Hangzhou and West Lake - Hangzhou was part of a 22-day private tour of China, all arranged by Travel China Guide. Sally Si was our consultant and patiently worked with us to build an itinerary designed just for us. Derek was our guide in Hangzhou, and we had made contact with him through the app WeChat prior to our arrival. We traveled from Huangshan to Hangzhou by bullet train, which is an experience in itself. Amazing engineering, and an extremely reliable and comfortable (and fast!) way to travel. Derek meet us and the train station. On our visit to China we had a total of seven guides and rate Derek as one of our best. He has a relaxed and friendly manner about him that made us feel very comfortable. Derek has exceptional knowledge of the area, and was very informative. He rearranged the itinerary a little so as to avoid crowds and we started the day early. We visited the Lingyin temple, which although not really our thing (we are more into scenery etc, rather than temples and museums) , it was very interesting and a good insight into Buddhist culture. We must say that, of all the places we visited in China this was the place we got the most stares! Derek explained that is is just curiosity, and we were ok with it. It’s something you get all through China. We visited the West Lake, which is a beautiful park area, and went on a Lake cruise. Hangzhou is a modern city, very clean and safe. We perhaps should have spent another day there. We recommend this as a place to visit, and highly recommend using Travel China Tours and a guide. You just would not have the same experience without a guide, and we believe it would actually be quite difficult on your own unless you have some good Chinese language skills. Derek was an awesome guide. His WeChat ID is derekcheung.

Hangzhou private tour - 2 day tour of Hangzhou with private guide. Organization was very good, guide really friendly and passionate about her job. Driver was also precise always keeping a safe driving. Booking process fast with real quick answers from China within a day. Restaurants we were brought to were also good and advices from the guide really helped to make our free time worth it.