Ancient Town Tours

7Tours

What customers say about us?

We’re sure that our customers’ words talk louder than our own’s. We believe that hearing directly from those who've experienced our private China tours is the best way to understand what we’re doing. It's not just about seeing the sights and the tour itself; it's about the whole process, from planning to execution. We highly value all the feedbacks and make them to encourage us to constantly improve our services.

  • Megan Kunkle
    Megan Kunkle
    USA

    I traveled to China for the first time this past January. The trip was well-planned and fun from start to finish. Not only did Alex Guan do a fantastic job working with our travel dates and funds to fit a lot into our itinerary, he's also a great individual to talk to and travel with. If I had any questions or concerns, I felt extremely comfortable bringing them to Alex. The same was true of the the guides he had for us in each city. They were all very knowledgable and informative. I definitely learned a lot from this trip with China Expedition Tours. However, I also feel like Alex provided us several opportunities (scheduled and unscheduled) to break the "tourist" barrier and experience the Chinese culture. One of my favorite parts of the trip was taking a bike ride in Yangshuo with our guide, David. He arranged for us to stop by a local woman's house. She gave us a tour and shared fresh fruit and peanuts with us from her garden. With China Expedition Tours, you're guaranteed an unforgettable and highly enjoyable trip! I will be contacting Alex Guan the next time I visit China!

    Date of experience: 06/01/2017-21/01/2017
  • Richard and Sylvia
    Richard and Sylvia
    British

    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.

    Date of experience: 01/09/2017-13/09/2017
  • Drew
    Drew
    poland

    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.

    Date of experience: 13/08/2016-14/09/2016
  • Martin
    Martin

    Hi Alex

    Our trip was great, really enjoyed it. Also, both Grace and Li Li (I can't remember her name sorry) were great hosts. The highlight was definitely the Li river trip. Also really enjoyed the visit to the little country village.We took some nice pictures and shared one with you.

    Thanks for setting things up....all worked out very well

     Martin

    Date of experience: 09/08/2015-14/08/2015
  • Marthe Druska
    Marthe Druska
    the U.S

    Hi, Monica.Thank you for your note. My tour in Beijing was excellent - Allen (Lu You) was a fantastic tour guide and I have only good things to say about him. Our driver was also very good.

    In terms of improvements - I would have liked to have spent more time at the Summer Palace and in the Hutong, but we were on a tight schedule.

    I would also suggest that tourists not visit the pearl market - the atmosphere was not very pleasant. However, the tea house and silk factory that we visited were very good.

    I would recommend Allen as a tour guide to other tourists and would definitely return to the sights that I saw on this trip.

    Here is the picutre taken on the Great wall. Thank you again, it was a very good trip,

    Marthe

    Date of experience: 15/09/2017-17/09/2017
  • Todd A Hall
    Todd A Hall
    the U.S

    Hi,Monica,

    The trip was awesome!Every guide was an excellent ambassador for their city every place except for Guangzhou . Our guide, Louis, didn't take us to the tower there. I thought it was included with our tour...but I didn't question him. Also the hotel was not in a fun location and a bit unsettling.

    So overall, we had a great time with Randy, Rock, Ruby, Tiger and Ann.  While in Guilin, Tiger thought we were not having fun because of the rain; actually that made it more fun and gives us a fun story to share with friends, but I think that is why we didn't meet you.

    Can you do us a favor and give Tiger this email address, we would love to thank him more!

    Thanks and keep smiling!

    Todd and Tom

    Todd A Hall02.jpg

    Date of experience: 16/05/2017-03/06/2017

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