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 (yahoo.com|ansnaw; 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.