Chengdu Holidays

The tour went smoothly. We had a great guide over the whole tour and excellent local guides.
There was much to see with the Forbidden City,the terracotta soldiers, the pandas in Chengdu and Shanghai. The cruise on the Yangtse also was great.

We had an amazing trip thanks to the wonderful organisational skills of our National guide Jerry. Everything ran like clockwork. The local guides were also fantastic. We saw everything on the itinerary and more. Wonderful cities, scenery, bullet trains and boat trip, not to forget the Pandas. Was surprised at first to go to a zoo to see them but after watching Ben Fogle in Chengdu realise that had we gone there we may not have seen any at all! Would highly recommend Wendy Wu for an escorted trip.

We were on the Majestic Yangtze tour with Wendy Wu Tours for 14 days in mid-September 2026 and what a trip it was!

All the way from Shanghai to Beijing and so much in-between from a night cruise in Shanghai to such "wonders of the world" as the Terracotta Warriors and Great Wall of China, the cities of Chengdu and Xian as we flew through China's vast countryside on bullet trains and sat in awe of how much and how fast this vast country has changed in the last thirty years. Cities of twenty million or more, sky high apartment buildings adorning every city skyline and hotels as classy as any western ones with the latest technology from robot room service to AI loos with handsets to warm them up or flush everything away. All top class- apart from one or two issues flights with Turkish Airlines and stopovers in Instanbul.



The real highlights however weren't the vast distances we travelled but the people we travelled them with-our multinational group from the UK, Australia and USA-and the entertainment we enjoyed on our gorgeous four night cruise on the Yangtze River sailing through the Three Gorges Dam with the staff providing the evening entertainment and even the Captain joining in, the tours of silk and jade factories, the Forbidden City & the gorgeous Sacred Garden by day and Xian's medieval City Walls lit up by night as well as delicious Chinese food every day served on our "Lazy Susan for all to share. We got a full-on taste of China, its rich medieval heritage and its people today not as we might portray them from western media but as a people as welcoming and friendly as anywhere else and apart from Tinnaman Square free to say-often in English and always very respectfully- what life is like in China today.



It was everything we hoped for -and more. But the Star of our Tour undoubtedly was our main guide Gary (all Chinese guides it appears have an English name) who not only kept us all on time and in line with phrases such as "Gary's Family", "Follow the flag", Sticky Rice (keep together) and "One Dollar" (someone is missing)/ "Two Dollar" (everyone's here) but with his "Chinglish", his inexhaustible good humour (at least one joke a day) and his genuine concern for and attention to detail with all 23 of us. This was more than a 'personal touch' or company training. This was Gary, knowledgeable, caring,funny and always smiling; one, if not, the best tour guide we have ever had and a huge compliment to Wendy Wu who it seems sets the standard as all the guides we met seem to know her personally. Gary and Wendy Wu made our tour of China both special and memorable and for that my wife and I are extremely grateful.

We recently completed the Majestic Yangtze tour and can confidently say it was an exceptional experience from start to finish. The entire trip exceeded our expectations and was very well organised.

A special mention must go to George Pu, who truly went above and beyond. He delivered outstanding service to the whole group while also making each person feel individually valued and cared for. His attention to detail, warmth, and professionalism made a real difference. Despite the structured and sometimes demanding itinerary, everything ran smoothly and felt effortless thanks to him.

Sally in Xi’an was equally impressive, genuinely warm, attentive, and always ensuring everyone was having a great time. Her dedication did not go unnoticed.

We would also like to thank Grace in Shanghai, Cherry in Chengdu during the panda visit, and Jack in Beijing, who was extremely knowledgeable and clearly passionate about his work.

Overall, this was a memorable and very enjoyable trip. Having such a strong team of guides makes a real difference, and we would definitely consider travelling with this company again in the future.

Our Majestic Yangtze tour was awesome, and packed a great deal into a short space of time (2 weeks).

We did all the must see and must do activities in China such as visiting Shanghai, travelling by bullet train, cruising on the Yangtze River, seeing the Chengdu Pandas and Xian Terracotta Warriors up close and of course walking the Great Chinese Wall early in the morning with beautiful blue skies above.

In addition, on one of the optional tours, we visited the Tribe of the Three Gorges. The scenery was spectacular, the tribe guide, costumes, ships, monkeys and crying marriage show were spectacular, such a memorable highlight for us.

What a fantastic tour and experience, thank you to all at Wendy Wu!

Shanghai was great. Well organised and the local tour guide was great. Hotel was in strategic location. Its probably too short. I recommend at least 3 nights for Shanghai.

Hong Kong was average. Would be much better if the hotel is in strategic location or near the water. We were told to be picked up at 8.45am but they arrived at 9.18am instead. I needed to call the local tour guide supplier 3 times to check. The program was only half day. I thought we booked for a whole day.

Jason, the National guide, was an absolute gem himself. Wendy Wu are so fortunate to have him as part of the team.
The tour was everything I hoped it would be and more. The Forbidden Palace was a delight, especially with so many in national costumes. The Terracotta Warriors were a dream come true and my main reason for travelling to China. However, the pandas of Chengdu were a very close second and hold a special place in my heart. There were so many memorable experiences that I will treasure and I am so very happy that I chose Wendy Wu as my tour operator.
My only constructive feedback is that the trip should have been rated as a 3 level difficulty. It was very full on and quite exhausting. Also it would be good to have more detail about the additional shows and excursions, as I felt 'all showed out' before the end of the trip and unsure whether I had seen the best on offer. The inability to switch off the announcements on the cruise was an annoyance as I had specifically booked this trip to have 3 days of rest and this was not made possible by such early and repeated announcements.
Thank you

Fantastic holiday, spectacular scenery, warm friendly people. Full on tour ably guided by the lovely Alice who excellently shepherded a group of seasoned China travellers from place to place on this exciting, exhilarating and tiring romp through Hunan and Sichuan provinces from the stunning Avatar Mountain to Chengdu and the adorable pandas to the amazing and little known Nine Villages Valley with its turquoise pools and glorious waterfalls to the exquisite Dazu carvings. Not to forget the ancient Phoenix town Fenghuang, vibrant Chongqing and dazzling Juizhaigou. Very full on and tiring tour but still processing everything I saw in my mind. Hotels and food differed in quality and variety from area to area but all good and healthy, though I may give water melon a miss for a while! If you have seen the major tourist sites in China or prefer walking in the amazing national parks, and strolling through old towns, then this is the tour for you. Loved it and Wendy Wu shared this beautiful little visited area (by westerners) with us. Wouldn’t have missed a moment of any of it!

This trip was a really great experience all round. I can't believe we managed to cram so much into the 15 days! Beijing, the Great Wall, Xi'an and the Terracotta Warriors, Pandas in Chengdu, the Yangtse River Cruise including the Three Gorges Dam, and finally Shanghai, one of the greatest cities I have ever visited. The itinerary organised by Wendy Wu gave us a good overview of China, and forced us to revise all our preconceptions about China, which we found to be at least 30 years out of date! It made me want to go back, and see more of this great country. All thanks to Ivan, our tour guide, who made everything easy. All the local guides were good, but Cherry, our Chengdu guide deserves a special mention for her endless supply of jokes!

Excellent tour with Wendy Wu. Saw so much and went to so many places. Was busy!!! Fabulous trip, especially pandas at Chengdu and Zhangjiajie
Tour guide was excellent too, well organised , fun and looked after us all from start to finish.
Looking forward to my next trip

This Wendy Wu trip was a wonderful mix of experiencing both some of the most amazing natural scenery in the World and the hustle and bustle of Chinese city life.

Our prime reason for booking this tour was to visit places like Zhangjiajie and Jiuzhaigou and these places were indeed AMAZING! For us, however, we found that the two weeks were extremely "full-on", action packed with one visit after another after another, with very little opportunity to come up for air. We would have loved a little more down-time, with opportunities for us to opt out of some of the city visits to go and explore a little more for ourselves. For example, squeezing in visits to some of the extremely crowded places like Hongyu Dong in Chongqing after a long day was not a lot of fun.

We have come home with fantastic memories and photos, but also really exhausted, far more so than after our previous Wendy Wu "China Delights" holiday in October 2019.

The highlights:
1) EVERYTHING in Zhangjiajie, from the National Forest Park to the Glass Bridge and especially the visit to Tianmen Mountain - just breathtaking! LJ, our local guide was exemplary, guiding us as best he could through the crowds and queues around for the Qingming Festival. He was so informative, a great communicator and a real "people person", an absolute gem.
2) the visit and walk in the Black Mountain Valley was an unexpected delight. So tranquil and picturesque - a perfect day!
3) The simple breathtaking visit up to the astonishing Huanglong area, so high up in the mountains and just the most amazing sight to behold - and such a sense of achievement ascending to 3500 metres altitude!
4) The Dazu Rock Carvings were so interesting and awe-inspiring! I now need to read up on all the history and origins.
5) Inevitably, the pandas in Chengdu were just a joy to see.
6) All the meals were excellent (except the Farewell HotPot dinner in Chongqing which was arranged for 4:30 pm, far far too early to enjoy, particularly as we had tucked into a good lunch just a few hours before with no knowlege that dinner would be so early! Such a shame, as we would have loved to indulge fully in this special meal).

We also particularly enjoyed the odd occasions where we had time to go off and explore by ourselves, away from the organised schedule and experience the sights and sounds in our own time, in a more relaxed manner. These included:
- travelling on the subway over to Orange Island in Changsha, and then trying some of the street food
- our scheduled free evening in Chengdu after the panda visit, strolling along the riverside and trying food at one of the street food restaurants.
- an early morning hour's stroll around the little city park below our hotel in Chongqing, at Louis' suggestion. Such a peaceful start to the day, watching groups and individuals doing their early morning exercise, inspiring us to do some of our own stretching exercises by the lily ponds!
- The scheduled free evening stroll around Fenghuang, taking in all the beautiful illuminated sights and sounds along the river. A really vibrant and colourful scene.
- it was just great fun interacting with Chinese people, trying to talk some mandarin with them, and enjoying their requests to have photos taken with us westerners! We found them so helpful and friendly when trying to master Alipay, or buy tickets for the metro or select food in the street food restaurants.

The downsides:
We felt that the tour was just a bit too relentless, with too much being squeezed into absolutely every day. There were moments when we were too exhausted to appreciate everything. It would have been preferable to have some of the visits, particularly in the cities, as optional extras that you could either partake in or opt out of. Being jostled by crowds and crowds of people, trying to "follow the flag" and not lose the group were not our idea of fun, or time well spent. Maybe the tour could be a extended by a couple of days to allow for a bit of "recovery time" between places and activities.

Specific suggestions:
- maybe have an opportunity to see the night life of Chongqing from a river boat cruise (rather like the experience in Shanghai), rather than in the thick of the crowds?
- maybe in the Nine Villages Valley have a private shuttle bus for the Wendy Wu Group to take us from lake to lake, rather than having to join the manic jostling for a place on the shuttle buses with everyone else. This was exhausting! A private mini-bus would also give us more flexibility on timings and walks we could do between lakes?

Finally, a word for Louis, our Wendy Wu national ******. He was wonderful, quietly efficient and friendly and patient and very very knowledgeable. Our group of travelling companions were great fun. A group of strong and very individual personalities who all gelled very well together right from the start.

Thank you Wendy Wu for such a wonderful trip. Now the task of sorting through all the photos ....