Beijing Reviews - What Our Customers Say about Their Beijing Tours?

Hi Rita,

Sure we had a great day with Kai so I’d be more than happy to write a review.

Emma

Dear Rita,

I wanted to tell you that our tour experience in Beijing was very good and I have recommended your company to others! I also have a question for another tour...

Emily

Good morning Leo,

yes, my trip was great, I had a great time. The guide and the driver were both very nice and very cool. The guide had lots of knowledge, she said a lot of things to me that I didn’t know. I’m hoping to plan a trip to Xian later this year so definitely be messaging you again. I totally enjoyed the trip they were both very very gracious and very cool.

The sites we went to see I was very happy for that time frame going early was better consumers less people and we gotta walk through everything pretty quickly and get everything done that we needed or I want to get done pretty quickly so it was also very very helpful and are going to chairman chair was a guide that can get through the lines are very very good very helpful，so really enjoyed I like everything that we did it was very much what iwanted so thank you guys again.

Inga

Thanks Riley,

I very much enjoyed the tour. I was looking for remote hiking along the Great Wall and I thought the routes were fantastic. Guide was knowledgeable and friendly. Driver was safe, courtesy and car clean. Overall, a great experience.

Joshua

Hi Riley,

The driver was very very good. Your help was excellent.

Herve

Hi Johnson,

Our five families had a superb trip! The incredible sites we visited such as the 'Great wall' and the 'Terracotta warriors' will stay in our memories forever! Our guides took us to some superb restaurants where we really enjoyed the local food. The Peking duck for me was a favourite. Your organization and that of our local guides was excellent! Our guides knowledge of the places we visited was in-depth and really added to the interest in what we were seeing. I will highly recommend your tour to other teachers at my school and friends and family back in New Zealand.

Things to improve upon:

I think when travelling with younger children we found it's better sometimes to do 1 or 2 things a day rather than try and fit everything in on the itinerary especially when it was hot and there was lot's of walking to do. I think the guides were good at realizing this and were flexible when there were things we cut out of the daily itinerary. Having a pool at the end of the day was great for tired kids.

Perhaps next time with families try and have them stay not underneath the bar on the boat as it got a bit noisy. Although the people on the boat were really good when we said something about this on the first night. We also thought there could have been a bit more for children to do on the boat and we put that in our comments at the end of the trip.

That's all I can really think of as there was not really anything wrong with the trip. Thanks again Johnson, let me know if you want me to add any more detail in recommending the trip to others.

Regards.

Cameron

Thanks Jo. You too and thanks for amazing memories!! We are on the way home ready for bed!!

Beatriz

Us too! Adding our thanks for letting us join you. It was a great trip and fun to spend time with you all. Thanks to Johnson for all of his efforts and planning!

Lisa

Fantastic trip y’all! Thanks for all the memories! I’ll try and get photos from everyone and get some out together in the next week or so.

Matthew

Yes fantastic trip thanks everyone! We’ll get some feedback to you soon Johnson.

Cameron

We must have already been asleep when these messages came through. We have had a wonderful time. Thanks Johnson and Cam. Great to tick off so many must-sees in China ! Let’s have a post holiday debrief at our new apartment once we have unpacked!

Kylie

Hi Johnson, I know this is a bit late telling you. But our family had a lovely time on the trip you organised for us. We got to see so much of China! We feel very lucky. We are spending a week in Sanya. China is so beautiful!

Tessa

Hi Zeva,

Good morning Zeva. Kai has been a wonderful guide while we have been in Beijing. Who will be our guide in Xi'an?

We had a great trip! Thanks for all your work on this.

Tiffany

Hi Johnson,

Very satisfied really enjoying Lijiang. Sunny has been a fantastic guide!!!

Cameron

Hello Rita,

Hope you had a good weekend.

Well, my time here has come to an end and I have had "THE" most amazing trip; and seen so many wonderful things in China that I would never have been able to do without your help. The itinerary that you put together for me was perfect and fantastic. Thank you so so much. Every hotel was delightfully comfortable and just right after each full and busy day. The breakfasts were delicious and catered for many different tastes.

The guides and drivers were all increadible. So obliging and flexable....willing and able to meet our every need, politely, patiently and professionally.

I will strongly recommend China Discovery as a tour agency of choice.

Many, many thanks; wishing you only the best throughout this difficult COVID period and the future.

Warmest Regards

Ceresa

Dear Zeva,

Beijing: We had the Great Wall all to ourselves. Fantastic experience. Had a fantastic day.

Guide was amazing, driver amazing, hotel amazing. All 5*

High-speed Train: Looking forward to it. Business class is amazing.

Xian: Today was such a special day, one of my dreams came true, to see for myself the Terracotta soldiers and horses. I was in awe. I cannot find the words to express how amazing an experience it was. Our guide made it even more special, he shared interesting knowledge with us. I am so grateful for this opportunity.

Today’s highlight, biang biang noodle and Chinese burger, very delicious

Xi 'An trip was fantastic. Timo was an amazing guide. Looking forward to the next leg of our journey.

Guilin: Hiking up the Longji rice terraces today was like entering a magical world. The 93% humidity did not deter us

Today was a gastromical delight. The local cuisine at Longji is 5*. The highlight was seeing our vegetables being picked in the garden and then cooked for us. The taste was unbelievable and the icing on the cake a bottle of Portuguese wine. The local wine is great too, more a desert wine. I'm in heaven.

Today had many highlights, visiting the Yao village, where women have hair over 1 meter long, seeing the amazing Reed Flute caves, seeing the sun and moon pagodas and of course my birthday. Its been a wonderful day. Thanks to all who made it so special and for all the birthday wishes. I am so blessed.

Wow, another fantastic day. Li and Dragon river.Wonderful scenery, delicious food, great company and more birthday presents. I am eternally grateful.

Our trip to Guilin was amazing. Alice was a wonderful guide. The only downside was the attitude of the staff at the Armari hotel. They seemed a little uneasy as we were foreigners and even wanted a covid test. Alice handled the situation very well though. The hotel room and facilities were great.

I would give a rating of 5 for the hotel room, facilities and location but 3 for customer service.

Yangtze River Cruise: Its been a great trip.

What better way to finish a holiday than a cruise on the Yangtze river. The staff on the Century Paragon ship made it a journey to remember.

Our final trip before returning home. The three gorges dam, magnificent and powerful.

We had a great holiday. The whole trip was well organised, the guides anazing, everything was perfect. Thank you.

Good morning Jack,

Lee was excellent. Very personable, very professional. Your drivers were very good. The pace of the trip was good. We enjoyed seeing both reconstructed and old wall. It gave us a much better appreciation of the work to not only to build but to maintain as well .We would caution that knowing in advance what sections of the wall are closed would be helpful. The second day it seemed we spent more time hiking in the brush than visiting the wall itself. Plenty of water and bathroom breaks were offered. Li was very knowledgeable about the wall and history. He gave us information in the van and allowed us to enjoy the wall without interruptions. Great job on his part The water town hotel was very enjoyable. The room was clean, air conditioner, and felt traditional but clean and new. Li did a great job of preparing us and getting us through the security points at the square. The local farmhouse restaurants were decent and the people very kind.

Xi'An: Tomi was good. He had a less engaging tour so our interaction with him was less but still enjoyable. He accommodated our request to spend time with friends that were in the area as well.Muslim street was very small and not as unique as I thought it would be.The bike ride along the city wall enjoyable. Better first thing in the morning or late afternoon. It would have been too hot for a mid-day visit.We stayed at the W in Xi'An. Great place to stay. I would visit that property again. We ate dinner at a new Turkish restaurant called The Chill right outside the hotel. Would recommend.Warriors was amazing. Tomi's knowledge very much appreciated. We were two and half hours early to the airport so timing was a bit off.All said, we would definitely use China Discovery again.

Hi Riley,

Sorry for the late reply.

We had two wonderful days on the Great Wall

Jenny was really friendly and flexible. She gave us good explanations on the history of the Great Wall. 

The driver was fine also, maybe his driving could be a little bit safer but it was ok. 

The car was clean and of good quality.

On the first day it would have been better to leave the hotel in Beijing one hour earlier to avoid the traffic and be less in a rush.

We really enjoyed our weekend and I really appreciated your professionalism and kindness.

I will keep your contact for potential future trips. 

Thank you very much,

Estelle

Hi Leo,

Yes, I can give you some feedback on the Beijing trip. In general we enjoyed the trip very much. It was a good idea to go to Jinshanling Great Wall instead of Badaling. Actually we had heard of Badaling being rather crowded during National Holidays, that’s why we asked you to include Jinshanling. It was a good choice;

Jack, our tour guide was very nice, he has a very good knowledge about the places we went and the history behind. The driver was very experienced and we always had a smooth drive, although obviously sometimes the traffic was dense.

The Restaurants that Jack picked were all ok, the experience with the family in the Hutong for the Dumpling making was very nice.

There could be some minor changes to the tour. For example it was more convenient to go to Jingshan Park and Beihai Park on the same day instead of separate days. Actually Jack proposed that and it was good. We went to both of the parks the day after the Forbidden City. There are some further attractions to visit inside the Summer Palace and Beihai Park. You have to buy extra tickets, which are 10 Yuan per person. I think it might make sense to include these in the tour right away from the beginning.

Hi Jack.

I love it!!!It was worth each cent.The guide was incredibly knowledgeable, it made a huge difference to have him showing me the places and explaining all the history behind it.The timing was very well managed and not rushed and the best part was avoiding huge crowds.I am very, very happy with your services.Thank you very much.I am already trying to get some days off to plan a trip to Xian with you guys.Thanks for everything!The only problem was that hotel. I have travel all the continents, stayed in multiple hotels. That hotel IS NOT a 4 star hotel. It is terrible. But the issue was managed.Thanks one more time.

Hello Rita 

I'm doing well! How are you?  Just cleaning my house now .

I can't thank you enough for everything! I really had an amazing holiday and I appreciate all the extra efforts you helped me with. I felt like a superstar sometimes .

I'm so excited for Patra as she will get to experience a vacation where she can to do minimal because everything is taken care of.

Thank you for the kind gesture I appreciate it! The lunch was definitely delicious and it was good to get to know Sandy and Mr. Li. during both lunches.

Hello Wonder!

I am so very sorry for taking so long to get back to you!  It was such a busy week last week, that every time I sat down to write to you, I kept getting distracted and having to focus on something 

So, first, it was a wonderful trip!  Of course, we wished that COVID didn't interrupt some of our itinerary.   . . . but even with the pop-up-health-concerns in Beijing, we felt very well taken care of.  We really appreciated the fact you frequently checked in and kept us updated.  In addition, we believe Linda was probably the best person to be on a tour with during a health scare, because she took care of us like we were her little kids.  :)   In English, I told her I felt like she was our "mother hen," always making sure we were taken care of!  She also always picked THE BEST food.  One could tell that she has had a number of western tourists before, because she also always tried to find food that not only represented Beijing, but that would also fit with our western palate. :)  

Also, when we went to the Great Wall, we completely lucked out: there was no one there!  For a great part of it, it was as if the Great Wall was our own private wall! :)  Definitely amazing.  Definitely memorable.  Many of the tourist sites were like that: due to COVID fears and the cold, they were nearly empty.  For the western tourist, the emptiness made the tourist sites even more memorable.  :)   Linda provided great context.   It was very cold, but Linda was a trooper -- always trying to make sure we saw what we wanted to see!  

I will say, even the Beijing Public Hospital, despite being a very busy hospital, went fairly smoothly, all things considered.  So, hey, now we can mark that off our list of things we have done in China. :) 

Hotel was nice, but due to Covid, many of the amenities were shut down.  Breakfast was superb, though! :)  Also, Mark and I were trying to be safety cautious, so we did not explore outside the hotel much. There was a lot of extra app scrutiny, which I'm sure you can imagine.  Also, people seemed very nervous. 

Linda also stayed with us all the way until we boarded the train.  She was very thoughtful and considerate.  Our driver (Mr. Lee), was also very kind and considerate during the entire trip.  He was very quiet, but we felt like we were safe in his hands. 

Bruce, in Xi'an, was also fantastic.  Such a different personality, but perfect for Xi'an.  He was enthusiastic about history (great for Mark), and had a passion for the food in the Muslim Quarter (great for me!).  You know, one day, your company should consider incorporating a food tour in Xi'an.  The food is so different than anywhere we've been in China . . . and so tasty!  In a way, I bet Bruce could run the food tour!  By the way, riding the bikes on the wall was a nice extra touch.  We didn't expect that!  Thank you for arranging.  Mark and I would have never thought we would have enjoyed it so much, but we definitely did!  It was also fairly empty. . . and with the sun setting, it was quite magical. 

Sheraton in Xi'an was also a very nice place to stay.  Great choice! :)   

We really enjoyed ourselves, Wonder.  Thank you for picking great tour guides, checking in, adjusting our itinerary, and making sure everything worked smoothly.  In fact, we enjoyed ourselves so much that Mark and I have already started thinking of our next trip!  

Mark and I will have some additional leave coming up in May.  Mark has gotten approval, but I haven't yet.  Either way, we are thinking of a fairly large trip, that would at least include Chengdu (definitely including food-related itinerary) and part of the silk road (the Qinghai to Gansu trip).  I particularly am interested in the grottoes and the desert.  As we get more details/approvals to take leave, we will let you know.  Of course, we will want to work with you, since you are our favorite tour organizer! :) 

Thanks for checking in!

Take care, 

Keena (and Mark)

Just wanted to thank you Wendy,

Our travel in Beijing was great!!

Hi Riley,

The tour guides were both excellent, the drivers too. I have no complaints.

My Beijing tour guide is an excellent storyteller and my Xi'an guide was very friendly and helpful.

Hello Wonder

Kai is very nice. We liked him so much.

Hi Tracy,

Yes, we are back in Guangzhou where it is much warmer than Beijing!

Feedback:

Hotels – both hotels were excellent; the staff were very helpful, breakfast was very nice and the rooms clean and well maintained. The hotel in Beijing just won as they upgraded our room when we arrived to a King double.

Guides/Drivers: Edward was good in Harbin, even though there is obviously less to talk about than if he was in Beijing. He was always on time, very helpful with buying tickets, showing us around and he took us to a great restaurant for our evening meal in the city. The driver (sorry, can’t remember his name) had a good car and drove very carefully in icy conditions.

Kai really made the trip for us. He was very knowledgeable, kept us very interested in all of the history that Beijing has and told an excellent story – on top of being very organised, very helpful with the health codes and so on. Mr Jao the driver was punctual, very helpful and as a team they worked very well. I would recommend them to any of my friends who were going to Beijing.

Activities: it was more difficult to fill two days in Harbin, especially as it was so cold. The snow sculptures were impressive, the ice sculpture park truly amazing and the tiger park (which I was a bit worried about) was more acceptable than other animal attractions I have been too (and there were lots of tigers!). Apart from that, we enjoyed the walk down the ‘Russian street’ but the cathedral was a little underwhelming and we visited the old part of town at a very quiet time of day.  

On the other hand we could easily have spent more time in Beijing; Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace were places where we could have spent much more time exploring, but the highlight was the Great Wall which was fabulous. If we ever get back to Beijing we will definitely go to another stretch for a longer walk. Sadly for the tourism industry, but good for us, it was nice to not have too many people there as well.

Overall we had a great time; everything was well organised, pick ups were punctual, we got to see some of the top sights in China and would definitely consider going back to Beijing in the future. Thanks for all your efforts as well (flight cancellations, letting us know about the situation in Beijing), everything went really smoothly and we will definitely consider getting in touch with you again about future trips.

Hope that you have a prosperous New Year

Best regards

Martin and Debbie

Dear Rita,

Thank you! We are having a good time! Kai is very good tour guide.

We are back home now. Thanks again for organizing such an amazing trip. We really enjoyed it. My wife will be filling out a comment on trip advisor. She was so happy!

Hi Riley,

Thank you! The Great Wall was phenomenal.

Hi Wonder,

Thanks for today! Everything went well!

Hey Vivien!

Yes, we are safely home and having dinner.

The whole tour was very organized, the tour guide was very friendly and she had a deeper knowledge of the sights we visited, the staff at the hotel was really friendly and could speak a bit of English, which was helpful and the hotel itself was really comfortable and intimate. Overall I think the tour was a success and we are satisfied.

Hi Tracy

Fine. Tour guide and driver excellent. Hotel good but inconvenient with luggage. Food service poor. Great Wall and sights excellent. Thanks for all the help.

Food in town excellent. Good choices. Food hotel cold breakfast. Take 3 bus to get to hotel. Drag luggage over road. Guide help us a lot. He is excellent

Hi Lyn,

Oh it was sooooooo good many thanks! Please do keep in touch when you've got specials going on over weekends

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival to you also!  I think I forgot to fill out the following survey.

Here below are the questions for you: 

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

      Yes

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

 Very good overall.  Just the one in Beijing is just OK.

3.     Would you like to recommend our company? 

 Yes, definitely.

Thanks,

Cynthia 

Hi Wonder

I hope things are returning to normal for you and that the impact in your business of covid-19 has not been too depressing. Please forgive my tardy response, for which there is no excuse!

I flew from Shanghai to Saigon just 3 days before the flights were banned and managed to spend a great 4 weeks travelling through Cambodia and Thailand as well as re-entering Vietnam in Hanoi and touring back to Saigon for a week returning to UK on 22 February, where I completed 2 weeks of self isolation with my wife. As you will know we have been locked down for 9 weeks now so life is very different to how it was before I left for China back on 12 January! I have inserted my answers to your questions below and hope they are helpful to you.

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

Wonder Wang, at China Discovery, was very helpful and responsive to my questions and needs and I felt supported and safe in a strange land, especially during a period of uncertainty when I lost key documentation and needed to ensure its replacement before I left China, and also during a time when many around us were conscious of the emerging coved 19 pandemic (Mid to late January 2020).

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

Very attentive and knowledgeable. Maybe it’s my age (67) but at times I found understanding their English a challenge but they were all patient with me and would repeat their explanations when I asked them to. 

3. Would you like to recommend our company?

 I have no hesitation in recommending China Discovery to anyone looking for a bespoke trip to the land of Wonder that is China.

Thanks again for all you did for me during the China leg of my trip. I had a wonderful time.

Take great care and best wishes

Simon

Hi Mike!

SO GOOD to hear from you. Congratulations on your country’s management of Covid-19. Yes, you have given us a good example and we hope to learn from your experience. Thank you for your well wishes.

Kind regards

Gladys

Thanks Mike;

Our hearts go out to the people of China. We sincerely hope that the situation in China, and the rest of the world gets back to normal soon.

We sent a package of N95 masks to one our tour guides several weeks ago, as a small token to show our appreciation for her efforts while we were in China, and to show our concern for the well-being of her family.

Thanks very much for sending the information and suggestions about dealing with the virus. We are starting to experience many of the same problems that the Chinese people faced when the virus first started to spread, and your suggestions will be most helpful.

Best Wishes,

Rick

Hi Mike,

Thank you very much for this information. We find that the problem is getting more and more serious in Thailand. I am sure the information you sent will be helpful for us here.

Cheers,

Lina

Dear Wing,

We have been wondering how the wonderful people we met are getting through this crisis. We are glad to hear that you are well. We hope that you and your family and friends can stay healthy.  

We are well and are living near our son and his family who can help us. My sister in California said that no one is allowed out of the house except for food shopping or something necessary in order to live. Last week 3.3 million people applied for unemployment benefits in our country. So many businesses are closed.  

We hope to travel again and will contact you when it is again possible to see other countries.

Sincerely,

Deborah and Steve

Dear Wing Zeng,

Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness in providing the very useful information on Covid-19. It is greatly appreciated.

All our family are well and in good spirits despite the unprecedented times we are living in. We are now in lockdown in Ireland until at least Sunday 12th April. It is difficult but we hope it will save lives and contain the virus.

We also hope there will be a medical breakthrough soon to eradicate the virus.

Thank you again for all your kindness.

Take care and stay safe and well.

Regards,

John

Hello Vivien,

Thank you very much for your warm wishes and for sending this information. It is an interesting read and it does very much agree with the advice we are getting here in the UK. Yes, we are well but as we are in the early stages of the pandemic here in UK it remains a worrying time.

Of course, we have also been watching the situation in China and are pleased that things seem to be moving back towards normal. Our daughter Stephanie who works in Fuzhou was at home in the UK for a month following the outbreak and the closure of public schools in China after the New Year celebrations. She intended visiting for just one week but while she was home the outbreak spread around China and so she remained here. Her school have started teaching on-line and she has been able to do that.

Hearing that the situation was starting to get better in China, she was anxious to return and so she left home on the 15th of March. Unfortunately, she arrived in Haikou, en-route from Hong Kong to Fuzhou, and was caught by the 14-day quarantine for passengers arriving in China that started last Monday. She is now one week into her enforced stay before she will be allowed to fly to Fuzhou. However, although obviously a bit lonely, she is well and quite comfortable in the hotel, and is able to continue her on-line teaching. She is due to continue her travel next Tuesday, 31 March, and is now looking forward to re-joining her colleagues. And it does seem that she left here just in time as we are now starting a period of lockdown.

We do still have flights booked for a future visit to China in May but we have not made any plans yet because we do not know if we will be able to travel. If we can travel then we will contact you nearer the time to help with bookings – no doubt it has been a very quiet time for you recently.

It is a very difficult time for everybody. We are doing our best to heed the advice, as no doubt you have done. Thank you again for your message and we send you our very best wishes for the future.

Sincerely,

Chris & Jude

Hi Vivien,

Many thanks for your email, kind wishes and guidance documentation.

I will read with interest and forward to my family.  

I hope you and your family were not affected with COVID19 and it is good to note that it appears to be coming under control in China. 

Here in the UK our figures are gaining momentum and we have just moved into the “stay at home” phase with guidelines and key restrictions.

On a positive, we have very fond memories of our time in China last year and are so pleased we were able to visit.  We wish you and our tour guides all the best, continue to keep safe.

Kind regards 

Carol and Bill

Hi Vivien,

Thank you for your kind letter. I hope that you and your family are well. 

I can imagine how difficult it is for travel industry to go through this crisis. 

How long Wuhan has been under the lockdown? Are there any effective medication against the virus? 

We are now in a total lockdown. We’ll see how the UK will be effected by that. It is difficult for everyone. 

Stay well and healthy.

Best wishes, 

Nana

Dear Wing, 

Thank you very, very much for your kind words and the attached information. It is really a very bad situation here, but I am happy that it is getting much better in China.

Here the Federal Council has categorized the situation in Switzerland as extraordinary (the highest level) under the terms of the Epidemic Act and has tightened existing measures and enacting new ones affecting the public, organizations and institutions. 

From midnight on, all public and private event have been banned, restaurants, bars, shops are closed etc., etc.. Public transportation offer will be reduced. Pharmacies and food stores are open. Many people are working from their home. Similar measures as in other countries. We stay at home and usually only go outside for buying food. But in general the situation is becoming very critical. I hope that in June life will be better. 

All the best

alfredo and mércia

Hi Echo,

First my wife and i are very concerned about you & family plus our guides and their families due to the coronavirus.

We had a fantastic time in China just a few months ago.

1. Our travel arrangements were PERFECT! It was an affordable vacation yet for only a few dollars over base cost we were able to upgrade to Hainan airlines and 1st class high speed trains,

Plus our hotels (when the front desk is an actual luxury desk you sit at checking in - you relax and know your stay will be so nice!)

We were met on time by friendly staff in each city.

Our local tour guides were great! Each different but good. 

We have recommended your tour company many times as we discuss our trip and show our pictures. Everything went very smoothly. As we exchanged emails our perfect vacation developed so easily. 

Improvements? Not many. The tour locations, transportation, lunches, drivers & guides etc... were great!

2 things- our guide in Shanghai wanted to tell us so much. She was worried about the time too much. For her, the other guides, and the travellers - please send a simple intro guide lesson for us fo read and take with.  So many dynasties, rivers, canals, rocks, pagodas etc...to learn. 

Also, the shopping stops were very nice and also affordable. 

But, if wasn't until our last morning that i discovered a souvenir shop. To buy tshirts, key chains, refrigerator magnets, etc..  This is an important part of travel as the "themed" location shops dont carry items forg all the friends and family back home.

Also in Xian we had expected fo visit the ancient mosque along with the muslim street.

Thank you for a wonderful trip.

Hallo Lily,

Last year, with my cousin Roberto Bergoglio and his wife Anita Maletto, I had with 'China Discovery' a nice holiday in China.
We remember well the beauty of the country and the kindness of our guides. 

We are now very sorry for the bad news from China and we hope that all of you is well. 

We are sure that these difficult moments will soon be over.

Cheer up!

Franca Bergoglio

Hi Wendy,

If I get a chance I will put something on Tripadvisor but I can give you the responses to your questions.

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

Yes very happy with the contact we received and the booking of tours.

2. How was your tour? Are you satisfied with the tour we arranged for you?

I was very happy with the tour. I think in Shanghai the hotel was in a poor location and didn’t have the services the other hotels had. If I had known I would have paid extra for a better/ better location hotel.

Hi wonder,

Just wanted to thank you very much for the great service. I had a great time in my first visit to China. Next time I go I will contact you to visit Chengdu to spend time with the pandas.

Dear Rita,

We had a good trip, thanks to you for giving good tour guides such as Jenny in Beijing and Celina in Harbin. Drivers were careful too.

Dear Ms Zeng,

So I am now back home in England and already I am very much missing China!

Overall my tour was excellent and I would be very happy to recommend your company to my friends and family.  In fact I have already done so

Here are my comments about the tour in more detail:

Xi’an 

The train connection went smoothly and I was met at the station by my guide, Crystal

Hotel: The Holiday In Express was good, clean and friendly.  The location is excellent because it is right in the centre of the city.

Guide and driver: Crystal (and the driver) were excellent. Crystal was very well informed, very friendly and great company.

Tour: The places we visited were interesting and I really enjoyed seeing the terracotta warriors.

Beijing

Again the train transfer went smoothly, apart from me arriving at the wrong exit at the station (which you sorted very quickly - thank you!) Having your number for emergencies was a really useful on that occasion

Hotel: the hotel itself was good, clean and comfortable.  I just found the location a little “isolated” and would have preferred somewhere a bit more downtown, near the centre.

Guides: 2 different guides for the 2 days. I have already messaged you about Yuly who I thought was excellent. Informed, patient with the difficult tourists and good company. The guide on the 2nd day was also very good, well-informed and good company.

Tour: Beijing was incredible if very cold! I thoroughly enjoyed all the places we visited and found the guides to be well informed. The Great Wall was amazing!

Shanghai

Again the train transfer went smoothly and I was met on time at the station by the guide.

Hotel: the hotel was warm, clean and comfortable and well located near the railway station and the metro.

Guide: Frank was well-informed, well organised and fun to be with.

Tour: the tours were interesting and well organised.  I felt I saw the best parts of Shanghai

So overall I was very happy with the tour 

I should also add that your itinerary was very comprehensive and I constantly referred to it on my travels.

My only suggestion would be to include a link on how to use the Metro because the first time is confusing (or did I miss that link)

I am happy for you to include my comments in your marketing and I am also happy for potential customers to contact me if they want more feedback before they book.

I took over 900 photos but I have included my 3 favourite photos as they remind me that I have been to these 3 iconic places in China.  I am happy for you to use my photos

Thank you again for organising the tour, Ms Zeng

Best wishes,

Chris

Hi Wendy,

Thank you Wendy so much for organizing our wonderful trip to China you made every thing fun and easy. All the arrangements worked out perfectly without a problem. We had a fantastic time and enjoyed all the sights and sounds and attractions. We really appreciated our tour guides they were exceptional and the drivers and pre-organized tickets made the trip easy. Could you pass on a special thanks to Anne, Alison, Tina and Eric who made our family feel very welcome and gave our trip a warm and personal touch.

Thanking you Jenny and family :-):-):-)

Hi Wendy

Yes, home safely thank you. Could I tell you before I respond to your queries, it was a wonderful, brilliantly organised trip, thank you so much.

1.  You were always prompt with responses to any queries and clarifications. Your suggestions were carefully considered and you accommodated our requests effortlessly.

2.  The tour was simply great. Beijing - Kai as guide and driver Mr Ho. What a find with Kai! His English was perfect; his knowledge was exceptional. Kai constantly volunteered information and explanation without having to be asked. The restaurants he took us to for our lunches were fabulous - very fresh, freshly cooked and spice level to accommodate our palette. He was also very considerate towards my sister who is older and less mobile than us, always looking out for her, assisting with her bag etc. You have a real gem with Kai. Mr Ho and the vehicle were also fantastic. The van was very clean and comfortable. Mr Ho was also very helpful with luggage. If there needs to be a simple suggestion for the future, perhaps a low step to assist customers into the van would be helpful. Kai provided us with bottled water each day, without being asked.

With regards to the itinerary in Beijing, I should have included an extra day to see the Ming Tombs. As we had a full free day at the end of the holiday, I did organise a private tour for this reason, and it was great. The Great Wall - I chose the option of the cable car because my sister has mobility problems. 350 metres of steep cobbled ramp way, plus approximately 100 steps of varying heights (from 10 cm to 45 cm in height) were extremely challenging for my sister and she would have missed this amazing place had Kai and my partner Tony not been so kind to her and physically assisted her. Perhaps a bit of a misunderstanding on our part Wendy, as this was certainly not disability friendly! 

Xi'an - bullet train was great except both the conductors and the officials at the exit gates in Xi'an, wanted to see our tickets! I showed the itinerary to them, but Kai told me later that perhaps I should have also shown our passports? Never mind, we got there! Crystal and driver Mr Hou(?) were also great. The vehicle was clean, however smaller than in Beijing and a little more difficult for 4 people to be comfortable. Again, a low step would be advantageous for customers to access the van more easily. Crystal was very knowledgeable and both were helpful. The museum and the warriors just have to be seen to be believed. The theatre restaurant in the evening was technically the best I have seen, anywhere. A wonderful experience was Xi'an. Crystal provided water each day without being asked.

Harbin - flight was good. Guide was Karl but the driver was never introduced to us. Karl's English was not very good and his understanding of us and our questions was quite poor. A very pleasant and nice young man however. We had breakfast early in Xi'an, then nothing until we arrived in Harbin late in the afternoon. The itinerary stated we would tour the ice lanterns after dinner, but Karl did not understand we had not yet had dinner. Finally he understood us and took us to a local cafe where we had one choice only for our meal (it was very good though) and then we headed to the park. Excellent sculptures, we had seen nothing like this before. The snow sculptures the next day were simply quite stunning. Wonderful, talented people. The ice and snow festival in the evening was unbelievably spectacular. The vehicle was not really acceptable I am sorry to say. Very cramped and quite dirty as had not been cleaned after previous customers. There were used tissues and empty water bottles in the van. We had to ask Karl for water, and he went to a store to buy some. When I realised the Tiger Park was not on our itinerary I was very disappointed as I thought I had included this. Karl arranged this for us for Y600 and we appreciated this.

On our last day in Harbin we had Celine as our guide and she, like Kai, was brilliant. Excellent English, offering information constantly. The ice swimming with the locals was extremely funny as the older Russian women really made it very entertaining and fun. On our leisurely way to the airport she was told our flight was now leaving 1.5 hours earlier than scheduled and no one had been told. We received royal treatment by Celine who sped us through check-in and waved us off just in the nick of time! Thank you Celine. I think she may also have checked the van as it was cleaned that morning and we hope she realised that it was not us who left rubbish in the van. Again a low step would be helpful for customers, particularly as the floor became very icy and slippery and was problematic for us.

I arranged a private tour of the Ming Tombs on our last holiday day and I realise we could not have included this on our original itinerary due to time constraints. This was really worthwhile, so I would definitely recommend this to other customers Wendy.

3.  Suggestions? Low step for each van please, especially where it is icy. In Beijing if time is as limited as ours, perhaps suggestion of Ming Tombs in place of the Sacred Way?

Wendy, a great holiday with so much included. Both Kai and Celine are wonderful. I will put review on TripAdvisor as soon as possible.

Dimity Simes

Hi Wendy,

We made it home safely.  I thought both Helen and Kelly did an amazing job.  They made our visit to China wonderful.  They were always on time, professional and very knowledgeable.  I was impressed that they escorted us from the moment we arrived to the moment we left the train station or airport.  They made sure that we were secure and had everything that we needed.  The drivers were professional.  This whole trip couldn't have gone smoother.  I would and already have recommended your services to friends.  I am very happy with everything.  

As far as the travel consultant. I felt that you were very easy to communicate with and were very responsive.  

I don't have any additional suggestions.  This was a great experience.

Thank you,

Ann

Hi Mike,

I am writing to thank you and your staff for arranging a wonderful vacation for my family in China. We really enjoyed our time in China learning about your country.

Each of your tour guides and drivers were friendly, knowledgeable and very professional. They treated us like we were part of the family.

Thanks again, and Happy New Year.

Rick Valek

Hi Jack

Thank you for organising a wonderful trip. All the arrangements were very good and professional. The guides and drivers were very knowledgeable and helpful and we would like to thank them for making our tour enjoyable. We really enjoyed our tour and I would be happy to recommend China Discovery to my friends and colleagues. 

Thank you and we will reach out to you again in the future for our next trip to your beautiful and amazing country

Thanks and regards

Sandeep

Hi Mark, 

Thank you for your email follow up. 

I have provided our write up via trip advisor as per the link below. Below is our inputs to your feedback questionnaire:-

1. How’s the hotel and meals?

Hotel arrangement and meals are great. During our return trip from Xian to Beijing, the guide (another Mark) and driver have sent us to Hotel Park Royal. I believed the record was not updated to Novatel Peace. After clarification, they have sent us to Novatel Peace. 

2. How’s the tour guides’ service and drivers?

All are excellence. They are very patience and understanding to our needs. For Xian, we have the same driver and guide throughout. This made us very comfortable as we meet the same person throughout our stay with the rapport already build up. 

For Beijing, we have different drivers on some days. We understand it is not easy to have the same drivers throughout due to their daily routines. 

3. What do you think of your travel consultant’s service?

Travel consultant's service, Mark Shen is excellence. He is extremely helpful and go an extra mile as always to meet our request. We are very thankful to have him to serve us. 

4. Will you recommend our office to people around you?

Certainly a Yes. 

We greatly appreciate your service to us. You have made us enjoy our stay very much in Beijing and Xian. Wishing you a great year 2020 ahead. 

Jeslyn

Hi Mark,

Happy New Year!

Thank you for being so patient with us on providing feedback.

We shared immediate feedback at the end of every stop we had, but here are se add ns below.

1. How’s the hotel and meals?

Hotels were very good.

Only complaint would be hotel in Emeishan, as a window didn’t close and curtains were a nightmare to close – we had an issue with wifi, but its also on us as we did not go down to ask reception, thankfully it was only for one night, so not a big deal.

Food everywhere was very good with loads of options between local and western selections. I fell in love with the breakfast noodle soup, so was having that everywhere we went.

2. How’s the tour guides’ service and drivers?

Cant fault the drivers and guides on this trip. We learned a lot about the culture and the places we visited. Always had timely pick ups, cars were clean and very good. Sandy picked up all of our onward train tickets in one go, so we didn’t have to waste time on following days to get to train station, that was very helpful!

One comment that I’m not sure how to address is lunches, we really enjoyed our experience in China, and are open people and want to try local food in a sharing environment, we asked in all places if the driver and the guide will eat with us.

-        With Sandy when we could (as one day we were up the mount) both guide and driver ate with us, the restaurants were local and of very good quality and plenty of food to share and try as there were 4 of us on at the table, despite the language barrier it was very nice to eat all together.

-        In Xi’an, Vivian ate with us but the driver did not. We had to request specifically (as our friends recommended) to try Biang Biang noodles – they were awesome. The driver was very lovely and even bought us apples to have on the journey.

-        In Beijing, we ate alone, as Candy said that its company policy that driver and guide eat separately to guests when we were together. Was a bit strange for us to sit at 2 different tables, it wasn’t a big deal, just a different experience to the start of the trip.

We really enjoyed our time at all the places, saw and experienced loads of new places.

3. What do you think of your travel consultant’s service?

Its been a really well organized tour, we’ve seen loads in such a short period of time.

Everything ran smoothly with no hiccups (at least we didn’t see any).

4. Will you recommend our office to people around you?

For sure, already have been, if anyone is planning a trip to china they should definitely use your company to organize everything.

Kind Regards,

Vivien,

It was a great trip. Candy was a wonderful guide. The van was extremely comfortable and made the one day trip very easy for my family. We would definitely use her again in the future and recommend her to others.

Thank you once again for helping set up a memorable trip.

Ryan

Hi Echo

Just wanted to say a big thank you for arranging an amazing trip it absolutely exceeded our expectations

Julia

Hi Lyn

Thank you for helping us with the tour. We really enjoyed it and would recommend you highly.

Hi Wonder

We are now back in South Africa after one of our very best holidays,ever so again very many thanks for making it so.

Listed below are responses to your appraisal--

1)Wonder was incredibly quick at answering our e-mails and super efficient when dealing with any queries I had both before and after the tour.Nothing was ever too much for him.

2)Tour arrangements were fantastic! Drivers were always available to meet us at train stations or airports to take us to our hotels. Also guides often arrived earlier than planned in the morning for our daily tours. Guides also very helpful and informative. (Minor point but Guilin Hotel was a bit out of town and did not offer facilities of the others—Chengdu hotel was magnificent)

3)I certainly am very willing to speak to anyone who is interested in travelling with you in the future

And recommending your company.

4)General opinion—10 out of 10—it couldn’t be better

5)I think overall the tour was very well organised-maybe the guides could promote evening events more in the different cities.I did attend a Sichuan opera eve.in Chengdu which was good.

6)Have lots of photos which I can send—let me know-panda cubs attached

Please use any of my comments on your web site

7)Certainly –future/potential customers can contact me for advice

OVERALL A SUPERB HOLIDAY—MANY,MANY THANKS

Very best wishes

Ken and Perola Noble

Hello Wing,

Sorry the late response....see response in Italic below....

(1)  How do you like our tour arrangements and are you willing to recommend our service to your friends?

 The tour arrangement was perfect and I have already recommended to my friends, etc

(2)  Do you have some suggestions for us to improve our service?

 It is better and easier for us to provide survey feedback for the individual tour guide and driver online, right now it is paper based and sometimes we hold back comments knowing that the tour guide get to see the comments.

(3)  If you come to China again, would you like to use our service again?

 YES

Hi Leo

Overall, the tour experience was great and the itinerary was closely complied with. 

We were greeted promptly by the local guides in both Beijing and Xian at the very moment we stepped out of the customs.  Immediately, we were brought to our hotel in comfortable vans driven by friendly and safe-minded drivers. 

Sunworld Hotel in Beijing is slightly below expectation as the room is small for 3 of us. Pillows were flat and curtains old. It is however well located within walking distance to Wang Fu Jing and surrounded by convenience stores and shops.

Places of interests in Beijing like the Gu Gong and Great Wall are still as charming as 18 years ago. Public toilets at these places still have a lot of room for improvement though. 

Kai, our local guide at Beijing is professional and knowledgeable. He speaks both Mandarin and English well. His sharing of China history was engaging as he would assess us now and then with Q&A:). He also went the extra miles to send us to the bullet train cabin/ seats and gave us very detailed instruction on when to get OFF the train to ensure we do not miss the stop.

Bullet train from Beijing to Xian is a good alternative to internal flight as the cabins are clean and quiet. Can observe the development of different cities along the way too. 

The Titan Hotel in Xian is much bigger and comfortable. It has also engaged robot to assist in housekeeping. The breakfast has a wider spread than that in Beijing too. 

The Terracotta Army in Xian is eye opening. Our guide at Xian is knowledgeable and explains clearly too. Many new stores and eateries are located outside the TA museum. Would suggest to allocate more time at this commercial site as we were rushing to go for our lunch which was located within a nice resort with 5-star toilets.

Meals at Xian are less exciting and appealing due to our non-spicy and no beef nor mutton diet. Also, most if not all of the meat dishes are served cold including braised trotters. Chinese food in Singapore is served warm/ hot unless otherwise indicated. 

On hindsight, 1-night stay in Xian is sufficient, with a full-day visit to the Terracotta Army Museum, and shopping at the commercial site outside the Museum. Foot and body massage outlets are commonly found in Xian with good services. Will recommend a relaxing massage to wrap up the day! 

Last but not least, thank you for the arrangement and here wishing you a Blessed and Prosperous New Year !

Regards

Jacqueline

Hi Wonder,

Excellent. Jack is knowledgeable and patience. He was able to answer all the questions raised. He also made good recommendations on where else we can explore on our free time.  

Jeanette

Hi Leo!

My apologies for taking such a long time in getting back to you. We had a wonderful experience, and I have told my friends back here in the US to take the tour the way we did if they ever decide to go to China.  I think the only helpful note to possibly relay to future tourists is to have Apple Pay set up.  It is not too used here in the US, so I do not have it set up and a lot of the local places only took Apple Pay.

Otherwise, the tour stops were great, we really enjoyed all of our guides - I want to be friends with all of them!

Please let me know if you have anyone that needs to reach out to me that is considering the trip. I would be happy to share my positive experience.

Thank you,

Molly

1.) Your travel consultants were very prompt in responding to us. Both Ashley and Wonder were very clear in responding to our requests for information, and both did well in addressing our questions and concerns. We especially appreciated the changes in accommodation they made for our trip in Xian, where our accommodation had to be changed. We appreciated the efforts they made and are generally satisfied with the results. They were also very patient in explaining everything to us, and we had very little confusion regarding the details of the trip.

We want to give extra credit to Kai, our guide in Beijing, who was not only helpful but caring. We thoroughly enjoyed our excursions with him, including the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, and the Summer Palace. He is truly the best guide in our entire tour, and we hope all guides in the future can be as knowledgeable and caring as him.

Our general opinion of your tour company is generally positive, as your tour is a fresh idea compared to the usual Chinese tour operators we encountered in the past. Your focus on spending more time on the historical and cultural aspects of China and not pressuring tourists to do other activities (ex: shopping) is very refreshing, and allows us to appreciate the areas we visit more. We hope there are more tour operators in China who are willing to operate this way in the future.

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.

Hi Yanny,

We'd like to thank you for a very great vacation. Everything went according to plan and on time. We had a great time in China thanks to the thorough care of every detail of the trip. Guides were great and very polite and accessible to our questioning and queries.

respectfully

Alon

Hi Rita,

Good morning. We reached our home safely. All thanks to you and your team for organising such a wonderful trip. Starting from planning, implementing, and executing it. We dint face any problem anywhere while traveling or while inter changing the between stations. I would like to thank each one of you for taking care of us. I would like to highlight few things which made me speechless. 

Security: 

In the entire trip we didn't face any problem. Either with baggages or any other property. Everything was secured. 

Comfortablity: 

Spacious cars were provided all over the trip and we were very much comfortable. 

Special Thanks: 

To you and team for organising . 

And Mis. Tina and driver at Beijing and Mr. Johnny and his Driver at Xian, were very truthful and treated us like a family. Such a wonderful experience with them made our Journey to China remarkable. 

We would like to Visit China again in near future to other places Visiting Yiwu market. 

Best Attraction out 5 which we felt the Best 

1. Zhangjiajie

2. Xian

3. Beijing 

4. Shanghai

We went to optional activities in Beijing, Xian, Zhangjiajie, and Gulin. The best activity was at Xian. We loved the performance the most. 

Once Again

Thank you soo much. 

Harika

Hi Echo,

Just wanted to thank you for an amazing trip to China. We LOVED it! The itinerary we planned was perfect, the hotels were fantastic and really 5 star! The food was terrific, we ate everything. We were also so happy to find our parents villages.  

What really made our trip was the fantastic guides we had in all our locations! We learned so much from them not only about the sights we saw but also what their lives were like.  Please send my deepest gratitude and appreciation to Jack (Guangzhou), Shannon (Chengdu), Timo (Xian) and Mark (Beijing).

Our drivers were also wonderful and on time every where we went. My only concern was the driver at Chengdu.  He was very tired driving us back from Leshan and I caught him a couple of times closing his eyes.  That was a bit scary.  

I would definitely give you and China Discovery 5 stars! Our only complaint (more of a surprise) was the difficulty in getting our Shanghai Disney tickets, but in the end it all worked out. I have included some photos for you. I will be recommending you and your agency to all my friends.

Thanks again for a wonderful trip!

Regards,

Alanna Wong

Dear Echo,

Thanks for your email. Anne's knee has now recovered and she has been able to resume her visits to the gym this week.

I have paid the outstanding bill for the Shanghai airport transfer in $USD via PayPal

Thanks once again for all your assistance in setting up our trip and then helping us with the transport variations whilst in China.

It was a pleasure doing business with you and China Discovery

Best wishes

Russell & Anne

Dear Mark,

Hope this email finds you well. The trip is great and fantastic. I met a group of Singaporean also stay the same hotel with us in Xi'An. They are so impressed by what Mark Shen had plan our itinerary in Beijing and Xi'an. I share with them your company email hopefully in future they go China they can look for you guys as usual they also like me worry what if after deposit no show. I tell them they should have trust themselves what trip advisor advise.

As Mark Shen is very very patient to me and also give me a few alternative to choose . I will recommend Mark Shen to my friends and also keep his contact info for my future trips in China.

Best regards,

Jenny Tan

Hi Wendy,

Thanks so much for following up, I'm absolutely going to send you some reviews of the tours we did - they were all amazing. I'll hopefully get the chance to do this shortly, we've just returned from China and are so busy with work. As soon as I get the chance to I'll email you back with some comments :-)

Thanks again!

Jamie

Hi Wendy,

We have just returned home today from our month away and, rather belatedly, I wanted to thank you so much for the lovely scarf and gifts you sent us to Chengdu.

Our Chinese trip was absolutely perfect and we loved it.  For your information I will give comments on the guides:

Chengdu – Yijia

What a lovely girl, a pleasure to be around, incredibly innovative and helpful, beyond the calls of her job. She helped us get SIM cards for our phones, told us about the Opera near our hotel, even joined us for the panda workday.  Am not sure about how much knowledge she has but it was certainly enough for us.

Chengdu – Shani

First whole day in Chengdu.  She was very nice and knew her history.  Very informative about the Temples.

Xian – Vivien

We didn’t get off to a good start with her unfortunately as, although the driver was waiting for us at the station, she had been delayed with other clients and was 45 minutes late.  After our initial anger and seeing how upset she was we all settled down and I have to say she was incredibly knowledgeable and most informative. The next day, when we went to the Terracotta Warriors I don’t think we could have been with a better guide.  She was excellent.

Guilin & Yangshou – Lona

What a pleasure this guide was and so informative.  She certainly knows her history of the sites she took us to.  Very dedicated and we thoroughly enjoyed being with her.  I think she was the absolute best.

Shanghai – Tracy (I think)

A different caliber entirely.  Arrived late but with lots of excuses and no apology!  She was fine when we got going but her English wasn’t up to that of the others, nor was her knowledge I think.

Beijing - Kai

Probably the most well informed of all the guides we had, and a charming person.  He was most caring and happy to share his knowledge of all the sites as well as impart information about life in general in China.

Pick-ups were all excellent, with good and careful drivers. All in all we had a wonderful time in China and thank you so much for arranging it all so well for us.

We will certainly recommend you to our friends and if you need us to give recommendations to future clients, we shall be happy to do.

All the Best,

Candy & Laurie

Dear Lyn Wang,

Just wanted to let you know how much we enjoyed the Tour you scheduled for us. It was really great having the tour guides and drivers at each location to make sure we were on schedule and were able to get to the next location on time. We could not have done nearly as much of the tour on our own.

Each of the four (4) tour guides was very helpful and fully knew their area. Sherry in Chongqing and Bailey in Shanghai were outstanding.

I took many pictures so it will be a few days before I can edit and load them on my computer. When I do, I will send you some of the highlights.

It was a great trip and we certainly will recommend your Company and specifically Lyn Wang to anyone we know that plans on going to China.

Thanks again for a Job Well Done.

Bet wishes, 

Joseph

Hi Wendy 

Apologies for the late reply been busy in the office.

1. Was your travel consultant of our company fast enough to answer your E-mail and patient enough to answer your questions? YES We appreciated your assistance and updates

2. How was your tour? Are you satisfied with the tour we arranged for you? YES we were looked after both by Kiki and Eric 

Kiki helped Dylan in the yellow Mountains to overcome his tiredness and helped him achieve the extra walk into the valley 

Eric looked after us and when Dylan left his stuffed Koala in Beijing arranged for the hotel to courier it to Shanghai and arrived within 24 hours 

3. Do you have any suggestions on improving our services? Not really 

Regards,

With Our Kind Tour Guides

Hello Leo,

Thanks for your email. Yes I am back to USA after a long trip to China. I have now fully recovered.

Our trip to China is one of the memorable trips we have taken. Thanks to you and China Discovery, we enjoyed our tour without a glitch. It was very well organised and executed.

Our flights and trains were all on time and very comfortable. The vehicle, tour guides and the drivers were very respectful and flexible to accommodate all our needs. We were impressed by all the tourist sites, especially the grottoes and other sites in the silk route. All the sites are well maintained and the facilities were  excellent. We saw several cultural shows and they were all very enjoyable. We have no hesitation in recommending your services and China Discovery travel agency to all our friends and relatives.

Good luck and thank you,

Best regards,

Dear Riley

Thank you for your arrangement and follow up for our China trip. Everything is going well with your help. We got the train tickets once we checked in at Beijing Hotel. Tomorrow we are going to Xian.

The cruise experience exceeded our expectations. We upgraded to executive suite at acceptable price with more spacious room at Level 5 and other privileges including VIP restaurant, free 24 hrs lounge access and free laundry. The cruise manager Jeffrey was very attentive and other staffs are helpful.  The excursions were well organized and the local guides spoke good English.

We are looking forward to our next trip and your further assistance.

Best regards

Dear Lyn,

Delighted to see your email. Yes, we are both fine and I must say that our China trip worked out extremely well thanks to you. Right from the word go, you have been so helpful and prompt in all your responses. Your advice was great and the choice of places to visit was just right. We do appreciate your help mid-way in getting our room in Novotel, Beijing, changed. All our tour guides – Yoyo in Beijing, Fiona in Hangzhou and Melody in Shanghai were very polite, friendly, helpful and flexible. So were the drivers too. Please covey our heartfelt thanks to all of them. Our thanks are also due to Mark who picked us up when we landed in Shanghai and Tina who was there to pick us up, help us with ticketing and drop us off twice at the Shanghai Railway Station. The weather was good throughout and everything went exactly as planned. Without doubt, we will recommend you and China Discovery to our friends. In fact, we have done so to many already.

Many thanks again and warm regards from both of us,

Dear Leo

Thank you for your email. We really enjoyed our China tour with China Discovery. The itinerary planned for us were very comprehensive which allows us maximum time to enjoy the natural beauty and attractions each locations had to offer with minimum shopping trips. We really don't like those tours that spend a lot of time bringing us shopping rather than spending time to explore the attractions and I am really glad the tour that you organized for us did not make us do that.

The transfer from one place to another was also arranged very well and we were well looked after. The hotel and meals arranged were good except for the hotel in Beijing where the toilet is not very clean especially the shower cubicle. Other than that we were really satisfied with the hotels arranged which were in convenient locations in the city center and the food was great.

The tour guides were also very accommodating and look after us very well especially Lily and the driver Mr Chang from Beijing who really made sure that we had a really enjoyable time in Beijing.

We will definitely deal with China Discovery for our next trip to China and will not hesitate to recommend China Discovery to our friends.

Kind regards

Hi, Jack, that what I want to put on Trip Advisor, please read and let me know if it is something you expected.  Also if you can advise me what was that place in Xi’an I am writing about I will put it there.

10 days semi-private tour

10 days tour with the group of 6 friends was totally amazing, it was perfect combination of physical activity, information to process and just moments to enjoy.  Out of all included and optional activities I want to highlight just two special moments in Xi’an and show on the Li River in Yangshuo.

Whith basically all-time rain our visit to Xi’an was bright, interesting and full of surprises thanks to our wonderful guide Timo.  It started late in the evening when we arrived in the city and was taken to…I don’t remember name of that place, but it was a long street filled with lights, decoration, different activities, lots of people, some in traditional cloths and etc.  And the next day, after seeing the Terracotta warriors, City wall and other place of interests there was another surprise for us. One person in our group had a birthday and what he got as a gift from our tour company was creative, unique and above our best dreams (don’t want to go into details in case somebody else wants to celebrate birthday in Xi’an).  The only thing I regret about is we did not tip our wonderful guide enough. Tip recommendation was at the very end of our confirmation letter and none of us bothered to read it to the end until the mid of the tour.  We used our best judgment, and as it turned out it was not that good, he deserved much better. 

And show in Yanhshuo – I have no words to describe it, have never seen anything like that before, definitely worth seeing it even under the rain (theater does not have a roof).

So many great picture, so much great moments to remember!

Hi Ashley! 

We have now completed our China tour with you and are sailing away on the ship. So I wanted to take a quick moment to thank you for an AMAZING trip!!!  You were such a pleasure to deal with and super responsive to all my questions and requests.  And then your tour partners stepped up to deliver on all the promises you made. We were taken care of every step of the way!!! We couldn’t have imagined getting better service!

There were so many little extra touches that your team gave us that took your service from beyond great to outstanding but here are a few examples:

- When we were dropped at our hotel in Beijing Fong Fong came up to our room with us to make sure that everything was in order and we didn’t need anything.

- Fong Fong and Mr Lee went out of their way and found us a Subway restaurant so we could grab a submarine sandwich to eat on the train.

- Fong Fong stayed with us at the train station until we got on our train and had our luggage stowed. She even took me to a different part of the train station in search of a western toilet for me.

- I wasn’t feeling great in Xi’an and Vivian made sure I drank lots of water, found comfortable places for me to sit and rest when needed and automatically found elevators and shorter routes to help me see everything with as little effort as possible.

- Vivian also stayed with us until we were on the train, which was a very different experience than some other fellow travelers who used a different tour company and were just dropped at the front doors of the train station

- Gila and Zhang adjusted their plans to take us to the Opera in the evening.  This was a BIG ask given that we only decided to do this the day of (because I hadn’t been feeling well and wasn’t sure if I’d be up to it) and then they had to then be back in the morning at 5:30 to take us to the airport.

- When we were dropped back at the hotel after the Opera Gila came in with us and made arrangements with the hotel to have a “to go” breakfast ready for us in the morning.

- Gila stayed with us at the airport and helped us navigate through the check in process and the payment for our extra piece of luggage.  This was invaluable for us as I’m not sure, with the language barrier, if we would have been able to sort all this out.

I will definitely complete your evaluation and send it to you when I get home. I will also go online and post my extremely positive review of your company. However, I did want to let you know how pleased we are and how grateful we are to you and the team for an amazing adventure! 

P.S. Thank you SO MUCH for the beautiful gifts. We LOVE them!!

Hello Vivien

Thank you for all. The organisation of the tour was perfect. Every guide stood at the right time at the right place and was very friendly.

Our first guide Kai is the best guide we ever had. We will ever remember the time with him in Beijing.

We recommend China discovery to all our friends.

Kind regards

Hi Wonder,

We’ve just arrived at our Beijing hotel and there was a packet waiting for us containing our train tickets.

We are very pleased with the service we have received from you and will certainly use China Discovery for any future trips to China. Your company was recommended to us by a work colleague last year and Vivienne I think organised a really good day for us in Xian. So of course when we needed some Chinese rail tickets this year your company was the first one we tried.

Many thanks for all your help.

Dear Wing Zeng,

We have just returned to Ireland after an INCREDIBLE trip to Beijing, Xian and Shanghai. The tour guides and drivers were SUPERB and gave us a fantastic experience for the duration of our time in China. We will always treasure the great memories from this UNFORGETTABLE trip. China is such a beautiful and vibrant country. It was our pleasure to experience such a fantastic time in your wonderful country.

Thank you so very very much for all your great help and organisation in arranging an unforgettable trip for us.

It is GREATLY appreciated.

Regards,

Hi Wonder!! How are you!!

Sorry for the late response, it has been a bit more time demanding coming back home than I expected!!

We will gladly write a review in trip advisor. Actually Rubi and I worked on a review for you that you can find below, it is written both in English and Spanish if that helps you with the Spanish speaking countries. Also for your information we are sending you our comments of hotels and guides, but that is for you only.

Wonder Wang was fantastic since day 1, he always replied very quickly to our multiple emails and questions. He worked in record time to provide us with a perfect itinerary that adjusted not only to our wishes, but as well to our budget.

As many customers have pointed out, thinking of paying for your trip to a chinese company many miles away could be nervewracking. Nevertheless, you have nothing to worry about, we did the payments through paypal and Wonder and China Discovery fulfilled all our expectations, always going the extra mile.

As an example, once our itinerary and plane tickets were booked, the Chinese government informed that the Forbbiden City was going to be closed in order for the 70th Anniversary preparations. That was very sad, but Wonder informed us right away appending the official communication and with lots of new proposals for us to choose from. Kudos Wonder!!!

Both the guides and drivers were fantastic, they took us to really nice places for lunch with plenty of food and gave great recommendations for our dinners. The vehicles were impeccable, and they always greeted us with water bottles. Thank you Jack in Beijing, Lucas in Xian, Lee in Guilin and Nini in Shanghai.

We have nothing but gratitude to Wonder and China Discovery they managed to make our trip a hassle free no worries holiday, in a challenging country. Definately we will be booking our future China trips with them.

Wonder Wang fue fantástico desde el día 1, siempre contestó rápidamente todos nuestros correos y nuestras dudas. Trabajó en tiempo record con nosotras para poder lograr un itinerario que fuera perfecto, que no sólo se ajustara a nuestros gustos y deseos si no también a nuestro presupuesto. 

Como todos lo han dicho, el pensar en pagar vía paypal a una empresa china a tantos kilómetros da nervios. Sin embargo, no tienen nada de que preocuparse, Wonder y China Discovery cumplieron todas nuestras expectativas!!! y siempre fueron más allá atentos a nosotras y a lo que pudiera pasar. 

A modo de ejemplo, cuando ya habíamos organizado todo nuestro viaje, el gobierno de China informó que la Ciudad Prohibida estaría cerrada por preparativos para el 70 Aniversario. Wonder inmediatamente nos comunicó esta triste noticia, adjuntando el comunicado oficial y con miles de propuestas de visitas. Muy bien resuelto!

Los choferes y guías fueron espectaculares, los lugares a donde nos llevaron a comer deliciosos y sus recomendaciones de lugares de cenas muy buenos. Los vehículos siempre estuvieron bien cuidados y limpios. Todos los días nos recibieron con botellas de agua. Excelente atención!! Gracias Jack en Beijing, Lucas en Xian, Lee en Guilin and Nini in Shanghai.

No nos queda más que agradecer a Wonder y a China Discovery por permitirnos disfrutar inmensamente de nuestras vacaciones, resolviendo todo lo necesario. Definitivamente para nuestros siguientes viajes a China buscaremos a Wonder Wang de China Discovery sin dudarlo.

Now Wonder about your questionnaire, yes you can give our contact details to customers. And finally here are our personal comments on hotels and guides for you:

Beijing:

Jack was a fantastic guide, he knew a lot, he always had great information to talked about. He took us to great places to eat and gave the most wonderful recomendations for dinner. We had a great time with him! 

Sunworld hotel: excellent location, rooms are ok, it is true it is a bit old hotel, but staff was great, the room was clean and of good size for 2 people for a couple of days is good. For this hotel our only concern was the restaurant, it is not big enough for the amount of guests, so unless you wake up really early, it will we difficult to find a place to seat at rush hour. Food choice was good and ok for a couple of days.

Xian:

Lucas was really funny, he had cool fun facts and made the visits were interesting. He also took us to really delicious restaurants and was very attentive to us and our needs. He knew the museum was going to be crowded so beforehand he showed us lots of great pictures and information of the most representative pieces on his ipad so we could appreciate them calmly. We loved that!

Xian Park Hotel, was one of our favorite hotels, room was large and clean, staff was really attentive and the breakfast was great with lots of options to choose from.

Shanghai:

Nini was really sweet and kind, she explain lots of interesting things about the chinese culture and about her and her family. She was our first guide so we didnt know what to expect. We found it odd that on the museum she took us to the top floor, explained to us one jade piece and then left us on our own to explore the museum. We didnt know if this was what we could expect from the guide, but Lucas did it different because he stayd with us through the whole visit to the museum and explain the most important pieces which was nicer than us going alone. The restaurant she took us was nice, clean and with lots of food although it wasnt the best of our trips the other restaurants were tastier.

Sunrise on the bund: our first leg of the trip we thought the hotel was great, the room size and bathroom were great, the breakfast was amazing and the staff very attentive. We thought it was a bit far away, although metro station was close. What shock us the firs time was that one of the beds had holes and hairs between the mattress and the sheet. But our last day the room was better situated and had no problem with the linen. 

Guilin:

Lee was such a nice guy, he was very attentive, he taught lots of cool things and took great pictures of us!! he took us to really nice restaurants and was very helpful with everything we needed.

Guilin park hotel: from our perspective it is not possible to compare the Guilin Park and the Sunworld as the same category 4 stars. We think the Guilin park must be a 3 stars or less. Or maybe it was just bad luck for us the room we were in. The staff was attentive and the location was good. For us the problem was the room, the carpet was dirty, the wallpaper was coming off on several places, the bathroom had damp and mold on ceiling and on the shower, the tv only had 1 channel in english. All the corridors and the room next to us smell awful of cigarette. And the breakfast had very little options and was not nice in taste, we actually bought some food and decided to have that as breakfast for the second day instead of what was offered in the hotel. 

We decided not to bother you with this during our trip, because at the end we knew that we had a tight budget and the first thing we decided to do was to pay less for hotels, and because we could survive it for 2 days. But if we were going back to Guilin we now know that we will be willing to pay more for a better hotel.

If we were to go back to all the same places we will certainly stay at the same hotels except for the one in Guilin, as we say for us it is very far from a 4 stars.

Finally Yangshuo Mountain retreat: was everyhing we wanted and more, rooms were great, food was excelent as well as service!!!

Well Wonder I hope all of this information is good and useful for you.

Once again thank you for everything and we will keep in touch!!

Did you like the mezcal??

Regards

Hi Wendy,

I now had some time to put some pictures and a map of our journey together onto a travel blog page. You can see them (optimal on computer display, not so good yet on mobile) at:

http://www.gerhardbechtold.com/Home2/travel.html?trip=China2019

And in general about my journeys at:

http://www.gerhardbechtold.com/Home2/traveloverview.html

Thanks again for the wonderful trip organized by you.

Kind regards

Traveling Beijing, Longji, Yangshuo, Guilin, Shanghai and Having a Cruise

Hi Mark,

Please see our feedback below:

1- Yes, he was fast to answer my emails. Mark answered all my questions until it was clear for me.

I felt very comfortable with all his answers He would let me know in advance if there was a festive day or he was going to be out of town.  Excellent service!

2: all our tour guides were amazing! Made every moment extra special!!  I liked all a lot specially our guide from Chengdu and Beijing

All were terrific and they know where to take us, the explanation of everything

I felt very comfortable with all of them. Kevin was great watching that I wouldn’t fall or get to tired

Increíble guides and choferes too!!

3.  I am going to recommend your company with friends and family

Excellent service!!! We felt save every moment in China

4. Of course I will send pictures

I will write in Trip advisor and recommend specially you mark

You were so kind with us all the time

Thank you so mucho for all your work and keeping us safe and happy

Increíble increíble trip!!!

Enjoy Our Time in Beijing and Xian

CHINA DISCOVERY (CHENGDU CHINA): chinadiscovery.com Highly recommended.

The itinerary ; 16 days private tour in Shanghai Hangzhou Guilin Zhangjiajie Xian Beijing and group tour Yangtze Cruise (13^th Sept to 28^th September 2019)

If there is one word that best describes the flow of our 16 day long tour to China , the word is SEAMLESS. Our tour operator China discovery (based out of Chengdu China) were simply awesome. Right from the time we landed to the our last day they ensured we were cared for and made all efforts to make the trip memorable. It all started with an email to Leo Li (Representative at China Discovery). I’m sure he practices meditation coz he never lost his cool answering the several questions we had and innumerable changes we made before landing. He replied to my queries even whilst on his personal leave….that’s dedication. He guided me on the dates. We would have landed during golden week and that would have been a challenge with the local holiday crowds. Leo was also empathetic when we lost our perfumes, hairspray and swiss knife to security at the railway station in Xian (bear in mind you cannot have these if you are taking the bullet trains). He arranged to pick the confiscated items from the railway authorities and ship it back to us in Dubai. The level of service is par excellence. Having travelled extensively I can vouch for China discovery for the extra-efforts they put in to make it a great experience.

All tour guides spoke good English (Trust me you need one). I would like to mention KAI (Our guide in Beijing). He is an excellent story teller. Got us hooked to the history of China (Wish I had someone like him teach us in School). Then there were the other guides who gave us enough time as required, never overdoing the information bit. Answering the never ending questions we threw at them.

Our only setback during the trip was missing The forbidden city tour. The site was closed earlier than expected; as preparations were on for the 70^th National Day. However we were re-imbursed by the tour operator.

China has something for everyone. We chose the more scene route. Avatar mountains of Zhangjiajie are surreal, the rice terraces of Guilin, the Li river cruise , the lake city of Hangzhou and the Yangtze cruise were all a delight to experience. We insisted on a no-shopping tour.

Food can be a bit of a challenge to a few . Chinese food although popular may be quite different than how its made in a foreign land. If you are a vegetarian , pls specify this to your tour operator to help them guide you.

Hotel rooms were comfortable and locations were perfect. We could wander around the happening streets in every city and enjoy a dinner and a drink whilst taking in the local experiences.

People of China love to take pics with foreigners and its fun to share a smile , a laughter or even a hug with well-meaning individuals. Chinese parents encourage their kids to speak in English. So do indulge in a bit of a chat with the little one’s .

Tips :

When visiting China , ensure you give it at least 2 weeks. It’s a huge country, with every city/town/village offering different experiences.

Keep an eye out for what you cannot carry on train journeys or risk prohibited items getting forfeited.

VPN : Buy it to stay connected.

Have an offline app to translate your language into Mandarin (This is a BIG help)

Do not take offence if the Chinese don’t smile back at you. They are not being rude. It’s just my understanding that they do not know what to make of your smile. They do not understand your intent or it could be that they simply don’t smile often. They are lovely people if you get to know them .

Do not pack in too much for the day. Every location has lots to see, so a lot of walking. Shortlist your choices and finish the day at around 5 or 6 p.m . This way you are ready for the next day.

China will surprise you in ways you weren’t expecting.  This middle kingdom is indeed a sleeping giant as Napoleon Bonaparte rightly put. The country has had a remarkable growth economically. They have adapted to change .The transportation systems are super-efficient , the development in tourism is surprising and all these changes while keeping its traditions and culture alive.

China fascinates.

Dear Wing Zeng, 

Enclosed are some pictures from our great China journey. You are free to publish any of them on your web site.

Did you receive them?

A Tripadvisor recommendation will follow soon.

Best regards,

Beijing & Xian

Dear Ms. Riley,

Aixiao and I enjoyed the cruise very much. The ship was almost new and the accommodations for our deluxe cabin were quite nice. Considering the high price for upgrade to larger cabin I'm glad we stayed with what you booked. Crew of the ship were great but I'm very glad that Aixiao speaks Chinese to help us. We had a wonderful time and all of the reservations you made worked out perfectly. Train ride from Beijing to Yichang was great. No problems with 2nd class tickets because we each had our own comfortable seats. Thanks so much for handling our reservations and bookings. You are a good professional travel agent.

Sincerely,

Hi Wendy,

I hope you had a good National Week.

When we said goodbye to our guide Gila we thought we had lost our feedback form. However when we unpacked in Shanghai we found it. So I have attached photos of our feedback. I will try and also post it.

We had a brilliant time in Chengdu. Gila was a wonderful tour guide so please thank her for her hard work. After Chengdu we went to Xi’an and Shanghai and are now in Beijing. We are really enjoying time in China - it’s an amazing country.

Many thanks,

Dear Jack,

Globally, the participants were very satisfied of the trip

Everything was on time and organization without any problem

The guides were very good more specially  in Lhasa and Beijing they know very well ‌the story and are very good in description of the visited sites and very thoughtful for all the domestic aspects of the trip

Planes and train were on time ...............no waisted time!

The hotels were very good in Xi'an good in Beijing and Lhasa : good situation and good service the one in Xining was a little bit under expectation : far from the center and service only average

The visits were well orgarnized and very interesrting

Of course, the timing was tight as we stayed only 12 days but I think that it gave a good image of the various acpects of your country
Thank you for all the work that you did for our pleasure

I shall recommand your agency if some other people want  make a tour in China

I shall send some pictures in another mail

Bests regards

Hi Lily,

Back in India and I wanted to thank you for all the arrangements and tour planning you have done.

I have enjoyed every bit of the tour, guides and car drivers were all good and helpful. Must say Shanghai has been the best interms of everything. The hotel, their service, city and the experience everything was the best.

Beijing was also good and pleasant. It would have been more fun if the hotel people were more customer oriented. I had to struggle with room and air conditioning of the room everyday. I would suggest you choose another hotel for other customers.

But overall, I loved the trip and have lovely memories of all the places visited. Will plan next visit again through you.

Thanks again and much appreciate your efforts.

Regards,

Dear Johnson,

We are safely home, settled into our normal life and it is with great pleasure that we respond to your request for feedback.

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

I can not recommend Johnson Wang highly enough. He was incredibly prompt and patient with my numerous emails, and super helpful in allaying concerns or accommodating specific requests. 

2.    How do you comment your tour arrangements?

From my initial enquiry, until completion of our tour 12 months later, Johnson ensured that every detail of our tour was thoroughly met. The tour arrangements exceeded our expectations!

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

There are multiple tour companies and travel agents offering very cheap packages for China tours, but we are so pleased we chose to contact China Discovery and negotiate a package that met the travel needs of each of us, and that made our experience in China feel exceedingly VIP compared to the travel stories we have heard from our friends who chose the cheaper deals. We would only recommend your services, as every detail from the communication, guides, drivers, itinerary and special touches are what made our tour so incredible!

4.  Your general opinion on us?

Admittedly we had some reservations about creating, booking and paying for the tour entirely online, as there are too many stories about dodgy agents and fraudulent companies, but China Discovery (& particularly Johnson Wang) were exceptional to deal with, reassuring and very trustworthy. I give them a 100% recommendation!

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

The recommendations for optional activities was appreciated, but as the expectation between Western and Chinese culture is so different, I think a suggestion of dress code for each activity would be a good idea. 

For example, in Western or European culture the dress code for an Opera is formal, but in China it is casual, so we felt a bit silly when we dressed up very formally but then had to walk 30minutes to the venue and everyone else was wearing casual clothes.

6.    Can we use your comments of our service, the photos or other images that you took on the tour for our websites, brochures, marketing and publicity? If yes, could you please send us some of your photos by E-mail?

Of course.

Our China Trip in Beijing, Xian, Shanghai

Hello Catherine,

First let me apologize for the length of time getting back to you.  As soon as we returned home on September 17, following our twenty-two day cruise from Shanghai to Sydney, my wife had to go to the doctor with a strained hip muscle.  I stopped all my activities for almost a week to help her as she could barely walk.  Then on the 26th we had to fly Phoenix, Arizona to attend a "Celebration of Life" memorial service for Myrna's brother-in-law who died while we were gone. We didn't return until the 29th.

Finally I am able to respond to your request for information about our China Discovery Tour.  Here are our comments:

1. You, Catherine Liu, our Travel Consultant, were excellent in answering our E-mails and definitely patient enough to answer our questions. We were very pleased with all you did to make our time in China a wonderful experience.

2.  Our tour arrangements were very good although we were under the impression that the same people would be on our tours each day.  Picking up different people at different stops each day took more time from touring than we expected.  

3.  We definitely are willing to recommend your service to people who are interested in visiting China.  We have already been doing so.

4.  Our opinion of your service is very good. The explanation of our China Discover Tour we received before booking was very thorough.  Our hotels were excellent. Our tours were very informative.  The guides were very good.  The people that met us and/or helped us at the airports and train stations were very helpful. Without their help we would have had a great deal of trouble.

Our only problem was when we arrived in Beijing from Los Angeles.  We were not met upon arrival and had to call to find out what to do.  Evidently the person who was to greet us, and take us to the hotel, went to the wrong exit gate.  He did find us after receiving a call from your office.

Our tours were generally very good although we did not get to stop at Tian'anmen Square and our long walk through the Forbidden City was in the rain.  We were able to avoid a 1-2 hour wait in line at the museum in Shanghai because of our age.  The others in the group were quite unhappy to have to wait in line so long. 

We were disappointed in the 2nd class seating on the Bullet Train ride from Beijing to XiAn.  It was extremely crowded.  We had to store our large bags in the next compartment and put our smaller bags between our legs for the entire trip.  Out suggestion would be to book 1st Class or higher tickets rather than 2nd Class train tickets.

Highlights of our China Discovery Tour were our visits to The Great Wall, the Terra Cotta Warriors, XiAn and the Pudong and Bund areas of Shanghai. 

5.  A suggestion would be to include a dinner at a Hot Pot restaurant.  We did this on our own in XiAn with the help of our guide.  It was a great experience. Also, unless you can get immediate entrance into the museum in Shanghai, you should eliminate this stop.

6. You can use our comments.   As to photos, we have not separated them as yet but will email some at a later date.  I have yet to start on my article but will notify you when it is published on-line....probably not for a few months.

7. You can have potential customers contact me at 501-922-1101 or by email at Chuck@TheTravelingGuy.com.

Catherine, again I apologize for the delay in getting this information to you.

Regards,

Hi Vivi

We just want to thank you so very much for organising our trip. We are now back in Shanghai all safe and sound.

Everything went so well. We really didn’t understand the Beijing busyness but honestly the trip was a success and we have you to thank. We hope you have an amazing golden week and we look forward to keeping in touch for future trips. Thanks again.

Dear Ashley

We arrived home in one piece - thank you!

Yes, we had a wonderful time in China - thank you for the effort that you put into making our tour excellent.  I have sent you a few photographs by a separate email and I give you permission to put these and my evaluation on your website, provided my email address is not included.

1.  Our travel consultant was very quick in replying to everyone of our emails. An email sent one day would be replied to the next.  Given the 7 hour time difference - we were delighted with this aspect of the service. Every question I asked was immediately answered to our satisfaction and we were left in absolutely no doubt that all our requirements would be met. 

2.  All our tour guides were excellent.  They were informative and knowledgeable and easy to get on with.  We would particularly like to mention that Candy (Beijing), Timo (Xi’an) and Smiley (Guilin) were exceptional.  However, all our guides looked after us very well.  After I fell over badly (in Xi’an) Timo and Smiley went out of their way to ensure that I was able to get about easily, offering support where necessary.

3.  I would absolutely recommend your company to anyone.  The service we received from the date of our first enquiry was exceptional.  I cannot recommend China Discovery highly enough.

Thank you Ashley, for arranging everything so thoroughly - David and I really appreciated your efforts.  As stated in my email attaching the photographs - I give you permission to include my evaluation - but would appreciate it if you ensure that my email address is not published.  Should anyone wish to contact us to ask any further questions, please could you ask them to direct any enquiry through you and you could then forward their query to me.  

Best wishes

Hello Mr Li

we really enjoyed our tour in China. Hotels in Beijing New World Bejiing Hotel, Sofitel in Xi'an, Sofitel in Chengdu and Grand Meridien in Shanghai were super (meet our expectations).

As for the train it has change a lot in 20 years and you were right it was alright and efficient

Our guides were Sally in Bejiing, Iris in Pingyao,Crystal in Xi'an, Kevin in Chengdu and Caroline in Shanghai. The four first one asked us to complete a form for evaluation of their services we gave them back the form with our comments, we really like them and what we saw

We liked the visit of the hutongs in Beijing, the forbidden city, the summer palace, the temple of Heaven, the great wall and the Ming tombs. Crystal in Xi'an took us on a place between the bell tower and the drum tower it was really a good spot for pictures; when we went to The Terra cotta museum it was raining heavily but she help us find good shoes cover

Chengdu also meet our expectations, the Panda research base, the Jilin street,etc

As we told Iris in Pingyao the bathroom in the hotel was dirty and the food were not good but Iris and the driver were very nice. We liked Pingyao

As for Shanghai heavy rain and smog made it impossible to visit as planned, we were told that Yu garden was under renovation.

We would be pleased to recommend China Discovery

Best regards

Hi Vivien

Here we are!

I definitely want to tell you about our holiday but we are a bit busy in Hong Kong at the moment. Will contact you again soon. Thanks so much for organising it.

Our China Trip in Chengdu, Suzhou, Guilin, Shanghai

Jack,

Below is a copy of a review I have submitted to Trip Advisor - my wife and I had a fantastic time in China and your company delivered everything promised at a great price, and the guides were fantastic.

I'm a meticulous vacation planner and while the pre-planned packages available from various tour companies were good, none specifically met what my wife and wanted to do on vacation. I did some research on where to go and what to see and we originally were going to do 12-13 days to include some trips into the rural areas to see some scenery, etc. We ended up limiting the trip to the three big cities and received bids from multiple tour companies based in China. China Discovery stood out in the quality and completeness of their responses and had the most competitive pricing. The reviews on Trip Advisor were also very positive and helpful. 

We ended up booking 8 days in China with visits to Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing. We had a list of everything we wanted to see and China Discovery made it happen -- an advantage of booking a private tour is that you can go and see what you alone want to do. (We booked our own air travel to and from China using miles earned on an airline)

In Hong Kong I was not able to find a private guide -- they are all group tours. The buses are designed for around 30 people and we had 10 in our group one day on a Lantau Island tour (fantastic) and just the two of us the next day (Victoria's Peak, Aberdeen Fishing Village/Stanley Market -- avoid it, just find a way to go to Victoria's Peak). 

In mainland China private tours are the only way to go. Why? You are only as fast as the slowest people in your group. And when it was just the three of us (us plus guide/driver) we were much more nimble at getting through crowds and we were in a car or minivan, not a bus, for driving around. The tour company gets the tickets for everywhere you are going so you don't have to wait in line. And we were able to customize portions -- like no Shanghai Museum, but add Tongli water town and a night cruise in Shanghai. Add high-speed train instead of plane between Shanghai and Beijing ... with first class tickets. 

I read reviews of the hotels they had chosen to put us up at and all got good to great reviews -- and they lived up to expectations. Note: you can ask for different hotels if you want higher quality or different location -- a China four-star is Western three-star, etc. The Regal Oriental Hotel in Hong Kong was 2 1/2-3 star compared to the other two hotels. Food was average -- I had to teach the cook how to do Over Easy Eggs. The Yangtze Boutique Shanghai was fantastic -- huge room and great service -- 4-4.5 stars! Beijing hotel was the Ramada Park Plaza Wangfujing that was also great ... 4 stars. Food was great at both Shanghai and Beijing hotels. Breakfast at the hotels was included every day and lunch on most days which was in local Chinese restaurants. Extra expenses were tips for our guides and drivers, dinner, snacks, souvenirs, taxis -- we ended up spending much less than anticipated in this regard.

We had different guides each day in Hong Kong because they were group tours, then a guide + driver for the Shanghai area and guide + driver for the Beijing area. All of them spoke English well and were able to answer questions that we had. They were all very knowledgable about the subjects of each tour and even got into nitty gritty details. We were VERY impressed. At meals we would talk about all sorts of things -- especially about how we all lived and family, things like that. The guides had no problem taking photos of us with our phones and never hurried us along if we wanted to take additional photos or video. 

We happened to encounter an annual holiday when we were in Shanghai -- with millions of people pouring into the city to celebrate -- and then rehearsals for a 70th anniversary of the PRC parade and celebration in Beijing shut some roads and attractions. Both could have really thrown a monkey wrench into our plans, but the guides were adept at rearranging the schedule to our advantage to avoid crowds and juggle going to sights that were open.

What did we see? Each line is what we did in a day
Hong Kong -- Lantau Island tour (4 sights to see) .... rating A
Hong Kong -- HK Island tour ... rating C (avoid as Aberdeen Fishing Village doesn't exist, Stanley Market is OK if you want to shop for clothes, artwork and souvenirs, and you are forced to do a Jewelry Factory Tour that is really a way to try and get you to buy some jewelry, only Victoria's Peak was good on that tour)
Shanghai -- Yu Garden, the Bund, Nanjing Road (shopping), World Financial Center (100th floor observatory), nighttime cruise ... rating A
Shanghai -- Tongli Water Town (has canals like Venice) ... rating B (very touristy, but still interesting)
Beijing -- The Mutianyu Great Wall, the Ming Tombs ... rating A
Beijing -- Hutong Tour/Rickshaw Ride, Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven ... rating A
Beijing -- Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City ... rating A (the Square is kind of meh, but the Forbidden City more than made up for it)

One piece of advice save the Forbidden City for last ... it is so impressive it may make other sights seem much less interesting. 

Everything China Discovery promised, they delivered at a reasonable price.

Dear Lyn

We would like to thank you for arranging such a wonderful tour of China.

We commend you for having taken great pains to arrange such a magnificent tour, by providing all the comforts and needs in a foreign country.

The tour was memorable in quite a few aspects. Sight seeing and the services of the guides were superb.

The accommodation was first class except for the Sheraton in Guilin.

The food was exceptional. We were very much worried about the availability of vegetarian food, but whole group was totally gratified with selection of restaurants by the guides.

Regarding the tour guides we would like to single out three exceptional ones. Yo yo in Beijing, Wady in Xian and Maria in Shanghai. All three were very informative, friendly, fluent in english and took care of all our needs in superb manner. We wish we had an opportunity to meet with you in Chengdu and express our gratitude to you in person for arranging this wonderful tour. We will definitely recommend you and your company to all our friends.

Thanking you

Sincerely 

Beijing, Shanghai, Xian, Guilin...

Hello Wonder,

Thank you for the gift and the card.  We really enjoyed our trip and we want to say a big thank-you for organizing it for us.   I don't believe we could have seen nearly as many wonderful sights in the time we had, if not for China Discovery and your amazing guides and drivers.  Also, thanks for making our last minute change for our flight to Beijing. We really appreciate that!

Cheers and best wishes,

Hi Lily

For your info, our driver for the train station in Xi’an has been sorted out. We are now on the way to the train station. 

Thanks again for the lovely and professional tour guides and drivers we met on this tour. And a big, special thanks to you for helping to coordinate everything in Beijing and Xi’an for us. 

Regards,

Dear Ashley,

Thank you for your very kind and thoughtful text message of 9 Sept.

which we received on arriving home.

I am a little unsure just how to start to thank you enough for the manner and way that you have worked and the kindness you have shown to us to make our brief visit to your magnificent Country so enjoyable and one we shall always remember.

However I will begin by saying I was greatly impressed with the manner and honesty in which you displayed in the detailed planning stage of our trip. 

I want to thank you again for the gifts which you gave as at our only too short but enjoyable meeting in Chengdu. I don't know how you learned (or guessed) what Lindy favorites were: but you got them all. They were unexpected and a lovey surprise.

Every thing organized for the trip went off well. We did not encounter any problems and so were able enjoy are brief trip to the 4 cities. Although having done a lot of research on the internet prior to departing, the tours and sites visited at each city exceeded my expectations.

The guides and drivers were also great and the system of drop of and pick works well up saved us countless hours.

Each of our guides were very helpful, polite and most knowledgeable, and showed quite different strengths, character and personalities.

Kai in Beijing: a born teacher who is passionate about and loves his subject and was keen to impart it to us. A very intense personality, inclined to repeat himself a little, but with excellent fluent English and an easy accent easy for us poor mono-linguist Australians to understand. Lindy would have liked a few more coffee stops (what's new) but understand that they was not available at many of the sights we visited.

Ben in Xi'An: very knowledgeable about the Warriors, items at the Museum and the city, friendly and accommodating with a very good and easy to understand English. He also arranged every thing for us to see the Tang Dynasty Theater show at night.

Sandy in Chengdu: ensured that we were able enjoy the visit to the Pandas a real highlight of the tour. He was most accommodating to our every wish and Lindy's like for Starbucks coffee.

Danny in Guilin: The real friendly family "county" man. Out to do every thing possible to show us what we wonted to see on some-wot tiring hot days.  The country views here are breathtaking.

The two fast train rides were very pleasant and comfortable but the crowds at stations were a little overwhelming.

The two short domestic plane rides were uneventful (similar to ours)

The two Hotels you booked were great, The Bamboo Leaf, very friendly, quite and a nice change from the somewhat impersonal international chains. Thank you for getting their signature room for us, Lindy loved the country outlook.

The Hilton Capital suite was also a welcome surprise.

Although you may not have much to do with it, the weather was favorable with the only rain we experienced for the whole trip being a very light shower on the morning we visited the Pandas which they seemed to enjoy.

We are still in awe at the skill, patience and tolerance of your car drivers, but were in fear of the silent scooters every time we crossed the road.

You and your associates have helped China Discovery to earn the excellent reputation it has on the many Internet review sites.

So summing up, well done and thank you so very much.

Aloha Echo,

We had a wonderful time on our tour through the four cities in China.  All of our tour guides were excellent each with their own special talent.  Our first guide, Forest in Beijing was extra attentive and flexible working around our special circumstances, traveling with my “special needs” granddaughter.  He was also extremely knowledgeable about Beijing and the attractions that were included in our tour.  His assistance at the train station also made our transfer to XiAn less stressful.  Waldner in XiAn was full of humor.  Unfortunately, my son was pickpocketed at the Terracotta Warriors Museum and his cell phone was stolen.  That caused a period of negative emotions during our stay in XiAn.  Waldner also assisted us at the train station to make the transfer less stressful.  Gila in Chengdu really went out of her way to allow us an authentic “taste” of Chengdu.  Gila also helped us check in at the airport for our flight to Shanghai.  Nanette in Shanghai was also very helpful when we got a late start to the airport.  She assisted us through baggage check to see us off in good time to make it to our flight.

The tour guides’ assistance were also valuable because of the minimal English that is spoken or understood throughout our travels through China.  I was quite surprised that even in the hotels that were booked for us, the staff’s ability to communicate in English was very limited.

The hotels that were included in our tour were very nice.  The location of the hotels in Beijing and Chengdu were exactly what I like with dining and shopping immediately surrounding the hotel.  The location of the Xian hotel felt a bit less comfortable. 

I would definitely recommend China Discovery to my friends and family if they are planning to visit China.

Thank you very much!

Hi Vivien,

Sorry for the delay.  You are right, I got back from vacation and was very busy at work.  I also took time to sort through the many photos that I took while on vacation so I could include some in the response to you.

I will send you separate emails for each tour guide and photos so that you can see what photos go together.

We really enjoyed our tour of China with your company.  The hotel accommodations were quite good and met our needs.  The vehicles that we rode around in were very nice and comfortable rides.  The food that we ate at the hotels and restaurants was all very tasty and enjoyable.  We feel that with your tour we saw the best things to see in each of the sites and saw the most of what could be seen in China with only 1 week’s time.  We even got to do some things that were of special interest to us like getting a family massage and seeing some shows.  The bullet trains were also fast and efficient to get us from place to place.  The tour guides all spoke very good English and were knowledgeable.  Our private tour was very well planned out and everything was taken care for us so we only needed to enjoy our vacation.  Thank you so much for your help in planning our trip.  This was a trip of a lifetime for us and we will all remember the good time that you helped us to enjoy.

Beijing

Forrest was very attentive to our needs and was efficient in getting us to the places that we were to visit and made sure that we got priority access and did not need to wait in line.  He picked us up early and on time for our visit to The Great Wall and made sure we had plenty of water to drink.  When it was hot out at Tienanmen Square, he bought us all ice popsicles to cool down which we appreciated.  He also gave us the most relevant information about each site that we visited.  We wanted to go to a Chinese Herbal Medicine shop and he found one for us.  He also acted calmly and quickly when the vehicle we were in was involved in a minor traffic accident.  Forrest quickly called us a cab so that we could get to our last destination before leaving so that we did not miss the rickshaw ride. 

Xi'an

Vivian was a warm and engaging tour guide that like to tell us about the places that we were visiting.  She was also very accommodating in answering our questions and paying attention to our specific needs.  She made us feel comfortable as we visited the different sites in Xian.  On the second day we all wanted to get a massage and she made a special effort to look up a local place where the whole family could get a massage together and she took us there which we really enjoyed and appreciated.  We also got to go see a Chinese dinner and theater show.  Vivian arranged for the driver to pick us up and take us back to the hotel after it was done.  We enjoyed her company and conversation as she led us to the various attractions that we saw.

Shanghai

Laura was a very experienced tour guide and she gave us a lot of detailed information to all of the sites that we visited.  She also changed the schedule around while we were in Shanghai to maximize the amount of time that we had at each place and to avoid the crowds.  She was very accommodating and knew the best places to get family photos.  On the last day before we left, she found us a good restaurant to have lunch at.  Our son was going to college at NYU Shanghai which was the purpose of our trip to drop him off.  Laura arranged transportation for us to get to the campus for Move-In Day, and the same driver picked us up after we were done to drive us to the airport.  We really appreciated Laura’s attention and suggestions, including taking us to see a Chinese acrobat show.

Hi Riley,

You people really rock. Good service in Beijing and Luoyang. It was indeed a great tour for us. Thanks a ton.

Dear Lyn Wang,

I appreciate everything you have done to me and my group. They and I are very happy for travelling in a short part of China.

Surely, next time I return back to China again and take contact with you before as well. I have another group that want to get there. So, this year I start to prepare next trip to China. I would like change a couple of cities and do a little longer, 10 0r 12 days, it depends the price.

Next time could be Beijing and....

Well, next time we will to talk about it...meanwhile...

Thank you so much.

Hi Mike,

Here are my answers below.

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

Mike was excellent with communications through out the whole process of deciding and finally accepting the proposed tour. He was very good with the questions we asked and provided excellent and thorough information at all times. Very quick at answering our questions.

2. How do you comment your tour arrangements?

Tour arrangements were excellent. Everything was as expected from the confirmation letter. Guides were there to meet us at the correct places and times. Drivers were fantastic to cope with the amount of traffic on the roads. Hotels were top class and in areas that were easily accessible to what we wanted to do at nights or in spare time. Flights and trains were very good. The service that the guides provided was excellent. All guides communicated clearly and were easily understood and they understood our questions. Their knowledge of subjects on the tour and on China was outstanding and they were willing and able to give us a personal view of China as well. Drivers were very safe and provided us with safe transport where ever we went.

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

Would have no hesitation in recommending your service to any body who is contemplating a visit or visits to China. Your service is outstanding.

4. Your general opinion on us?

Very professional, easy to communicate with, exceptional guides and drivers, travel consultant provided us with first class service. Booking a service online sometimes comes with thoughts of what if things go wrong or do not work as easily as they should, especially with a language barrier. However, we had no worries with your service as it was very professional even down to communication with us and the guides when something needed changed. We were fully informed.

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

From a personal point of view, we would suggest that train rides are all booked with first class seats as the added costs would not be great in the overall cost. We believe that most Western travels would appreciate the little bit extra comfort and room. With your guide evaluations, you could easily email forms prior to tour starting so that we can fill them in and return email at completion of each segment of the tour. Sometimes getting the form just before you finish with the guide does not give you much time to fully think about the feedback especially if it was only for transfers from train/ plane to next boat.

6. Can we use your comments of our service, the photos or other images that you took on the tour for our websites, brochures, marketing and publicity? If yes, could you please send us some of your photos by E-mail?

We have no problem with you using our comments or images if they suit your needs.

7. We sometimes have requests from potential customers who would like to inquire from or our ex-customers. May they contact you for advices?

We would be happy to offer our advice if needed.

China Travel in Beijing, Xian, and Guilin

Dear Johnson, 

We are back from our wonderful trip to China and wanted to thank you for the effort you put in to make it smooth and comfortable for us. As we didnt speak the language, we appreciated being helped through all the airports which made things much easier for us. 

Your country is beautiful, so vast and with so much to see. All the meals we had were super delicious, the best one being in Xi’an at the spa resort. Truly, there was never a bad meal in China anywhere. 

We loved Beijing - Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City were impressive, the Temple of Heaven, and walking through the Summer Palace and tombs of the Ming Dynasty, very lovely. The highlight though, was our climb to the Great Wall - amazing! Kevin, our guide in Beijing, was outstanding and went out of his way to cover it all while making sure we avoided the crowds. 

In retrospect, we might have spent less time in Xi’an, where we traveled back to 221 BC to see the Terra-cotta Warriors and browse through the Muslim Quarters. Our guide, Timo was very professional. Perhaps though it might have been better to spend a few days in Sichuan where the pandas live. We also loved going to Lhasa and our guide, Zhou Ma, was extremely knowledgeable and personable. Shanghai was not to be because of the typhoon, so going back to Beijing for the Lama Temple, Confucius Park, Imperial College and zoo was the right thing to do. We also appreciated upgrading to a suite at the Dong Fang. Our guide, Sally, and pick up person, Cherry, were very good. On the whole, it was a fabulous tour. Once again, thanks for all your help in making it happen. 

Hi Leo,

Thanks for your email. We had a great trip in China and thank you for meeting us in Chengdu!

Of the various guides, the best guides were Laura (in Shanghai) and Smiley (in Guilin / Yangshuo). They both chose excellent restaurant, great ambiance, very good selection of food and also gave us choices. They both made us fell very much at home. I would highly recommend them. Smiley’s English was excellent and very much fun to talk to. She even made an effort to take us to clean rest rooms as she knew my wife was very particular on rest room cleanliness.

Eban in Chengdu was good as well, but it was a short meeting with him. 

Willy was fine in Xian and was helpful during the trip. His English was excellent! One area of opportunity for him is to become a better listener. He has great communication but sometimes does t listen. 

Lily in Beijing is an excellent person, but her English can be improved. Many a times we could not understand what she was saying and we had to keep asking her to repeat. She was very good with the kids. She gave us local Beijing candies (very kind of her) and the kids loved it. Also on the food in Beijing, I wish it was as good as other places. The quality of food was not great compared to the food we got in Shanghai/ Guilin/Chengdu which was great! Also the restaurant ambience was not very good. But lily was great. May be this is an area for improvement for Beijing section. Better selection of restaurants. 

Overall an excellent and memorable trip

Also thank you for taking the time to meet with us and for the great time we had chatting with you! Also thanks for the gift. 

Thanks

Hi Vivien,

I just wanted to send a note to say thank you for all of your help on the day our flight got cancelled to Bejing from Yichang. It was a stressful experience for us, especially since this was the second of our flights to be cancelled during the trip. I apologize for the extent to which I might have passed that anxiety onto you, but you cobbled together a solution that salvaged what remained of our trip.

Incidentally, my wife and son were sorry that we did not have plans to take a bullet train in China, so that desire on their part was satisfied unexpectedly.

As a last note, I understand that we stayed in the hotel we did in HanKou because we had such an early train the next morning. Nevertheless, I wanted to let you know that we would suggest not using this hotel in the future, unless it is necessary that you do so. (I don't imagine that you place people in HanKou frequently, but maybe you do.) Its standards of cleanliness in the rooms were disappointing (many stains on rugs and furniture, as well as grime in the bathrooms). All of the other places we stayed were great.

We really enjoyed our trip very much. Thank you again!

Hi Leo,

Here is my review. I will likely post it on TripAdvisor to help other tourists out so they know what to expect. Let me know if you would like anything edited (such as the Wire Transfer vs PayPal part) if you find it harmful for your business. My intent is to describe my experience to other Western travellers that may have similar fears about booking a trip like this.

Thanks for all you did. The trip was both flawless and amazing.

I took a 2 week personalized vacation with Chendu Bamboo tours through China. I wanted to put some thoughts down to the TripAdvisor community as I had a lot of reservations going into it, and I hope my review will help clarify some of the items that I was uncertain of.

First, while I researching, I determined that I wanted to do a custom tour as none of the packages that I saw had everything I wanted. The towns I chose were Beijing, Xian, Dunhuang, Chengdu, Guilin and Shanghai. I submitted inquiries to multiple companies and ChinaDiscovery came back to me promptly with a very comprehensive tour that was detailed and in line with my expectations. The scary part of communicating my requirements was that it had to be done mostly through email, although the company was also quick to Skype call me to handle some of my more advanced questions.

If you decide to book a tour like this (and you are firmly in the middle class) this is and expensive endeavor. For you to pull the trigger, you can expect 4 big expenditures. First, you will need to put 1/3 balance down on the trip to reserve the reservation. That 1/3 was placed through PayPay, and the Paypal account that I placed it to did not look anything like the business I was dealing with. It was scary sending the money to such a strange account, but in the end, the transaction was fine. One point of confusion...you may research and book through ChinaDiscovery, however the invoice then turned into (in my case) Chengdu Bamboo International Tours Co, Ltd. I don't fully understand the relationship, but it was legitimate, although a little confusing of why the website said one thing, but the actual contractor that was doing the work said another. Another scary thing came later when I was asked to pay the remaining 2/3 balance, I was requested to do so via wire transfer. Again, a scary endeavor which I felt I would have no protection if the company was not legitimate. So fearing loss of funds, I reached a win/win compromise to use the Paypal account again (with Visa) to submit the funds. Once I received confirmation, the company executed the hotel, train and plane tickets flawlessly, communicating the reservations about 1 week later.

In short, my fears were unfounded.

You will also have to handle 3 other expenses. First, and not surprising are your international plane tickets, which I handled shortly after the deposit. But the 3rd and 4th were not known. As a US citizen, I needed to get Visas for myself and the family. A Chinese Visa costs about $160 per person, and to get it, you must carefully submit a form to the Chinese consulate in a designated region of the country. Because I delayed doing this, I needed to do expedited service. And because the form is brutal and requires you to send your passports to the Chinese consulate, I enlisted a visa expert (CIBT.com) in order to get in processed. Long story short, about $1K later, I received the last of the passports back from the consulate with about 2 days to spare. 

The other warning, since all the trips have drivers and tour guides that take you around, you are advised (not mandated) to give them tips. Unfortunately, there are no guidelines given or direction of how much to give. I spent time researching on the internet what were fair tips for always outstanding service. Now, 1 week after the trip, I still have no idea if I tipped fairly, generously or cheaply. But, calculate 2 weeks and 2 persons a day, you can calculate that it will cost you hundreds of dollars or thousands of Yuan.

Last warning to give about going to China...you'll need cash. Only some (not most) banks and stores are hooked up to the Visa and Mastercard system. This means, (1) you may need to search for the right bank to get cash in China in order to withdraw funds and (2) the vendors that you'll see only will take your cash. This caused some stress the first couple of days as I had trouble finding a bank that worked.

Now...for the good stuff. Once prepping for all that, the trip that was designed by Chinadiscovery (or Chengdu Bamboo Tour Company) was pretty spectacular. The guides were beyond great, and did a truly amazing, amazing job of being everything you would want as a tour guide. Prompt, flexible, funny, sometimes motherly, sometimes brotherly, open, honest, kind, insightful, human, knowledgeable and ...simply great. Each one in each town was different...but each of them took such pride in their cities/country that you are given a great gift.

The hotels were as good as it gets as well. Breakfast was included in all hotels...some food good, and other food great. The hotels were within walking distance to all the good things. For Beijing, 15 min walk to the Forbidden City. Shanghai? 5 minute walk to the River and 20 minutes to The Bund. I could go on, but the accommodations were really good. Combine that with flawless execution of all travel arrangements, it made for a stress free trip. The lunches were all Chinese and again, and food ranged from good to great. They always gave our family of 3 too much food for one sitting, and I felt embarrassed about leaving so much food behind.

In Beijing, our guide took us through Tienanmen Square, Forbidden City, Summer Palace, The Great Wall, and Temple of Heaven (among other places). When she took us to the train station, she insisted in walking us down to our seat on the High Speed railway car. When I asked if that is the company policy, she said 'that MY policy' (to ensure her clients get to where they are going). Amazing. We reached Xian for a day and Zoe gave us great insights of the growing city, the crowds, and life in China. Then onto Dunjuang, where Lily and her driver rearranged the schedule to ensure that we saw all the Silk Road sites. The schedule changes included her and the driver starting at 6AM (after we were picked up at the airport 10PM the night before) in order to ensure we saw everything. Then in Chengdu, Cherry helped so patiently with my wife's shopping at the Panda sanctuary. And in Guilin, Kennedy was awesome describing the land and China's ethnic minority. The insight for the rice fields and rivers were wonderful. We ate probably the best Chinese food of the trip in the fresh country air. Then finally, to Shanghai, where Zack was truly a joy, and one of the friendliest and enjoyable people I have ever met in my life. The city of Shanghai was amazing, and my son enjoyed it tremendously.

Two things I would do over if I could. First, I would plan to take it in June, not late July. We had to compete with the rest of China, which has summer break at this time. As a result, the places were packed with China tourist going to the same sites, which made the crowds a bit much. Second, I would have also altered the trip to spend 1 less day in Guilin and 1 more day in Shanghai. Other than that, I would not have changed anything.

Our Customized China Trip

Hello Zoe,

I’m sorry it took me so long to reply to you. We really appreciated your help in arranging our trip with such short notice. Usually when we travel we don’t use a travel agent and we spend many weeks planning. Because China is so large and we had only 10 days including flights we needed help in making decisions and you provided that. We had very good guides which made getting around easy. It would have been difficult to figure out getting around the airports and train stations by ourselves. The guides’ English ranged from good to excellent. We especially loved Carol in Zhangjiajie. She was fun and recommended really good restaurants! Johnny took us to a museum in Xian that was not on our itinerary and we enjoyed that. He also recommended a new market with many food vendors that was very fun to go for dinner in Xian. Our favorite places were Zhangjiajie, the Terra-cotta Warriors and the Great Wall. Our least favorite were the Jade Factory and the tea house. We felt they was some pressure to buy things and that is not something that interests us. We liked our hotels and their locations. We were able to walk to interesting places for dinner, especially the Hutong near our hotel in Beijing.

Zoe, you did a very good job for us. You always responded to my emails quickly, answered all my questions and gave us good advice. I think we must have kept you very busy. And you seem very friendly! I enjoyed working with you and I will write a review on Trip Advisor.

Thank you so much,

Hi Wonder, 

We arrived in Beijing today and received the tickets when we checked in. We’re all set for the trip. Thank you for all your help getting this taken care of.

Hi Wonder,

I will email you some of our pictures when I get back to US, so I don't have to use too much data in China.

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

Yes, most definitely. Mr. Wonder Wang is very responsive and patient. He even answered my questions at night time China time. He is extremely helpful, even helped us extended our hotel in Shanghai. I highly recommend Mr. Wonder Wang.

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

All of our tour guides were very good, especially Smiley in Guilin. She was very friendly, knowledgeable and flexible. She went above and beyond her duty. I recommend her highly. Bailey in Shanghai was also very friendly and knowledgeable. Even after her duty was completed, she wanted to help us looking for a taxi. 

3.     Would you like to recommend our company?

Most definitely. 

Thank you for all your help, Wonder.

You are very helpful.

Hi Wendy,

Thanks for your email.  We arrived back in the Netherlands last week, immediately back to work so quite busy. Need another holidays.  :-)

Kindly find our reply to your questions below.

I have given our review on Tripadvisor and will recommend your company to our friends and family.

To give you some feedback on the hotels we stayed in this trip:

- Novotel Peace Beijing - Great location, very comfortable with connecting rooms, great service, great choices for breakfast, acceptable good quality

- Novotel SCPG Xian - Great location, very comfortable with connecting rooms, great service, great choices for breakfast, acceptable good quality

- Somerset Chongqing - Location ok, very comfortable, great service (change our room promptly due to broken aircon), limited choices for breakfast, acceptable ok quality

- Santo Domingo Wulingyuan - Great location, very comfortable, limited choices for breakfast, quality is not good at all.

- Sunrise on the Bund Shanghai - Location can be better, very comfortable but no connecting rooms, great choices for breakfast and acceptable good quality

Hope the above helps.

Thank you again for the great service and memorable trip.

Best regards

Hi Ashley,

We had a very nice time in China and appreciate the service from your company.

1. You answered all of my questions quickly and clearly.

2. The service from all of the tour guides was very good however, I would like to identify Sally in Beijing as being exceptionally good.

3. Yes, I am happy to recommend your company to anyone that asks.

Kind regards,

Hi Echo,

We had a really wonderful trip - thank you for all of your arrangements. I really appreciate all of your efforts to accommodate our group’s many requests leading up to the tour.

The best single aspect during the tour was the quality of the guides in each city.  Each was excellent at flexibly accommodating our group’s requests, and in tailoring to the wide needs of our group, from my 74-year-old father down to my 11.5-month-old niece.

If I had to choose one detail of the tour to improve, it would be the hotel in Hangzhou, which compared relatively poorly to the great hotels in Beijing, Huangshan, and Suzhou in terms of room quality.  Even so, the breakfast at the Hangzhou hotel was excellent, as was the location.  

Overall, we had an extremely memorable trip, and are so happy that three generations could share such a wonderful experience together.  My parents have already recommended China Discovery to friends, and I will also be in touch again the next time we visit China and need guide services.

Thank you again for all of your efforts on our behalf for this tour!

Best,

Hi Mark,

Thank you for your email. The Yangtze cruise was wonderful. The staff on board were very helpful, accommodating and positive. The food was lovely, and the weather held up well for most of the cruise. 

I will be back at work from tomorrow (Thursday) and will discuss further with colleagues who are interested in coming with me. 

Thank you again for all of your assistance booking the Yangtze trip (my first ever organised tour inside China, usually I just travel on my own) and I look forward to your assistance with my Tibet trip. 

I’ve included a few photos from the trip below. 

Regards

Take a Cruise Tour

Sites on Chinese Currency

Hi Wonder

We had a wonderful time in China.  We would give China Discovery 5 stars on all levels from planning to the trip, the guides, the itinerary, everything.  We will highly recommend your company.

Front Gate of the Forbidden City

Rita:

Me, my mother, Kristy Gregg, and my daughter all took a trip with your company last month. I wanted to let you know what a fantastic job Eric did as our guide. Eric was our guide in Beijing. He was helpful and considerate. His English was very good and he went the extra mile to help us with every detail while we were with him. We especially enjoyed his smile and kind demeanor.

Hi Catherine!

Thank you for a fantastic trip with you in the end of May in Beijing!

Me and my mom had an awesome vacation, and mostly it is thanks to our fantastic respectful and servicemindred jeans!

I will absolutely recommend you to others in the future.

You can use my comments and photos:)

Hiking the Great Wall

Hi Tracy,
The trip was incredible! I will definitely recommend China Discovery for traveling adventures in China.
Here are our guide rankings in order.
1. Dolma - Lhasa

2. Judy - Zhangjiajie

3. April - Shanghai

4. Kelly - Xi'an

5. Randy - Beijing

Thanks again for your help during this adventure, greatly appreciated, Tracy! 

Best regards,

Hi Wendy,

Here are my reviews.

1.  How's your travel consultant？ Is your travel consultant fast / patient enough to answer your emails? 

Travel Consultant was quick to response to all my question. I could not have been more please with the response.

2.  How was your tour? Are you satisfied with the tour we arranged for you?

The tour was awesome..  The tour guide was patience and extra special and I would recommend her to any of my friends.  The driver was also good as my family and I felt safe through out the entire trip.  Thanks again Lindsay and John our tour guide and driver.   

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

No suggestions! Just continue to do what you do best.

Hi Lyn

BIG THANKS for your support and coordination in making our China Trip wonderful. Just returned this morning covering all written in the plan across three cities. The guides were wonderful - supportive, accommodative and knowledgeable and the plan well paced.  Share our thanks and regards to all three - Helen, Kelly and Fergie.

Travel was very smooth and done seamlessly.  

Sure would recommend you and China Discovery anyone trying to visit China.

Best Regards

Dear Johnson

Please see my review below;

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

Yes, all e-mails were promptly replied to and all questions answered.

2.    How do you comment your tour arrangements?

All arrangements were very well organised, all transport, pick ups and transfers were on time and meeting the guides was easy in all locations.

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

Yes we would definitely recommend China Discovery.

4.  Your general opinion on us?

Very professional company. Very pleased with all service from start to finish.

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

6.    Can we use your comments of our service, the photos or other images that you took on the tour for our websites, brochures, marketing and publicity? If yes, could you please send us some of your photos by E-mail?

Yes more than happy for our comments to be used in publicity. All of our guides and drivers were very good, however, we would like to make a special mention for Timo and the driver in Xian. Timo was very knowledgeable and really made our time in Xian memorable. The driver was excellent, a very safe driver who kept the van clean and every time we left the van he had replenished the used water bottles. 

I have attached 2 pictures of us on the holiday.

Kind Regards

Tian'anmen Square

The Great Wall of China

Dear Johnson, 

Please see my feedback under each question.

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

Yes. My travel consultant Mr. Johnson Wang was courteous, responsive, and fast to answer all our questions. We totally relied on him for everything. He informed us on any last minute changes, how to get Chinese currency economically, and provided documents required for Chineses visa and trip itinerary accurately. 

2.    How do you comment your tour arrangements?

The tour was tailored to meet our needs. The four of us had specific departure and return dates. We couldn’t find any China tours in the USA to fit our needs, China Discovery was able to assemble a private tour for us. We had a van, a driver, and a local tour guide in every city. Our schedule was flexible. We didn’t spent any time at unwanted gift shops. We were able to fully enjoy Beijing, Xi’an, Shanghai, the beautiful scenery, and interesting history of each site we visited. 

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

Absolutely. We will be happy to recommend China Discovery to our friends, neighbors, and relatives. 

4.  Your general opinion on us?

China Discovery was there to provide excellent services. They were able to solve any issues quickly. We were relaxed and happy during our trip. 

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

The tour guides were excellent. If they can improve their English speaking skills a little bit more, it would be even better. Our first guide had excellent knowledge in history, but he speaks a little too slow. The second guide had excellent English speaking skills, but his voice was low. It’s hard to hear him well when we sat at the back row of the moving van. 

6.    Can we use your comments of our service, the photos or other images that you took on the tour for our websites, brochures, marketing and publicity? If yes, could you please send us some of your photos by E-mail?

You can use my comments on your services.

Hi Jack Li,

Just a note. To say thank you for all the help in organising our holiday in china, the service we received from your company and your self was outstanding, we had a wonderful holiday, and all the guides, Lilly, Kelly and Thomas was excellent and very knowledgeable in their area, a special thanks to Lilly in Beijing who was so friendly, when we left Beijing it was like leaving your best friend behind, please pass on our thanks to the guides and drivers. If we do return to China we will certainly use your company again. Thank you.

Hi Catherine,

Refer my reply below. 

Thks & rgds

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

Yup. 

2.    How do you comment your tour arrangements?

Very well organized. Catherine was able to provide advice and suggestion and recommended a few hotels for us to choose based on our request. Our tour guide Miss Symphony was very knowledgeable and able to explain the history behind the places that we visited. She took very good care of us throughout the trip. Special thanks to the driver too for helping us with out luggage and also recommending some good restaurants to try out. The homestay recommended by Catherine was fantastic. Overall, we had a great time and enjoyable trip. Thank you for the wonderful memories. :) 

3.    Are you willing to recommend our service to your people who also have an interest to visit China?
Absolutely. 

4.    Can we use your comments of our service, the photos or other images that you took on the tour for our websites, brochures, marketing and publicity? If yes, could you please send us some of your photos by E-mail?
Yes you can. :)

Nice Beijing Tour

Hi Catherine,

Below is my Feedback.

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

Yes.

2.    How do you comment your tour arrangements?

Excellent throughout. The itinerary was perfect and the guides went out of their way to look after us. I really liked how they helped with photographs of me and Joe.

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

Yes.

4.    Can we use your comments of our service, the photos or other images that you took on the tour for our websites, brochures, marketing and publicity? If yes, could you please send us some of your photos by E-mail?

Yes.

Traveling Beijing & Shanghai

Hi Zoe,

Yes my Zhangjiajie trip is over. Had a wonderful time. David, my guide, was just wonderful. At present I am in Beijing waiting for my return flight.

Sure you can put my feedback & photos in ur website. Send me a link I will do it.

Anyway thanks for all the arrangements.

Hello Lyn,

I arrived to Beijing... Thanks for everything, all good.

The guide in Xian, Jahana, was excellent.

Best wishes,

Hi Vivien,

The trip to China was amazing!  We all had a great time and my kids still talk about it daily and say they wish they were back in China. The tours went perfectly as planned, tour guides were waiting for us as promised at each airport / train station and each morning before each days activities.  The drivers were reliable and courteous.  

The Zhangjiajie portion of the tour was a favorite. I don't think we could have navigated that area on our own without China Discovery.  Our tour guide, Lily, was wonderful and my 6 year old son really enjoyed her.  In fact, they held hands during many of long hikes.  The driver was great as well as my other son was sick one day and the driver had no problem driving him and his father back to the hotel (half hour away) after lunch, while the rest of us enjoyed the afternoon's activities.

We enjoyed the Terra Cotta Warriors in Xian. Tour guide Waldner was very knowledgeable with perfect English.  

In Beijing, the highlight was definitely the Great Wall.  We choose to go in the afternoon as tour guide Eric gave us the option and said the afternoon would be less busy. He was absolutely correct and we felt like we had the Wall all to ourselves as to our surprise and delight there was hardly anyone there.  Eric was funny, knowledgeable and accommodating.

Thank you Vivien for arranging the tour for us. I appreciate all your help and prompt replies. It was such an easy process to book the tour.  Once I get some of the pictures from my family, I will send some your way.

OK perfect Vivien,

Please see attached some of the best pictures we took during the tour,

also I have already posted the review on Trip advisor.

Best regards

Great Wall, Tian'anmen Square, and Forbidden City

Travelling Shanghai, Xi'an, and Zhangjiajie

Hi Wendy,

My deepest apologise for my late reply. We have just been very busy since returning to Australia.

Firstly, yes we received the refund. Thank you, much appreciated.

To answer your questions;

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

 Yes, very much so. Wendy was very prompt in replying to our questions, even while in China through WeChat. 

2.       How was your tour? Are you satisfied with the tour we arranged for you?

The tour was excellent. Everything we dreamt it would be and more. All of our guides were exceptional and made the visits to each location enjoyable and memorable.

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

Some places we would have liked to have stayed longer and/or maybe had a free day to look around on our own once we knew what was there. Maybe suggest some free days. This would have been good in Beijing, Xian and Shanghai. We had an extra day in Beijing although if we had our time again we would have had that on Day 3 and explored the Hutong area more. In Xian, we would have liked to explore in the centre of the old city more (maybe have hotel closer to centre). In Shanghai we could have walked around the French concession and Bund area for a whole day.

Knowing about a good online map service would have been good when exploring on your own. In Australia we use Google Maps and you cannot get lost. Not having that available in China, I was not sure what was a good online Map service.

We absolutely loved our tour and all our guides. Wendy, you organised a great tour and we would definitely recommend you and your services to our friends and family.

The Great Wall was definitely our highlight, especially as it has been a childhood dream. So happy we went to Jinshanling section. Absolutely glorious day!!!

I have included a couple of photos that you can use. I will also get onto Trip Advisor and add a review.

Thank you so much for organising this fantastic holiday. We look forward to coming back someday.

Best regards,

In Front of the Bird's Nest

Brook and Andie Walking on the Great Wall

Vivien

I take this opportunity to thank you again for the excellent arrangement you have provided for us.

We are in Xi’an on our last leg of the tour all the hotels the travel arrangements are excellent the tour guides are proficient in English and have been considerate and full of knowledge of the subject above all very considerate.

I would like to make a small request to you I have weakness for Peking duck which I have tried at various places even in England.

I was wondering if you can allow us to have Peking duck lunch in Beijing on our last day from your allowance for our lunch, I have generally been ok with half duck what ever the difference I would pay.

Please convey my best wishes to your managing director for all times for prosperity of your company.

Thanks again for everything till now.

Hi Riley, 

I want to thank you and all the team that made my four-day tour to Beijing and Xian possible. Everything was excellently well planned. The people who were in charge of my trip were kind and punctual, and I felt safe and happy to be with a professional team all the time. I will recommend China Discovery to all the people in Mexico who need a trip to China. Keep up the good work!

If you want to use this message as a review, no problem at all.

Thank you very much again.

Hi Rita,

We did receive the pants. Thank you for sending. We are still adjusting to the time change and recovering from the long trip home.  As you might know, there were long delays, at the Beijing airport due to weather and not sure what else. Will send photos once I get a chance to go through them. 

Thank you for all of your help with the planning of our trip. 

Sincerely,

Hi Lily,

I found it needed resetting for some reason, I don’t know why. But it works now. 

Too many problems with modern technology!! Lol!!

I was disappointed that the aviation and a railroad museum are both closed. 

However, Kai took us to the aviation museum at the University you mentioned and it was very interesting. We enjoyed it very much, thank you. 

Xi’an-Kimi and driver were excellent-again, as all your guides and drivers, including Kai and Mr. Young. 

I have completed surveys on all so far, but could only rate them “5+”, on your scale-lol!

I do have one problem, because we did not realize this. 

In Shanghai, we thought Terry and driver were taking us to the airport the next day. Thus we did not have much money to give them a proper tip that night, and did not see an ATM after realizing this. I am sorry for this as they were excellent and we had a good time with both. 

Is there a way to correct this at this point? 

I at least want them to know we are sorry for this error on our part. Especially with the perfect service they both provided. 

Time for rest tonight. 

Thank you for keeping in contact with us directly and through Kai today. 

Sincerely,

Dear Johnson:

I am writing to sincerely thank you for organising such a wonderful trip to China for my wife, Robyn, and I.

We returned from our trip a couple of weeks ago and we both have wonderful memories of your beautiful country and we feel so privileged to have had the opportunity to see the wide and diverse aspects of China from the towering cities, the scenic rivers to the small villages and farms. We were so impressed at the friendliness of people and their willingness to help us even though we couldn’t speak any Chinese.

The tour was comprehensive and it included all the key sights that were on our “to do” list and we thank you for collating such a wonderful tour.  We found all the arrangements from hotels, planes, sights and bullet trains to be organised so well that it was a seamless operation and we had no problems at all.

All the Hotels in which we stayed were excellent and more than met our expectations. The locations of the Hotels were very good and quite central to main roads and sights; they all were very comfortable and the breakfasts provided were, once again, very good.

The lunches provided as part of the tour were also very good and we always had plenty to eat and the service in these restaurants was excellent.

The transport – planes and bullet trains – were very comfortable and easy to navigate especially with the assistance of our Guides.  We were thankful that we upgraded to First Class on the bullet trains as our luggage was no longer a problem. The vehicle transport in each city was excellent.  The vehicles were generally quite new, roomy, very clean and comfortable.  All the Drivers were excellent and very skilled in driving and they often assisted my wife in getting in and out of the vehicle and with our luggage and this was greatly appreciated.  We also appreciated the access to bottled water which was always available.

We would like to make a special mention and thank you to all of our Guides.  We remember each and everyone of them – Mary and Becky in Hong Kong; Summer in Guilin and Yangshuo; Tina and Melody in Shanghai; Nancy in Yichang; David in Chongqing; Vivian in X’ian and lastly Lindsay in Beijing.  To each and every one of them we wish to say ‘thank you’ for making our trip to China so wonderful.  Without our Guides we would not have had all the information and history about the cities and the sights – they all have a comprehensive knowledge of their area and they were able to present this to us.  Their command of English was excellent and they were always ready to answer the many questions we had.  We are also very grateful for their attentiveness to my wife’s special needs and we know that without their help my wife would not have been able to enjoy the sights and the trip.  Each Guide we had would go out of their way to ensure that our holiday was special and one we would remember.

And lastly, many thanks to you, Johnson, for the excellent service you provided in organising our tour of China.  From our very first contact with you by email, we found that you were very responsive to all our queries and issues.  There was never any delays in responding to our emails and your answers were always comprehensive and covered all the issues.  Your organisation of the tour was excellent and we felt very confident in dealing with you via the emails. You and your company provided an excellent service in arranging our visit to China and we would not hesitate to recommend the China Discovery Tour Company to our family and friends when they are planning their China trip. We would also be happy if you wish to share this email with your future customers or on your website.

Once again, many thanks for all of your hard work in ensuring that our trip to China was wonderful and it will be remembered for many years.

Regards

Hello Wendy,

Thanks for your kind words, I got back safely to the US, thanks for checking in. It was a long flight back to Chicago.

1) My travel consultant was very prompt in her follow-up and patience with my many questions. I could not ask for a better response time and follow-up.

2) My tour was great, I appreciated the conversation and discussions I had with Steve. He was very understanding of my decisions for the trip. It would have been nice to know if there were additional options for pairing up the sacred way with a tour to the Ming Tombs along the trip to the Great Wall.

3) The experience was good, the only thing I would recommend would be to have options for different days so people can choose different options as part of the tour package.

Thanks

Hello Riley,

Thank you for your help in organising the tour for my kids.

Apart from the uncomfortable train journey from Beijing to Xian – Mark says he enjoyed every minute of the tour and was a life changing journey as a Chinese person who has never experienced China.

I will definitely be recommending people to you and if my plans go well may even take a tour with my husband to China in the next 2 years.

May I take this opportunity to wish You and Your Loved ones a Healthy, Happy and Prosperous 2019 and may your company grow from strength to strength.

Sincerely,

Vivien,

Season's greetings to you and your staff as well. My apologies for the delayed response. I had a bit of catching up to do when I we got home, as well as getting ready for Christmas .

I want to Thank-you very much for all the work you did planning our travels in China . It was a lot of arranging I am sure . Much appreciated.

Our guides were all very good. They were very prompt , and really made sure we were aware of plans the next day as well as the itinerary . I am so glad that we had guides meet us at the airports and get us to our hotels . Special thanks to Kai in Bejing - He was our first contact for a tour guide and we certainly enjoyed his great knowledge of the area and the Dynasty"s lineage.  Layla in Guillan was also a patient and caring person. We appreciated Bruce's enthusiasm and interpreting skills as Ernie had to talk to many locals and farmers we met. Please pass on a note of gratitude to all our contacts. The drivers were very good as well and I was amazed at how they managed in traffic ( especially during rush hour ) . The cars were very comfortable and appropriate for 4 people. We were a little tight in one car in Xian (but it was because of our long legs) and the driver certainly tried to adjust for that by trying to adjust the back seats further. I appreciated the extra care that the guides showed with arrangements for the trains . They all made sure we had our tickets, knew where we went , and what to watch for , and the process of getting on the train. The high speed trains were amazing . Wow.

The food was excellent and very tasty. We did enjoy eating at the very local restaurants . Certainly gave us a opportunity to eat food that locals eat. We did like the meals made in private homes .

Our destinations and sites we saw were above our expectations .. and everyday was fantastic . I cannot say which were my favorites as they all were . The amount of travelling we took on was worth it. I can tell you that a few places are now off my bucket list - The Great Wall, Terra Cotta Warriors, Terraces, Forbidden Palace, a burial tomb, Three Gorges, Li River, and Shanghai. The artistry of all the architecture, jade and marble… and so on.

Our hotels were all very comfortable and the staff was very helpful. Our night in the village on the hill at the rice terraces was a particularly fond memory. It was amazing and I am impressed that I made the trek up that hill. The view was spectacular - so thank-you for that arrangement.

All in all a fabulous trip . We are looking forward to showing picture to our family during the holidays.

Again Thank-you. Great job and Thank-you for all the effort involved in planning and arranging this tour . Wishing you well.

Hi Riley,

Thank you so much. You were wonderful and all the drivers and tour guides were awesome. We had such a great time in China despite the cold weather.

We enjoyed a lot. Only thing was the food that we didn’t like it very much. We love Chinese food and we do eat atleazt twice or once a week here in Canada so we expected a little more with the food. But it wasn’t bad and it wasn’t good at the same time.

The second hotel we In Xi’an was awesome. But the first one in Beijing wasn’t that great. I wish I had a different view as well. But there wasn’t anything to complain. We enjoyed it. My husband loved the Great Wall of China and he wish that he spent a whole day there and he wants you guys to give that option to your tourist. You were the best. I couldn’t have done my China trip without ur help. You were the best with so much patience and thanks a lot for the help.

I would recommend you to my friends.

Rita,

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

YES ,VERY FAST AND EFFICIENT, EVERY CHANGE AND EVERY REQUEST WAS PROMPTLY PLEASED

2. How do you comment your tour arrangements?

VERY GOOD HOTELS, GUIDE AND ARRANGEMENTS

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

YES ,I WILL RECOMEND, I AM IN THE SAME KIND OF BUSINESS,.AND I MEET MANY PEOPLE TRAVELLING LIKE ME

4. Your general opinion on us?

VERY GOOD, I WILL REFER TO YOU AGAIN SOON

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

LITTLE IMPROVEMENTS COULD BE MADE, MAYBE SUGGEST AHEAD OF THE TOURS OF AREA THAT SHOULD NOT BE MISSED IN THE CITIES WHERE WE ARE GOING, AND ASK WHAT IS THE MAIN INTEREST OF THE TRAVELLERS SUCH AS PHOTOGRAPHY OR HISTORY ETC.

Great Wall - Amazing Manmade Wonder

Comfortable Cruise Time on Li River

Local Fishman on Li River

Hi Lily,

We have had a great tour with wonderful helpful informative guides. Our last guide Lindsey in Beijing was absolutely brilliant. Really nice to be with, “ like family” many people have been asking about tours so we will be recommending them to you.

I will send some comments later, example, Shanghai railway station “do not go up on arrival” follow exit sign do not take transfer. Many thanks!

David

Hi Wendy,

Sorry for the delay. We have been traveling since we got home. Yes we got the pillow. Thank you! Our trip was fantastic. We had an amazing time. All our guides were very professional and knowledgeable. The driver’s and cars were safe and clean.

We were satisfied with our tour. There were a couple of things I would have changed but for the most part it was lovely. I would have taken out Shangri-La and the cave tour. They were very touristy and I would have preferred to see other things.

Mindy 

The following pictures were shared by Mindy.

Mindy's Family Vistied Dujiangyan Panda Base

Mindy's Family Had a Happy Tour in Guilin

Beijing Tiananmen Square

Hi Bertina,

Thank you so much. We arrived in Chengdu. Beijing was wonderful. Andie was a great tour guide and we got along well. Food was delicious and hotel was amazing. I was able to climb up to tower 1 at the Great Wall which amazed me. We also really enjoyed the summer palace. We are looking forward to spending the day with Shannon tomorrow.

Laura     

Dear Ian,

The day before yesterday we arrived at Beijing, the end of my tour with China Discovery. I am doing some sightseeing on myself in Beijing these couple of days, except tomorrow I will do a day tour to the Great Wall at Mutianyu and the Mings tomb, arranged by Jade. After I am back in the Netherlands, I will give you a more detailed feedback.

However, a first response :

Everything went very well. Johanna is waiting for us when we arrived and she is an excellent, friendly and capable guide. We have enjoyed our tour very much; the tour programme as well as the explanations and care by Johanna. The driver is also friendly and helpfull; did his driving job very well (safe ). Hotels are good. Hotel in Pingyao is on the other hand excellent. Back in Beijing, Jade picked up us on time at the station, as one could expect.

All by all, we have enjoyed our tour in Pingyao, Mianshan and Datong organized by you.

kind regards,

Ing Widya

Hi Wendy,

The trip was fantastic, all the arrangements went as scheduled from the moment we arrived, all the guides/drivers were great, as were the sites we visited. We felt very comfortable and safe as well as treated with respect by all the guides, drivers and hotel staff.

Your arrangements for the trip were all as I had requested and your communication with me was always prompt, polite and professional. I want to thank you for making the trip so memorable. We had a throughly great time and would be happy to recommend your service to others, please include us in your referrals.

Elvin & Cynthia

(The following photo was shared by Elvin & Cynthia)

Elvin & Cynthia visited Great Wall of Beijing

Hi Ian, 

Overall it was a nice experience, I repeat in Beijing I was delighted with the deal, the tour, yet.My greetings and thanks to Candy please.

Aracelly

Hi Wonder,

Thank you and I hope you are able to enjoy some time off during your holiday week!

Everything about our vacation has been great and gone smoothly.

Our driver and guide in Beijing have been outstanding! Take care!!
Julie

Dear Ian,

First of all - and again - many thanks to you personally for the caring management of our tour.

Probably you remember there were a number of mails before we settled arrangements. And this made the tour really tailored - we enjoyed the tour really. All involved agencies, guides and drivers did their best. Especially at the Beijing railway station we were felt very lucky/happy to find the driver who brought us to the hotel. It was absolutely worth doing it.

Best regards from Vienna and good luck for the future.

Helene

Hello, Ian,

We enjoyed a great tour of Mainland China and of Hong Kong. I thought you did an excellent job of making our tour arrangements and assigning tour guides. 

For me and my children, our trip highlights were climbing the Great Wall, cycling the ancient walls in Xi'an, sharing lunch with Angela and her family, visiting the Panda Research center, rafting on the Hongkou River, cycling through the Yangshuo villages, visiting the Urban Planning Museum in Shanghai and walking on the Bund.

I was very pleased with the quality of guides and drivers you selected. The children adored Mr. Jong (Beijing driver). He has a very warm and funny personality, and he was so accommodating, taking us to and from the Kung Fu Theater and out to the Olympic Village at night. Bruce in Xian is a truly exceptional guide. If you can give me the names of the owners of China Discovery, I would like to write them a letter regarding Bruce. Penny in Chengdu really did a great job for us at the Panda Research Center and also the rafting trip. My youngest Natalie just loved Candace in Guilin.  At the Guilin airport Natalie looked sadly at me and said, "Mom, I'm really going to miss Candace." Since she's been home, Natalie has mentioned Candace several times . . . .she made a tremendous impression on Natalie, and the rest of us enjoyed her very much, too.

Tim and Frank were very capable guides, too. Tim has peaked my interest in future travel to Tibet, Nepal and Bhutan. Frank is very knowledgeable about Shanghai and accommodating. I appreciated that Candace was able to attend the Impressions show with my daughters and me.  Without her there to explain each of the seven impressions, we would not have understood the beauty unfolding before our eyes.

I have tasked my middle child Lauren (14) with putting together a Shutter fly book.  She's just settling into school, so it may be a week or two before she starts.  Once she has selected her favorites photos from among nearly 800 we took on the trip, I will ask her to pick out her top ten favorites from mainland China and send them to you.  We'll add a brief explanation to each photo.

Ian, we enjoyed a marvelous trip. Our travel went incredibly smoothly, and I thank you and all the guides and drivers for ensuring a smooth, safe, and hassle free trip.

I am sure to return to China, but I intend to wait for the rapid (bullet) train to reach more destinations. I am incredibly impressed with the train service from Beijing to Luoyang and to Xian.  I look forward to the day when I can travel to all my destinations via the rapid train. 

I have given your name and email address to several friends contemplating trips to China. I will continue to refer you when the opportunity presents.

Best wishes, Ian.

Jeanne

Hi Ian,

Everything has been very beautiful. We loved the travel.

Everything has been very positive for the five members of the group. Special positive points to Yoyo in Beijing and Waldner in Xian. Positive points also for the girl who attended us in Yichang upon our arrival from the Three Gorges Cruise. The three of them are excellent tour guides. Excellent.

Thanks a lot for your support and your follow up during the whole travel.

Thanks a lot. We will recommend your services to our friends.

Best regards,

MIGUEL A. CALDERÓN

Dear Isabel,

I am sorry that I am replaying after long time. As i landed back in India lots of pending work to done and that's how this delay.

Well first of all my sincere thinks to you and your entire team.

Really saying this was one of our most enjoyable trip. In Beijing, well we enjoyed as the group there was grate but from there on all the hotels were good and at good location, the car which was provided good condition the drivers nice and polite, and on top of that your guides were extremely superb. We got emotionally involved with them. Timo at Xian and Arther at Guilin and further are the best one you have got, don't" loose them they are the asset of your company.

what to say more. Yes, very special thanks to you who arranged it so well. I have told so many friends and they will contact you, give them good deal.

Thanks and Regards

Pravin Karkhanis

Hi,

The trip was brilliant. I will write a glowing recommendation on tripadvisor. And answer your questions below later on.

Ray

Comments on TripAdvisor by Ray:

"My family (3 children ages 19, 18, 14) and wife wanted to visited China so after searching the internet we found this company China Discovery (Chengdu). Who put a proposal together for a 10 day (12 nights with flights from and to London).

At first when I got the responses back I was a bit dubious due to the need to pay via paypal, bank transfer or western Union. I couldn't have been further from the truth. I booked a trip that would take me around Beijing, Xian, Shanghai and Hong Kong. Two plane journey's, 1 bullet train journey, daily private car (large people carrier), etc. with all events, hotel and Lunch paid.

I would say I have contacted Rita about 100 times!! including several changes during the holiday itself (e.g. I wanted to cut down on the amount of temples I had seen, etc) and all answered promptly.

All my guides (we had one per city) spoke very good English and had great knowledge about the various locations we visited. We had Lisa, Lee, Laura and Matthew.

The holiday was totally flexible e.g. we were tired on some days and just requested that we started later on certain days or we wanted to change the section of the wall we visit, or cut out another museum, etc, etc. We were in complete control of the itinerary.

What can I say. I rate this 10 out of 5!!!! By far the best travel agency we have been with, value was brilliant as you can suggest changes for better or more economical alternatives.

Last don't believe what people say about China (if bad) as the place was clean, people dressed immaculately, food was great, people were the friendliest we have met on a holiday. We must have had photos with 50 plus people!!

I may sound like Im working for the company... I do not. This holiday cost me lots (with 5 adults) so I would definitely complain if anything was wrong. If I go back to China (as this was an epic journey in itself) I will 100% choose China Discovery again."

Dear Wendy,

After a fascinating amazing trip to China, we arrived yesterday early morning back to our home. Me and my children did not want to leave China, we enjoyed so much and one week Was not enough !

I would like to thank you for your arrangements and follow up during our stay in China. Would like to comment few points although I did submit feedback paper to your guides in each city.

1) both guides in Beijing and Xian were very helpful. They had good knowledge and was very flexible in all situation. because of my bad back,....they made us rest and take break whenever necessary without any problem.  Very kind and helpful also in the restaurants when we needed to order food.  I have no complain about the guides at all. You should be proud of these guides and keep them in your company because it is not easy to find a honest good people.

2) About the hotels, if you make a comparison, the hotel in Xian was much much better than the one in Beijing. The hotel in Beijing was in a best location, easy to go everywhere. But I think the room was little tight for three persons. The hotel in Xian was super deluxe. The room was very very big. We had space everywhere! 

3) About the tour during sight seeing, I am sure each guide did their best to choose a way not to make us tired in the same time to see as much as possible to enjoy the place. I wrote in the feed back paper for the Beijing tour but will mention it here again for you to know. As for the Rickshaw ride in Hutong, I felt it was rather short for riding. We went rather early maybe so we did not see other rickshaws too. The guide did explain main points about the Hutong and its history. But it would have been nice if we visited local school, to visit local home that has a typical Chinese courtyard to take some pictures.

And at last again, I would like to thank you again for everything. I hope you will receive my small Gift from Egypt as soon as possible, And I will definitely let you know if we want to go to other cities in China in the future, I will contact you again.

Thanks again for everything.

From Akiko Iseki

Dear Wonder,

Everything was ok. The guides and drivers in Beijing and Xian were excellent. Thank you so much for your service, we enjoyed very much our stay in China.

Sincerely,

Kenneth

Hello Jack

I m still in shanghai now. Thank u for your tour arrangement while we were at beijing.

Everythings were good and Ms. lily is a nice tour guide. I will comment at Trip advisor when i m back to indonesia.

Caroline

Hi Laura!

We got home 4 days ago, and I am still on such a high, this holiday in China was magnificent!

A big, big thank you to you for organizing such a wonderful trip. We experienced a little bit of everything, the old and the new, the lovely antique villages near Huangshan City, magnificent historical treasures like the Terracotta Warriors and the Great Wall, the futuristic Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai, the high speed train to Xian. The beautiful scenery at Huangshan Mountain, it was fairly cold - just the right weather to climb all those steps! I loved the vibrant Muslim area in Xian, and Wuzhen was wonderful - I got the indigo dyed fabric that I was looking for.

The boat cruise by Century Sun on the Yangtze River was so nice, the gorges are magnificent, and we stayed up after midnight to watch the ship going through the locks.  The personnel on the ship are very efficient, the cabin was comfortable and the shore excursions were very interesting. Guilin - just like the pictures you see - amazingly beautiful.

The guides are unbelievably good, always on time, always friendly and helpful, speaking really good English.  It amazed me how good their planning was, every day they took us to so many different places, and always managed to get us to the station/airport on time - even did the check-in too!  They made it so easy for us.  The drivers were equally good, patiently driving in the hectic traffic, never did we feel that a driver was taking risks.

I am already recommending you and your company to friends who are asking about our trip. You are very welcome to give my email address to other customers. 

We would love to visit China again, I know we have seen only a small part of China. And I shall definitely contact you straight away to organize it all.  Xie xie ni!

Best regards

Peter & Chrisella

Hi Ian,

Daniela & I would like to thank you for the great Tour of Beijing & Xian we had recently with your company.

We would especially like to give our highest praise to both of your guides. Tristian-in Beijing was extremely professional & knowledge and was very helpful in organising all our activities.

Jenny- in Xian was also extremely professional & knowledge and was very helpful in organising all our activities. Please pass on our thanks to both Tristian & Jenny.  

We enjoyed our short time together & would highly recommend both to any of our family & friends. We would also highly recommend your company for all the professionalism shown to all of our group.

Regards,

Luigi & Daniela Volpe

Hi Isabel,

thank you for organizing this trip for us.  Overall we were very pleased with all elements of our vacation.  

Here's what was great:

The food! Each province has such delicious local cuisine.

Huangshan, Mutianyu Great Wall, Jiuzhaigou, Yangtze River, Zhangjiajie, Li River and Longji Terraces were the highlights.

Momo, Shila, Waldner, and Alex were our favorite guides as all four had excellent English and great personalities. The 4 and 5 star hotels were nice and comfortable. The drivers/guides who would provide us with unlimited free bottles of water to drink each day.

Your helpfulness during the flight delays and cancellations was great appreciated. We'd certainly recommend your services to others.  Looking forward to reviewing the thousands of photos we took and reliving our memories.

Brandon

Dear Jack,

First of all I would like to say that the trip was really fantastic. We were impressed with the organization and the guides who cared for us. We have told our friends about the trip and China Discovery in the highest level of praise. I will put these comments into the Trip Advisor link. And we were especially happy with your responsiveness during our planning and travel stages. I have to admit that I was not so optimistic while we were planning the trip just mainly because my husband found your company online. I am always cautious since there are so many scams that are easy to pull through over the internet. We have been to hotels that were presented online as gorgeous places but which was photo-shopped. So when the trip began and everything went super well, I was extremely happy. Thank you Jack for your excellent service!

The Tibet part of the trip was the highlight. The guide was very responsive, the hotel was so nice as was the service, prices, etc. Do not change anything there!  We were lucky in having a very nice man join our tour which made things very interesting and fun. Tibet is amazing. And the train ride to Beijing was so interesting and the organization between guides excellent. So you can read that we were very happy with our tour.

I wish you all the very best!

Sabrina and Klaus Gerland

Dear Laura,

We completed our trip and safely back in UK where it is Bank Holiday today.

On behalf of myself and my wife, we would like to thank you once again for all the attention and help you have provided to us before and during our visit to China.

Great Wall in particular was simply breathtaking and we thank you to arrange us to go to the Mutianyi section. Some other tourists we encountered went to the other Badaling section and could not even walk easily!!

All activities arranged by you were excellent although some of them we decided to cut short at times, to suit our own considerations. Overall we were extremely satisfied with all the services provided by your Company and will certainly recommend to our Friends who may be interested to visit China. Some of our Friends who have been to China before were particularly skeptical about the food and water and warned us about possible problems we may encounter with our digestive systems based on their bad experiences there. I am glad to confirm that all food and beverage services provided by your Company have been good and we did not have any problems with our digestive systems. In particular provision of bottled water throughout our car journeys were crucial and most welcome letting us not to worry about from where and how to obtain drinking water. 

Both shows in Beijing and XIAN were simply WONDERFUL. Our Guides in Beijing (Linda and Justin) were excellent and we are grateful to both of them. Justin's meeting us at the mega train station and taking us through thousands of crowds to our waiting Car was such a relief for us.

I have noted our above observations for your own benefit hoping that it may be of some use for your Company to be aware of as far as what our expectations were.

Kind regards

Kubilay M. Ali

Mr Wonder Wang

Thank you for the email. I meant to email you as well, to thank you directly. We were very impressed by your organisation of the trip and would definitely recommend you to our friends, if they were to visit China. The transport and accommodation were all excellent, we were very happy. The high speed train was very impressive. The delay in the flight from Guilin to Beijing was nothing to do with you.

The trips were very interesting, albeit the last day was very busy, with perhaps too many things to do and we had to cut out the bike trip to the Bunyan Tree and Moon Rock, in truth we could have omitted the Pearl factory but that is the only change we would make. We definitely would recommend a bit more time on Xi'an city walls, we took a bike for an hour but could have spent longer there.

The guides were really good, Gerry was excellent. He was very well informed and very polite. Jayne was very nice but got a bit pressurised on the last day trying to fit everything in. These observations aren't meant as a criticism, we appreciate that China has so much to offer and the time is very short to take in what we did in the six days.

Thank you again, you and your company were brilliant!

Regards

Stuart & Julie Kyle.

Dear Tiger,

We had a memorable experience as you promised. A detailed letter with photos I will send you shortly.

After the long holidays I have to catch up with a lot of pending work and hence the delay.

Special thanks to the guides especially who took us around in Shaolin trip and shanghai. Also at Beijing.

Thanks a lot to you and also calling us at every station and enquiring about our well being.

Regards.

Venugopal

Hi Jack,

The tour was fantastic thanks. The drivers were superb (the driving in China is crazy!), and the two guides Grace and Lily were awesome!

The hotel in Xian was nice, thanks for the upgrade. The hotel in Beijing was suitable.

We have given the feedback sheets to Grace and Lily.

As said we are very happy with the tour, and will recommend to our friends. Was great to be on a private tour, as we could be flexible and add in and leave out certain things.

And we had beautiful weather for our whole trip, so got some lovely pictures.

Thanks again for your planning and professionalism.

N Jones

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 Wonder,

It will be my pleasure to give you my feedback once I settle down in USA.

It's been a wonderful vacation, we had feasted  our eyes with so many beautiful sceneries, and learned so much especially from the Shanghai & Beijing guides.

Thank you for everything you did to give us this unforgettable experience.

When I am ready for my next China visit, you are the person I will be contacting, and no doubt I will be referring you to my family & friends.

Sincerely,

Rosy

Dear Olivia,

I’m glad to tell you everything was fine after all. I’m very satisfied with your attention about my demands and care about the trip and if everything it was OK during the tour.

Behind everything and most important has the  China Discovery honesty. And since wasn´t possible do all the itinerary, the company return immediately to me the money. I´m very happy with that company and in the future I will love to visit Tibet, travel using train to Beijing or Shanghai and for sure I will keep with me your contact and the company name.

Below I will give the responses to your inquiry.

Also, I want to mentioned how much I appreciated the excellent guide in Xian, she was fantastic, she do everything possible to complete all the itinerary, she´s a PEARL (gold), very competent. Also a word to the driver in Xian, very secure driver and had do everything it was possible to arrive early or at time at the places in a terrific/confusion traffic cars. In conclusion keep working with you that driver and that lady guide they are FIVE STARS, very flexible persons.

About GUILIN, the guide, she´s exceptional in the same level of the XIAN guide, also a FIVE STARS guide.

I am sure to recommend your service to any friends who want to visit China.

Regards,

Julio Silva

Hello Ian,

The tour today for great wall was fantastic!!!

Justin, our guide, is excellent!

I'm loving China!

Leticia

Hello Jack,

I have just got back from KL, Beijing and KL after the most wonderful holiday, and wanted to say a big thank you for all your work and organizing my trip to Beijing, which was perfect.

I want to complement you and your company on the organization and quality of the service. I found everything worked without a hitch. Randy, the courier was well informed and handled everything excellently. I was impressed at his knowledge of the subject, as I studied Chinese history for my first degree and know he was correct and precise in what he said. He was friendly without being intrusive and explained things well.

Randy was also well versed in how to take care of clients, which he said was your company’s training. I must complement you on your comprehensive approach, it was superb.

In addition, I felt confident with your driver, I think his name was Mr Tin (I know his name translates into the word ‘Candy’ so you can confirm that). Even in all the traffic I felt impressed by his ability and skills as a professional chauffeur.

As a woman travelling alone it can be difficult, therefore I must complement you all on your service and will be pleased to recommend your company to anyone travelling to China, and I hope to go to Shanghai next year.

Thank you again.

Elaine Morrell

Hi Olivia,

I just wanted to let you know that I tried to submit a review to TripAdvisor but they did not approve it - I'm not sure exactly why. If you read my review below it is not really any different than any of your other outstanding reviews on TripAdvisor.  Please advise.

My review - 

"We had a wonderful time travelling on a 2 week tour of China.  We worked with Olivia for over a week planning and customizing our 13 day tour.  China Discovery handles all of the logistics of travelling throughout China - including domestic flights, airport transfers, hotel accommodations, and of course our awesome tour guides and drivers.

They really make it easy for first time travelers to China as we didn't speak any Mandarin or Cantonese (Hong Kong).  Their guides really make a difference as they not only pick you up from the airport, but they also help check you into your hotel and also into your next flight when they drop you off.  The guides and drivers were extremely professional and were always on time and courteous, even when a couple of our flights were delayed by 2-3 hour.

Our tour began in Hong Kong with an extra day in Macau and then continued on to Shanghai, Guilin, Xian, and Beijing.  Hong Kong and Shanghai gave us a glimpse of the city life in the bustling Chinese metropolis.  Guilin was definitely a favorite spot as the majesty of the Li River scenery made us awe struck for the entire 4 hour cruise.  The city of Guilin is beautiful and definitely understand why it's one of the most popular domestic tourist destinations in China.  Xian was amazing - so much history yet so much city and population growth.  You've got to see the Terracotta Warriors of course but don't miss out on the Muslim quarter.  Its chaotic bliss in the Muslim quarter as you're surrounded tuk tuk scooters and awesome street food.  Beijing was magnificent as we spent the Lunar New Year there and was fortunate to see it snow in the Forbidden City.  It was certainly an amazing and memorable time to be there.

This tour was just an appetizer and with a 10 year visa, I definitely plan on coming back and plan another tour with China Discovery.  I highly recommend them!"

- Dave

Hi Jack,

Thank you for providing wonderful service!!!!

Thank you for making our changes quickly and efficiently!! Due to the north east weather and personal circumstances!

Thank you for the wonderful guides and drivers you have provided!!

You are amazing at your job and really care about your guests!

I said a prayer for you and your family and all your guides and drivers and your company at the Buddha Temple. Wishing you all a Happy, Healthy, prosperous life. 

I can't wait to write my reviews when I return to the United States. You and everyone at your company have gone above and beyond to make this the best family vacation.  We have traveled the world and you and all of your staff by far have been the best. I would recommend your services to anyone.

Mike and Autumn in Shanghai, Mr Wong and Jenny in Xian and Mr Wong and Lily in Beijing were all the best. The drivers were safe and amazing in the traffic and the guides did not recite memorized scripts but knew the history about every site and could answer all our questions with great knowledge. The hotels were clean and the staff was nice and all of their breakfasts were fabulous. I loved how lunch was included on the tours and how great the restaurants were. I really appreciate the guides suggestions on food choices. We were never disappointed.

You may use my comments and name if you wish for publicity.

With Sincere Thanks,

Barbara and Monica Vandehei

Connecticut, USA

Hi Isabel,

Happy New Year to You!

The trip was wonderful, we had a great time thanks to all your arrangements :) All the hotels were comfortable and in good locations. The food was generally good with a wide choice  of both western and Chinese choices for breakfast.  The room sizes even with the extra bed for Jessica were also fine. All the tour guides were very good.  I think Evelyn was our favorite, her english was excellent and she had a relaxed manner and was flexible about finding things we wanted to do.

I think my favorite parts of the trip where:

- The rafting trip from Jiuxian, that was so much fun and I would highly recommend it.

- Riding bicycles on the city wall in Xi'an

- Pingyao

- the Great Wall, we were so lucky with the weather, the skies were clear blue and we could see forever, plus as it was the day before the big holiday there was hardly anyone on the wall.

- the acrobats in Shanghai.

It was all wonderful really but those were especially enjoyable.

We did not anticipate how important the New Year holiday was and just how many Chinese people would be out touring during the week of the holiday. Or that restaurants would book up or even close over the holiday. However that was only a problem in Beijing and Shanghai.

We would definitely recommend your travel company to others wanting to visit China. The arrangement were excellent and I really appreciated the way you worked with me as we set up the itinerary. All the information you gave me along the way was helpful and accurate and everything went very well.

Thank you again, and I hope this rather long report on our trip answers all your questions.

Anna McHale

Hello Tiger,

First of all, I want to thank you and your company for 12 amazing days in China. It will be 12 days I never will forget. The whole journey from standing almost alone and just enjoy the view and the silent on the Great Wall to see all the Pandas was enjoyable! This was my first visit to China, and I am pretty sure I will be back.

I also want to say thank you to my guides and drivers. Specially Peter in Beijing was fabulous! He helped me with everything. Everything from hotel check-in to getting the train tickets. He also explained me about the city and advised me what to do on the evenings and where to go.

And the main reason for how this tour was possible and completed I will say is my travel agent Tiger Wei. To be honest, I think he has done more than any other travel agent could have done. Sometimes when I had some questions he often answered me less than an hour later. And always the next morning. You know, we live in different timezones, so when I sent him an e-mail I knew that the next morning when I wake up, he had already answered my question. I also had some issues with my flight bookings to China. I was not sure which date I would arrive and departure, but Tiger was flexible and said that we could change the date. No worries there!

So all summed up. I am very pleased with China Discovery. From Tiger who made the tour possible to Peter and the other guides who guided me around in China.

The day I return to China I am sure I will use China Discovery again.

Have a nice weekend!

Best Regards,

Andreas Hansen Strand

Hi Wonder,

We must apologise for not getting back to you sooner.

We have just posted our comments on the Trip Advisor regarding our most memorable trip to China. It was a great trip, thanks to you. You did a great job. 

Let us know if you have been able to view the comments. Also two weeks ago we mailed you a card wishing you all the best and enclosed a small appreciation gift.

My husband was not sure if he was to write to your boss regarding the excellent job you did for us. Please provide us with the name of your Manager and the address to have the letter sent.

In Beijing our local tour guide was Linda. Somehow we mislaid her e-mail address. Could you kindly obtain this and send it to us. Thanks again for everything.

Best wishes for the holiday season and hope the New Year 2015 will be a promising and productive one. You have a great future ahead of you. Good luck.

Alfredo & Lena Fernandes

Judy,

We thank you for arranging a perfect trip to China. We enjoyed our stay in Beijing, Xian, and Shanghai.

My wife, Jaya, and I send our great thanks to Yo Yo for showing us all the places in Beijing and great help in during our stay, Jenny for showing in Xian, and Frank in Shanghai Thank you.

Regards,
Bashem Coorg

Hey Laura,

We all enjoyed our trip very much. The arrangements for guides, places to visit and travel within China went very smoothly. The highlight of the trip was our visit to the Longsheng rice terraces outside of Guilin: beautiful scenery!

Our guides, Sophia (Beijing), Ivan (Xi'an), Qian (Guilin) and Laura (Shanghai) all did wonderful jobs for us. The visits to the silk, jade, tea and terra cotta pottery shops were fine with us.

Thank you for your help in arranging this once-in-a-lifetime trip for our family.

Kathy Nicoll