24 Nov 2017
My husband and I booked a private tour thru Chinahighlights.com with agent: Vivi Chen, to spend one day visiting the Terracotta Museum, the City Wall and the Pagoda and the second day visiting Huashan.
We enjoyed the tour to a 100% as it was at our own pace. The schedule was perfect, no visiting shops. The tour guide , Robbie, spoke good English and his narration on the first day regarding Chinese history and local culture was really excellent. Unfortunately, there wasn't much talk regarding Huashan. He could have spoken more on Huashan being one of China's five great Mountains, its religious significance as well as its 5 main peaks. We were glad that he suggested to go to the West Peak instead of going to the North Peak as originally planned.
At time of booking I have requested a male guide as my husband has low vision. Robbie was quite helpful to assist him to the washrooms. A little disappointing was that when ascending steps or slopes he led the way and waited for us at the top while as seniors and low vision person, we took time to climb to meet him.
A suggestion for Robbie was that he should check meals offered on flights. Since we flew direct from Canada to Xian, changing 2 flights on the way, we didn't have supper on arrival to Xian. Altho the tour package didn't include supper, Robbie could at least make some suggestions where we could eat near the hotel.
One other inconvenience was our baggage was delayed. Chinahighlights.com should have informed us that we needed to clear customs at Beijing. Our baggage was checked direct from Calgary Airport to Xian. When we arrived at Xian we discovered that our baggage was left at Beijing because we didn't pick them up for customs. We had to pay 300 RMB for the driver to pick them up the next day.
In spite of these hick ups, we still recommend Chinahighlights.com and commend on Robbie a job well done.