Linda -- just ignore Peter's comments, you will like Lijiang as much as most of us do.

In addition to Moo in the Shanghai Taikang Road Lane 210 "Art Alley", Helen Li's 2 "insh" shops at each of the Lane has lovely cashmeres, other clothing she designed, accessories and jewelry.

I'm still looking at possible return trips and enjoying the correspondence with several of the wonderful people I met in China. Rebecca, who is graduating this month, keeps in touch and fills me in on her interesting life. It's funny how a few days in Hangzhou have made us such good friends, but that for me, is the beauty of traveling. Lilly Lu and I just became friends on Facebook and periodically I hear from her and from my good friends Violet and Kong Lin in Beijing.

Today I received exciting news from Fodors... I am quoted in both the new China book and the new Beijing book!

Super, you join the group of quoted Fodorites. Look first at return trips to SF, some of us are GTG'ing at the Slanted Door at the Ferry Building on 6/27, come join us!

DD has relocated to California with a new job, I'll be going to China before NY City altho not soon, don't want to end up being quarantined for 5 days!

Bookmarking in case we get to go someday. I loved reading your report!

Congratulations wiselindag! Your report was one I reread several times in planning our trip.

Job well done!

saw this trip report by chance while doing some research for my own trip. Excellent info and very helpful. Thank you!

I'm glad you found this report helpful. I was given so much help in planning our trip, that I'll always be grateful to the wonderful people on this forum. I'm now busy planning a trip to South America and another one to the eastern Mediterranean. I hope to get back to Asia soon to revisit some of the places I loved in China and to see other countries in the region.

Thank you for an entertaining and useful trip report. Bookmarking for our upcoming trip this April. If you are still responding to questions: we are booked for one night in Guilin (Sheraton) and 2 nights in Yangshou (Li River Retreat). Given our limited time, are we making a mistake to hang out for a day and night in Guilin? Should we just jet to Yangshou and explore from there?

Bookmarking for my trip in Sept - the details are just fabulous, the sort of thing compulsive planners like me live for! Thank you for sharing!

Thank you so much for all the great details!
I took LOTS and LOTS of notes for our trip in March.

Thanks for taking the time to read my report and comment. Tekwriter, as a compulsive planner myself, I fully understand.

nmiller - It's hard to answer your question. Some people really like Guilin, but for many of them what they actually like is the boat ride to Yangshuo. We had more time than you do, so one night there made sense and we needed to be at the airport fairly early. I'm not sure what you mean by "jet," but if you mean drive quickly, then yes, I think there's more scenery, wonderful river trips (as you know)and lots of shopping there so you might want to skip Guilin, although you'll need to go through there if you use the airport.

Well it took almost two years, but after meeting Marksfour on this forum, we finally met in person in Hawaii last week. Her gtg, which included other Fodorite friends from Hawaii plus one of my college classmates, was a wonderful opportunity to finally hug a friend from this Forum with whom I have been corresponding since our respective China trips in 2008. For me, that gtg plus the ensuing foodie gtg's in Honolulu with my new Fodors friends was a wonderful example of how great it is to have this Forum and have a place like Fodors on which to "meet."

The detail in your trip report is remarkable! Thank you so much for taking the time to share your experience. My husband and I are traveling to Beijing, Xi'an and Shanghai in mid-April. Most everything is in place, but I just have to settle on our guide in Xi'an. Both Jeff and Clarence have availability. We're only there a day and a half...looking primarily for airport transfers, transport to (and tour of?) Warriors, and potentially touring the city with whatever additional time we have. I would probably prefer to use one guide for all services. Would you recommend one over the other? Also, the reason we're going to Xi'an is for the Warriors. I was awed by the Warrior special exhibit in London two years ago, so I want to maximize our time at the Warriors in Xi'an. How much time should we allow there?

The detail in your trip report is remarkable! Thank you so much for taking the time to share your experience. My husband and I are traveling to Beijing, Xi'an and Shanghai in mid-April. Most everything is in place, but I just have to settle on our guide in Xi'an. Both Jeff and Clarence have availability. We're only there a day and a half...looking primarily for airport transfers, transport to (and tour of?) Warriors, and potentially touring the city with whatever additional time we have. I would probably prefer to use one guide for all services. Would you recommend one over the other? Also, the reason we're going to Xi'an is for the Warriors. I was awed by the Warrior special exhibit in London two years ago, so I want to maximize our time at the Warriors in Xi'an. How much time should we allow there?

Leslie,

Apologies for not getting back to you, Leslie. It's been a whirlwind since we got back from Hawaii and I've been neglecting this trip report. I hope you had a wonderful time in Xian. As I've said before, for the Warriors, I'd recommend Clarence.For airport transfers, general assistance and tours within Xian, I'd go with Jeff, and it takes at least several hours to do the warriors justice.

I hope you had a wonderful trip, Leslie! If you've done a trip report, I'd love to read it.

Once again, I have been remiss. This time, it is in reporting a wonderful gtg with Shanghainese in San Francisco. It won't surprise anyone to know that the four of us (including our husbands) shared a laughter-filled evening at the Bund Restaurant in Chinatown, sampling a menu selected by Shanghainese. While I didn't think the food could match the wonderful delicacies of Shanghai itself, it was tasty and the company more than made up for some rather unappealing Dongpo Pork. After eating too many soup dumplings, I wasn't exactly hungry for food, but Shanghainese's company was something I had been looking forward to for a long time, and was a true delight!

Of course the reason it took me so long to write this is because I have been traveling (and am about to leave again for Prague, a Danube cruise and then Budapest) and in between, researching many other trips.

Linda! So nice of you to follow up with a GTG report, thanks so much for the kind comments and I believe our DHs had a great time eating and chatting too.

Glad to hear about your upcoming Europe trip, we are leaving for China next week, no one has responded to my GTG posting yet.

Happy Travels!

Happy and safe travels to you, too!

Shanghainese,

Thanks so much for the wonderful pictures from your China trip - I loved seeing them and those happy faces! Your mother is remarkably young looking for her age. What a wonderful way to celebrate her birthday!

We are back from Europe and I just posted the trip report so you can read all about it.

Hi Linda,

Reviving an old thread. Your email address here doesn't work anymore. Sent a message also to your Tripadvisor acct. I'm planning a trip very similar to yours. Would appreciate any tips especially on your travel guides.