Our family finds 'real China' through Jessie.

If you are incredibly lucky like us, you will be able to share your time in Yangshou and the surrounding area with Jessie. We arrived - our family of 2 adults and 3 children - in Guilin airport hoping to meet an, as yet, mythical Jessie and be taken to the rice terraces. She was there with smiles and a great welcome and soon solved our lost luggage situation!

We spent the best part of the next seven days with Jessie and immediately entered into the lives of the people around us through Jessie's honest tales of everyday life, visits to people's homes and Jessie's endless wealth of local knowledge. From the rice terraces of Ping An to Jessie's family home up the river from Yangshou, where Jessie and her parents treated us to a tour of the village (including the primary school) and the most delicious home-cooked Chinese meal we have ever tasted.

Jessie's bubbling, optimistic personality related differently to each member of the family, making each of us seem special. Without any prompting, whenever the younger children's attention seemed to wander she whisked them off and they were soon laughing with her in some game or other.

If you would like to talk to us about our time with Jessie, please contact us through her e mail. Thank you Jessie for our very special memories.