7 Days Private Tour of Beijing, Xian, Shanghai by Bullet Train

The tour guide assign to us was very knowledgeable on the history of the places that we had visited and that was very important to us as this trip was mainly to expose our 2 boys to appreciate the Chinese history.

Our trip to China was one of our best trips. CXT - China Xian Tours did an excellent job in organizing our trip. Our domestic flights, pick ups, tour guides, tickets every thing was so well done. Even though language is a problem in China, we had no trouble, because our tour guides were good English speakers. I would like to mention a few names. Grace at CXT did the great job organizing the trip. Pong Shu Li (Shelley) who was such a sweet tour guide in Zhangjiajie and Helen in Beijing who was very helpful in arranging food for us and she had a good knowledge about the city and it’s history.

I am reviewing the tour experience as a whole, not the specific sights. Our family (2 adults, 2 teenage boys) enjoyed this private tour from the China Xian Tour company. Communication with the company ("Sophia") and payment prior to the trip went fine, without any hitches. Sophia checked in with us in each new city to let us know the name of our guide and the start time for the next morning's tour. We went in February, which meant smog (bad in Xian and Shanghai) and some snow, but those were the dates our schedule could accommodate. We paid for the 5* accommodations, and they ranged from adequate (the Beijing Prime Hotel could have been cleaner, and the beds were extremely firm) to very good (Novotel Xian) to superb (Shanghai Sunrise by the Bund). In each city, my husband and I had rooms with king beds and the boys had separate rooms with twin beds. Each hotel had a nice breakfast buffet included, with both Chinese and Western options. We took flights everywhere (didn't realize the bullet train was an option). The tour company arranged to pick us up and drop us off at the airports and shuttle us throughout the day in a 7-passenger van, typically dropping us off in the late afternoon for dinner on our own. All 3 drivers and tour guides were prompt and courteous. Our Shanghai driver didn't smoke while we were in the van, but the vehicle smelled strongly of smoke, which was unpleasant. The tour guides were fluent in English and had a basic stock of information about all the sights but did have to look a few things up to answer our questions. Our Xian tour guide ("Wendy") deserves special mention - she sat with us at lunch and ordered exceptional meals for us in response to our comment that we thought we were being served less spicy food, probably because we were American. In the other cities, we had adequate but not fantastic lunches of several courses. Wendy also came into the Xian airport with us and helped us through the process of scanning our luggage and getting our tickets/seat assignments, which was very kind. We mostly took the standard tour (you can see the full itinerary on the chinaxiantour.com website), although I'm sure the company would have customized it more if we had asked. We did a few extra activities: we took the gondola up and down to walk on the Great Wall (might have been fun to hike in summer), we biked the full circuit of the old City Wall in Xian with the boys on a tandem (lots of fun!), and we attended the dumpling banquet and Tang dynasty music/dance performance in Xian (we all loved the dumplings; 1 adult and 1 boy liked the performance, the other 2 not so much). The high point for me was the terra cotta warriors - one of the most incredible sights I have ever seen. So overall the trip was a very good experience, with one star deducted for the Beijing hotel, the less than stellar lunches in Beijing and Shanghai, and the smoky Shanghai van. Request Wendy as a tour guide for the Xian leg if you can - she is a lovely person and very helpful.