some less so, but all more than adequate. We had a chance to meet quite a number of people this way, that certainly added to the enjoyment of the trip. The best ones were good companions as well, not just guides. The outstanding ones were: Li Ru Tien in Datong, Weny in Chengdu, Lili in Lijiang and David in Xian. If it is possible, we would like to have the e-mail address of Ru Tien and Weny, also Graces in Beijing.
We were impressed that we were met everywhere right on schedule, with one exception - I got your message and know you found out why. I am sure that it very rarely happens, so you dont have any emergency procedures. May be one should have the local offices phone number.

On the negative side: occasionally the itinerary was arranged at the guides convenience rather than ours. Going through the program without a stop, but leaving us at the hotel in the early afternoon. Could one have a short rest in between? In some places that was offered and found it very nice.

Transportation: As you know, we had three overnight trains and two during the day. They were all fine. Our guides joked about China Air not being on time, but we experienced only one slight delay.

Hotels: Our hotels were outstanding, mostly well chosen for location and quality. We appreciated the guest house (no star) in Pingyao for its ambiance. Now I know what it is like to stay in a family compound, sleep on a kang on sorgum-stuffed pillow. Have you thought of finding a similar guest house in Lijiang old town? Mixing these kind of accommodations with the American-style ones adds to the experience.

Food: We had many good meals, a number of them chosen by our guides with care. In that respect the girl guides were better than the men, may be a coincidence. We did not like the tourist restaurants catering to the large crowds with bland tastes. The worst of these were at the Stone Forest near Kunming, and the first day in Shanghai. We begged our guides to avoid these places, but sometimes they did not find any alternative. In Sozhou at least our guide took us to the Chinese part of the same restaurant instead of the western buffet.
We enjoyed the company of the guides who ate with us. Sharing food is a great way to make friends and part of the cultural experience. All of the guides had to be invited, which is considerate. Some refused, quoting "regulations". We had a suspicion that they were getting real Chinese food instead of the tourist fare. In their place I would not have touched the tourist food either. But of course they were individuals, we could not force our company on them.
Having a choice of breakfast at the hotels was great. Having only lunch (no dinner mostly) was also a good arrangement, we could not eat another big meal every day. We had snacks instead.

All in all we had a good time. Came home with 748 pictures. While I will be organizing them, I will be taking the journey again.

If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask.

Thanks for all your considerate arrangements. It was nice to see you even briefly in Xian - now we can put a face and a name together. Kind regards to Miss Molly, who must have helped in all this too.