Review: Family Trip to China, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Xi'am, Chengdu, Great Wall, Forbidden City, Rafting, Panda Experience

There were a few things I wish we had more clarity on in advance. For example, changing money was a big challenge. The banks didn't like the older style one hundred dollar US bills and were very particular about the condition. One day we got caught in a rain storm and everything got soaked - the banks didn't want our money because it was wet even though they could clearly see it was pouring outside and we were on foot. I think it would have been a lot easier if more meals had been lined out in advance. The guides didn't seem to want to stop for food (no time built in for that) so we often found ourselves hungry and still rushing off to the next thing to see. Having meals in the itinerary and paid for in advance would have also helped the cash issue (and almost no one accepted western credit cards). I think we also would have skipped the Face Changing show in Chengdu. It was not at all what we expected and was a big challenge for non-Chinese speakers. In fact, we probably would have skipped Chengdu altogether and requested we go straight to Dujiangyan with possibly an activity there that first evening. We were visiting 4 areas but ended up staying in 5 hotels due to the one night in Chengdu, which is challenging. The hotel there was terrible (all the others were very nice along the way) and that whole day felt like a complete waste. But, one bad day out of 2 weeks is overall a very good thing! Lastly, I also wish that we could have had more timing lined out for us ahead of time. Not knowing if the next day would be a 7am start or a 10am start until late the night before was hard for us. The guides knew what was coming so it would have been good had that been shared with us so we could have planned a little better.