Hi Emma,

Thank you for your patience, we are hopefully,over the jet lag and in a better position to answer your questions. I thought we could go through the itinarary and make comments as appropriate.

Day 1 This was of course a free day due to my treatment in the Beijing Clinic the previous night. It is worth commenting however that if we had been on a normal tour rather than a private tour, my illness would have resulted in us missing the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, the Temple of Heaven, the Beijing Duck Dinner and the Peking Opera, so full marks to you and Travel China Guide for being able and willing to switch this itinarary to our free day on day 4.

Day 2 A great day. Our guide, driver and vehicle were excellent. Our guide suggested doing the afternoon's visits in the morning and the Great Wall in the afternoon which worked well.

Day 3 We once again had a wonderful time and the Duck was superb. The Holiday Inn Central Plaza is quite a distance from the centre of Beijing and we would have preferred a hotel nearer the centre.

Day 4 We went in the morning to the Summer Palace. We thought we would have loved to be able to spend more time there and possibly less at the Temple of Heaven on Day 1, especially as The Echo Wall is closed at the moment. The flight to Shanghai by Shanghai Airlines was delayed for two hours which meant we had only 10 minutes to get changed before Dinner and the Show and that was only after insistence from me that we could not go out until we had changed our clothes.

Day 5 The old town and the Yuyuan Gardens were very good and our guide ensured that she took us to our seats on the train which was excellent. Our guide in Suzhou was there to meet us and we quickly found our way to the Bamboo Grove Hotel which was a very high class Hotel.

Day 6 The Humble Administrators and the Master of the Nets Gardens were superb. The Guide suggested that we could take the boat up the Canals to Tiger Hill which we agreed to and the additional cost was well worth while. That may be something you could consider including in the tour. Again our guide took us to our seats on the train for the journey back to Shanghai where again we were met by our guide and driverand taken back to the Pacific Luck. With knowledge we now have we would have paid a little more to stay in a Hotel on the Bund.

Day 7 We had a lovely free day in Shanghai and Anne had a great time shopping.

Day 8 After a nice lie in and a last look at Shanghai we were picked up and taken to the airport where again our Shanghai Airlines flight to Yichang was delayed for two hours. The result of that delay meant we had to cancel or visit to The Three Visitors Cave. At this point I was having some difficulty getting the new memory cards for my digital camera to work and our guide and driver did a superb job in trying to help me out with the problem. They took us to the street where the camera shops were and persuaded shops to to stay open to try to sort my problem out.We then had a lovely Dinner before transferring to the ship. I have no doubt that rearranging to fly to Yichang rather than Wuhan and its coach journey was a much better arrangement.

Day 9 The visit to The China Dam Projest was well organised although by this time we had got used to having our own guide and driver and we missed them.

Day 10 Again we really enjoyed the trip up the Shennong Stream although Anne complained that the the Guys pulling the boat now wore clothes.

Day 11 We decided not to go on the ships trip to Wanxian preferring instead to explore the streets around the dock area on our own much to the amusement of the local people when we said Good Morning to them in Chinese. Obviously not a lot of Western people go into that area.

Day 12 We left the boat and was met by our guide who helped organise our luggage into the car for the trip to the Zoo and to Gen Stilwells Museum. As you know Anne enjoyed the Pandas very much, they appear to be very well looked after and happy and our guide and driver again were very good.They took us to the Airport where we had only a one hour delay with, I think, South China Airlines, to Xian where our guide and driver were waiting to take us to the Bell Tower Hotel which was very good.

Day 13 We really enjoyed the trip the the Terracota Army and the guide was very good when Anne had a reoccurance of the Stomach problems she started with on the cruise. We then enjoyed the Tang Dynasty Show in the evening before we met our our favorite Chinese person, you, The photograph of us all hasnt been developed yet but I will be sure to send you a copy as soon as we can. We hope that you had a lovely evening with your Boyfriend celebrating your anniversary, he is a very lucky man.We then had our Dumpling Dinner which was great.

Day 14 We went to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda and the Great Mosque this day instead of the previous day and we also visited the City Wall. Unfortunately the weather was very poor and it made sightseeing hard work for us all but we also had time to go to the Bell Tower and The Drum Tower which was a bonus and also looked around the Muslim market. We then were off to the Airport again for our flight to Guilin. We both loved Guilin and the Guilin Bravo Hotel was the best hotel we had on the trip.

Day 15 Your description of this day in the itinarary was very accurate we loved the River and the visit to the Farmers Home will be one of the Highlights of the trip.

Day 16 The memories of this day will remain with us for ever, The people of Guilin are obviously not that used to seeing Westerners in their town and couldnt wait to smile , say hello and even try a little conversation with us. We both felt like Filmstars. The flight by Air China was on time as were the Guide and Driver when we reached Hong Kong. There was a problem with the fact that we arrived on National Day and Hong Kong Police had decided to close a number of roads around our Hotel which meant we had to carry our luggage for about 15 minutes, through the crowds, to the Miramar but again the guide was more than willing to help.

Day 17 The tour was very good and we really enjoyed ourselves and also had time to do some shopping on Nanjing Road.

Day 18 We had arranged you may remember to have a ride on Aqua Luna around the Harbour, when we got there we were the only ones on the trip, so we had a 55 minute sail on what was our own private ship with a crew of six.

Day 19 This was always going to be a long day with our flight not being until 23.15. However the Hotel gave us facilities to be able to shower and change before going to the Airport which was very welcome.


Summary

Despite the occasional critisism, the quality of our Holiday and your arrangements was superb and will always get our recommendation over normal tours. All the Guides were professional as were the drivers and all vehicles were satisfactory. The food was also one of the delights of the Holiday and very well chosen We thank you very much for all your hard work. We will be back in touch when we have sorted out the 600 photographs we took and we will send you some.


Very Best Wishes
Anne & Clive