{"id":7977,"date":"2020-04-28T17:00:12","date_gmt":"2020-04-28T16:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wendywutours.co.uk\/blog\/?p=7977"},"modified":"2020-10-06T10:33:19","modified_gmt":"2020-10-06T09:33:19","slug":"traveller-tales-ancient-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wendywutours.co.uk\/blog\/china\/traveller-tales-ancient-china\/","title":{"rendered":"Traveller Tales – Ancient China"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

No one can bring our tours to life better than those who have seen, done and experienced it all first-hand, so we\u2019re opening up the blog to our wonderful customers who want to share their amazing Wendy Wu adventures!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

David Beadling<\/strong>
Ancient China
May 2017<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From an early age I have been fascinated by China<\/a>, particularly its\u2019 history and architecture. I had booked to visit in 1990 but the events of 1989 in Tienanmen Square put paid to that plan. However my fascination and ambition remained. I was worried after 30 years of anticipation that China wouldn\u2019t live up to my expectations; did it? Absolutely exceeded expectations!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tour Managers and Guides<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

So what made it a great tour? Firstly fantastic Tour Managers and Guides. To paraphrase from the TV show Friends \u2018out of 8 billion Chinese we got Mark\u2019, who, as our Tour Manager was worth his weight in gold. Let\u2019s face it in Beijing we were frightened to cross the road without him, he sorted a myriad of queries and took clients to pharmacies, beyond what we would have expected. Ahead of our first transfer, from Beijing to Datong, Mark asked us to provide our \u2018hold luggage\u2019 the morning before as it would be transported separately. Normally we would have been wary, but having got to know him, in particular his integrity and organisational skills, I had so much confidence in him. My attitude was, if anything goes wrong Mark will sort it out. No need to worry, everything did run smoothly of course. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The guides were equally competent, their knowledge of the sights we visited was immense, and for us non-mandarin speakers the standard of English great. All had their own personality; from the orthodox style of LiLee in Beijing (stopping short of waving her little red book but only just at times) to the approachable and relaxed style of Michael in Shanxi province and the remarkably modest style of Mark in Xi\u2019an who was justifiably proud of his home city. However, what they all did was to give us the best experience possible and show us the best of what there was to see. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Places to Rest your Head<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Accommodation is key to enjoying a tour, and this did not disappoint. In Taiyuan we had what could only be described as a suite with separate living and sleeping areas. Similarly in Luoyang we had a living area and even two bathrooms! However, our favourite hotel was the charming De ju yuan Guesthouse in Pingyao. Situated in the historic centre of the city, all rooms radiated off a central courtyard which served as a bar. Evocative and atmospheric, it really was like being in ancient China, even the price of beer was from a time long ago!
\nAs you can see it was a world away from the international chain hotels, a real tonic <\/p>\n\n\n\n