Reviews

A good tour to get a taste of China and to see a lot in a short time.
Good hotels (not always the best location) plenty of food at mealtimes (but the same food meal after meal gets boring quickly) very informative guides (who talk too much - constantly while on the coach beteween attractions and for too long at the attraction)) lots to see (but not enough time to explore properly) days are full with lots of travelling (early starts, little rest except between attractions and late finish after dinner). A full on tour that delivers some of China's must see attractions, but you'll need a rest when you get back!

For those that are considering the "Glories of China" offering from Wendy Wu, but remain doubtful if a multi-centre guided tour, in the best hotels with inclusive meals is a bit too expensive. May I tell you, I thought the same thing before I booked. But I am so glad I went for it. The Tour was jam packed with things to see and do. 2x internal flights, a 4 1/2 hour river cruise. Bullet train and Mag-Lev train journeys. Going to the top a skyscraper in Shanghai and viewing the city lights at night from a river boat. What an amazing spectacle. You will experience the hustle and bustle of cities and the more sedate pace of rural life. You can catch a show or two, or three. And if you're worried about the food, the cuisine was second to none, with a few local delicacies thrown in. There was always plenty to go around. Then there are the tourist landmarks, The Great Wall, Forbidden City, Summer Palace, Yu Gardens, Xian city walls, The Terracotta army, Guilin Pagodas, and more. I came away wowed. And wanting to do it all again. Amazing!!

The tour Manager (Amanda) was excellent and made sure everybody was looked after well.

Easy to book and friendly female Voice.

The tour overall is excellent and we were so pleased to have done it . The itinerary speaks for itself . The following points are things that Wendy Wu (WW) should consider .
Broadly speaking the choice of hotels are budget . Some were huge old monolith hotels . Some in business districts . All aspects that makes the room rate cheaper for WW.
WW seem to specialise in offering a full days meal every day of the tour . It’s not necessary . We don’t need feeding so much food - most of which went to waste as we certainly did not eat it ! They could make the holiday cheaper . Lunch and dinners were identical most days . Noooo!
Too much .
There were quite a number of one night stays in cities . This makes the tour very arduous for travellers taking into account the days itinerary you are encountering .
The guides were all basically excellent . Some personalities were unhelpful to fellow travellers . One was majorly arrogant and totally disinterested in what we did , eat , see and go (Shanghai ).
We did not have a National guide for our tour as we only were a party of 8 ( 10 and above qualify for a National guide). At first we thought this would be a disadvantage . However it was great ! We were all pleased that we weren’t carrying an outsider for the entire trip! Most individual guides were supportive at points of transfer eg: airports or rail stations . Some weren’t as supportive but we muddled through .
Aspects of the tour which could be broadened are :
We needed to learn more about people and their life in China . Too much focus on temples gardens and museums.
We ought to have visited a family living in a 80sq.metre flat on their 27th floor . We went to a Hutong in Beijing so why not in a modern day setting ???
The guides did not discuss human geographical aspects other than population sizes from city to city . That should be changed/improved. Aspects of the journey should offer more of a commentary as to where we are ; what the landscape and trees around us are rather than travelling in total silence or chatting to the coach driver in Chinese !

During the tour the Xi’an WW office manager liaised with most of the tour guests which was an amazingly caring and supportive thing to do and was appreciated by all concerned. She even took on board a few suggestions and made changes or tweaks to a couple of meal times .

So to sum up - yes a brilliant tour but not without a few criticisms . If WW change things we won’t get the benefit sadly but they should look seriously at these aspects .

The China part of the tour was very good and we saw different aspects of the country. Our China tour guide 'Ivy' was excellent as were all the local guides. However, we did not have enough time to explore the Hutong area and the Summer Palace was rushed.
The restaurants were generally very good apart from the Irish Pub in Guilin, which was very poor food and dirty squat toilets.

Our tour guide in Japan was not very good. She was flustered and disorganised and her English was not great. She didn't go out of her way to help anyone - just the bare minimum for the itinerary. No evening excursions or extras and no knowledgeable local guides like in China. Lunch seemed to get in the way of the itinery and the occasional packed lunch on the coach or buying our own street food should be considered. The evening meals, however, were generally very good.
The itinerary meant that our impression of Japan was just of temples and shines and little else - and lots of travelling!
On our Tokyo extension on our own, we saw The Imperial Palace and East Gardens, Shibuya Crossing, Megura River Cherry Blossom and Ueno Park Cherry Blossom. We feel that these should have been included in the tour.
In conclusion, the itinery for China was very good but Japan left us believing we hadn't experienced the different areas of the country leaving us slightly disappointed and thinking it could have been better.

A really good experience of China covering The Great Wall, Terracotta Soldiers, Panda Zoo, Xian, Yangtze River Cruise and Shanghai, plus various attractions along the way. The Hotels were very good and the meals although somewhat repetitive were very good. The trip was very well organised and the guides were excellent in particular our national guide Amanda who was outstanding. overall a great trip which has left us with some wonderful memories, Highly recommended.

Very helpful, and quick, in responding to our enquiries.

Covered all the areas we wanted to see - big cities and cultural sites. Guides were knowledgeable and enthusiastic to show their home areas. Jason our guide throughout the trip was there when needed and looked after the group expertly (with humour). Our first time using Wendy Wu and have been impressed from start to finish

Staff very helpful friendly and respectful.

Great service

Steve was great, very professional and experienced.

Very helpful and answered every question asked - could not be faulted

Very good so far. Only just booked for next year so lots still to do.....

I would recommend them for the personal service they provide.