Mary W
USA
- Reviewed on May 29, 2025
Ours was a 15-day private tour for 18 seniors in the mid-seventies, visiting the China Silk Road arranged by Wing, the China Discovery consultant. I asked Wing to combine China Discovery's Silk Road Tour and Southern Xinjiang Tour, but shorten it from 18 days to 15 days. We had to make some changes to accommodate the plan. Considering it was mostly desert area we were visiting, the hotels, the food, the guides and the coaches we used were up to expectation. It was not just lamb they served, as people had warned us. Breakfast with varieties was included in the hotels, but the daily lunch was a sit down event banquet-style, more than I expected.
One thing I would do differently would be to ask for porter services for the bullet train transfers. The train stations only had escalators going down, not up when you had to carry your own luggage up to the train platform. This is normal in Chinese culture.
Because the tour covered a lot of distance in a shorter time I requested, we had to travel six hours each day for the last 5 to 6 days plus sight seeing each day. This made the days very long for us. Many nights we reached the hotel after nine o'clock in the evening. Amazingly, we still had daylight upon reaching the hotel. These evenings we had to plan for a snack due to the lateness of arrival.
One comment to make is that most of the hotel rooms smelt of cigarette smoke, especially in Xinjiang. People were not observing the "No Smoking" signs. People were smoking in restaurants right under the "No Smoking" signs as well.
Another things is that rest areas were infrequent in the desert; there were some uncomfortable moments. The toilets were mostly squat toilets.
This was definitely a tour rich in Chinese history. We saw and learned a lot. It is a tour better fitted for younger people due to the level of activity and the nature of the tour. But, our amazing senior group was happy that we made it to the very end.
Wing at China Discovery had done an amazing job putting everything together. She attended to details and listened to our suggestions as we made plans. She patiently explained things to me when questions were raised. The cost of the tour was very reasonable. I would definitely ask Wing for help in arranging future tours to China.
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