My Review on trip to Beijing, Xian, Shaanxi, Shanghai with China Discovery

I selected Beijing, Xian, and Shanghai, 8 days tour with China Discovery. Travelling solo in April 2024. I am from the UK. I will not talk much about the tour sites as these were amazing in themselves to see, and lots have already spoken about then, but from a practical viewpoint I will talk about the tour. I will include some photos.

Just to confirm what you get with China Discovery tour, you get your own driver and car, and your own tour guide. It is only you, the tour guide and the driver. No other guests. This means you get very personal/direct one on one tour.

I have to say the tour went very smoothly and like clockwork, I arrived at Beijing airport via Air China flight from London, and the tour guide James was waiting for me at the arrival hall, and then took me to the car to drive to the hotel. My mobile did not work in China, Mark took me to a phone shop to register for a local sim card, I had a headache and James also took me to the chemist to get some medication. The tour guides look after you very well. He showed me a few local places to eat, and then told me what time to meet in the morning and a bit about the local shops etc so I could spend the evening exploring. The next few days were spent exploring the sites as per tour schedule.

When it came to leave Beijing and travel to Xian via bullet train, Mark took me to the station and actually came with me all the way to the train seat to make sure I was safely on the train! Candy the tour guide in Xian, had already sent a photo of where to meet once I arrived in Xian, and sure enough Candy was waiting for me, and we went to the hotel and Candy gave me some advice about the local area to explore that evening. Xian again was a tour like clockwork and the sights were amazing to see. After a few days in Xian, it was time to travel to Shanghai, Candy took me to the airport and see me off at the security gate. It was all smooth at the airport with the signs in English and check in info on boarding card, so you could not really go wrong.

When I arrived in Shanghai, my tour guide was waiting for me (very big airport with lots of exits) and he took me to the hotel. Again he was able to provide local information so I could explore that evening. The following morning Mark met me, it was raining very badly and foggy, he suggested that we change the tour a bit because I was due to go to the observation deck, but it was a bit fruitless due to the weather. Instead I mentioned one of my most favourite movies was Empire of the sun, so we instead added a few extra stops to the tour as they were in the city not far, this was not a problem to do and Mark was happy to show me the different places. After the tour of Shanghai, I departed.

A few tips,

-Try to make sure your phone will work in China, this is really useful to keep in contact with the tour guide, and family! Whatsapp/Signal and many other apps do not work in China. Apple iMessage does. The hotels also have phones.

-Start slowly with the food, I personally took a few days to get used to the food. If you struggle, there are western fast food chains in all the places. Although you will need to pay with cash as most do not accept cards. Only Wechat pay which would not work for me. But you can generally point at the menu and order with cash at the front till! There are lots of cash points also.

-Be prepared some traffic, as in any major city and city noise in general.

-There are many toilets about and at the sites.

So all in all this was an amazing experience, I was a bit apprehensive about travel to China, but I did not need to be. You need to consider your own circumstances and be aware of laws as when visiting any country, but rest assured China discovery sincerely want to look after you and I explored on my own the China cities, it was very safe and I had no issues at all. I can only recommend China discovery if China is somewhere you want to visit. And after visiting, I would strongly recommend you visit with a tour company. While some signs are in English, most people do not speak English and there are often very different processes that you need your guide to assist you with. Boarding the train for example, is a very different process than in the UK. Without a guide or anyone speaking English, you could get tripped up from the practical stuff. So I do recommend China discovery and getting a guide 100% worth every penny.

I also wish to thank Rita who arranged the tour at China Discovery, she answered my questions quickly and could not help me more. I will never forget the experience for the rest of my life.