06 May 2018
I learned about this tour while browsing tours to see in Xian on the TA website. I elected to arrange the tour with Lily's help. I was very pleased by the promptness of all replies and her willingness to fine tune the itinerary to our interests. Note that while the tour was not personally given by Lily, she arranged all aspects of the tour in a flawless fashion. We were picked up from our hotel and from the train station on time. The vehicles used were comfortable and the drivers all courteous. Our guide in Xian, Frank, was outstanding. I would recommend that anyone request his services when arranging a tour. Frank had a solid knowledge of the history of the area and excellent working knowledge of the sites we visited. I had requested that the tour, that normally is only the Shaolin Temple site and Longman Grottoes include a stop at Guanlin Temple. Lily was hesitant, fearing that we would not have enough time to adequately see the Shaolin and Longman Grotto sites. However she was willing to try and accommodate my request. Our train arrived a little late due to inclement weather and Frank hurried to get us to the Shaolin Temple, our first stop, on time. He was able to contact a friend to allow us to enter through a back entrance so as to be able to see the morning show on time (had we not been able to see that particular show we would have been unable to stop at Guanlin). In the end, we were able to see all of the sites. Both my partner and I ranked the Grottoes as the best site, the Guanlin Temple second, and the Shaolin Temple third and we were very happy to have had the opportunity to see everything we wanted thanks to Frank. I would definitely recommend using Lily, Frank, and the rest of the team