We had a lovely trip and I am glad we went but to be honest I was running out of patience by the time we were done... China is different for sure!
Overall I would say things were easier than I feared. Our guides were lovely though I had some trouble being understood in some cases - for instance in Xian at the terra-cotta warriors I asked if they had any idea what were in some of the pots that were found and she replied that yes they found many pots, that sort of thing. On the train from Chengdu to Xian they were selling larger model trains and we tried asking the gent if he had any smaller trains but that didn't work... google translate didn't make sense to him, and miming didn't work either but tried to give up and he wouldn't leave. At that point he could smell a sell and kept trying to get us to buy the larger one. He came back three times throughout our ride! We also had a minor incident in Shanghai at the
Disneyland Hotel when my husband asked at the front desk whether there was anywhere to buy cough drops as we were running low and they tried to call us a taxi to take us to a hospital. No amount of telling them it was not a big deal would calm them down. They said they would contact a service to bring us medicine and they would call us in our room so we left, then about 10 minutes later they came up to our room asking if I was sure my husband didn't need to go to a hospital and then trying to get me to make an appointment to see a nurse the next day. Finally we did convince them to let us see how he was feeling in the morning as it was already late - and thankfully they did not check back in with us.
The guide in Chengdu was still learning I think as she kept asking the driver (who supposedly did not know much english) how to say things. The guides in Beijing and Shanghai were fully fluent - we actually ended up having Miki in Shanghai whom I think others in this thread or others have mentioned using. We weren't going to have a guide there until the last minute so I did not book that portion with Catherine Liu Tours. They were on time every day, stuck to our schedule, took us to good places to eat when we were hungry and did all the ordering etc. The Lao Shan buddha is currently being cleaned and has scaffolding so they gave us other options if we wanted to change that portion but we had known about it and went anyway. It was nice how flexible they were and that they were watching out for us.
I greatly enjoyed being able to talk with the guides about their homes and lives during our car trips. Each of the areas we went to (Hong Kong, Chengdu, Xian, Beijing and Shanghai) had very different rules around buying homes, getting driver's licenses etc and were willing to chat with us fairly freely. Much as people have said with the ABD guides they knew where the "nice" bathrooms were, were kind about dietary restrictions and concerns and we felt well cared for. Unlike the ABD tour I did not have an english speaker with me 100% of the time so we did end up with a few odd food choices at certain times - at dinner when the guides were done for the day for example, or on the transfers from the station to the hotel when the guide was not present as the drivers were not english speakers. I was able to use google translate to read menus in some cases but the translations were weird and yes, at one point we ended up with a duck head where google merely said "smoked duck". The "pig dumpling" ended up being pig shaped and had custard inside. I'm guessing that can happen during OYO time too though! If anything I kind of missed having MORE OYO time... with a guide constantly at my side I didn't always advocate for them to leave us for awhile so I could shop or rest. At the Shanghai Tower it was VERY hot and I wanted a drink so I had to ask for her to let me go buy something and then she sat watching me while I drank it. When grabbing a drink or snack we tried to get them something but were always declined. In a group they build in time for browsing and breaks so it wouldn't have felt so awkward...!
The Panda volunteer day was so worth it... we were never asked for more money to take pictures with the pandas - our guide had already set it up so she could take pics of us all day as we were working. We started by cleaning up panda poop in one of the pens and swept up. After that we were allowed to feed the panda some carrot sticks. Then we walked around the complex and enjoyed the pandas on display. Later we had a meal with the workers (there was very little to eat if you were vegetarian - they had plain rice and one vegetable dish but the rest all had meat in it) and they had us watch a video about the earthquake that damaged the base and studies/work they have been doing. We could have taken a break but decided to wander the complex some more and take more pictures as guests. There were many school groups visiting that day and they all excitedly practiced saying 'hello!' 'good morning!' and 'where you from?' with us. Following that we then went back out and removed the old bamboo from two different pens and broke new bamboo poles in half to feed them with. In one of the pens was a mama and her 1 year old baby. They got the mama to go inside while we cleaned up but the baby was up in a tree above our heads. They said they don't become aggressive until they are older so they just said to be sure to leave if he came down from the tree but it was fine to work with him up above our heads if he stayed up there. We then fed another panda some more carrots and then went to the kitchen and formed some "panda cakes" that they steam for the next day. After that we were done and received our certificates and t-shirts. I'm really glad we did this as it was pretty unique and we have a ton of lovely photos from the day.
Other highlights if anyone has questions about them: Victoria Peak, Star Ferry, Huanglongshi Ancient Town, the Muslim Street area, Hangyang tomb, Xian city wall, Mutianyu portion of the Great Wall, the Forbidden City (Palace Museum), Tiananmen square, The Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven, Jingshan Park, some hutong areas, visited a water village, saw the only portion of Shanghai's city wall that is left, Yu Garden, Jade Buddha Temple, and the Former French concession. We also saw the Face Changing Opera in Chengdu, had the Tang show and dumpling feast in Xian and saw the Kung Fu show in Beijing.
As far as hotels I was glad we stayed at the Explorer's Lodge for HK Disneyland over the DLH there as it had more character IMO and was cheaper. We wandered to the Hollywood hotel for breakfast and had dinner at Walt's Cafe at the DLH. We also stayed at the Sheraton Hong Kong Hotel and Towers with a harbor view room and it was just OK. The lobby smelled a bit like smoke and didn't have a very nice entry from the street. The streets we wandered in Hong Kong were very dirty with trash and mystery puddles - the A/C units above the streets all dribbled down on our heads and there was a sewery smell in the area that was too much for me. I had also caught a cold and wasn't feeling very good that day so maybe I was in a bad mood but I had wished we stayed at the explorer's lodge that night for the fresh air... Chengdu didn't smell but there was a lot of pollution over the city when we were there. I wasn't expecting that until we hit Beijing. The hotel we stayed at was great - it is called the Temple House. They upgraded us to a room with a washer/dryer which was an extra bonus but the hotel was exceptionally clean and very modern with a really unique entry. It is near a generic/high end shopping district which had some places with english menus so ordering our own breakfasts was manageable. In Xian we stayed at the Sofitel Xian on Renmin Square - the price was right but the room was pretty dated. It was also huge and had a nice view though so it was still a win in my book - we were only there one night after all. Our guides were pleased I had looked into a good location as they said often guests choose an American chain over location not thinking about the hour each way to pick them up and drop them off. In Beijing I copied Disney and booked the Rosewood. Zero regrets and was my favorite hotel of the trip. They gave us a very high floor and I enjoyed the huge soaking tub and view of the city every night. Beijing was great - the weather was gorgeous and we had blue skies - no pollution at all during our days there. We stayed at the Disneyland Hotel in Shanghai and while it was fine we had the aforementioned English snafus and I called down that our shower was not draining and they said they would send someone up to fix it but it still did not drain the next day either. For the extra money over the Toy Story hotel I would have hoped they'd fix it for us... the bus ride from TS would have been shorter also so if I were to go back I'd probably just stay there. We also spent two nights at the airbnb which I can't recommend and really regret. We've stayed at many in several countries and this was only the second time I strongly considered moving to a different hotel instead of staying there. If it had been earlier than 8pm and/or we had been staying longer than two nights I would have.
All in all it cost us about 3K for the guides/drivers/train fares from Chengdu to Xian and Xian to Beijing in first class seats/entry fees to all the non-disney sites, plus another ~3K for our hotels, food and souvenirs. Our internal flights were ~$400. Disney's trip doesn't include airfare to China so I'm guessing that bit doesn't matter...
Any other questions or concerns hit me up!