GobalTravelwFamily
02 Dec 2019
This is my second time using Catherine Lou’s Tours. The first time was a multi-day customized trip for five people to Beijing. This time it was a three day private customized trip to Chengdu for my 8 year old son and I. Catherine Lou’s Tour helped me create a great trip to Chengdu and surrounding area that was engaging for my son. More importantly the guide we were provided, Kiki Chen, was phenomenal! She is probably in my top two of tour guides I have used in over 20 guides throughout Asia, mainly China. Kiki was extremely knowledgeable, provided wonderful insight into her life in China, and more importantly communicated in a way that kept things interesting for myself AND my son. Kiki was great with my son and that made the experience all the more enjoyable. She played some games with my son in the car and when we were walked around outside. She pointed things out for him, asked him great questions, and asked about what kind of food he wanted at lunch (sweet and sour pork for him!). Kiki picked great restaurants and also asked me what kind of things I liked. Kiki spoke excellent English and I recommend her to anyone! Ask specifically for her, when you book with Catherine Lou’s Tour.
We started our three days with a trip to Chengdu Panda Base. I am glad we asked for an early start, we left the hotel around 7:30am and got to the Panda Base before it got crowded. We got to see the pandas eating breakfast and the young ones were rolling and playing with each out. By 10-11am, the pandas were definitely starting to slow down and go back to sleep. After lunch, we did a shadow puppet experience which my son LOVED. I was a little surprised he enjoyed it so much. After a two 10 minute shows (which Kiki gave us a summary before the show so we could follow along), we both got to play with the shadow puppets and them make a shadow puppet. The hands on experience was wonderful and we were the only customers in the shop, so the one-on-one contact was nice.
The next day, we drove about 2 hours to Lushan to see the giant Buddha. The weather was rainy and cold so we did not hike to the top, but instead took a boat to see the Buddha. If the weather was nicer, we would have done the several hour hike to the top. However, my son did like the short boat ride to the Buddha.
On our third day we went to see the Dujiangyan Irrigation System, explored the Chengdu Museum, and walked around the city. The Irrigation system was really quite amazing, especially knowing it is still in use. If you are an engineer, or interested in water, this is a must see. Learning about the system with a guide is also important, otherwise you won’t know what you are looking at. I found it fascinating. We spent 1.5 hour in the Chengdu Museum, which is plenty for my son. The museum is well done and the exhibits kept his attention, especially the large shadow puppet exhibit.
Our driver, Mr Wu, was excellent and I always felt safe in the car.
I give Catherine Lou’s Tour, Kiki Chen, and Mr. Wu 5 out of 5 stars. Our experience in Chengdu was wonderful!