Fantastic Tour in the Rice Fields and the Karst Hills/Rivers - Lilly was our tour guide with Catherine Lu Tours in the Yangshuo region. Lilly went above and beyond for us. We could not have been better taken care of. The sights were magnificent and and everything was perfectly planned, adapted and executed. We very much enjoyed the rice terrace walks and hike, the hike up the mountains and along the river, the lunches at tasty local places, the rafting dow the river and teh biking in the country side where there were millions of butterflies. Hotel was great and dinner there too. The light show also was a wonder. Lilly took such good care of us, she even brought us banana and oranges during the tours. Lilly is a local, and knows many people on the sites, which gave us a special feeling about the experience. 5-star experience!

Great Guilin/Yanshuo tour with Lilly and Catherine Lu Tours - This was our first trip to China and we decided to use Catherine Lu tours to arrange our tours and transportation between the four areas we visited - Beijing, Xi'an. Guilin/Yangshuo, and Shanghai. From the beginning of our communications through to the completion of our trip, the preparations for and execution of the details of our trip were handled professionally and smoothly by Catherine and Jenna in the office. They even went well beyond the call of duty to help us arrange for transportation of some of our luggage between Beijing and Shanghai, so we could travel lighter on the domestic trains and planes. This was also our first experience using only private tours in a country and we left convinced that this was the best choice we could have possibly made to maximize the value of our experience and minimize the hassles. In Guilin/Yangshuo, our guide Lilly, who was born in the area, provided special local insight and connection for all of our activities. Our journey to the Longji rice fields was made even more special when Lilly heard a group of locals having a celebration and managed to involve us briefly in their festivities. After sampling the food and wine, we took some fun group pictures before it was time to move on to the villages. The next day we took a relaxing boat ride down the Li River to Yangshuo, where Lilly showed us around the town before we retired to our hotel. On our final day, in addition to bamboo rafting we also took a cooking class and found out that we could actually prepare decent dishes in a wok under the strict disciplinary guidance of a local chef. Of course, Lilly also knew the restaurant owner and chef, so we received special treatment there as well. Since we had some extra time before our flight, Lilly took us to an old village where we had time to have a nice snack and drink. Lilly took great care of us and even walked with us inside the airline terminal to confirm the check-in counter for our flight to Shanghai. Having such an excellent guide and a comfortable vehicle to take us from place to place (and transport our luggage while we were on boats/rafts) helped provide an amazing and full experience for us.