Everything was great. Get there early for window seat and to get through the buffet line quickly.

Great outing. Even if you have seen the monuments before, seeing then at night itsa whole new experience. Bring a tripod if you plan on talking pictures.

The Bund area and former French Concession area were the highlights.

Nice relaxing day. If the weather is good, you should get great photos.

This excursion will only be as good as you make it. I found working with the travel agency in advance to be problematic. I wanted to solicit a suggested itinerary in advance and work out the details before we left for China. The agency was unresponsive (4 attempts made) and ultimately I ended up relying on our tour guide from the previous day to help piece together a plan.

Summer Palace was truly awesome; I can only imagine what it would be like in full bloom. Panda Garden was an obligatory trip, but we went early and there were no crowds and thankfully a couple of panda were outside and active.

Duck was just okay and had very little in the way of presentation value. The Acrobatic show was more circus-like (i.e. motorcycles in a cage/sphere) then a true demonstration of acrobtic talent. Skip this show in Beijing and catch the acrobatic show in Shanghai if you can.

Great use of time and our tour guide (Jacky Lee) was a super star. If you are going to climb to the top of the Great Wall, be sure to stretch and eat a couple of bananas first. It puts any stair climbing machine to shame.

Suggest breaking the trip into one day in Sonoma and another in Napa. Optimize the route so you don't lose your buzz.