Bill

Bill

Reviewed on May 11, 2018

Catherine,

this is our draft for the trip. 

Second Private Tour with China Discovery: Ancient Capitals

Our first tour with China Discovery to Huangshan and Zhangjiajie went so well in 2017, we decided to contact Catherine Liu of China Discovery again to design a tour of the ancient capitals of Shanxi and Henan provinces this year.

She helped us with every aspect of where we wanted to go and what we wanted to see. Catherine is very responsive and checked in with us throughout our travels to make sure all was well. Her suggestions and the local tour guides she contracted were excellent so we could enjoy our trip worry free.   Our guides were former local English teacher who know a lot of ancient and local Chinese history.  This is definitely a must have trip for Chinese history buff.

Most of the cities reminded us visiting China 10 years ago with construction everywhere.  In several cases, the driver had to reroute due to road construction closing. 

Our itinerary included the stops listed below. The asterisked items are ones that we recommend most. Our favorite city was Pingyao.  Traveling by high speed train between cities were some of the highlights of our trip.

Taiyuan

* Shanxi Museum - Regional museum with panoramic view of the river; Excellent artifacts and displays that are better than many other regional museums.

Pingyao Ancient City

 * Ancient City Wall provided a panoramic view of the layout of this town.  You can easily imagine time travel back one thousand years in this small walled city.

* Wang Family Compound, the “forbidden city of non-royal residence”, a massive family compound

Luoyang

* Longmen Grottoes – This is a major tourist attraction and probably the most famous on our trip.

Luoyang Museum: This museum has many interesting artifacts but was not as impressive as the Shanxi Museum in Taiyuan.

* White Horse Temple, the first Buddhist temple in China over 1900 years old: What impressed us was the Luoyang Tianzi Jialiu Museum

Dengfeng

Shaolin Temple, the birthplace of Zen Buddhism and the cradle of Kung Fu

We watched a Kung Fu Performance in the Shaolin Wushu Hall and saw hundreds of students practicing wushu on the temple grounds. The grounds are quite expansive but it is very touristy.  

Kaifeng

Dragon Pavilion, a part of the ancient ruin of the imperial palace of the Song and Jin Dynasties.

Grand Xiangguo Monastery

* Kaifeng night market - This night market is huge and a lot of fun to explore.

Millennium City Park: This is a theme park based on the Zhangzeduan, the famous panaromic silk scroll titled ‘Qingming Shanghe He (Along the River at the Qingming Festival)’.

Qufu

* The Confucian Temple, The Confucian Mansion and the Confucian Cemetery. You will get a full understanding about the life of Confucius, as well as the Confucian culture. 

 Confucious birth place

Conclusion:

You need to brush up on your Chinese history before you visit these ancient cities.  Some of the places did not accept USA credit cards.  In some cases, they only accept smart phone charge, not even cash.  In many case, a local person in line will offer to help to pay by phone,  we will give them the cash.   American tourist may be amazed that China is ahead of USA in smart mobile phone applications.

This was a very leisurely trip for Chinese history buff.  You can spend hours analyzing the historic contents of each site.  If you are in a hurry or do not have command of Chinese history, all of the significance will be lost.  Keep in mind that since 99% of the tourist visiting these sites are Chinese, the tours are very Chinese specific. 

You need to keep a sense of humor and be relaxed about things.  For example, the 200 mph high speed train station only allows drop off 400 feet away from entrance.  So you can spend 20 minutes dragging  your luggage to the train station.  Or the shuttle bus driver will wait to leaves on schedule even when the bus is already full. 

Catherine, our guides and drivers has always tries to do their best to make our trip as enjoyable as possible.

Destination(s):
Date of Experience: January 1, 1970
Trip Type: Traveled as
Tour Customized by: Catherine



Amazing Travel Stories with Hot Destinations from Our Customers

Our dear customers have shared many travel stories, feelings and stunning pictures after finishing their trips with us. They are glad to share everything with you and you are warmly welcomed to read their photo stories. For more, you can click 2012-2024 Customer Travel Stories" to appreciate all stunning stories. Get inspired now!

  • 5 Days Tibet Lhasa Tour
    Warm People, Warm the World - Annual Tibet Trip for Love Sharing

    Jack and their partners would get back to Tibet from the distant USA every year, and until now, they’ve visited Tibet for 6 times. Every time, they had wonderful time enjoying the highlights of Tibet, and helped the blind, brought them hope of life and encouraged them to meet every day with braveness...

    • Jack (USA)
    • (6 Times) 2013~2019
    • Tibet
  • Jennifer's 15 Days Northeastern China Winter Trip
    Jennifer's 15 Days Northeastern China Winter Trip

    Jennifer spent 15 amazing days in exploring the ice and snow world of China. Her trip started from Harbin - the ice city to Mohe - the northernmost town of China. Let's read her story and get inspiration for an incredibly amazing winter.

    • Jennifer (British)
    • 2023.01.20~2023.02.03
    • Harbin - China Snow Town - Changbaishan - Jilin - Arctic Village - Mohe - Harbin
  • Returning Hometown to Regain Adopted Daughter's Confidence
    Returning Hometown to Regain Adopted Daughter's Confidence

    Lawson's Family had an amazing family China tour with their two adopted daughters from China and touchingly helped their adopted ethnic little girl regain confidence.

    • Lawson (UK)
    • (19 Days) 2018.10.17~2018.11.04
    • Shenzhen - Xiamen - Guangzhou - Zhaoxing - Rongjiang - Congjiang - Guilin - Chengdu - Hangzhou - Shanghai - Suzhou - Shanghai
  • Couple’s 69 Days Private China Journey
    “Only You” - Couple’s Resounding 69 Days Private China Journey

    Elie & Marie has successfully enjoyed their wonderful and romantic 10 week couple's private vacation and experienced a lot of interesting things in 32 destinations around vast China!

    • Elie (Belgium)
    • (69 Days) 2019.09.04~2019.11.11
    • Beijing - Hohhot - Datong - Pingyao - Luoyang - Xian - Jiayuguan ...... Chengdu - Yangtze - Zhangjiajie - Yunnan - Guilin - Xiamen - Hangzhou - Shanghai
  • North American English Teachers’ China Trip to Visit Their Students off Internet
    North American English Teachers’ China Trips to Visit Their Students off Internet

    We customized three big group China trips for tens of VIPKid English teachers and their family members to visit Xian, Shanghai, etc. from Beijing and meet their students off Internet in China in 2019!

    • VIPKid Teachers (USA/Canada)
    • (9-21 Days) 2019
    • Beijing - Xian - Shanghai - Suzhou –Shanghai - Hangzhou - Huangshan –Yichang - Yangtze River Cruise - Chongqing - Chengdu - Beijing
  • 19 China Trips
    19 China Trips of Vijay’s People - Spreading around Family & Friends of Wonder’s Good Service

    Vijay, his family and friends have enjoyed 19 trips to savore the nature, culture, history, etc. in many great places during 2014-2017 with the great suggestion and service from Wonder.

    • Vijay (India)
    • (3-10 Days) 2014-2017
    • Destinations: Beijing, Shanghai, Xian, Guilin, Zhangjiajie, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Xinjiang, Harbin...