Hangzhou

Would recommend a short guided tour for your first trip to 西湖 as the area is huge and there were many many different boating services and islands to explore. Overall, quite a good time island hopping and viewing cultural exhibits at each place. We went in the morning and unfortunately due to the rain, it was slightly foggy. We enjoyed the guided tour nevertheless!

This trip allowed us to see a different side of West Lake. Tour guide Xiao Xin provided detailed explanations of the historical background and even prepared bread for us to feed the ducks. Highly recommended; it lets you experience the beauty of West Lake much better than walking on foot, while also allowing you to enjoy more hidden viewpoints.

We had 小昕 as our guide and thoroughly enjoyed the experience! She’s very knowledgeable and shared so much interesting information about Xixi Wetland with us. Her warm, approachable, and friendly personality made the entire trip all the more enjoyable. Thank you 小昕, for making our visit so memorable! ☺️

Very friendly guide and excellent explanation from Jun Jun.

choice the dinner option with 1st row seats. worth to pay this price as no blocked views and 1st and 2nd row have some interaction with the cast during one the course meal show. come with empty stomach to have a better experience in filling your stomach up with the course meals. quite unique dishes. upon purchase there is a confirmation through whatsapp to confirm our booking

I chose a guided tour mainly because, after researching, I found that the cost was about the same as traveling independently with multiple transfers. Not having to transfer was fantastic. This time, our tour guide, Xiao Fang, guided us through Wuzhen East柵 and led us into the Nanxun Scenic Area. Although the combined tour resulted in a large crowd, requiring us to stay very close to hear the guide properly (I constantly heard 'You have fallen behind' from my headset), it definitely added much more depth to the travel experience compared to just wandering around on our own and listening to a guide. True to the itinerary description, lunch, tour headsets, and the boat cruise were not included in the tour fee. Lunch was filling and might only be considered specialty food for foreigners, but the other two items are highly recommended for optional purchase. There were some foreigners in our group, which I felt slightly detracted from the overall experience, but purely from the perspective of a shared shuttle tour, it was actually quite alright. Aside from the riverside and bridges in East Zha, I also highly recommend going inside the Hongyuantai Dye Workshop for photos; since we visited on a weekend, the alleys should have been great for photos too otherwise. As for Nanxun, following Tour Guide Xiao Fang's advice, we headed straight to the Hundred-Jian Building. The walk was a bit far, and at one point I wondered why I had suddenly left the tourist area, but it was truly worth seeing. If you have plenty of time and a travel companion, I highly recommend finding a place to sit down, dine by the river, and enjoy the beautiful scenery. The Ding Sheng cake is also recommended to try (I bought it freshly steamed and it was quite good). The night offers a completely different scenery, and I originally chose this tour because it included viewing the night view. Overall, the experience was pretty good.

It was a full bus load of tourists and everywhere we went, it was crowded. but the guide, Chen Lei, did very well to make sure that nobody went missing as we walk the streets, cross the roads and weave through the multitudes of people. There was an additional fee of CNY110 per person. 40 for lunch at a buffet restaurant that is basically like hunger games - hundreds of people crowding to get food. 10 for the earpiece to listen to the guide - this is useful. 60 for the boat ride and a short Suzhou music performance.

It was a great experience and many beautiful places were shown. As I am not able to speak chinese I could not fully understand the historical explanations, but the guide (and the translator) helped me a lot to experience it!