Just completed the 2014 China land tour. Anyone interested in China should give this a high priority if and when Ngaire does this again. This was the perfect combination in my view. The terra cotta warriors was the correct amount of time and not spending more time in this heavy smog area is the right thing to do.

Hangzou , the city on the shores of West Lake is a great city to visit. Loved the visit to the tea farm and the West Lake Impressions show. Outstanding.

RIVER CRUISE- The river cruise is a necessary event but not the most outstanding event. Ship is great and food on the ship good. Cabin is very comfortable and has plenty of space. This is perfect at 4 days and in the middle of the land trip the correct way to do it.

Chendu- Pandas are great. June held one and it is a high light of her experience. Can not do China without going to Chendu and seeing the pandas.

LIJIANG- Loved this city. As I like mountains this was a delight for me. The old town is an experience not to be missed. Found the Black Dragon pool to be most interesting as a people watching site.

SHANGHAI- A must do adventure in shopping. As we were there for 3 days on the before land trip cruise the two days post land was enough but could have spent a third night there to do more shopping post land tour. Ngaire has the shopping down to a science when it comes to the pearls. Loved the Peninsula Hotel. The rooms are fantastic and the location could not be better. First class service.

All in all a great trip. Found China more interesting then imagined. Ngaire has put together the ideal itinerary for anyone looking to visit China. It is a busy trip, not much down time and a fair amount of plane travel to get from one city to another but is necessary in such a big spread out country. Guides both national and local are hand picked by Ngaire and are excellent. Would not change anything.

Thanks Ralph so glad you enjoyed your taste of China.

I have never put so much effort into a trip that I have put together, so glad it all worked out so well. A new and pretty logistically challenging program like this is always a risk to undertake. Particularly ensuring at almost all times western food is available and clean western bathrooms.

I am planning on doing it again in early 2016 as it did work out well. Dates are unclear but the program with a just a few tweaks will be the same.

If anyone is interested on a preliminary basis please post here or email me I am forming a waitlist of interest. This requires a LOT OF WALKING and a LOT OF STEPS there is no way around that part of the trip. Getting from the dock on the Yangtze to the street level in one port will be 150 to 200 steps depending on the water height. So anyone with any type of walking difficulties should not even contemplate this tour.

It will be limited to about 20 people.

It was a great trip. I cannot reiterate enough though that you must be very mobile to do this. Any sort of walking or stair climbing difficulty would prohibit doing this tour.
And you have to have good stamina, exercise ability, and lung function. A person who gets short of breath with exertion or with any sort of respiratory difficulty at all should not go as the air pollution is really very bad in some of the areas.

I'm interested! I'd love to see Shanghai again and there are lots of places I didn't see on PANDA.

I totally agree with Ralph's assessment of the trip.

The trip that Ngaire put together was a wonderful way to see China and I highly recommend this tour when she repeats it.

In fact, we stayed an extra three nights in Shanghai, and when we told our tour guide what we had seen in China in only twelve days, she was amazed.

Thanks to Ngaire and Ken and to our fellow travellers for such great memories!

Susan