Architectural Culture Tours

Alex, Our tour was wonderful! I felt like we visited the top sights in China and we did it thoroughly. The hotels were beautiful and every meal offered a huge selection and exceptional service. I would gladly recommend China Expedition Tour to anyone wanting to visit China! From the very first question until the last day, the service was impeccable. Quick response and explanations of all inquiries. Excellent! Sincerely!

Dear Mrs. Chanel,

We were really pleased with the whole trip that You organised for us.

All aspects were studied very well and we had the opportunity to see beautiful landscapes and to know and love China. All the guides were good and prepared; we remember with special affection Nancy that we had in Shangri-la and who really loved us.

Nancy anticipated of one day the visit to the Jade Mountain Snow and in this way we could see the spectacle of minorities that will not forget for life.

The visits to Guillin were exceptional and Lizzie was really good at explaining. The rice fields of Longji were an exciting experience because they are the demonstration of the secular ability of the Chinese people to adapt to the environment even in the most difficult areas.

The dinner at Your house was a demonstration of friendship that we will not forget and we wish you every luck for your Husband and for Your very good and polite daughter.

Shanghai was amazing and Luisa guided us with great advice in a huge but extraordinarily friendly and organized city.

My wife who speaks very little English has always found herself at ease; all the accommodations we tried were well above European standards and especially made us appreciate the China of small villages and ordinary people.

We gave Your references to all our friends and our 3 daughters encouraging everyone to live this experience because in fact we know little here in Europe of the reality of this great country and only through direct experience is possible to understand a civilisation that thousands of years of history and much to teach us.

We hope to come again and visit the center and north of China that surely reserve us new reasons for wonder and joy.

Dear Mrs Chanel,

Still many thanks for everything You have done for us.

Aurelia e Mario Bignami

We had the best time ever in Yang shuo and Guiling. All thanks to Alex Guan! He is so professional, kind, sense of humour, looked after me and my family so well! I'm planning to take groups of my friend and students to China soon, and hoping to let them have a great experience like I did. Will recommend Alex and his colleagues to ensure a well organised, considered, and enjoyable trip! Thanks so much Alex!

 I just wanted to comment on what a wonderful experience my husband and I had in China. We truly miss the beauty that China has to offer. Not only that, my overall experience with CET was better than expected. What I truly miss about China is the person! I am Asian myself, and I enjoy people. Now that we are back at home, as we get up every morning. It’s sad to not see people outside like in China. Again I want to express my heartfelt appreciation on what a wonderful experience we had with you. you has truly made our Vacation a Vacation that my husband and I will remember and cherish a lifetime!

After looking at trip advisor, we picked 3 China based travel agencies who we thought might be able to plan a tour of the area around Beijing. One agency suggested factory tours from the outset whilst another was fairly insistent that we travel overnight by train, but Monica proved to be thoughtful and flexible.
We have friends in Beijing and so started and ended our trip with them.
She suggested a day trip to the Great Wall from Beijing plus a tour of Pingyao, Xi'an and Luoyang with 3 bullet train journeys and one plane flight.
We decided not to go with a couple of her suggestions, but she was comfortable with that and re-jigged the trips to suit.
The actual guides provided are generally contractors who can work for several agencies depending on the work available. But the choice of which guides to employ still falls on the travel agency (and availability).

We were also very happy with our guides "Nelson" in Pingyao/Taiyuan, "Grace" in Xi'an and "Frank" in Luoyang as well as the drivers. They all turned up flawlessly on time for every appointment, helped us order lunch and always seemed happy.

There appear to be one or two 'scams' running with guides taking commission on purchases made. But having ordered an evening dance show + meal at our hotel "Grand New World" our guide in Xi'an certainly earned what ever commission she got by making sure that my meal contained no sugar or MSG/Soy Sauce.

Chinese drivers seem to learn to all drive at the Kamikaze school of motoring, but the drivers in Pingyao, Xi'an and Luoyang (Frank did his own driving) (also contracted but independently of the guides) did a good job of not frightening us too much.

Chinese cyclists and motor cyclists don't even follow the correct direction of flow and often drive on the wrong side of the road. Chinese drivers hoot constantly if they want to overtake and can't quite squeeze by!

Coffee in China generally doesn't seem very good (apart from at the large American chains).

The Tian yuan kui hostel in Pingyao is an interesting mixture of traditional and modern. The staff were extremely lovely and the food was tasty. The hundreds of recommendations on A3 sheets on the wall in English, French, Italian, Spanish and other languages were also testament to that.

The Grand New World hotel in Xi'an was a slice of America transported to China. Service was slightly variable. E.g. I had to go to 3 receptionists in order to find the one who was allowed to do checkouts. English from staff was variable though usually adequate.

The Peony Hotel in Luoyang was also like a slice of America. Our safe would not work as it had no batteries in it. We struggled with language problems for about half an hour to get 4 new batteries to fit into it and then to get the Chinese maintenance lady to fit them right way round.

The manager agreed a special picnic lunch for our train journey, but I ended up having to explain to francophone Chinese tour guide in French what we needed! But I guess episodes like this make a tour more interesting.

Many thanks to Monica for arranging this memorable holiday.

Thank you very much for such a nice trip. Please see our comments below: The distribution of the time was fairly done, Meals were excellent in general. All guides were knowledgeable of the place and able to answer our questions. The best one was Sarah in Beijing and Ruth in Xian. All guides versed in English. All drivers were fairly good. The hotels were very nice and excellent breakfast.