Guided tours of China

We did a wonderful 3 1/2 week of China in 2012 with a tour company that is now bankrupt. It was still a great tour.

Our itinerary included Beijing, The Great Wall, Xian and the Terra Cotta Warriors (this is a must), Shanghai, a four day Yangzee River cruise from Chongqing, Hong Kong and a couple of places that I don't remember their names. I do remember a separate 3 hour cruise through an area with amazing rock formations in the south of the country that was special.

We now do tours with Gate 1 Travel (we have done four and have one booked for 2025). They are excellent and have great low prices.

annawynne,
I second the terra cotta warriors in Xian. More impressive than the Great Wall! It was our primary reason for going to China.

Right now Gate 1 has China tours on sale ($500 off per person) through Sept 10th. Look on their website and see if any of the choices match your interests. The code for the $500 off is FSJCS500.

I think Intrepid Travel also has a variety of tours there as well.

Just FYI - the US State Department issued a travel advisory in April 2024. Reconsider travel to mainland China.

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/china-travel-advisory.html

You might wish to check for tour reviews from those who have traveled in very recent months. The situation has changed in recent years in China, Hong Kong, and Macau. (Former expat)

Thank you, All, so much! I really appreciate knowing about the State Dept warning, so we may put off a China visit for now. But I also greatly appreciate everyone's recs of tour providers and sights to see. Will check out those tour companies for other destinations!

I do remember a separate 3 hour cruise through an area with amazing rock formations in the south of the country that was special.

That is most likely the Li River and Karst Mountains that are usually accessed from Guilin.

We were just in China in May with Gate 1. Our tour was Shanghai, Suzhou, 4 day Yangtze River cruise, Xian, and Beijing. We saw the Great Wall, the Terracotta Warriors, the pandas at the Beijing Zoo, and the Forbidden City. We arrived two days ahead and visited Shanghai Disney on our own. There were only 23 people on our tour. Gate 1 handles your luggage and generally takes great care of you. The trip was excellent and a great value and I highly recommend it.

Trotter,
Yes, it was the Li River and amazing.

The Gate 1 tour Patricia describes looks really perfect. I was reading about the Chinese Visa process and wonder, for those of you recent travelers, how stressful it was. There's a March 2025 option I would love to plan for.
I'm not sure how to provide the 3rd party visa processor with the detailed travel info that will be generated by Gate 1 with adequate time (6+ weeks?) to get my US passport back.
I see you can expedite it. You can insure against loss (!) for faster replacement. Are the two photo images the same as US passport photos ( pixels required?!). All the insurance-type add on fees on top of China's fee are heading towards $5-600?! The nearest embassy is San Francisco, not a viable option and sounds even more stressful for errors!
Plus I'm torn about sending off my passport, anywhere, right now. I did this years ago for travel to Russia which made me nervous but the world seemed a different place then...
Thank you!

Not China, but we just came back from a Gate1 tour of Vietnam and can highly recommend them. As an example of how well they take care of their travelers, we were supposed to fly from Saigon to Danang, but a typhoon closed down the entire central coast. At short notice (like just a few hours) Gate1 arranged for us to stay one more night in Saigon, rebooked us on an early morning flight to Danang, and arranged for us to check-in to our hotel at 8:30 in the morning. BTW, Vietnam is amazing, better than I ever imagined.

In China, you should visit the "resort camps" of Xinjiang

Mr.E, one of our trips to China was focused on Xinjiang, so interesting with it’s blend of cultures and architecture.