Reviews

Overall a good tour with two seats per person in coach.
Hotels: Good except the one in Chengdu. No aircon was at times hard to sleep as you couldn't open window in rooms and it was rather hot and airless.
Food: Plenty and tasty but no fish to speak of and no desert but just a slice of watermelon.
Guide: Penny was throughout excellent except in Xian, her hometown. There she made us dressed up with cheap chinese sort of shirts and a cheap fan and took us to the main street to stroll with the locals. All was OK until the following day when she told us that the "experience which we couldn't miss" was Y280/each! and she made us be part of the spectacle... it was not proper. She should have told us the short coach transfer and her fees BEFORE she said we couldn't miss it. It was disappointing and many of us weren't happy. The experience was definitely NOT worth the cost.

I bought pyjamas for my granddaughters. a 4 generation jade Ball for myself.
2 silk pillows. 2 fans.

An action packed tour of China, so well organised with excellent accommodation, meals and transport. It included all the famous tourist sites as well as so much more. Can’t recommend it enough particularly our National Guide, Zhang Ru, (Britney).

This was the holiday of a lifetime and proved to be excellent value. Everything was perfectly planned and managed by Wendy Wu Tours, from booking onwards. The schedule was jam-packed and we were able to see so many different aspects of China and its long history, accompanied by local guides in each main region who put our experiences in context for us, and our national guide who was with us from start to finish and became a valued friend. I was truly sad to leave this wonderful country.
Photos:
Nothing can prepare you for the immensity of the Terracotta Warriors display near Xi'an.
Our evening river cruise in Shanghai was unforgettable.
A peaceful afternoon by the lake at the Summer Palace in Beijing.

Tour guide Ruby was magnificent. This was an intense and packed tour with everything you could want except Pandas

Amazing experience.

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The Wendy Wu Wonders of China tour was my first trip to China. It was 16 days long and covered all the major sites you could think of; the Great Wall, Forbidden City and the Terracotta Army. Our guides were amazing. Nothing was ever too much for them. We had a National guide, Britney/Zhang Ru, who is just an amazing person. She was super helpful and one of the kindest people I have met. Our local guides were all very informative, knowledgable and passionate regarding their area/city and country, especially our Beijing guide Alan/Jiao Yang.
I would 100% use Wendy Wu again to go back to China in a heartbeat! Or even to try another country.

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.

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 .

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.

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

CCwell organised with passion

Excellent itinerary and great national guide. Local guides less good and one or two meals could have been better, one hotel especially could have been better. But overall would strongly recommend it