Luxury China Travel Review: Beijing, Shanghai, Lhasa, Tibet, Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, Xian, Fengdu, Yangtze River Cruise

Having read about "factory tours", I specifically asked for a non-shopping trip and that's exactly what we received. We are a group of 10 friends who have traveled together, both on-our-own and at times on a private tour, to different countries over the past 10 years. Christina from our China travel agency provided us with great service, responding to our individual questions, concerns, and requests on a timely manner. She put together a well-paced itinerary, touching on all the highlights, choosing 4 and 5 star hotels in each city. She even customized the itinerary for one couple who have been to Beijing, not interested in seeing it again, arriving 2 days later. 

About a month before the start of the trip, another couple decided to join us at the last minute. Since they have been to Shanghai previously, Christina customized yet another itinerary. She was amazing - (since she had to wait until this last couple had received their Chinese visas) on short notice booked rooms at the hotels where the original group were staying, seats on the same domestic flights, which I noticed were all flying full. Even their Tibet travel permit arrived just a few days before that part of the trip.

The vans provided for transfers and sightseeing were very spacious, and the drivers drove safely. The guides in each city were knowledgeable, accommodating, and very flexible, being that we love to take photos, especially group photos, which take a little time to set up. They also had a good sense of humor, especially Ryan in Shanghai, who never seem to run out of jokes and trivia. They were pro-active on a couple of occasions, re-arranging the sightseeing schedules to minimize the impact of adverse weather (rain). The few shopping breaks we requested were easily and conveniently arranged.

A low water level at Chongqing prevented all passengers from boarding the Yangtze cruise boat there, but the cruise operator had buses waiting to take us to the next stop at Fengdu. The guides on site were great in handling the situation and, except for the minor inconvenience of the two-hour bus ride and a little exhaustion at the end of a long day, the transition was handled quite smoothly.

When the recent CICA summit in Shanghai triggered a shortage of certain hotel rooms and higher prices, our travel agency bent over backwards to honor their commitment per the original quote and ate the difference. It was important that we ended the trip on a high note, staying at the Marriott City Center.

Everyone in the group enjoyed the trip, pleasantly surprised that everything went smoothly, there were no domestic flight delays, and all felt we got a good value for the price we paid.