I'm hoping to go to China for about a fortnight next April with my husband. We'd like to take a tour or use guides (we're not very experienced travellers - never travelled outside Europe and North America before - and don't know the language at all). But we don't fancy the most common tour packages, which seem to try to cover too much (attempting to "do" all of China in one trip) and involve lots of flights, which we're not keen on.
An idea I came up with is to start with a few days in Beijing, then travel entirely or mostly overland to Xian, via a selection of interesting sights on the way - some or all of: Yungang caves, Mount Wutai, Pingyao, Longmen caves, for example - then fly or get the night train from Xian back to Beijing.
Some companies I found that do something along these lines:
CITS / Best Tour China
Top China Tour
Easy Tour China
Has anyone used any of the above? Or can recommend another company that might do the sort of thing I'm looking for?
One thing that worries me: I really hate shopping! So I am definitely looking for a guide or company that I can trust not to waste our time taking us to loads of factory shops, gift shops etc. And if that means paying a bit more so that they are not dependent on kickbacks, that's fair enough.
Thanks.
