Travel Review: Luxury Trip to China and Tibet, Beiing, Shanghai, Xian, Lhasa, Great Wall, Terracotta Warriors, Yangtze cruise

One of the best trips my wife and I have ever taken. We have been on one other tour to Turkey, and I thought I'd never go on a tour again: on the bus, off the bus, all the hotels and meals (all buffets) the same. Because of the complications,language, visa, etc., we decided to take a tour to China. The tour was excellent. Selected sites and side trips, accommodations, informational guides, transfer guides (meeting us at airports, train-stations, etc.), were all first rate, and could not have been managed in large tour groups. For example, we stayed in a deluxe housing complex next to the Great Wall, were astounded at a private museum (in a small apartment!) of shoes worn by women whose feet were bound, had a home cooked meal by a family in one of the last traditional Hutong houses in Beijing, and saw one of the great national parks in the world, full of amazing limestone formations, with only native Chinese visitors, no westerners that we saw. Best of all, the owner of this China and Tibet Tour Company, Russ, was along on the trip and added his own amazing knowledge of China and a fun, thoughtful, and flexible presence. Finally, the company was very flexible in meeting our wish to add two cities, Lhasa in Tibet and Xian, the home of the terra-cotta warriors, and an interesting, old capital itself.