Kunming Reviews - What Our Customers Say about Their Kunming Tours

Dear Mr Wonder Wang,

My wife and I very much enjoyed the holiday tour to Yunnan. Thank you very much for organising the tour for us. All went well.

The only time when we experienced a little anxiety was when the fast train from Lijiang to Kunming removed coach 9 and moved the first class coach to coach 1. Unable to find coach 9 we boarded with our two heavy luggage onto coach 8 and was then informed that the first class coach has changed to coach 1. We quickly disembarked, push our luggage all the way to coach 1 and embarked again.

Other than the above minor inconvenience, the trip as a whole was superb. Both the local guides and drivers were fantastic.

Thank you once again for your excellent organisation of the tour.

Best Regards,

Kar-Tun

Hi Wonder,

That’s was very good trip for us. Thanks for good planning. especially having same car across last 6 days was very wise act.

Tamer

Hi Wonder,

We're having a wonderful time in Yunnan. Good food, nice hotels and scenic views! Thank you for booking this trip for us.

Wing

Hi Vivien,

just want to record our thanks to you for your good planning, coordination and arrangement for our recent holidays to Dali, Lijiang and Xianggelila. The tour guides and drivers were warm and friendly and we felt safe, and enjoyed the trip very much.

All the best to you.

Janet/Richard/Claire

Dear Tracy,

Thank you very much for your service. Hope to work with you soon in our next China trip.

Helena

Hi Tracy,

My husband and I had a great time in Yunnan. We enjoyed every place we visited and the food we tried. The guides are knowledgeable and thoughtful. Drivers are professional and reliable. The itinerary is efficient with a lot of culture elements combine with beautiful sceneries. We are very happy with the entire trip.

Thank you for making this arrangement for us.

Best regards,

Crystal

Hi Wonder,

My review for the tour:

1. Travel consultant Wonder Wang is very fast to respond to all our queries and gave us good advice on our routing and timing of travel. He planned a very good itinerary for us based on our budget and where we wanted to go. He also helped us to locate the Liu ancestral hall in Huiyang though it was not part of our tour. We did manage to locate it and are very grateful for his help.

2. The tour arrangements were very smooth and met all our requests. The itinerary was well planned and moved seamlessly through all the places we wanted to see. All the tour guides met us on arrival as scheduled, they spoke excellent English, and were very flexible to rearrange the tour schedule in accordance with the weather conditions. They also adapted to our mobility situation and assisted us with getting up and down steps, and in and out of the vehicles. The drivers drove safely, no speeding and on schedule for our connections to the next destination at the train stations and airports. Bottles of water were provided throughout the tour. Hotels were good, and the rooms were non-smoking rooms as we had requested. They were located conveniently close to restaurants so we could have our dinner at our own pace.

3. We would highly recommend China Discovery and certainly would travel with them again in the future. They took care of every detail, and we had a fantastic time without any stress or worry over travel arrangements.

Thanks again for arranging everything.

Billie

Hi Rita,

Yes, we are very happy with your arrangement.

Jennifer

Hi Tracy,

My knee is fine

Almost like a miracle.Doctor is amazing.This is a feedback from the entire trip

First of all you are awesome

The guide: Sophie is 8.5/10, Daisy 10/10,Athien 8.5/10,Sandy 8.5/10

Driver: kunming 9/10, Dali Lijiang shangrila 9/10 but I would give him 10/10 because he went all out to help with my knee

Definitely will be back next year with china discovery. Thanks again for all the extra help.Really appreciate it. You and the people make china discovery a great company .

Willie

Hi Leo,

Our travel consultant, Mr. Leo Li is much more than fast and patient enough to address our questions and needs. Sometimes we wonder whether Leo works 24 hrs a day or not!

It is a process. We planned this trip about a year ago. Originally was first May 2023 and we changed it to October 2023. There was quite a few changes and modification to the arrangements. The final plan took a long working process and it came out to what we wished!

Yes. We are more than willing to recommend your service to all our friends. As a matter of fact, a few close friends have already been asking for Leo’s contact information.

Very impressive. We can feel the professionalism and the energy to make the best travel arrangements for the clients and to make their dreams come true!

Nelson

Dear Rita,

We just got back to Thailand yesterday. All in all, though I fell sick in the latter part, it was a terrific trip!

Inderjeet

Thank you Wing Zeng for your follow up.

I have provided responses below.

(1) Is your travel consultant of our company fast enough to answer your E-mail and patient enough to answer your questions?
Yes, the travel consultant was prompt and responsive in her engagement from initial planning to confirmation to tour itinerary.

(2) How do you comment your tour arrangements?
Our itinerary was excellent, particularly the focus on environment/nature and culture/history. There were many scenic attractions in Guilin, Yangshuo, Lijiang, Shangri-La, and Kunming. The tour guides were friendly and fluent in English; it was also interesting that they represented different ethnic minorities. Aside from Sheraton Guilin, accommodation providers and restaurants/retail were not fluent in English.

(3) Are you willing to recommend our service to your people who also have an interest to visit China?
Yes, I can recommend China Discovery (Chengdu Bamboo International) in future. One of the other couples from Sydney was also a China Discovery client.

(4) Your general opinion on us?
Positive.

Regards,

Timothy

Hi Jack,

The trip was very good and we were very lucky with the weather. The itinerary was very well done and the guides were flexible to adjust the itinerary due to changes in circumstances (eg weather or traffic etc)

Lam

Dear Tracy,

thanks for reaching out! Yes, we came back safely and full of new impressions - it was a truly spectacular trip!!

I would like to provide more detailed feedback when I have a bit more time, but just to say already now, we were really really happy about all the organisation and the support, especially from you personally!!

Best regards,

Matthias

Hi Rita,

Please know I enjoyed both your guides. They had different strengths but both made me feel welcome, taken care of, and satisfied.

I have already recommended your service to a woman I met in Kunming

Thanks

Karen

Hello Rita,

everything good, hotel is very modern and nice! ... today I went to Xizhou ...

Dear Jack,

I have tried to leave the following review with tripadvisor several times now but somehow it is not accepted, I do not know why.

"Just back from our 9-day trip to Yunnan, long planned and waited for. It was our second time with China Discovery Tours. Once again they tailored the tour according to our ideas and interests - and succeeded in surprising us! Thanks to the local guides we learned a lot about history, traditions and customs, and, of course, food. We always felt in safe hands and the organization was just perfect with enough on spot flexibility. Big thanks to Jack who figured it all out so well and to the next time with China Discovery! Johannes (GER) & Elizabeth (GRC)"

Thanks again for an excellent trip, best regards, Johannes&Elizabeth

Hi Jack,

Absolutely fantastic trip. We enjoyed every moment and the guides were all really good.

I might only have one more year in China and I would like to see more. I believe that the best way for me is smaller trips leaving Thursday evening and returning Sunday.

Soren

Rita

Happy New Year to you too! May 2023 bring many tourists and good health for you!

All the guides and both drivers were great. Yunnan is beautiful.

Hello dear Jack,

Thanks for your message, so far, so good!

Guides and driver are very kind and professional!

Nevertheless, one remark, for almost all of our hotels, we've 2 separated rooms, it was unknown. We paid then 2 rooms for all booking instead of 1 room for 4 persons...

The trip was very good. We discovered beautiful landscapes. The guides and drivers were perfect.

Christelle

Dear Leo,

thank you so much for asking.

I can only say that we had a fabulous time. The driver was the best driver we had in a long time and the guide was knowledgeable, helpful and always spot on.

In a difficult situation (the police found us interesting and inquired after our travel itinerary etc.) he handled it very well.

I will definitely recommend you and might ask you for information on another tour in Sichuan, soon.

Kind regards,

Silke

Rita,

The hotels in Lijiang and Shangri-la are super good.

Bernd

Hello Rita,

all good. Enjoy the trip!

Lorena

Hi Rita,

everything good today! Thanks for arranging this.

Barbara

Wonder,

I wanted to say the experience was absolutely exceptional. However, Nancy our tour guide made the service 100% better. She was dedicated to ensuring Kevin and I had the best experience. She is by far the best tour guide we ever had in China. We will recommend her to all our friends and would like for her to be our guide on our next adventure. Thank you for helping us in planning our trip and I look forward to working with your company again.

Kevin

Dear Tracy,

Happy 2023. I arrived safe back to Beijing yesterday afternoon. I had an excellent holiday in Yunnan province. This was due to a well organised program by you/China Discovery and to the two very professional guides - Jackie and Andy. I feel I know much more about Yunnan province now. And that China has so much to offer besides Beijing where I live. I will tell others here in Beijing about your professional travel agency.

Thank you again for the well organised tour!

Hi Leo,

The trip was wonderful, we fully enjoyed ourselves and learned so much on our trip about the culture. Particularly the lifestyles of Naxi, Yi and Tibetan people. Our first Guide, Tony was very welcoming and helped us check in, allowed us time to explore the stone forest. He was flexible, given that our flight was delayed due to a storm. We would have liked more time to explore Kunming by ourselves a little, but our flight delay caused us to miss some time. Tony made sure we checked in for our train successfully before leaving.

We met our guide Frank in Dali, he was very sociable and there was no “awkward silence” as we worried could happen on a tour. Frank took us to a nice restaurant for lunch, showed us around the “new town”. He gave lots of information about China in general, whilst taking us to see our sites. He appeared to enjoy the tour as much as we did! We particularly enjoyed the three course tea and the tour of the ancient town.

Our next tour guide Sandy was lovely, very down to earth and easy to talk to. He offered a directed tour with information about the sites, but also gave opportunity for us to explore by ourselves. He gave lots of information about the lives of the villagers, their beliefs and values etc. One morning, the driver arrived before the guide and asked us to leave earlier than the tour guide had suggested, a surprise to us all. Sandy was tactful when speaking with the driver and asking him to follow the time he specified in future.

Lastly, we met Jack in Shangri-La and he directed us through the tiger leaping gorge and around Shangri-la city. Whilst much quieter than the other guides, he guided us along the gorge. He did not speak much about the gorge, and appeared distracted on the first day in Shangri-La, a little focussed on his phone (perhaps some personal issues going on). Over time, he became more talkative and we learned a lot about the monastery, Buddhism and Tibetan lives, which I was glad to learn about. He even suggested lunch with a Tibetan family, which was very interesting.

My suggestions would be:

- Clearly inform guests that they will need to leave luggage when on the gorge, so they can prepare their necessities beforehand, rather than on the roadside.

- Perhaps factor in some more free time for guests to explore the surroundings a little more.

Overall, we had a great trip and learned lots of information. All the guides were polite, friendly and made us feel safe and welcome whilst on our trip. We would recommend chinadiscoverytours to others and will consider booking again in the future.

Many thanks,

Zoe

Hi Wonder,

we are safely on the train back to Nanjing. Thank you for creating a holiday that has been full of memories that will last a life time. We have had an amazing journey. Most importantly your attention to detail, experience and diligence has given Gerry and I peace of mind. You have been wonderful.

Gillian

Hi Wonder.

Dali is doing good and we will be taking the train this evening to Kunming. Want to keep you informed that the hotel in Dali was the best and it is very good. You should recommend your guests more to this type of hotel.

For our tomorrow's flight to Shenzhen, requesting you to block our two seats in the front row (one window and one middle next to each other). Thanks.

GM. We are at present in the stone forest. FYI, the hotel in Kunming was very good How are the arrangements for the flight..: hope no more changes.

Gd eve. Just got into taxi and on our way home. Everything was smooth. Thanks for everything. Will get I. Touch with you next week for upcoming October holiday to Tibet, if situation is good.

The trip was wonderful Wonderful. Thanks for making good arrangements and hotels.

Only one negative is the hotel in Lijiang which is not considered a boutique hotel but a bed and breakfast type suitable for backpackers and youngsters! We had a tough time climbing up and down foe 3 days in that place!!

Sivarama

Hey Zeva,

Everything is fine, we had a good time and saw a lot of new areas.

Claire

Hi Lyn,

Thanks we got back safe and the tour was great! Well organized and we caught great weather for the most part. Thanks.

Tobias

Hi Wonder,

Good afternoon. We are at the Dali train station now. We just wanted to share with you that our driver for our trip was amazing! We highly recommend her. She went above and beyond to help us.

Timothy

Hi Tracy,

We finished the tour. Thank you very much for your help and thank you for arranging such a wonderful tour.

Shashikala

Dear Tracy,

My apologies for the late response but thank you, I arrived back home safely. I can not say thank you enough for the wonderful trip the agency has organized for us. I do have some recommendations as well as a feedback on its way. Please allow me to take a few more days to send it to you as I am preparing for another upcoming holiday right now. Thank you for your consistent messages and updates, it was truly an amazing tripas promised my feedback will be sent later this week.

Below is my feedback about the Yunnan trip:

The agency did a very good job at organizing our 7 day group travel through Yunnan. From the beginning I was in touch with an agent (Tracy) who told me all that was to know and answered my inquiries prior the trip. Every location had a different guide-all of them with great knowledge and a personal approach to guiding. They were truly amazing! On Day 3 in Dali the itinerary included a bike trip around Erhai Lake but I am not much of a biker. As I indicated this to our guide (Aeron) he arranged a mini bus ride on one part of the lake then walked with me while the group was cycling. Everyone was looked after, if anything was requested our guides did the best to arrange or work around our wishes. Great team!!

A couple of recommendations: the tour starts in Kunming (we spent two nights there) however of all locations its the least interesting. I assume this was largely due to it being the capital/easy flights in etc. but I think our group would have much rather preferred spending two nights in Lijiang and start the tour from there and then finish in Kunming. Besides the Stone Forest (which was spectacular).

There isn’t much to see there (the local market visit could be skipped as its not anything special that other cities wouldn’t have). This way we could have had more time in either Lijiang/ShangriLa/Dali and less time in a big city with not much atmosphere. If the tour would be switched around then Day 7 could be the train ride from Dali to Kunming, lunch and then a visit to the Stone Forest. We could have had two extra nights on one of the above beautiful locations.

In Dali I felt day 1 with the train right/Three Pagodas/Erhai Lake/evening old town tour was too packed as opposed to day 2 when we visited the embroidery institute, tie-dye family etc then a 5hrs bus ride to ShangriLa. Maybe the two days itinerary could have been mixed so that we could spend more time at the Three Pagodas/lake as these were more time consuming then the next day’s visits. Besides day 2 includes a lot of sitting on the bus so it would be nice to do one of the more active activities before hand(maybe the biking around the lake).

These recommendations could make your offered trip even better and it would cater for more needs of foreign tourists. However I can truly only say good things about the entire week and I am glad to have traveled with your team. Thank you!

Gabriella

Hi Tracy,

I stayed longer in lijiang. Still here now.

The tour was WONDERFUL.

We just have a suggestion. Myself and everyone I spoke with feels that it will be better if….

The tour is one night In Kunming. After the stone forest take the train to Dali on the same afternoon.

We would all like more time in Dali than Kunming. Or more time in shangri-La.

We all felt 2 nights in Kunming was maybe too much. We wanted more time in in Dali and shangri-La.

Just a suggestion.

We all said we will use your company again and recommend it to others.

Yes. It's going very well, thank you.

Jannes

Hi Wonder,

We are back home now after a wonderful trip. Thanks so much for organising. Could you email me a fapio for the cost of the trip? Many thanks.

I will definately recommend your service on trip advisor.

Stephen

Hello Lyn,

All was great, excellent, fantastic, amazing, thanks for all

The tourist guys were great.

The driver were very good

Thanks again

Dear Vivien,

Now at the end of the tour please let us give you a bit of feedback:

• The tour locations and sightseeing fully meet our expectations.

• The hotel accommodations meet our expectations. The locations were chosen very well.

• The tour guides were all very friendly and tried hard to provide good service.

• The lunch arrangements ranged from very satisfying to others just bare minimum to some not good at all. In our case the request for vegan food was not understood by some tour guides and certainly not by the restaurants. They all seem to be surprised by our request? You indicated prior to the trip that vegan food would be “no problem” We were hoping for at least some (vegan) local food which is usual really no problem anywhere in China, but that didn’t happen.

• From the company standpoint a simple request for vegetarian or even vegan food seems to be beyond your capability. The communication in that regard needs to be improved and you need to work on that going forward.

A suggestion from our side: If your local hotel partners cannot provide 4 Star breakfast arrangements (and we understand that) than don’t offer breakfast within the tour package but rather make it optional so that people may go out and find their own food. (specifically for the local brand hotels)

We certainly would have been served much better with that option.

As a summary: We had a wonderful trip with great sites to visit, very good and ambitious tour guides and safe drivers. We would gladly recommend your tours to others without food restrictions.

We would like to thank you for your and everybody involved for the great preparation and flawless execution of this trip. We are very grateful for this wonderful travel experince and with your permission we will contact you again for our future travel planning.

Please take this as a compliment and feel free to share this information with your management and others as you wish.

Respectfully

Paul and Heather

Hi Rita - we are back now. Just wanted to say thank you so much. We had a wonderful trip. All the guides were amazing.

Hi Rita.

Good morning. The weather is great. It’s sunny. Maria will pick me up at 9 this morning. Thanks for checking.

Good evening. I got back to Chongqing. Thank you. I will send the feedback soon. But until the feedback, please know that I enjoyed the itinerary you prepared and Maria was very professional tour guide.

Thanks, Adrian.

Hi Wonder,

Our trip has ended and it’s time to complete the evaluation form.

We found China Discovery on line while looking for a reputable company in China to plan our holiday.

After contacting Mr Wonder Wang ( through online email and WeChat ) we found his level of support, information, communication, patience and understanding to be very professional. He was quick to respond to all our questions and accommodating in all our requests.

The tour arrangements were to our liking. Wonder worked closely with us to determine our touring preferences. The transport schedule was not too strenuous, the tours we encountered were interesting and our accommodation was to the most very comfortable.

As far as recommending China Discovery, we would be happy to introduce anyone keen in touring China to this company.

Our tour was conducted in the early part of the year under the curtain of COVID and in the midst of Chinese New Year. Wonder and the guides helped us with all our medical requirements and arrangements and a holiday that could have been disjointed flowed with out any problems.

Wonder gave us contacts to all our guides and they were accessible and helpful.

The drivers who accompanied the guides were also friendly and safe.

The guides were all good - supportive, jovial, attentive and knowledgeable.

The best in our opinion were May, Michael and Steven.

Our accommodation The Gran Melia was very good in Xian and the nearby area was interesting to explore by foot in our free time - the park area across the street from our accommodation and Grand Tang Mall nearby.

The Sofitel in Chengdu was comfortable, the breakfasts were wonderful and the assistance we received from their restaurant manager for dinner one evening was exceptional. The only negative was that the hotel was a little dated.

Our stay in Le Meridien Emei Mountain Resort was very nice.

Our stay in Old Town Lijiang at The Ivy Garden was located well. The hotel had a traditional appeal. We arrived at night so we were surprised at how cold the room was. There was a heater on but not adequate and extra linen should have been available.  There was no choice given for breakfast and it was not to our liking.

The Gurong Boutique was very comfortable and breakfast was minimal but nice.

The Cachet Hotel in Kunming was kind enough to change our room because of ‘smoke odour‘ and it appeared to be an upgrade.

Their kitchen staff were helpful and made us a basic breakfast pack to take on the fast train to Guilin.

The Shangri-La in Guilin was a wonderful stay with a beautiful view. The breakfast and dinner selections were vast and very tasty.

The Amari in Yangshuo was comfortable and well placed. The small ‘fairground attraction’ outside our window was slightly noisy up till about midnight.

All in all, the entire trip was an amazing experience we both enjoyed immensely.

We found it helpful when the guides would initially state what our plans were for the day ahead and go through the itinerary so we were reminded and understood.

Occasionally we did not do something on the schedule and it wasn’t clearly explained to us why not, for example the Pearl Museum and also the option we had to make a terracotta soldier.

We understand that some venues were closed because of COVID / Chinese New Year and in these cases we were informed and alternative arrangements were made.

We were blessed with good weather, good organisation, wonderful guides, good drivers and a beautiful and interesting country to explore.

Thank you to Wonder and your diverse team, we would definitely look at using your company’s services in the future.

Kind Regards

Mario and Angela Crivelli.

Dear Rita.

We have arrived back in Suzhou today. I just wanted to thank you so very much for arranging a wonderful trip to Yunnan for me and my friends. I’ve had the best experience. The guides, drivers, hotels and places we have visited were all amazing. Thank you again.

Hi Vivien,

I have a wonderful trip thanks to you and the guides.

Hi, every thing is fine;) the first days the weather was nice. Yesterday it was very foggy, but we did the hike and enjoyed so much, we have good clothes and then the weather doesn't matter;) the nature is breathtaking. The driver is very kind and the guide was very good. You did a great job. Thanks.

Hi Tracy,

Everything is going well! We really like Dali so much.

Yes the trip has been really good.

Hi Wonder,

Very nice trip. Thank you for the great organization, all was very smooth, friendly tour guide, safe drive, nice hotels and tasty food

Hi Wonder,

All good, thanks!! Just finished the train and village visit!

Dear Vivien,

Sorry for the delay of my reply.

We have been very happy to make our tour with your travel agency.

First of all you have been very supportive and helpful not only during the preparation of the tour, but also during the trip itself. Your daily mails were very welcomed because we always felt you were virtually assisting us during the tour and this has been a great added value to the entire trip.

The place we visited were very interesting and the tour was very well organised. We could have both times for planned visits together with free time to rest or doing other things. All very well balanced.

Guides were very attentive and, although somethings could be made to improve some of their professional skills, the overall outcome has been beyond our expectations. Also all three drivers were very kind, professional and with very good driving skills.

Lunches included were good and beyond our expectation as well.

Last but not least, we found the total price paid, even with the 5s hotel options reasonable and competitive (we were quoted by Beijing tour operators for the same tour, transport and accommodation for much more money!)

Some minor suggestion:

We recommend you to remember foreigners that they can choose 5 star hotels for a little more expense, since the overall standard in upcountry Chinese hotels is quite lower than in big Chinese cities or western countries. And this was also true for the 5 star hotels, apart Sofitel in Kunming (a real 5 star in all its aspects) But Kunming is an international city.

The visit to Gino or Dai villages were the only places may be need to be changed, possibly choosing other more remote villages, were they may look more authentic and less “getto-like” places.....

Again, thank you so much for your kind attention. We definitively recommend your Company to our colleagues!

With kindest regards,

Yaowadee and Ezio

Dear Leo,

Here are our comments and feedback for the trip.

Overall, we have been very happy with the trip and it has been close to exactly as we wanted it to be. We will surely recommend you and your company to other people traveling in China.

On the more concrete side, we have split up the feedback into a few categories below

Hotels

-       Very well chosen hotels. All of them really hit the mark in terms of the type of hotels we wanted to stay on

-       The Yangshuo Mountain Retreat was especially beautiful and also had a great kitchen. The rest was also very nice, but the Mountain Retreat was really the highlight

-       As a minor improvement point / consideration, the hotel we stayed at in Guilin (where we only had one night) could have been a more regular / simple hotel, since we checked in late and left early

Activities

-       Good balance between guided activities and having time for our self

-       We really enjoyed the guided hikes

-       Other highlights were walking in the rice terraces of Longhen, the Kunming Stone Forest and walking the Tiger Leaping Gorge

Guides

-       We were overall happy with the guides. They were helpful and generally informative about the activities and the site

-       We really like the guide we had in Kunming, we thought she was the best of them

-       One comment for improvement – each guide gave us a document to fill out for feedback to them on the last day. It would have been better if this document was mailed to us. It is a bid awkward to provide feedback to someone as they as watching and giving them the document afterwards – the feedback will probably be more honest if the guides could not read the feedback while we were standing with them. However, we were overall satisfied with the guide

As I hope you can tell from the lack of specific improvement points in the above, we have had great trip and have been very happy with the way it has been organised. We felt very well guided the whole trip and always knew there were an English speaking guide close by that we could ask for help.

Let us know if you have any questions or if there are some areas that you would like additional comments on. We are also very happy to write a recommendation or act as references if that is needed for other customers.

Best regards,

Louise and Morten

Thanks a lot Rita we just landed in Kunming! Happy to see Yunnan.

Hi Rita... our trip was going very well. Very beautiful and well organized. Big thanks!!!

Hi Wendy, perfect!! We are having a great time and the weather is very good so far

A little headache yesterday because of the altitude, but our bodies are adjusting

This morning we were supposed to do the red army long march museum in Shigu town, but the museum was closed (closed every Monday) for your information for future tours.

Hi Riley...

We are on the train back to Shanghai and I just want to say to you that the experience was great. Not only because we visited amazing places but also because i received outstanding service from you since the first day that I contacted you and including all the great guides and drivers along the trip. Thanks so much and looking forward for our next experience to Silk Road trip.

Hi Jack,

I’ve already filled in four feedback forms so far, and have been given a fifth to do!  My first bit of feedback is that there are too many forms to fill in..... I’m still on holiday! I’ll get you some reflections next week, but not before. I don’t want any images of us being used, so all I would send you is photos of locations - and probably not very good ones at that given how bad the weather has been. 

Thanks again for your help in coordinating. I’ll try and put some more considered thoughts together next week.

 

Christina

Hello, Wonder!!! 

We did greatly enjoy our trip! It was wonderful!  I'm sorry about taking a little bit to respond. .. I had a little stomach trouble and then very busy work to jump into! :)  

We loved the tour.  We definitely enjoyed the trip under your arrangement.  We hope to be able to take many trips in the future.  We are also happy to note that we can reach out to you specifically, as well.  :)  

Just for our planning purposes, we were wondering if you could give us some ideas?  For instance, we were happy to note that Guilin/Yangshuo is open to foreign tourists now.  What is the best time to visit the rice terraces and the Li River?   We have already seen (now) the "summer rice terraces/ green terraces," and we were hoping to see additional rice terraces at a completely different time/for a completely different "look."  

Also, when would the best time of the year be to visit Dali and surrounding areas?   

What is the best time of the year to visit (once it becomes safer to do so) Xian and Beijing?  

Are there any places open during Golden Week (early October)?  We know this time is a national holiday. With our work, we get both US and Chinese holidays, so we were curious about whether there is a good potential location to visit inside China during a Chinese national holiday (that is not too crowded and also still open).  

Thank you for any ideas.  This is not time sensitive -- as we cannot book right away.  But if you happened to have some ideas, it would help with our planning.  China has so many beautiful locations, we are hoping we can see them. :) 

We loved the trip!!!!  I wrote as much on the survey that Tom gave us at the end of the trip.  The only thing I wanted to let you know is that our experience with the Jianshui Linan Hotel was not the same as the Oness Resort Hotel. 

The Oness Resort Hotel was fantastic!!! At the Oness Resort Hortel, we experienced beauty, comfort, and polite/courteous staff.  Never once did we feel like we were treated differently from being "foreigners."  They asked for our passports and our health codes, and after that, they were satisfied.  

Our experience with the Jianshui Linan Hotel was different.  It was very obvious that they did not want foreigners staying there, and they gave us a hard time.  They took photos of every piece of identification we had.  This included Chinese government identification that we have been issued.  It was surprising that this didn't even convince them.   They took photos of every passport entry/exit stamp.  They had Tom write down on paper, after seeing our passports, every place we visited in China, including the night before at the rice terraces.  They took photos of letters we had indicating why we were in-country. They saw our health-codes and then took pictures of those -- while also making us do another QR health code.  Tom tried to argue on our behalf, highlighting that this was all pre arranged, but they were persistent. (we really appreciated Tom's attempts) Through every step of the way, they made us feel like they did not believe what the prior piece of documentation had stated -- that we had been in China for 6 months.   When they finally gave us a room, we believe they gave us a room that they felt no one else wanted: it was heavily a "smoker's room" [they did not ask us if we wanted smoking or not], next to construction (drilling, hammering).  The fridge was unplugged, so it appeared that, because it was next to construction, this room was designated as a "do not put people in" room. . . which is why we received it.  I do realize that we live in a sensitive time, but the experience was so drawn out, and so different than the Oness Resort Hotel experience, that I wanted to highlight it to you in case you have any other foreigners booking a hotel in Jianshui.  We were just thankful that we stayed two nights at Oness, and therefore, our hotel experiences were mostly good! :) 

I am answering your survey questions below.  We are okay with you posting our survey response (the italicized text below), if you would like.

1. Is your travel consultant of our company fast enough to answer your E-mail and patient enough to answer your questions?

Wonder of China Discovery was exactly as his name implies "wonderful!"   When we first contacted China Discovery via the information provided on their website, we did not know what to expect.  However, Wonder provided thoughtful and immediate responses to our questions and concerns.  He followed up to ensure we were satisfied.  He explained what the tour entailed. He gave us solutions when original plans did not work.  He was up front about what the payment of the tour included and the payment policies.  When we paid, he also immediately followed up to let us know that payment had gone through and was well received -- which is always an important and nervous thing when a foreigner is paying a foreign company in a different country for a future trip.  During the planning of the trip, he was always in contact with us at least every two or three days, just to "check in" and let us know what part of the itinerary he was working on. We were very satisfied with Wonder. We hope to plan more trips in the future and we hope to be able to reach out to Wonder to do so.  He left us feeling very confident and happy with our experience!!  

2. How’s the service of the tour guides during your whole tour?

We absolutely loved our tour!!!  Tom and our driver were amazing. From the very beginning when we arrived at the airport, Tom and our driver, Mr. Han, were always on time, always knowledgeable about roadways/etc to stick/meet our itinerary (there was a lot driving on our particular itinerary), and flexible.  Mr. Han was a most-impressive driver: he always drove alert with fast reflexes. His skill around the switchbacks up in the hills cannot be matched.  I always felt like we were in safe hands.  He was also always courteous and respectful.  Tom, our guide, was a great conversationalist.  He gave us multiple cultural and history lessons, which is what my husband and I enjoyed and hoped for.  He was also flexible, so he always helped us adjust to whatever predicament came our way: bad weather, road construction, etc.  When a particular hotel was closed in a town that hosted the best view of the rice terraces, he wanted to make sure we had the best experience possible -- so he personally called the hotel owner so the owner could open up the hotel's terrace and we could have the most magical view.  The hotel owner then made us some breakfast: one of the best bowls of rice noodles I've had.  That is just one example of how impressed and happy we were with Tom.  For the meals that were identified as part of our itinerary, we were always more than well fed.  We feasted!   The stops on our itinerary gave us insight and experiences that could not be matched.  We came away from our experience feeling like we really had the opportunity to take a glimpse into people's lives.  We saw small towns that we would never have stumbled upon otherwise.  Tom never took our photo without asking.  He never forced us into a shopping-stop.  He talked to locals at every stop to give us more insights and used his skill as a tour guide to make sure we could get into sites, get little tastes of a variety of foods, not stand overly long in lines, and learn little extra cultural tidbits along the way.  He always asked us if we needed restroom stops.  Actually, one time, he called and asked another hotel owner in another small town if the owner could open a closed hotel so that we could use the nicer restroom.  He never did anything that made us feel uncomfortable and he always made sure we were in agreement with a plan before he pursued it.  He also made sure we had every minute possible to enjoy all aspects of our itinerary.  If given the opportunity, we would go on a tour with Tom again!   It was fantastic.  Thank you to Mr. Han, Tom, Wonder and China Discovery for such a wonderful and positive experience.  

Thank you, Wonder!

Have a wonderful rest of the weekend and we hope to hear from you soon (about the potential future ideas for trips)

take care, 

Keena

Hi Wonder

Thanks for organising our 8 day Yunnan tour in Dec 2019. We were impressed with your prompt response, efficient service in planning the itinerary and acceding to all of our requests.

The itinerary was very well thought out and was at an easy pace. The 2 drivers we had (Mr Zheng in Kunming and Mr Yu for the rest of the journey) were very friendly and most importantly, safe drivers.

The tour guides were also very informative and spoke English well. Special mention goes to:

1) Mr Wang in Kunming, who guided us all the way from hotel pickup to go through customs and check in at the high speed rail. He even kept my Swiss Army Knife for me when I couldn't bring it onboard the train and returned to me the moment we arrived back in Kunming. He also helped us take very nice pictures while we were in the Stone Forest.

2) Alice in Dali was a breath of fresh air, she was always smiling, high-spirited and checking with us if we wanted to do certain activities she'd planned for us. We really appreciate the initiative taken to show us how the locals live and work (sipping tea, embroidery school, Dai dye, local market etc). She was genuine, honest, open and was very informative and knowledgeable in the local culture and the historical facts about the places we'd visited. 

3) Aten in Shangri-La was very friendly, well-spoken and communicated very well in English about the places of interest we'd visited. He was thoughtful, attentive and ensured that we were safe every step of the way as it had snowed and the floors were slippery at certain places. We really appreciated that he executed the itinerary there seamlessly without rushing through anything. We particularly enjoyed the 3km walk in the Potatso National Park, even though the lake was iced over, it was one of the most beautiful snowscapes we've seen and Aten kept it interesting with stories and facts about the place.

4) Mr Yu, our driver for Dali, Lijiang and Shangri-La was one of the best drivers we've had. He drove well regarding safety as the most important. He was also very friendly and kind and had our best interests at heart: one day in Shangri-La, he noted we were tired the day before and he actually suggested that we start the following day later so we could rest. That touched our hearts :)

All in all, we had a wonderful time in Yunnan and of the many provinces we've visited so far, this is now our favourite. We will visit again.

Thanks Wonder for the beautiful memories we've garnered on this trip.

 

Cheers

Dom & Guy

Hello Riley,

Happy new year to you! We had a great time in China. Everything was very well organised and the tour went very smoothly. The guides Tom in Kunming, Carey (?) in Dali and Jack in Lijiang were excellent. Very knowledgeable and went out of their way to make us comfortable.  Aten in Shangri La was ok but not to the standard of the other three. The only negative would be that the heating in the hotels were slightly inadequate so we were cold! Otherwise we had a great trip and would definitely recommend your company to others. 

Thanks and regards.

Hello Riley

I have just submitted a review to trip advisor.

Here is a bit more information than I posted in the review.

Firstly, I want to thank you for your assistance and perseverance in organising our trip. We appreciate your listening to what we wanted and fitting in our requests as best you could. As a result the holiday was fabulous and included things we like to see and do and didn’t include the ‘normal’ mass tourist things.

Your guides are excellent. We appreciated all guides, but we would especially like to mention Zhouma (Lhasa), Jessie (Kunming) and Tutu (Zhangjiajie), they have a wealth of knowledge which they are able to impart in an enthusiastic manner, and they are also very very helpful. Zhouma and Jessie’s assistance with firstly my Ipad and then my clay colours was exceptional and truly appreciated.

We had many highlights along the way but if I have to name a few I would say Muslim Street in Xian (I had previously been to the Terracotta Warriors, so it was a repeat trip – though still amazing), the Potala Palace and walking the circle around the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa, Green Lake Park in Kunming, the Impression show in Yangshou, just about all the mountain activities in Zhangjiajie.

We will certainly be recommending you and China Discovery to anyone who is interested in travelling to China.

Regards

Lee

Dear Riley,

I agree to allow my answers and comments below regarding our China travels arranged by our Tour Operator Ms Riley Guo be put on your website.

1.Did your travel consultant of our company quickly reply to your E-mails and were they patient enough to answer your questions?

- Yes, Ms Riley Guo assisted me in planning our entire tour from beginning to end (from Kunming to Beijing) months before our trip, patiently guided me through every aspect of our journey making good suggestions and provided alternates.

- She always replied to my email inquiries promptly, answering all questions I had for her.  She is extremely patient and courteous throughout the "developmental" stages of our planning.

2.Do you have any comments concerning your tour arrangements?

- The tour arrangements were exactly as planned, with the only exception when we encountered a problem where the original plan had to be modified, see answers to Q 4 below.  The Tour Operator handled our problem in a timely fashion to our great satisfaction, in face above my expectations. When we encountered other minor problems during our tour, we received prompt attention and assistance from Ms. Guo promptly via WeChat and phone calls, often outside of regular office hours.  

3.Are you willing to recommend our service to anyone who also may have an interest to visit China?

- Definitely "Yes".  I have no hesitation of recommending your services to anyone interested.

4.What is your general opinion of us?

My opinion regarding:

- Advice and guidance provided in planning stage: Excellent!

- Ms Riley Guo our Tour Operator: Very knowledgeable, paid attention to details.

- Cost: I found your cost very reasonable and easily affordable.

- Efficiency: You run an efficient operation.

- Accuracy: Ms. Guo's suggestions and plans were accurate.

- Honesty: My travel team and I are particularly impressed by the honesty and integrity of your approach to business and in treating your customers when problems do arise.  I will cite the following Two Examples:

(1)  When Ms Guo made a minor error in our planning, she offered to take $100USD off from our final fees.  When I found out that the fee reduction would come out of her commission I was so impressed with her honesty I declined to accept the fee reduction.  I would suspect many operators would not even inform the client of such errors.

(2) You were not able to book the high speed train ride for us from Yichang to Beijing after the Yangtze River Cruise.  Instead your company put us on a flight for that, and you arranged for a guided day tour of Yichang while waiting for flight time at NO EXTRA costs to us.  It was a surprise and pleasant tour.  

5.Do you have any suggestions on improving our services?

- I think you are already proving a reliable and trustworthy service to your clients as experienced by me and my travel companions.

- The fact that Ms Guo has such a superb command of written English would no doubt be an invaluable asset to your company in helping non-Chinese speaking clients from overseas who want to explore China.

Thank you Wonder for everything.

The tour arrangements are great. As always, you are very prompt and patient with all our queries. I am a repeat customer so this concretely shows much more than what words will ever mean. I have already recommended you to one of my associate. I am planning for the trip next year and you will hear from me soon enough. Keep in touch!

Hi Johnson,

Hope this email find you well. 

My family and I have returned to Sydney after 6 weeks of travelling! I want to thank you for arranging our 25 days China tour which we have really enjoyed. The itinerary was good although a bit tiring! 

China was amazing and your service in organizing and trouble shooting while we were there was greatly appreciated.

On reflection, we realized the highlights during our tours were the cities where we had a good guide and driver.

FYI the guides in SuZhou (Sarah), Guilin (Summer), Kunming (Jessie) and Lijiang ( Susan) and Chengdu (Jane) were all amazing. Their English and knowledge were very good. They made these cities/ places come alive for us.

Alan in Hangzhou took us to the best restaurant and ordered the best lunch we had in 25 days. Again a memorable city for us

On the flip side, Dali which was a beautiful city but we did not enjoy mostly because our guide ( Shirley) does not speak English well. We could not understand her narrative or explanation most of the time. The guide in Wuhan ( Jennifer) was very unhelpful, was on her phone most of the time unless we asked her questions. For e.g. The highlight of Wuhan to us was the yellow crane tower but she did not even bother to walk up with us  ( and gave us 20 min to go up and come down) As we all could not read Chinese , it made all the beautiful artworks, poems and historical significance a complete loss to us! At the Eastlake, again a beautiful area she rushed us in and out because she said we did not have enough time but we ended finishing the day around 4 ! As you know she also ignore us during lunch so I had to send you the complaint myself! So Wuhan to use was the least enjoyable day.

For your reference, I think you have to ensure the guides you provide to any group you organize speak good English and are experience and helpful.

Overall, I think it was a great tour and your service is excellent from start to finish. I will certainly recommend you to my friends and hope to organize a Silk Road tour with you  in the near future !

Thanks again

Regards

Sharon

Hello Vivien,

First ...many thanks to my amazing travel consultant Vivien Li. Actually this was my third times joint her arrangements’ tour , she always available to help us during times of trouble and attentive to our demands. I applaud her for her quickness in finding routes and alternative destination. She also are quick to respond & responsibly, if there is a problem or anything that inconvience us as a grouble.

I would like to also say that despite our large group size of 20 people and the majority of them are eldery tourist Vivian aptly provided them with access to convinient wheelchairs as well as arranging the easiest possible routes for the eldery. I commend Vivian for her great job because our group is difficult to manage and she made our trip enjoyable and convinient.

We also like to thank you Moon (Kunming) and Nyama (Shangrila) our tour guides for helping the tour going smoothly and make it less stressful for our tour members. Thank you for the clear and concise explanation of the landmark and famous place of the tours. We also like to thank you to Mr. Deng our driver who take us safely to our destination despite the difficult terrain also his friendly & helpful attitude. 

Finally I would say that this tour is great and beautiful. It worth your every penny to go to Yangtze River cruise, Zhang Jia Jie and also Kunming , Dali , Lijiang & Shangrila.

Dear Wing Zeng:

We recently just arrived back home and back to work again.

Thank you once again for all of your time and support with our travel to Kunming and Guilin.

Here is some feedback that you requested.

Question 1.

The tour arrangements were excellent and our family is fully satisfied with the visit you arranged for us at Kunming and Guilin.  Yes, I will definitely recommend your company to other family members and friends who would like to visit China.

Question 2.

Your service is top notch, because from the beginning, you provided excellent options, travel flexibility arrangements, and very good communication.  Please keep up your excellent work.

Question 3.

Not if I return to China, but when I return to China, I will definitely contact you for some more tour arrangements.  It is nice to know that you operate with several tour guides and locals at all of your major travel destinations throughout China.

Once again, thank you for all of your time and support.

Sincerely,

My Family Traveling Guilin and Kunming

Hi Mike

Good evening

I am Sarala from Chennai, India

I am one of 3 visitors from India who visited China tour recently. It was wonderful experience visiting these places. After the whole trip I felt we could have skipped Nanjing and suzou.

Lee from Zhangjiajie and Jessy from Kunming are the best guide come translator during our trip.

On the whole the trip was wonderful and will look to see rest of china in future. Thank you.

Best regards

Dear Rita,

I just back to Taipei this week, it was good with the tour in Kunming & Dongchuan. 

The Driver and Tour Guide are both excellent.

But the hotel in Dongchuan is there any better standard hotel?

I don't think it's qualified for Westerners.

Thank you for the arrangements.

Hi Wonder,

I am sorry I have been a little delayed in sending this feedback. It took us several days to get all the grass cut in the garden and to check that everything was still O.K. The plants in the greenhouse have grown a lot!

Anyway I will begin with the guides, who we thought were all very helpful and also interesting people to talk to. Their English was excellent and they provided exceptionally tasty lunches. Michael and I agreed that the food in Yunnan was much better than we had on the first trip. Some of it was a bit spicy, but I loved all the fresh fruit and variety of vegetables. Both drivers were good, but the one in Kunming was really impressive and very friendly as well.

Cherry was a lovely woman, whose company we really enjoyed. We had many conversations on all sorts of topics. She was very informative with a great sense of humour. She was very conscientious and we always had great confidence in her. Her English was clear and easy to understand. We came to think of her more as a very friendly and pleasant travelling companion rather than a guide. The day we shared on Jiaozi Mountain was very special and one I will never forget. I didn't get her email, but would very much like to write to her direct.

Frank's interest and enthusiasm for plants was obvious. He had even named his two daughters, Camelia and Azalea. Frank made great efforts to ensure we saw as many plants as possible on our walk on Cangshan Mountain. He was also able to provide a perspective on the Bai Community. Again he was friendly and interesting company.

Evan was a very kind and thoughtful man and we really appreciated the efforts he made on our behalf.  He was informative but also concerned to focus on our interests. I liked Evan and had considerable respect for what he had achieved.

Tenzen was another interesting character and he also was concerned to try and ensure we saw the azaleas and rhododendrons that were in flower. The highlight of our day with him was definitely the walk around Shudu Lake. The Tibetan lunch was a novel experience and I actually liked the Yak butter tea.

The hotels were all of a very high standard in terms of facilities and décor.

The Mengjiang in Kunming had a lovely courtyard just outside our room which was a comfortable place to sit in the evening. Michael very much liked the breakfasts (pre-ordered from a picture menu) but I found them rather too much and would have preferred a more conventional buffet style. None of the staff spoke English and given the potential for confusion over breakfast this was an issue. I think their menus needed to contain information in English as to what the different options actually included.

The Oness Resort in Yuanyang was set in a pleasant garden with modern but tasteful décor. The breakfast was very good although Cherry did have to help us choose the evening meal as the menu was only in Chinese.

The Jianshui Hanlinyuan Hotel was set in the most beautiful gardens. The room was gorgeous and it was quite the most perfect hotel in terms of accommodation. I will send you photos of the gardens later. They were exquisite. Strangely the breakfast was rather limited and disappointing, but I was less bothered about that than Michael.

The Dali Yunxi Hotel was a much more modest establishment, but still very comfortable with all the facilities you needed. The roof-top terrace was just outside our room and was a restful place to retreat from all the bustle of Dali. The hotel was run by extremely friendly people who served the option of a Western style breakfast of muesli, fruit and yoghourt, a welcome treat as far as I was concerned.

The Jan Bo Xuan in Lijiang was probably our favourite place to stay. It did have a very tastefully furnished and comfortable room looking out on to a pretty courtyard garden. The staff could not have been more helpful and the breakfasts were tasty. The hotel itself was set in the old town of Lijiang which was incredibly picturesque. Lijiang reminded me very much of Suzhou.

The E-outfitting Hotel in Shangri-La was the strangest place we visited. The accommodation was of a high standard with attractive rooms and the bathroom was fine. The roof terrace was a lovely place to sit and enjoy the evening sun. However the organisation of the hotel was very peculiar. It is on three sites and they didn't know which building we were in when we arrived, and so we walked round the old streets for some minutes before they finally worked out where we were. We were then told breakfast would be on a different site but someone would show us in the morning, which they did. Breakfast itself was alright rather than good.

In terms of places visited. I will group them in terms of how much we liked them.

Jiaozi Mountain was my favourite place. It was exactly as I had hoped to see the flowers. I know they were rhododendrons and not azaleas but that did not matter. They are very similar and often get confused. I am still sorting the photos out from the day and a little disappointed that they do not do justice to the magical beauty of the place. I can't understand why the people from Kunming only visit it in the winter. Cherry was really  surprised by how lovely it all was and said she would be recommending it to her tour company, as well as visiting it again herself with a friend in a few weeks. I think Westerners would love this place if it was promoted more.

The rice terraces in Yuanyang were Michael's favourite place. We both thought the day we spent walking with Cherry through the rice fields was delightful. Again I found it strange that the Chinese are more taken with the place in the winter, simply because of the reflections on the water. But I think the beauty of the place is in the abundant life and all the wonderful fresh green. We were less bothered about the sunset and sunrise, but just enjoyed being in such verdant countryside.

The next group of places are ones which we also really liked but didn't rank as favourites.

I have already said that walking around Cangshan Moutain with Frank, and Shudu Lake with Tenzen were memorable experiences. Michael is not very good with heights, but didn't mind the chair-lift to get us to the higher level of Cangshan, which then meant we could walk on the level. Again we were impressed with China's ability to process large numbers of people visiting rural beauty spots without spoiling the natural environment.

We were very pleased with the visit to Ziu Shan Park in Tonghai. Cherry said she had never been there before and the staff on the gate said they hadn't had Westerners before. Cherry was again surprised at how beautiful the place was and will be recommending it to her tour company. I do have some good photos which I will send you. The Temples are set in beautiful courtyard gardens, but it is all surrounded by wooded hillside so that it all feels very natural. Again I think more Western visitors could be encouraged to visit especially as it breaks the journey to the rice terraces.

The Joseph Rock Museum in Yuhu Village was a very evocative place. I loved looking up at Jade Dragon Mountain and longed to go up there, but realised that would have been difficult.

We also very much liked the Confucian Temple and the Zhu Family Garden, the temple was interesting as a contrast to the other religious temples we visited. We found Tuanshan Village fascinating and it was encouraging to see the old buildings being restored. The Botanical Gardens in Kunming and the first bend of the Yangtze provided wonderful sights. Lijiang was probably our favourite town with all its pretty rivers and streets with their profusion of flowers.

In the third group are the places that we were quite happy to visit, but didn't rate as highly as the others. Erhai Lake was beautiful but I could see Frank's point that it's real beauty was when you could see the mountains clearly behind the lake, which was more likely in winter. For us the mountains remained in a misty haze. The Three Pagodas were impressive, but it was a little like Black Dragon Pool, in that it seemed more like a rather busy, but still very nice park. The Songzalin Monastery certainly did give a very good insight into Buddhism in China, but our interest in religious practices is limited. The Dongba Cultural Museum was interesting, but what really caught our eye were the gorgeous orchids in one of the courtyards. I guess we are just really enthusiastic about plants. We didn't bother with the Ethnic Minorities Museum as it wasn't something that was a priority and we had already learned a lot about the minorities during our trip. It was preferable to have a more relaxed morning on our last day.

The disappointment for me was Tiger Leaping Gorge although Michael liked it more than me. There is so much construction going on in the whole area with the new road and rail link between Lijiang and Shangri La, not to mention all the new hotels going up, that it all feels like a large building site. Also Tenzen said that as they were putting a new elevator in to take people down to the gorge, it was not possible to walk very far along the gorge at the moment. It did feel like we walked a very long way down and then only a few metres along the gorge before walking all the way up again.

But apart from Tiger Leaping Gorge everything else was really amazing and we had a wonderful trip thanks to all your careful organisation. As before the connections and travel arrangements worked very efficiently. We only wish public transport in the UK worked as well.

It is going to take me a little while to sort out the photos. I only have a little camera and as I have said the quality of the photos is not as good as I'd hoped. We have some family visitors this week-end and so I don't expect to be able to do much work on the photos until next week, but will try and sort out the best ones for you.  I assume you have plenty of pictures of the well known sights and it will be Xiu Shan Park and Jiaozi that you might be most interested in.

Thanks again Wonder for a memorable trip and as I said in my previous email I am very keen on the idea of helping to develop an interest here in the UK in Chinese garden tours.

Regards

Hi Ian,

We are back to Geneva! Please find below a short summary of our trip which you may feel free to edit or shorten it as you deem appropriate.

We have so many photos to share, though you may decide which one you would like to publish it.  I am going to forward those photos to you by different emails.   

Many thanks again.   Best regards.

“Quote Unstoppable WOWs for our Amazing China Discovery Tour!

As orchestrated by Ian Wei of Chengdu Bamboo International Travel, two of us were wandering from one natural wonders to endless wonder spots of China. We were wandering from the soft fertile earth of red land to multi-formed stone forest and strolling in the village of diverse ethnic minority of Yunnan. Our journey continued to nonstop amazing historical heritage and nature beauty in the land of world roof in Tibet.  Worldly cute panda and Giant Buddha as well as Luodai and Jinli ancient places plus shopping spots of Sichuan made our visit simply unforgettable. We were following the track of silk road and visit numerous wonder places in the Gobi desert of Gansu province, for example, climbing up sand dune mountain and circling the crescent lake of Dunhuang, walking inside mogao grottoes, Yardang geopark, western great wall, Jiayuguan fortress, reclining buddha of Zhangye.  Every view point in the area of rainbow mountains gave us no chance to brink our eyes and kept exclaiming Wows!  Lastly 4000 steps of stairs plus a double downs to tops ride of cable car to reach the peak station of Huashan in the outskirt of Xian was such a stunning and challenging trip.  

The above merely captures the essence of our 18-day (1-18 April 2015) trip organized by the impressive services of Chengdu Bamboo International Travel. Ian Wei is our host who stood ready to track/follow and response to our request throughout the tour. I have a full confidence and offer a big applause to the second to none service of this travel agent. Many thanks to Ian and his tour guides and superb drivers who made our trip every possible and so memorable.    

Cheers.  A couple, residents of Geneva, Switzerland ”

The following are some of the photos shared by Boonshan Sangfai

Hi Tiger,

Our trip to Sichuan was fantastic, we enjoyed every minute. The organization was perfect and we will recommend you and your company to all our friends, who are planning the China trip.

Special thanks to Zach, So young, but very professional, intelligent and talented guide. We, from our side, tried not to make him troubles and let him do his job. 

After Chengdu we moved to Lijiang, Dali, Kunming and Beijing. Without the local guide, the trip became more challenge. But everything was ok, excep  the bus trip from Dali to Kunming, that took us 10 hours instead of 5.5 because of the construction works. Everywhere attitude to us was very friendly and local people tried to help us especially those speaking English. (Taxi divers are the only exclusion). We felt, that Chinese people are proud of their country and wanted we also like it.

We took thousand of pictures. It will take time to classified them. I will share some of them with you, when they are ready. Do you want me to upload the pictures to any server?

I left to Zach this my mail address, and he sent me some message, but I got nothing. Can you, please, ask him about his mail. I'd like to send him some pictures too.

Thanks a lot.

Yuri and friends

Hi Isabel,

Thanks for the follow up. Overall, we enjoyed the trip and below are some of my feedback.

Guides and driver
All the guides and driver are very professional and knowledgeable about the area we visited.  Their level of English is very good and they make the trip very enjoyable. We highly recommend all the three guides to other future guests of you.

Itinerary
In Kunming, the stone forest was interesting. Dali was a quite rush and deserve two nights stay, in our opinion. Quite an interesting town and its surrounding. LiJiang is the highlight and definitely worth a second trip again.  The itinerary was quite tight as we were quite exhausted from seeing so many towns and villages within the 1.5 days. Shuhe is probably a better place for foreign tourist to based in and stay (eg banyan tree resort) as it is less crowded with local tourist and able to enjoy the ancient town. There were just too many local tourists at Lijiang, even at night.

Chinadiscovery
Highly recommended and especially I have to make so many changes.  Really thankful for your service and promptness in your response.  Will contact you again in our future visit/trips to china.

Again, thank you for everything.

Regards

Kim

Hi Wonder,

Sorry I have taken so long to get around to writing to you to give you our feed-back.

Firstly, let me say that we were very happy with the way you organised our China trip for us.  Your service to us was of the highest standard and we thank you sincerely for that.

GUILIN:

Guide - Linda - a very pleasant young lady with very good English language skills.

Hotel - Bravo - good quality, clean, comfortable, good location.  Breakfast - both western and chinese was quite awful.

Driver/Vehicle - both very good - no improvement needed.

Guilin to Kunming (soft-sleeper train) - I realise that this is outside of your control however I will still advise you of our experience.  Our compartment was used and dirty when we boarded the train.

KUNMING:

Guide - Wayan - very personable, friendly, and knowledgeable young man.  We very much enjoyed his company and the information which he shared with us about Kunming, its surrounds, and China in general. Wayan chose good restaurants and local dishes for us to enjoy.  He made us feel that he was always doing his best to ensure that our time with him was the best he could make it.

Hotel - Jinjian - good quality, clean, comfortable. Although the hotel was handy to the railway station it was not a particularly good location. Breakfast was the best that we experienced during our time in China. 

Driver/Vehicle - both very good - no improvement needed.

LIAJIANG:

Guide - Sophie - very personable, friendly, and caring young woman.  We enjoyed her company and her bubbly personality. 

Hotel - He Xi - clean and comfortable in an excellent location.

Driver/Vehicle - both very good - no improvement needed.

JINGHONG:

Guide - Mike - our least experienced guide but by far our most enthusiastic.  Mike is an outstanding young man who with experience will prove to be a major asset to your company.

Hotel - Tai Garden - good quality, clean, comfortable, with OK location.

Driver/Vehicle - both very good - no improvement needed.

All in all a very satisfactory experience.  One suggestion might be, for groups such as ours who are responsible for finding their dinner each evening, you might provide a list of suggested local restaurants. Perhaps a short tour of the city area would help your guests to orient themselves with regard to their hotel and its locale. We found Guilin and Lijiang relatively easy for this but Kunming and Jinghong were more of a challenge.

Thank you for all of your assistance.

Kindest regards,

Paul Hamill

Hi Tiger !

We just spent 2 nights and one whole day in Yanshuo more precisely so we had not much time to visit, but now we arrived in Sanya for a little rest and I have also more time to answer your mail !

We had a wonderful time in Yunnan. Everything went perfectly, from the moment we landed in Kunming to thé one when we left for Guilin.

The guides were great - especially the one in Lijiang (Anna, a Naxhi woman) and in Shangri-La (a Tibetan). Reliable, nice, open-minded and smart. Great people !

Visits were great. Although low season, the potatso park was beautiful ! 

While we were again in Kunming on our own, we visited the Bamboo temple and it was a fantastic place. Quiet, peaceful and beautiful. Also the Golden temple was worth a visit.

We appreciated you calling to make sure everything was alright !

I will keep your contact for a next trip to China ! Why not Sichuan and Lhassa ?!? We'll see.

Thank you for everything!

We stay in Sanya til Thursday before we fly back to Hong Kong for 24 hours and then back to Switzerland.

Kindest regards and have a nice week-end !

Michèle