Shangri-La Reviews - What Our Customers Say about Shangri-La 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

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

Hi Jack,

My Review as follows:

Unforgettable China Journey with Outstanding Organization!

I recently had the incredible opportunity to travel through China, with Jack as our wonderful organizer. From bustling cities to serene landscapes, each step of the journey was seamlessly organized, ensuring a stress-free and immersive experience.

Jack’s attention to detail was second to none. Flights, hotels, and cars were arranged flawlessly, with every aspect meticulously planned and executed. The accommodations were splendid, offering comfort and luxury, and our transportation was always reliable and punctual, making our travels smooth and effortless.

The local guides arranged by Jack were knowledgeable and friendly, providing insightful narratives and histories of each destination, enriching our exploration and understanding of the beautiful and diverse Chinese culture. Despite the extensive itinerary, every site and activity was thoughtfully scheduled, allowing ample time to savor each experience fully.

An extraordinary highlight was Jack's unmatched flexibility and problem-solving skills. Unforeseen changes and deviations in the itinerary were handled promptly and efficiently, ensuring our travel plans remained uninterrupted. This adaptability offered peace of mind and allowed us to enjoy the trip without any concerns.

In conclusion, traveling China under the excellent organization by Jack was an unparalleled adventure. His commitment to excellence, profound expertise, and personal touch made every moment memorable. I wholeheartedly recommend Jack's services to anyone seeking an unforgettable journey in the breathtaking land of China. Thank you, Jack, for making our China trip an exquisite and flawless adventure!

Viren

Hi Zeva.

Tour has been amazing and looking forward to our last 4/5 hours hiking today to the Finnish.

Clark

Leo,

we are finishing the tour! Please give more congratulations to Sandy he is an excellent tour guide one of the best I’ve had, Excellent English, extremely knowledgable everyone really happy.

Very happy - lots of great memories. I will contact you again for more tours in future when I have more money.

Tak

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

Tracy,

The tour has finished. I am very happy with the guide/driver. He us patient, knowledgeable, fast, and has very good friendly relationships with many people

Later this year I would like to take additional tours in Western China with your agency. Please, send me a link to what rours are available and where.

Ilia

Hi Rita,

We had a very good Yunnan holiday. Thanks for the arrangement. Both guides were very good - Lee and Anna. I would rate Anna 5/5 and Lee 4.5/5

Good morning Wonder!

You did a great job assisting and always got back to me in time with questions and queries. Also, you were available during my holiday as well. I contacted you over possible flight changes and gave some great advice that helped me save a lot of money. So all in all I am very happy with the service I got.

Rita,

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

Bernd

Hello Rita,

all good. Enjoy the trip!

Lorena

Hi Wonder,

enzin is awesome. We are so happy with out trip so far. Thanks for organising it.

Sarah

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

Hey Rita,

yeh that’s me back. I had a wonderful time thanks for organising everything. I’m more than happy to share some pictures. I’ll go through my photos tomorrow and I’ll send some to you

Emma

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

Hello Tracy,

Good morning. I completed a form for Aten. He has it, but I can share with you as well. I was very satisfied with the service from you, from him and the driver.

Yes, I did. Shangri-La and Yubeng are very special places. I hope to come back again.

Geoffrey

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,

My trip to Napa Lake today very nice, driver very nice.

Sam

Dear Tracy,

We came back from our wonderful Yunnan trip yesterday, so I thought I would just give you some detailed feedback. My expectation is to use you whenever we go travelling in China as long as your prices are competitive, so I think it will benefit us both to give you feedback each time.

First of all I would like to say, that this is one of the best trips we ever had as a family - we really enjoyed it.

Dali

Nancy is the best guide we have had in China so far - she is so sweet and really good in explaning our different sightseeing options and telling relevant interesting stories. She also gives advice to us on the day we did not have anything scheduled.

The hotel in Dali was nice, ok breakfast and pool - although a little cold.

We enjoyed both the cycling trip and the Cangshan Mountain. The trip to Shibao Mountain we felt was a little rushed. We would have preferred to have more time here and done some hiking in the beautiful surroundings. It felt like a lot of transportation for a very short walk.

Shaxi

This city is fantastic - and we loved the hotel. The breakfast was perfect, the best breakfast we had at any hotel in China.

Lijiang

Evan was ok as a guide. I wrote to him to get a restaurant recommendation before coming to Lijiang, and his first question was which hotel we stay at. On the day we were going to the Tiger Leaping Gorge hike, he was not really informed about our programme it seemed, and wanted to cut two hours of the hike. I really appreciate when the guides know our itinerary, so we do not have to give him information.

As our first two days in Lijiang was on out own, it would have been nice with just a 2 minutes introduction from his side, when we met at the hotel. For example that there are both a Shuhe old town and a Lijiang Old Town. No one at the hotel spoke a word English, so it was difficult for us to figure out how to best spend the days.

The day in the snow mountain was fantastic - but I had to ask for the yak meadow. I would have liked him to explain to me the options at the snow mountain, so I could make a decision based on that, not my own research. Our friends who came two days later, also travelling with China Discovery, went all the way to the gletcher. We did not even know that was an option.

The hotel in Lijiang was the best on our trip - nice rooms, pool and gym. And I have to say their service is AMAZING! I got the wechat of one of the staff, and he helped us with everything, I do not have his English name, but can send his Chinese to you on WeChat. He should really be recognized for his efforts! The only thing about this hotel was, that their breakfast is really bad. It seemed strange because this hotel is so beautiful and amazing, but their breakfast seems to belong to a one star hotel. I have to say again, that their service is really good - so when we complained they made scramble eggs for us and something that resembled bacon. So the staff did everything they could. But a hotel like that should have better breakfast - maybe they should visit the hotel in Shaxi.

Tiger Leaping Gorge

So everything on this trip was amazing!!!!! We loved the hike and the hotel was like a small piece of paradise. The room, the pool the spa - it was just perfect. Also we really liked Pema, our guide.

One comment is that our friends, who did the hike two days later, had their suitcases brought all the way to this hotel. Why were we not offered this? I know we have paid the same price for the trip.

Shangri-La

The two hikes and visit to the monestary was very good, Pema had a good feeling of what our family liked and he was very sweet to our kids.

We did not really like the hotel that much. Actually I prefer the often much more charming boutique hotels. You properly chose it because of the pool, which I know I wanted. But the water at the pool was 13 degrees - so not really something we could use.

So that was all the feedback I had. I hope it is useful to you! I will send you the name of the employee at the Lijiang hotel, he deserves extra credit.

Kind regards.

Signe

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

Hi Zeva,

The trip was wonderful!!! We loved every minute. :) and thanks, we just got an email from our employer in GZ about potential quarantine so glad to hear everything is good. Yes, code is still green.

Ashley

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 Tracy,

Yes, we had a wonderful time. The guides were amazing. I recommended the agency and the trip to several friends. You have been amazing!

Martine

Hi Wonder,

We are having a great time. Steven is very helpful with everything! We loved the monkeys and are happy to see Tiger Leaping Gorge tomorrow.

Regina

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

Hi Vivien,

I’m happy to report that I had an excellent trip in Qinghai with my guide Sally and driver Mr. Li. I am now at the Kunming airport awaiting my flight to Shangri-La.

You were going to let me know the name of our guide in Shangri-La. Are you able to share that now? In any case, we will look for a sign with my name on it at the arrivals hall in Shangri-La.

Thank you.

Thank you for arranging a wonderful journey to Qinghai and Yunnan. Sally in Qinghai and Pema in Yunnan were fantastic tour guides.

I just booked flights for my next trip. It's very short (2 nights), but I heard that this place is amazing in July, and I wanted to spend a long weekend there. The flight details are below. Can you please arrange an itinerary that includes some of the following:

1) A short, 1 or 2-hour horse-ride around the Hulunbeier grasslands
2) Ewenki Museum
3) Manzhouli (Hulun Lake)
4) Enhe （恩和）
5) Shi Wei (室韦）

I understand it's a busy time, so I am flexible about what I might be able to see and the accommodations. It's just me.

Please let me know if you are able to arrange this trip as well.

Jeff

Hi Rita,

It was amazing! Thank you so much for everything

Hello Lyn,

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

The tourist guys were great.

The driver were very good

Thanks again

Good afternoon,

Yes, everything was ok. Thank you.

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 Wonder,

It was great. I really enjoyed it. Jack was wonderful. We really loved how accommodating he was. We randomly asked to go to a tea shop and he helped translate all our questions so well. He also helped us get a random horse ride while we were in the village to a beautiful lake we didnt know was there. I really enjoyed the embroidery museum as well.

Hi Echo,

Sorry for my belated feedback. That travelling plan was very good and basically I am satisfied for that. I made sure Lijiang and Shanglira is the great places we should visit. If I have to say some improvement points for that, the time arrangement may be so affordable. I wonder I could have visited more places in Lijiang and Shanglira rather than relax time with my guides. But basically it was no problem.

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 Zeva,

Lijiang was lovely.

The driver is wonderful and extremely knowledgeable, so after I checked in he brought me to Songzanlin Monastery.

I'm enjoying the Monastery.

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.

Dear Wonder,

We have made it back to Lijiang safely The driver to Shangri-la was more talkative. The driver back was more focused on getting us back to lijiang.

Hi Tracy,

Thank you for checking in. yes, all well and good. The driver has safely reached us to our final destination @Lijiang.

Hi Tracy,

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

Yes the trip has been really good.

Hi Tracy,

Jack was a great guide. Great

Hi Livia

Please see below.

1.How about your tour arrangements? 

Arranging the tour was very easy since we could do everything by contacting only the one person, and communicating with WeChat. 

2.Are you willing to recommend our service to those who would like to come to China ?

YES

3. Your general opinion on us?  

Very professional and well organized. And what we liked the most was the flexibility of the tour guides. When some sights got closed because of the weather conditions, they both did everything they could to find new suitable arrangements and all of them were great. We are very happy with both tour guides. 

4. What will be your suggestions regarding how to improve our services?

Really noting to suggest. All went very well. 

5.Do you plan to write (or have already written) a travelogue or a story to share with your friends? any language is ok. Would you like to share it with us and our clients? We would be happy to publish it on our website. Photos often tell more than words and we would appreciate if you share some of them with us.

I will send you some pictures through WeChat.

Hi Livia.

We are in old city already.

All perfect.

Thank you.

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

Dear Wendy,

Trip was quite good thanks.

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!!!

Good morning!

Yes we are in the train to Kunming Thank you for all the great support!

Hi Rita,

Really i appreciate your support at every moment. For my next trip to guilin i will contact you.

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.

Dear Johnson,

Sorry for my late reply.

We were really very happy with the whole trip to Yunnan province. It was very special and we still talk about it a lot.

The program you suggested was great, and we had a fantastic time. Everything was flawless, convenient and no long waiting times.

We specifically liked:

• Your responsiveness
• That the guides are locals and can really introduce the local culture to the guests.
• That the guides were flexible in the day to day arrangements
• English skills of all guides were excellent!
• That the guides take pictures J
• The driver Mr. Yu was super. We felt very safe

Alice was fantastic. We enjoyed that she told us about her village, family etc. to help us to understand the Bai culture better. We liked her personal style. It felt like walking around with a friend, joking and having a good time.

Tom also made the Lijiang experience a very memorable one. He also opened up, reflected and gave us great insight in traditions and culture of Naxi. He knows everyone.

The best about Aten was that he made some suggestions how to optimize the program and how to avoid tourist crowds. He loves to talk to the guests, exchange ideas and make this a mutual learning experience.

We would without any doubt recommend your agency. We consider to book trips with you in the future.

Thank you very much for everything.

 

Best regards,

Christine

Hi Jack,

We really enjoyed our trip. Thanks!

Fresh air, beautiful mountains….

We were very out of breath in Shangrila, though, so next time, we will get the oxygen.

Our tour guides were very good.

Leeway struggled a little with his English, but we did fine.

Alice had excellent English, and so did Peter.

We are probably tough people to tour around, since we have already been to a lot of temples, so we already have heard a lot of the things that they want to tell us.

So, we tried to ask questions about other things.

We are not standard travelers, but much more experienced. 

I think that because we can speak some Mandarin, we are a little bit more independent than other people that they have had to help.

We loved the Indigo Hotel on Lake Erhai.

Opening the curtains in our room every morning and being able to look out at the lake was fabulous!

They also had a very good breakfast.

And, we enjoyed walking by the lake, down to the bridge and hiking up the mountain behind the hotel.

We had no air conditioning in the Songstam Hotel in LiJiang, and at the Shangrila Hotel, and so our rooms were very hot!

So, we had some trouble sleeping.

I think if you are there in the Winter time, it is probably fine, but the weather for us was warm outside, so we struggled with the temperature in the room.

We might ask for some help to get a fan for our rooms next time.

All of the Ancient Cities.

We probably would have like a little more time to explore those.

The BaXi and NiXi Ancient towns were beautiful, and it was wonderful to walk the streets there, and the learn about the 3000 year old pottery in NiXi.

We also loved seeing traditional Tibetan houses and trying the butter tea and cakes.

Our driver, Mr. Gu, was very nice and funny.

Thanks for a lovely vacation.

 

Kind regards,

Robin

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

The trip was good today, the guide is also nice. Thank you.

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 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.

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,

You need to know that our trip went smoothly and we had a fantastic time in China. In particular, we must tell you that Nima in Shangri La and Carina in Guilin were both OUTSTANDING guides and come with our utmost recommendation - we trust that they are well remunerated for their friendliness and skill by their employers.

Dear Tiger!

We arrived safely in Lijiang this evening.
The guide in Shangrila was excellent! The guide in Lijiang is also very good. All the logistics with the car and guides is functioning very smoothly. And finally many thanks for the repayment of our unjustified expenses in Huanglong! It is very generous of you a d your copany!!!!

Keep in touch and express our thanks to your management.

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