China, Chengdu & Yangtze River Cruise

Our trip to China has been wonderful. I can't imagine what more we could have seen that was better. We've hit all the highlights. It's been wonderful. These are like our best days that we've had in our life. It's like the best trip that I've really been on. I've seen so many incredible things that I never could have seen. The people, it's fun. It's just, I've had a blast. This Gate 1 tour begins in China's capital city of Beijing, home to the Forbidden City and the Great Wall. Next, we fly to the culturally rich city of Xi'an, where we will visit the magnificent Terracotta Warriors. We then travel to Chengdu, where we will see the famous giant pandas at the Chengdu Research Base. Next, it's off to cruise the Yangtze River, where we travel through the firsthand. This tour concludes with a stay in the cosmopolitan city of Shanghai, where we will explore this modern city blended with old world charm. The Great Wall was better than I ever expected it would be. I've heard about it. I've seen it on TV, but standing on it was just absolutely amazing. I've always loved history, so to be able to walk on something you learned in high school, just seeing it is one thing. Climbing all over it, that's something else. Next day, that's another highlight. We are going to Tiananmen Square, the largest city center square in the world, and Forbidden City, the largest imperial palace in the world. The Forbidden City was wonderful, way more than we anticipated. We spent a few hours there walking around, but you could walk around for two days there. It's just so big and beautiful. Next day, we will fly to Xi'an. Xi'an, absolutely beautiful. The Xi'an city walls, particularly at night, are astounding. It's like a fairy tale. On the way to the dumpling dinner, we went through the Muslim sector of Xi'an, which was incredible. It had so much character and flavor. It was a cacophony of sound, color. The hustle, the bustle, the smells, the visual. It's just like you're walking through a movie. Then we went to the dumpling dinner, which was incredible. They made dumplings. There were 18 different kinds of them, including dessert dumplings. Every flavor you can imagine, and they just kept bringing them out one after the other. And they were really good. It was fun. And the next day, before we go to the Terracotta Museum, we will do dancing, sing songs with local people. When we walked into that park and we were all dancing, Joan said, they do this every day, Linda. I'm letting you see. And I'm going, I can't believe it wasn't in any guidebook. How Gate One found out about something that put a smile on every single person's face. And then of course there's the Terracotta Warriors. To see them standing there like they're frozen in time, even seeing it on a video, it's not like being there. You get chills running through your body. When you see like almost 8,000 of them staring at you, it was incredible. And I'm glad that they educated us as much as they did, because then we could understand it and enjoy it. I'm at the Shenduke Panda Research Center, and it's an awesome place to see the pandas, the big pandas, the baby pandas. It's just a wonderful experience. They're the gems of the country. The panda habitat has been so interesting to actually see so many baby pandas and so many in their native environment, a lot of eating and sleeping, which makes most of us think we're part panda. So that's... From there, we were brought to the Yangtze River Cruise. This cruise has been one of the most wonderful experiences of my life so far. Being in China, being on this cruise, going down the river, seeing the gorges with my family and friends is an amazing experience. The ship offers everything that you would desire. I mean, the meals have been wonderful. The service has been impeccable. The cabins are roomy. The balconies are great to sit and watch the countryside go by. It's relaxing. If you're going to take a tour of China, definitely put the cruise in the trip because it gives you a completely different perspective on the river, and it's very relaxing. Shanghai is an amazing city. A lot of skyscrapers there are really modernized, like New York. It's an interesting city because it's a blend of the old and the new. It has a lot of Western influences, but you also see the more traditional things. We visited a beautifully preserved Buddhist temple that was located right in the middle of the city, and then we got to visit the 400-year-old garden with the koi ponds scattered amongst the bridges and the traditional architecture. It was really very peaceful. I hope tourists come to China, experience Chinese culture, get understanding about our history, and the most important, let's have contact with Chinese local people. I found the Chinese people to be very warm, and if you can gesture and they can figure it out, they would bend over backwards to help you. The people are very, very, very nice and open and welcome us as tourists into their country. Welcome to China! China! This is my eighth Gate 1 trip. I keep coming back because the value is excellent. The hotels are outstanding, the food is outstanding, the restaurants they take you to. You can't do better than Gate 1. I really enjoyed Gate 1. I think it's very well organized, and that's really important to me as we travel, so we know we're being really time efficient along with really seeing things and not feeling rushed. Gate 1 does a phenomenal job of selecting tour guides that are extremely knowledgeable and extremely customer driven. Our guide has been able to include the history of the country and then incorporate her own personal life as part of that story, and so it makes everything come alive. Traveling a group is wonderful. I have made many, many friends on Gate 1 tours that I still visit with. I've made friends with every one of them. We laugh and we play, and it's just, you know, you have all these friends. It's great. It's really fun. This is my seventh trip on Gate 1. I would definitely recommend taking Gate 1 to China. Oh, I would highly recommend this trip to China with Gate 1. You're going to see everything you want to see in China, more than you ever expected to see in China. You will not be disappointed.