We just returned from a Uniworld tour and were very pleased. However, we took the 10-day tour (Beijing, Xian, Shanghai) which did not include a Yangtze cruise. The hotels were nice, meals were plentiful with a few really good dishes at each meal. They covered all the highlights and gave us a good amount of time at each place. We highly recommend them. After the tour was over we went on our own to Guilin/Yangshou and Hong Kong. I was thrilled with our guide in Yangshou and would not hesitate to travel with him again outside a group. His name is Hamson deng and his e-mail is (ansnaw@yahoo.com; phone (0)13878372314). I can’t say enough good things about this guy. He was fluent in English and had a thorough knowledge of the area. He was competent, professional, and charged very reasonable rates (~50 rmb/per person per day) for his services. He took us on an 1/2-day mountain biking tour of the Yangshuo countryside which was amazing. The tour lasted about 8 hours and included lunch at an elderly couple’s house in an ancient village. At one point, we loaded our bikes onto one of the many bamboo rafts that ply the river, and took a 1 hour float downstream surrounded by amazing scenery. That night, we went to the local show which is a large production set on the river. It highlighted the local minority groups of the area and was quite a spectacle and worth seeing. He also took us commarant fishing at night. Finally, he took us to the Longsheng rice fields.

One of the highlights of my family's trip to China was biking and rafting along the Yulong River. We started off from the beautiful Yangshuo Mountain Retreat where we were staying, and rented mountain bikes. From there we rode through the villages, stopping along the way to take photos and ended up 20km up river an ancient stone bridge. Some of the local kids were jumping off the parapet, which looked to be about 10meters+, into the clear water below. My son got up the nerve and jumped too! We crossed the bridge and biked about half way back on the other side, but the road was really rough in places so we decided to get a couple of bamboo rafts. We were told not to pay more than 20 yuan per person. It took us almost an hour to get back to Yangshuo Mountain Retreat, where after a hot shower we had dinner outside under the stars. Perfect!