江汉关

Part of our 16 day China Star Holiday tour included a 5 night/4 day Yangtze River Cruise on the 5* MS Yangtze #2. This was a new ship but I'm not so sure about that.... it may have been a refurbished ship. Our cabin was quite small but what you'd expect on a River Cruise Ship. All cabins had an outside balcony. The excursions offered were very good.... The Three Gorges Dam was very interesting and then later that day we sailed through the ship-locks. Shennong Stream was excellent... some spectacular scenery. Another good excursion was The Ghost City at Fengdu. All three Gorges, Xiling Gorge, Wu Gorge and Qutang Gorge offer some dramatic scenery. Food was buffet style and excellent. We disembarked at Chongqing, a city we would have liked to have spent more time in but we were bused to the airport to catch a flight to Xi'an.

My wife and i had been to Beijing and Xian before (and Hong Kong and Shanghai). However, we often travel with another couple who have only been to Shanghai. My wife and I did not desire to return to Beijing again (mainly due to time constraints) but did want to visit Xian again before taking a Yangtze cruise. We are both SPG platinum members, so we wanted to book our own Starwood hotels in Beijing, Xian and Shanghai using points or points and cash. I initially contacted several agencies in China to see if they were willing to work with me for a customized tour that included one couple arriving earlier in Beijing, the other a few days later in Shanghai - all four meeting in Xian and then flying to Chongqin for a Yangtze river cruise and finally, fllghts to Shanghai. Bruce was the most responsive and wiling to work with me. After a number of email exchanges, we were able to arrange for all of the flights, tours, airport transfers and the cruise for less than I could do individually over the Internet. All of the guides and drivers were very professional, friendly, on time and their English skills and information given was fine. Bruce called several times during the tour to make certain that everything was going well. We even got a free cabin upgrade on the crusie that i doubt we would have been given if I had booked the cabins myself. I would certaily recommend this company for any travel considerations in China.