Kimkim Trip Reviews for China

As a picky and non-speaking Mandarin traveller, I did spend some time searching for the right guide for our Xian trip.

Fortunately, I found KimKim website by chance.

With some basic itinerary in mind already, I emailed KimKim my inquiry to which Max promptly replied within 24 hours. Right after, Max arranged for Eric, our designated local Xian guide, to touch base with me.

Although using the KimKim app was sufficient, I would definitely recommend using the WeChat app as well, which I used more frequently to communicate with both Max and Eric.

We took the bullet train (about 4.5hrs ride) from Chengdu to Xian. When we got to the Xian train station, we were immediately greeted by Eric (who I must mention is friendly, knowledgeable, accommodating and very fluent in English) at the arrival hall.

With only 2 days to explore Xian, we kept our itinerary as simple and flexible as possible. We managed to visit the Muslim Quarters, the historic Great Mosque and the very impressive Terracotta Warrior museum.

A nice bonus while in Xian was that it snowed on our way to the Terracotta Warrior museum on our second day of visit. Most of the city was covered in snow by the time we left the site! The downside from this though was that we had to cancel our visit to the City Wall. The cold weather had become too much for my daughter to do another outside excursion. Admittedly, I was pleasantly surprised when Eric refunded me (the City Wall tickets) immediately even with the last-minute cancellation.

Also, I was incredibly impressed when Eric and our designated driver were able to get us to the seafood restaurant (my daughter and I had been dying to go to!) in the nick of time even though we were delayed by traffic.

BIG thank you to Max, Eric and the driver for their outstanding service and for making our brief Xian trip fun and memorable!

Max, the local specialist, did an outstanding job planning our two week tour through China. We moved around alot during the two weeks (planes, trains, boats, etc) and everything went smoothly. We were always met by local tour guides who ALL did a fantastic job showing us around China. Max put together a fantastic itinerary and even called us in China to make sure everything was going well. We will definately use KimKim again for future travels. (This will be our second trip using KimKim - my family visited Iceland in the summer of 2017). Iceland trip was outsanding too.

We had 20 days in China booked but no time to plan the actual trip so we asked Max from kimkim to choose and book the whole trip for us. We mentions that we are fit and like to walk and want to spend extra time on the Great Wall of China and that we like to experience local activities. Max organised a most amazing tour around China for us, starting in Beijing and ending in Shanghai - exactly to our wishes and needs. The visiting to the Great Wall of China was amazing, we walked in a secluded are where there are no other tourists - just us and our guide. It was truly spectacular. At every step we had a local private tour guide who was fun to spend time with and very knowledgeable. Every time we mentioned something that we had seen (for example specific street food we had seen on YouTube and wanted to try) they made sure we got to try it.
The trip was varied, interesting and action packed.
We had a super fantastic trip in China thanks to Max and will definitely go back again :)
Cheers
Mira

This was an amazing first trip to China for our family. KimKim, Max, and our local guides really took the heavy lifting and stress out of planning our family trip to a destination unfamiliar to us.

Max was quick to respond to our initial enquiry, worked closely with us to build an itinerary tailored to our interests, and stayed in touch with our guides throughout the trip. The itinerary details were clear and well thought-out. A helpful contact list gave us additional guidance on things like tipping.

Our local guides (Candy, Beryl and Marjorie) were exceptional and particularly great with our kids (12, 8 and 5 years old). They were incredibly knowledgeable, passionate, friendly and fun. As well as guiding us through all the sites, they were conscientious to ensure we checked into hotels, and got to the right boarding gates for the train and the plane.

Our time in Beijing and Xi’an took in the top sites including the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, the Terracotta Warriors and more, and all lived up to our expectations. However, it was activities at a local level that made this trip extra special: in Beijing visiting local families in the Hutong to make clay model pandas, paint opera masks, and make kites; in Xi’an learning to make dumplings and Biang Biang noodles from Mrs Lee and then eating this as part of a tasty meal in her home.

The food was amazing! We enjoyed long lunches sampling lots of different Chinese food and a delicious Peking Duck dinner in Beijing, organized by Max and our guides.

We have many special memories and lots of photos that we will enjoy for a lifetime!

Thank you so very much!

Yi was a great tour resource for our family. He recommended great places for lunch, things that our kids would enjoy and the providers were on time and friendly. Yi was also able to converse very well in English. Our specific tour guide (Kai) was very knowledgeable as a local to the Beijing area. Thank you Kai!

Now for the great disappointment... We spent an extraordinary amount of money to have a lifetime helicopter tour of the Great Wall. What we paid for was a 30 minute tour but the reality is that we only had 10 minutes hovering around the densely populated tourist part of the wall. We would have expected to see more of the expanse of the Great Wall rather than just circling the tourist area 3 times and calling it a day. It was a complete rip off and disappointment. Don't do it unless you really don't want to walk all the steps (which we did and was amazing).