Guilin Reviews - What Our Customers Say about Their Guilin Tours

Hi Rita,

In response to your enquiries, we had a wonderful experience with the tour arrangements in both Guilin and Yangshuo. Both the tour guide and driver were very professional and handled the arrangements well.

I am surely recommending any friends or relatives who are interested in travelling to China in future to use China Discovery. Also, will be looking at other destinations for ourselves too.

Thanks once again for the wonderful experience.

Kwan

Hi Rita,

Thank you for organising us our tours in Guilin and Harbin. The guides are excellent.

We are in Beijing now and we are wanting to see the forbidden city. We are told that there are no more tickets to forbidden city. Do you have any tours available? We are leaving on the 22nd Jan.

Thank you!

Darren

Hi Rita,

Sure, we had a fantastic time in Guilin. Will respond to your enquiries when back in Malaysia.

Kwan

Hello Rita.

We had a fantastic time away thank you very much Rita.

The guides, Kenny and Abbie were both excellent. We saw a lot, learned a lot had so, so much fun on all the thrilling and exciting rides and activities.

The 6 days were full and busy from start to end. I knew you'd make sure to arrange an outstanding trip for us, that's why I contacted you a second time.

Thank you so very much for a memorable and most enjoyable trip. Have a lovely weekend and well deserved rest.

Ceresa

Hi Leo,

We were very satisfied with all your arrangements & your drivers & guides. You have shown that you are totally reliable & responsive to all our requests, & a real asset to your company !

We are tempted to explore further into China & we will definitely be using your services again in the future.

Catherine

Thank you Jack,

it was good. I enjoyed all of the stops. The only thoughts I have is that some of the transfer days felt like lost days (like Guilin-ZJJ and ZJJ-Shanghai) and it would be better to do early travels and tour the same day (like the Xi'an to Guilin day).

Overall I really enjoyed the tour of China and am considering returning to see Tibet.

Thanks

Gibran

Dear Wing,

Apologies for the delay in writing to you. We have been very busy since our return and China seems like a long time ago.

Thank you so much for all your help in making sure that our trip was truly magical.

As first time visitors we were very much in your hands and your advice was invaluable.

The accomodation throughout was excellent and the breakfasts always had a good selection. Transport was always comfortable with tickets and admissions well arranged.

The guides were very attentive and helped us to navigate through the culture and history as they showed us around. I would particularly like to mention Angela. Her knowledge and enthusiasm kept us going on some long and quite tiring days.

I think our favourite moments have to be on the river and that charming hotel Yangshou Mountain Resort. I have enclosed a morning picture from our room. Quite beautiful.

We are now preparing for Christmas with the family so again very busy.

Wing once again we thank you and your team for arranging a marvellous adventure, I'm sure we will return.

With very best wishes

Jane and Jon

Hi Miss Tracy,

We have a wonderful and fruitful family trip.

Best Regards

Quek

Hi Tracy,

The trip was really wonderful. The guide David has been very nice. He is very knowledgeable about the local history and whereabouts, speaking good English. He has also been patient with the slow pace our family needs to walk. He has also happy to offer assistance, especially when one of the members of the group had forgotten her bag in the hotel room after checkout.

The driver has also been great. He drove safely and efficiently. He was also helpful in arranging luggages in the car.

Overall, I am very impressed with the trip. Thanks a lot for your organisation and arrangement.

Bernard

Hi Jack.

A very big THANK YOU to you and your team for the excellent arrangements you made for me and my husband's vacation in Guangzhou and Guilin.

Everything went smoothly with totally no glitches - the prompt pickup and dropoff at the airport and train station, the beautiful hotels that you booked for us with hassle-free check-in/check-out service, the visits to the interesting tourist attractions, the great lunches (portions are huge!), our first ride on the HSR and the therapeutic cruises along Pearl River and Li River.

Thumbs up to the professional and superb service offered by our driver 江羿师傅 and tour guide 江智玲小姐.

江师傅 is a safe driver. He is always early when picking us up and offers very good suggestions of places to shop and eat. 江小姐 is friendly and approachable and extremely knowledgeable. They both took very good care of me and my husband.

Will definitely book your services again when we next visit China.

With warmest regards

Yvonne

Dear Wonder,

We had a great trip and enjoy the different places we went to. In Beijing we liked the hotel Double happiness hotel and it’s location, great access to local restaurants, coffee and craft beer bar. Andy the guide was very good and he took us to another neighbourhood after the Forbidden city. The great wall was also a hit. We also went to a show in the evening.

Xian was very interesting , a bit crowded around the terracotta museum , interesting history around of the city wall Ivan was a good guide too, we liked the spicy food and we also visited a show.

Zhangjiajie was the most beautiful place, Linda the guide took good care of us, we walked a lot and the place is very beautiful with the mountains and valleys.

Guilin was also nice the river tour was great, also beautiful ,you should always recommend people to do the first class booking. We also took the bamboo raft , nice.

The same goes for the train travel 2:nd class is really crowded and not comfortable, always recommend 1:st class. The difference in money is not much.

Shanghai was as expected, we went to an underground market area and the French concession which we enjoyed.

Also the guide Eileen was very nice and helpful.

In all we a bit surprised by China how green the cities were and people nice, we had a great time and enjoyed the sights seeing. We also liked to stroll around local markets in Beijing, Xian and Guilin, so thank you very much Wonder we had a great time and very good service from all of you

Best Regards

Mats

Hi Zeva,

Yes, I feel we work very well together. I hope to come back in April and have a whole itinerary I will run by you.

All the best,

Debby

Hi Leo,

My Summary Comments:-

I must admit it is good fortune to be able to work with Leo to plan and arrange a short tour of preferred sights which I have not done before or to revisit from my previous visits around the Guilin area. Leo’s unfailing promptness to respond to my impromptu emailed enquiries and queries is commendable and helpful to effortlessly facilitate a fulfilling itinerary.

I have now completed a comfortable and absolutely satisfying three days trip with helpful and friendly guides and drivers and comfortable transport together with pleasant hotels accommodations.

Thank you Leo and also to your Chengdu Bamboo International Tours Co.Ltd.

Sum

Hi Wing,

Sorry for the late reply to your request for a review. We are still overseas at the moment and have not returned home as yet.

However I have a spare moment to give you our thoughts of your service and the tour as a whole.

First of all we are very happy with you, our Travel Consultant who tirelessly and very patiently answered all our questions and concerns such that we decided to proceed with the tour that was tailored for us without any hesitation. All due to the confidence and effort and help that you have given us. You have also went beyond your normal duty of helping us book our train tickets required after our tour ended to get to Shenzen and from Shenzen to Hong Kong as well. And a special mention is called for in that you had done a good job in choosing the seats ensuring that our train they were away from the sun when travelling.

We had made several changes along the way to suit our travel of China more meaningful to us and you did it for us happily and without hesitation. We would like to thank you for your great assistance which made our tour a great pleasure and success.

2. The tour arrangements was excellent. All went smoothly as planned. We were happy with the hotels as they were spacious and clean. Meals were good when provided. However it would be good to provide more meals.

3. Yes, I will definitely recommend your service without hesitations to others who wish to visit China.

4. Your Company and staff including Tour guides and Drivers were very professional, knowledgeable and helpful. Your Company service provided was very sufficient and satisfactory. I only have a suggestion of having to provide more meals.

Tony

Hi Jack,

Sorry for the delay. Here's my feedback :

I contacted China Discovery when my sister and I decided to visit Guizhou. It was just before China's golden week and it was a rush to get our itinerary finalized as our tour would start immediately after the golden week holidays. The good thing was that Jack Li, the Travel Consultant at China Discovery contacted me promptly and we got everything finalized in record time! Jack was very knowledgeable about the region and gave me excellent advice. This resulted in the inclusion of Guilin in our itinerary. Throughout the planning process Jack was very responsive, patient and professional in his interactions with me. He responded quickly to text messages and was very helpful when I ran into a little problem when making the payment. Overall I give full marks to Jack and China Discovery for making our very first visit to Guizhou and Guilin a memorable experience. I would definitely use China Discovery again!

Lena

Hi Evelyn,

Our replies below:

1. You are eexcellent in speed and patience, no issue

2. Arrangements are very good.

3. Willing to recommend

Roger

Hello April,

Thanks for planning this wonderful trip for us and fulfilled our request on mainly hiking and outdoor activities.

We are very pleased with our guide Ah Ji for being so caring, helpful, patient and put in extra mile to bring us to the beautiful places and nice restaurants for the delicious local delights. He responded with good knowledge on our enquiry on tour matters.

The driver is a very patient and he ensure the guests safety is his top priority. He always helped guest to carry up the luggage to his car.

Thank you.

Kind regards,

Alec

Hi Jack,

at last here are some remarks on our another remarkable trip with you. We were very lucky and had wonderful weather throughout the trip.

At Fanjingshan I reached the Mushroom Stone and the monastery on the two peaks on a lovely day with excellent views. It gets foggy fast and I can only recommend to start as early as possible, also to beat the crowds.

It might be a good idea to stay closer to the park itself. On our way back we stopped at a pretty village with nice guest houses. The Holiday Inn in Tongren was a very noisy place with groups bumping doors and smoking happily throughout the place. On our arrival the guide showed us the new “old town centre” of Tongren which was very interesting.

We liked Fenghuang Gu Cheng a lot. Unfortunately in the evening it changes into an assembly of karaoke bars quickly and leaves quite a different impression, we did not find a quiet spot.

At Zhangjiajie we enjoyed the first day in the southern part of the park a lot. There were not so many people around and it was a pleasant hike in the valley and up on the top. The second day with the more famous rocks is more like a 2 ½ hours bus trip interrupted by site-hopping with lots of people and time lost in queues waiting for the next bus. The Pullman hotel was very good. It takes some time to get an idea on the location of the park(s) and I only got a decent map on our departure.

At Guilin and Yangshuo hotels they gave us quiet rooms and the service was good. The Li Jiang cruise is a fantastic experience. As the weather was very good we decided not to visit the cave. We could easily have stayed a day or two more in Guilin or Yangshuo but as were on a tight schedule it was just right.

All in all at least 9,5 out of ten ;-), you did very well at very short notice.

Best regards,

Johannes

Dear Wing

1. Yes very prompt and helpful.

2. All segments were well organized.

3. Yes, definitely. Can I have your permission to give your email address to my friends if they need your service ?

Lee

Hi Tracy.

Thank you for the thoughtful gifts. We had an amazing time in Chengdu and Jen was a fabulous host!

Lori

Hi Jack

We had a great trip. The scenery was beautiful. Steven was an excellent guide and Yan was a good driver. We enjoyed the whole trip. Our favourite hotel was the Baike in Ping An which was stunning.

Best regards

Ken

Hi Tracy,

I’m only just back home today, the trip was amazing and we had a great time visiting your country. If I come back I will definitely be contacting you again. Thanks for everything Darren and Linda

Darren

Hi Rita,

The ship is fabulous so far and thank you

Dominik

Hi Zeva,

Our trip is going very well thank you for organizing it so well.

I will write an email when we return to Australia with a more detailed report of our experiences

Thank you for your work. We are enjoying seeing the countryside from the train windows at the moment, so much agricultural land

Yangshuo mountain retreat boutique hotel was a delightful stay

Linda

Thank you Wing Zeng for your follow up.

I have provided responses below.

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

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

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

(4) Your general opinion on us?
Positive.

Regards,

Timothy

Dear Ms Wing,

Please find our comments below.

(1) Is your travel consultant of our company fast enough to answer your E-mail and patient enough to answer your questions?
Yes! We changed idea some times throughout the process and she was always helpful and kind.

(2) How do you comment your tour arrangements?
In general, the arrangements were very good.

(3) Are you willing to recommend our service to your people who also have an interest to visit China?
definitely yes

(4) Your general opinion on us?
Expedite answers, kindness, and patience

Thank you, I will definitely contact you on my next trip to China.

Ximena

Hello Rita,

Thank you for your email. Here's some comments. We supplied Oscar with feedback, as well.

1. The tour arrangements were satisfactory. The standout highlight was the river cruise, behind the impromptu lunch at a local's home. However, the hike proved challenging for older adults due to unforeseen hilly terrain that required greater physical fitness. Regrettably, the two recommended shows also fell short of our expectations. We enjoyed the bamboo raft cruise very much.

2. No comment.

3. My only suggestion would be to offer a booklet or comprehensive explanation about the history and legends of each site before the tour. This would enhance our anticipation and appreciation of the tour's attractions.

Regards,

Emily

Hi Wonder,

1. My travel consultant (Wonder Wang) was responsive. He was patient with my queries and made effort to explain and clarify every details. He would actively engage to solicit my interest and made good suggestions to the itineraries.

2. Our tour guide (Peter) was courteous and provided good services throughout the 1.5 day tour in Guilin and Yangshou. He spoke good English and was able to narrate & share with us the history and culture of the places we went. He was careful with the safety and would remind us about it especially during the river rafting ride. He guided and accompanied us to the boarding gate to ensure that we got on the High-speed train in time when we departed Guilin.

3. Yes, I would recommend China Discovery tours to my friends.

rgds

Dear Miss Wing,

Sorry for the delay response as you may know after holidays there are lots of things to clear.

Here’s my answers to your questions:

Yes Miss Wing is pretty fast and prompt in responding to my email and gives me details until I’m fulfilled.

It’s like easy going, not too rush and is according to what we would like it to be.

I already did recommend you.

Your service is above my expectations i.e Miss Wing, the travel consultant is efficient, the itinerary is well-arranged, the tour guide (Peter) speaks English well and is knowledgeable and lastly the chauffeur is polite and good at driving. All in all your company has reliable resources to serve your customers in the tourism industry.

Hotel room booked for us should be better.

We’ll be your repeated customers for sure.

Thanks to you too for pricing a good service to us.

Kalayanee

Hi Rita,

yes the tour was great thank you.

Gita

Dear Leo,

Thank you so much for your response.

I have completed the review and attached some photos.

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

Our travel consultant was Leo and we found him absolutely amazing! He answered every email and question in very good time and he always reassured us with any worries we had.

2. How do you comment your tour arrangements?

Everything was very well arranged, we didn’t have to worry about anything as Leo had made sure we had all the information we needed as well as the contact details of all our guides. All of the tours went very well!

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

I would definitely recommend this service especially for someone who has never been to China before.

4. Your general opinion on us?

We had a great experience with China discovery, the tour guides were incredibly friendly and had a lot of knowledge. We went during golden week which was incredibly busy but the tour guides, especially Linda during our Beijing trip, went above and beyond and were excellent at making sure it didn’t affect our trip.

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

At times it may have been nice to have some free time in some of the attractions because it felt rushed but otherwise we really enjoyed ourselves.

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.

Claire

Hello Wing,

Apologies for the delay, please see feedback as requested below.

1) Always very quick responses, Wing is very accomodating and helped us with everything.

2) Wing provided different options for us to choose, clear schedules and contact details for our guides everything was really well planned.

3) Certainly, I'm willing to recommend your service.

4) Your services made our trip to China much simpler. Our consultant was very helpful, very polite and tried their best even at very late notice requests. She checked on us to ensure that our trip was going ok. Overall very good service.

Georgios

Dear Mr Wonder Wang

My wife and I wish to thank you for organising a very enjoyable holiday for us in China. All the guides and drivers were good. The cruise was also good and the service is excellent.

Thank you once again.

Best Regards

Kar

Hello Leo,

thank you for our excellent guide billy, he was really amazing and nice, and shares a lot of interesting knowledge about china and chinese culture. also his command of english is perfect. we would highly recommend him to anyone wanting to make a tour through sichuan! it was a beautiful tour

Jan

Hi, M/S Wonder Wang.

Good morning.

We had a wonderful time in Guilin, touring the various tourist spots stated in the itinerary.

1) Yes. The Travel Consultant of your company was very responsive and courteous in answering our enquiries and questions related to this trip.

He had been very helpful in putting up an itinerary for us to visit Guilin, during our short stay in Guangzhou.

2) Our tour guide, Mr. Lewis wass a very patient and helpful person who went all out to meet our requests during the trip.

Mr. Lewis replied all our questions promptly and courteously. We had no problem communicating with him in English and in Chinese as well.

3) Of course we will recommend to others the services render by your company. In fact, we've already started planning our next trip to China, using the services provided by your company.

Keep up with the good work for the betterment of tourism in China.

We look forward to touring China again.

Thank you very much and have a great day.

HK Khaw

Dear Wing,

thank you for all the given support. You have been really a strategic key point to succeed in this tour.

Below in red my reply.

(1) YES, YOU ANSERED VERY FAST AND ALWAYS ONTIMETIME

(2) AS EXPECTED FROM A PROFESSIONAL CONSULTANT LIKE YOU

(3) YES, I AM 100% WILLING TO RECCOMENED YOU

(4) WE HAVE BEEN ALWAYS IN GOOD FEELING AND FULL TRUST. IN ANY CONDITION WE HAVE TRIED OUR BEST TO SOLVE ALL DIFFICULTIES

(5) NO SUGGESTIONS, IN GENERAL YOU DID GREAT

Thank you again and remember that I will recommend you to my friends who eventually decide to come to visit China in next future !

Armando

Dear Tracy,

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

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

Best regards,

Matthias

Hi Wing,

please refer to my replies below. Thank you very much for your assistance.

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

Yes. She has been very prompt & precise to respond to my request.

(2) How do you comment your tour arrangements?

The tour arrangement is excellent especially on the choice of hotels.

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

I will definitely recommend ChinaDiscovery service to others.

(4) Your general opinion on us?

Service is excellent. Staff is friendly.

(5) Do you have any suggestions on improving our services?

Can't think of any at the moment.

Regards,

Anonymous Customer

Hi Rita,

Sorry… I didn’t see that you asked if the pictures could be shared. I thought that was the reason I sent them in the first place. YES, you can share them on your webpage.

Josh

Dear Tracy,

I am sorry for this late feedback, I had a limited access to my e mails during my stay in China.

My trip in Huangshan was great, I was disappointed because of the weather as the clouds blocked the view most of the 2 days. But nobody can t do anything about it! Aside from that, Jessica was really nice and her English was perfect. The hotel and the room were nice, it was very well organized! Thank you for this. I also want to thank you for your availability in answering all the questions I had before I leave.

The only point I would suggest for improvement is maybe include some information on how taking a train in China works. It s not complicated at all, but as I had never done it before, I was a bit stressed about how long it would take me once in the train station. So maybe just say that you have some ID controls (with special lines for foreigners) and luggage controls and that s it, would have reassured me I think!

But this suggestion is only a comment to make the experience even better, it was already really greatly organized!

Thank you again for this organization and have a lovely day,

Best regards,

Caroline

Hi Jack,

Here is the survey/feedback for the Beijing and Wutaishan trip:

we are back at home now and really happy.

It was a great journey through China. We have so many wonderful memories.

Thank you very much for your very good organization and support!

Best regards,

Miriam and family

Hi Rita,

We’re home. I appreciate everything you did for the arrangements. The itinerary, accommodations and guides are all top-notch. Our favorite guide is Jack… and Qi, and timo, and Steven. Did I mention each one? Hahaha. We had a wonderful vacation in China.

Lyn

Dear Vivian,

I am at a loss for words to express the immense joy I experienced on this extraordinary trip, encompassing the enchanting destinations of Beijing and Guilin. From start to finish, the journey was an absolute triumph, leaving me with a profound sense of fulfillment. I am delighted to affirm that the trip was an unparalleled success, achieving a flawless 100% rating in every aspect. Your exceptional skills as a trip organizer shone through, as you stood by our side until the very last moment, ensuring a seamless and unforgettable experience. I am truly grateful for your unwavering dedication.

Please convey my heartfelt appreciation to Smaily for her exceptional work. She went above and beyond to make every moment memorable, and her efforts were truly outstanding. Her profound knowledge, unwavering commitment, and tireless efforts to showcase the very best of each destination made the entire trip an absolute delight. Without a doubt, she deserves the highest accolades and recognition.

I must also commend the driver, whose gentle and respectful demeanor added a touch of grace to our journey.

Reflecting on the overall two weeks in China, I am filled with an overwhelming sense of awe and wonder. The meticulous planning and flawless execution by China Discovery Tour left an indelible mark, and it is without a doubt that you, Vivian, were the shining star behind it all.

With deepest gratitude,

Mohammed

Hello Mr. Wonder Wang,

We have arrived safely to Kuwait and are now cherishing our memories of China. We had a very positive impression of the country and its people in terms of organization, cleanliness, friendliness, beauty and convenience. We would definitely recommend your company to our family and friends. We were well cared for by your guides, which made us feel safe and comfortable the whole time. Regarding your specific questions, we have these remarks:

1. Most definitely Mr. Wonder Wang was quick to answer our many questions. He offered valuable advice and was patient through multiple emails between our first point of contact a month before departure, during the tour of China, and until we returned home.

2. The service of the guides was generally very good. They gave us insight into the history and culture of China, and explained the significance of sites along the way. We also felt safe with the designated drivers. At the end of each guide's service, (s)he asked us to fill a questionnaire, and we can see why this is important. Generally our comments were very positive, but we did not have time to adequately assess one guide who was not at the usual standard for this company. His English name is Waldener. We felt he slacked in sharing beneficial knowledge of his city, instead joking around and showing off his knowledge of American history and culture. He was too familiar for our taste and his comments were often immodest. We feel he might benefit from more cultural sensitivity training. The remaining tour guides were very engaging, knowledgeable, dignified and helpful. Jack (in Beijing), in particular, was exemplary in friendliness and helpfulness.

We also have a couple other minor comments. The cruise ship had very little and usually no Internet connection, which was frustrating. On the other hand, the cruise manager kindly asked us about any dietary restrictions and made sure we had food that met our requirements. Likewise, two of the tour guides understood that we only eat halal meat and took us to a halal restaurant for lunch -- this unexpected consideration was highly appreciated. (This is a very important service for most of your future Middle-Eastern guests!!)

Thank you, Mr. Wonder Wang, for your professional communication and friendly assistance throughout this experience,

Sincerely,

Yaser

Hi Wonder,

the trip was great. Thank you for arranging it so nicely.

Achyut

Hi Wonder,

We've had great time in Guilin, please accept our sincere gratitude for your services!

Rita,

thank you for your arrangement. The tour and logistics were really good. We are very happy and look forward to the next trip in China with your company.

Hi Tracy,

good evening.

They had a great trip and they said the guide was super friendly and helpful,they are very satisfied but with that they did say that the last day was indeed too ‘relaxing’. They wanted to see more and to explore more interesting sites.

At the end if you count the whole tour they had a great experience and they are very happy, thank you.

Hi Tracy,

So far so good! Just the program for the second day is not updated, as it’s almost impossible to do it one day. The cruise took us almost 5 hours, the sightseeing is not existing any more, the bicycle we did for 1 hour.. I decided to go to Impression show for an extra price. The 2 hotels were extraordinarily and very recommended. The car and driver were very good, safe and comfortable. The guide was also good, seems he was not very enthusiastic.. prefered long conversation with the driver instead of long explanation about the sights and route - but was ok!

Eddie

Hi Wonder,

The trip was marvelous. We have really enjoyed!

Greg

Hi Wonder,

It was a wonderful trip! Thank you for everything Wonder. Can’t wait to go on another one

Andrew

Hi Rita,

everything is very well happening today, it's a fabulous day we are now on the return to town, it's perfect The driver and the guide are very good.

Frederic

Hi Wonder,

Really lovely time, Beautiful, relaxing place.

Kristin

Hi Jack,

Thank you for some great days together. Nice company, perfect weather and fun activities. I could not have hoped for a better “last round” in China… Now I guess we all cross our fingers for not being hit too hard by the airline crises and Covid restrictions… All the best.

Thomas

Hi Jack,

Thank you for arranging our trip. We had an amazing vacation. The guides were very professional and incredibly kind and available.

Christelle

Good morning Wonder,

Your trip was very good. All my family enjoyed a lot. Guilin is a beautiful place. the guide and the driver were very nice too.

Ana

Hi Wonder,

It was great! Thank you!!!

Amos

Hi Jack,

Happy New Year!

I would like to thank you! It was really nice! Despite of the fact that some of the attractions were not working because of the low public (like Li River), the guides were good in planning alternatives and accepting our suggestions.

You were also great in helping us with the flying tickets and in planning our trip in such a short time! Thank you so much!

Ana

Hi Vivien,

We are happy to answer your questions.

1. Our travel consultant, Vivien, was outstanding and exceeded our expectations. Due to covid travel restrictions, our trip had to be changed and postponed several times but Vivien dealt with this efficiently and respectfully despite at times having to change plans at the last minute. Without Vivien, we would have cancelled our wonderful trip. Every request we made was met and everything was highly organized and communicated with us downtown to the finest detail. The guides and drivers arranged were excellent and we felt relaxed throughout our trip.Vivien is a credit to the company and an exemplary representative.

2. Our tour guides had excellent English and were very knowledgeable. Especially appreciated was their patience and flexibility as I have a bone disease and often struggle to walk. They let me rest without complaint and went above and beyond in all regards even to Yenny ordering us some sesame rice balls to be delivered to the hotel because I had enjoyed them so much at lunch and Ellen taking us for hotpot for lunch at our request. Nothing was too much trouble.

3. We are leaving China this year and despite not usually using a travel agent when we travel, we hope to return to China in the future and will use China Discovery and hopefully Vivien without a doubt.

Vivien, words cannot express how grateful we are for everything you have done for us to ensure we managed a break away. Personally, we needed a holiday and you provided us with the most amazing trip.

Even though we have never met you and do not even know what you look like, you will hold a place in our hearts forever. You have truly been a blessing and we are eternally grateful for your patience, kind and caring attitude and professionalism throughout the last year.

Thank you so much.

I have attached some photos and you can use these if they are any good as well as our recommendations.

Val and Steve Hart

Hi Tracy!

We appriciate all of your support for the arrangement of our trip. We had great experience during our stay in Guilina and Yangshuo. We were impressed by our guide, Steven. He is very experienced. We learned a lot from him. Many thanks for arranging our trip and thanks especially for sending Steven as our guide! Guilin was very beautiful and lots to learn. We were very impressed by Steven's professional and imformative guidance, flexibility, and sense of humor. He was perfect in English too. We will definitely recommend him to our friends‼

Naoki

Hi Rita,

I had a lovely experience. I once I upload my photos I will send you the good ones :)

Emily

Dear Rita,

Sorry, my phone was off for a while to conserve battery.

we had a fantastic and memorable trip and our tour guide Lin was knowledgeable and went above and beyond.

Linva

Hi Riley,

We really enjoyed the trip. Actually Steven gave us a feedback form when we were still in Yangshuo.

Atyasa

Hi Leo,

Thanks for your excellent performance, fast responses, anwerst to all questions. The arrangement was excellent although we asked the tour arrangement in a short notice, and the trip was very nice and relax.

Ira

Hi Leo,

Overall Experience:

Overall we had a fantastic trip! While we have always been more independent travelers, the changing status of restrictions due to COVID made us reluctant to book our own trip – we wanted to have someone we could call and/or have by our sides to help address any concerns, at least someone with a better fluency than ours. We loved everything about Ping’an and hope to return to see the terraces in a different season. We loved the Yangshou and hope to return there – it’s an easy train ride from Shenzhen.

Transportation:

The train was super comfortable, all pick-ups and drop-offs were good, the van was comfortable and the driver was safe.

Lodging:

We loved the atmosphere, the room, the people, and the food at Longji One Art Hotel. One of our favorite places, we hope to return and stay there. The Family Room had ventilation issues upstairs in the loft, but the room A/C was awesome.

The Shangri-La in Guilin was our least favorite. The room was stuffy and hot, and even with a fan that we requested, it was uncomfortable to sleep. The theme was amusing – as a family room, it had a tent, but the bathroom accessories were for an infant, not an 11-year old. We would not stay there again, nor recommend it to friends.

The Bamboo Leaf outside Yangshou was really great. By fate, we knew a fair amount of people staying there, from Guangzhou and Shenzhen. The food there was FANTASTIC! We definitely plan to return to Yangshou and would stay at the Bamboo Leaf. We would go just for the dinner!

Sights:

Longji Rice Terraces – incredible beauty! So few people were there, we had the whole area to ourselves. We would like to return to see the terraces in a different season. It FAR exceeded our expectations!

Guilin – we live in a big city, so seeing another city is less than a thrill. Reed Flute Cave and Xiangbishan were cool, but not awesome.

Li River – we were the only boat on the river – the sights were amazing, well worth the trip. The provided lunch was actually quite good.

Yulong River / bamboo raft – we liked the more intimate setting, some great pictures.

Comments:

I would recommend you and the tour company to others - everything worked as planned and promised. We appreciate your help, and had the comfort knowing that if the situation changed due to travel restrictions, etc., we had someone to help us. It was a curious time to travel, as cases were picking up in other areas.

Small Things:

It would have been better to know about packing ONE bag to take up to Ping’an. While it wasn’t a terrible inconvenience to unpack/re-pack in a parking lot, I wish we had known.

Peter did a nice job. He wasn’t the best guide we ever had, but he was OK. Very friendly and polite, his English was fantastic, and he shared a lot of his knowledge. However, I would prefer not to use him again.

Leo, if we need help with another guided tour the Fall, I will reach out to you!

Many Thanks.

James

Hi Wonder,

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

Gillian

Hi Wonder,

The tour itself was good many beautiful sights. The first week in August is not the best time due to high temperature and heatwave. I am sure if we done this in spring or autumn even winter would be even more spectacular. Overall we had a wonderful trip one with memorable and captivating sceneries. Amazing views from the glass skywalk and bridge. I would strongly recommend that Guilin and Yangshuo are must see in China. And appreciate you provided the information and tour. Although improvement can be made to ticketing which should be prebooked and paid instead of collecting the tickets on site. Fortunately there were no queues in most of the sights. Can’t imagine the waiting time if we need to pick up tickets at every sight including the cruise. Would have been great if all tickets were online and sent to us before hand like air ticket. I understand in some sights this is not possible cos we are expected to buy the tickets when we are there. Not very convenient, perhaps the tourist organisation can suggest to these sights to ease queues through online bookings and allow visitors to scan their passes upon arrival. Ideally skip the queue. Though this time there is no queue since it is not national holiday.

Emily

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

Hi Zeva,

Greetings from a warm Yangzhou. We have had another wonderful day and said our goodbyes to wonderful guide Alice and great driver Mr. Fu. Mr. Fu drove us safe around and always very helpful. We have been very happy with Alice who have guided us through a lot of lovely sceneries, showing us great places around Guilin and Yangzhou. Finding great food for us and meeting every one of our needs during our holiday. She did her guiding, so we felt very relaxed but still got a lot of information. We would give her our best recommendations. She had forgotten the paper for us to fill in today - therefor this long chat.

We are looking forward to staying here the next three days. Thank you so much for your help - you have been great. We will be ready in the lobby Monday morning at 11 o’clock to leave for the airport. We are - again - super happy to travel with China discovery.

Christina

Dear Lyn Wang

We had a very fine and well planned trip to Guilin and are most grateful to this great experience.

We think the tour was a fine mix of three very different and well selected locations.

We were especially grateful for the pleasant and professional guiding by Steven.

In all respects an absolutely positive experience for us.

Sincerely

Helle and Leif Thuesen

Dear Lyn Wong,

We had a very fine and well planned trip to Guilin and are most grateful to this great experience. We think the tour was a fine mix of three very different and well selected locations. We were especially grateful for the pleasant and professional guiding by Steven. In all respects an absolutely positive experience for us.

Leif & Helle

Hello Zeva,

Morning!! We’re having a great start to our trip- thank you- everything has been perfect! Can I ask your advice on tipping David and our driver? How much per day is appropriate? Thank you.

We all good here thanks and looking forward to the next leg of our journey!!

Thanks so much - William is well on the way to recovery now!! Have a good day.x

We are on our way now- thank you for organizing an excellent tour. We found the whole experience completely stress free and that was the main purpose of using a tour company! Everything was organized so professionally- we will definitely recommend you to our friends.

Thanks so much!

Katherine

Hi Rita,

The trip was amazing. Thank you, I will definitely use your company again. At every stage I was looked after so well, the guides were so useful and were always on time and easy to find. The 3 day cruise down the Yangtze was so relaxing and comfortable. Thank you.

Hello Wonder,

The cruise was wonderful. It only rained for about 10 minutes, and not very heavy.

Logan

Hi Vivien,

赵先生很周到。 (Driver in Chengdu)

May was a great guide. She got us incredible access to the pandas, she was flexible in accommodating our wishes, she chose a perfect place to eat on the last day, and she was very enthusiastic about Buddhism.

We'll send you our full feedback on Guilin as soon as we get to Zhangjiajie. So far, the Li An hotel, and especially the Caledon room, was SPECTACULAR!

感谢您帮我们安排这次去旅游！回家了我们继续想到那些好日子，好玩的时刻。

Adam

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.

Hi Wonder, back to Shanghai, it was an amazing trip, and the driver is just a great guy who really help us from the beginning to the end. Thank you for everything.

Here is my review about the trip to Guilin, it’s just our point of view so there is nothing bad about what I will say.

At first we had an amazing driver, friendly and always helping us for everything, and very good and safe drive.

Day one was great, not really a lot of things to see or do in Huangluo Yao village, but it’s ok, by the way the restaurant the driver bring us there was very great, best Chinese food we had in China. Ping’an Village is just wonderful, walking in the middle of the rice terrace with an amazing view was perfect. The hotel was nice too (sorry to disturb you this day, but after I realize the woman playing with a kid on the terrace was working for the hotel, at the beginning I thought she was a client), by the way, it was great, she really took care of us, and again excellent food, the view from the room is great too.

Day two was great too, thousand layer terraces is a place to see, and the cable car is very useful, Ping An is better cause we really are in the middle of the rice terrace with all the farmer around, it’s really local, 1000 terrace is more for the view and we really enjoyed it.

Visit of the Tea farmer was interesting.

Then back in Guilin, we went to the city to the pedestrian street near a lake with two beautiful towers, and also went to a park near a hill. Guilin is a nice city but it stays a city, the hotel was great too, but all was a little bit too much “metropole”. I think it should be better to stay in a more local place like small village close from Mopanshan. Nothing bad about this Wonder, but we come from Shanghai who is a big city, and when we go out from a city it’s nice to be in the country side. The hotel was perfect too, but it’s the kind of hotel I go during some business trips, by the way we know Guilin now.

Day 3 was very very very great, the cruise is amazing, the bamboo boat very great too and the country side of Yangshuo is just wow, so beautiful, we have rented a motorbike from the hotel and wend around in the afternoon, just beautiful, we really enjoyed. The hotel was perfect too, all the staff speak English and are very friendly. In the restaurant, Chinese and Western food was nice too, in the evening we went to see a show in Yangshuo, they knew we should come back late and they manage everything so serve us after 10pm. Very great hotel with a so beautiful view. This is the point, at the hotel at Ping An village or Yangshuo, in the evening we can enjoy the view from outside on the balcony of the room, drinking a glass and smoke a cigarette, it’s just empty out mind and we really enjoy this moment, thing we cannot do in Guilin for example.

Day 4, back to Guilin and go to Elephant Hill, it’s just a park like the 100 parks we have in Shanghai, nothing special to see, especially after seeing the rice terraces around Ping An and the beautiful landscape from Li River and Yangshuo. Reed Flute cave was just wow too, so so beautiful, that was the first time in my life I saw a so beautiful cave, really love it.

This trip was the best one we did in China, we both love it, just wish to have one more day in Yangshuo. If I need to give a note I will give 9/10, Thank for your great work.

Hi Lyn,

The trip was very nice. The places are amazing. Food wise some of it was good, but some hotels had a difficult time with meals (example Heshe where we had to order meituan as there was no open kitchen).

Car is a little uncomfortable for adults. The space between seats is a little tight. Another version of van would be more suitable for long travel.

Would better to sleep 2 nights in Yangshou.

Steven and He were very nice and accommodating.

My wife and daughters really enjoyed the trip. Other than the food (we don’t eat fast food, and we are all vegetarian, so sometimes it’s a little tough to find healthier foods, or not so fried) but we loved it.

I added some activities which you can put into your schedule for sure (the cable car and the glass bridge for example), so in general an amazing trip.

We had an amazing trip and everything was perfect

I will have to get back there and the bamboo rafting

Steven was amazing

Hi Wendy,

Thank you! And let me tell you that everything was perfect Wendy. Thanks for organizing such a wonderful trip with so good people.

hi Wonder,

The trip was in general quite ok despite bad weather. Thanks for your help. I already shared your contact to a friend, Tamer, hope you can also help him.

Hi Echo 

We had a great holiday in Guilin. A place we would like to revisit before leaving China. 

The hotel in Guilin was quite good. Spacious room with a lovely view and a great bar. The breakfast was mostly Chinese, but we still haven’t found a hotel with great western breakfast yet. It was okay - but not amazing.

The hotel in Yangshuo was more simple but the service was good and the surroundings were amazing. I could imagine that it would not be so good if it was colder since the room wasn’t isolated. There was air conditioning/heating so it was okay for this season. I think it will be great in to sit outside by the river in the summertime. 

The guide was nice and friendly and so was the driver. But my husband couldn’t see out of the windows in the car since he is quite tall. So he missed out on the beautiful scenery when we were driving. 

On the Li River Cruise we sat at a 6 persons table - we would have preferred a 4 persons table - but otherwise it was a great trip.

Best regards,

Sanne

Hi Wonder,

Here 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? Very Good.

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

4. Your general opinion on us? Honest effort with a good service.

5. Do you have any suggestions on improving our services? Service is fairly okay. We are satisfied. May be you need to find good Hotels with continental breakfast. The hotels you book are good but mainly Chinese flavor. Continental option is less.

6. I guess the breakfast in the hotel of Guilin is much better than the one in Yangshuo? Or they're very similar?

 In fact they are similar. And the hotel at yangshuo is better as there was bread--butter. We had not much problem as we like Chinese food. But in general you have to be careful for others at least. Like the Xiamen hotel Sheraton---that has good blend of continental and Chinese.

7. 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. I will send some photos through e mail.

8. We sometimes have requests from potential customers who would like to inquire from or our ex-customers. May they contact you for advices?          Yes. No issue.

Hi Rita,

It was nice! Thanks for everything we enjoyed a lot.

Hi Tracy,

Yes! We are enjoying.

Hi Riley,

Amazing. I absolutely loved it

Both hotels were perfect and each of the stops were great

Loved the 4* cruise on Li River

I added Silver cave and the show that evening that Steven helped arrange

We also did the bamboo raft ride on saturday

The driver took as to all the locations. 

There was no 10 mile bus tour. 

On Sunday we went to Banyon Tree park, climbed moon hill and then tried a new location. The cable car. Again I paid Steven to help me get ticket for this.

We did not have time to visit the family farm.

Completely loved every experience.  Climbing both moon hill and the peaks at the cable car place was a lot of work but very fun.

Steven was a great guide. Nice balance between history and information and allowing me to just experience.

Our driver was great as well. Felt very safe

Would recommend both.

Hi Wonder,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kind Regards

Mario and Angela Crivelli.

Hi Riley,

Great, you guys run a great operation Riley. I am very impressed with the Bamboo company and how long has the company been around? A long time right?

Steven in Guilin was reliable and gave great information and insight about the history of the place and the tourist attractions. I feel like they were there to help me and very kind. The driver was also kind and I like the 7-passenger vans.

Sandy in Chengdu was just as helpful and kind, awesome and knew a lot about the area as well. Gave a ton of information and the driver was helpful too. more driving there in Chengdu for sure. That giant Buddha is massive and so amazing. crazy that humans actually built that, doesn't seem possible, they were so clever with building it.

Me and my Wife (both of us living in Shanghai) wanted to get away from the city during Christmas, but due to Covid-19, options was limited. After talking to Johnson on China discovery, we had booked a fantastic 10 days trip through the yellow mountains and Guilin.

Johnson was fantastic with helping us, both when we changed our minds on elements of the trip, and when we forgot our passport at home before leaving for the trip. Everything was well planned and we felt safe and taken care of the whole trip.

Especially our “local mountain guide” April was fantastic, even introducing us to friends and tea tasting on Christmas Eve!

We are already planning two more trips with China discovery!

/Andreas & Joanna

Hi Zeva,

Has been great day in Guilin. Reed Flute Cave very cool and Shirely very knowledgable! And gave me a sweet birthday surprise - John

We are having a wonderful time in Guilin and Yangshuo! Thank you for your hard work on this, thanks again for a great trip in Guangxi! - Nancy

Hi Zeva,

Here 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?

As quick as usual, responsive, prompt and patient. Great pleasure to work with Zeva!

2. How do you comment your tour arrangements?

Everything was perfect. Steven is such a good guide, and more like a friend than guide, he really knows a good place to visit and to eat. I had enjoyed Guilin tour so much.

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

Absolutely.

4. Your general opinion on us?
 Good service and arrangement as usual

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

Everything is wonderful

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 please.

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

Yes please

Hi Rita,

Great, I will be back to you for my next trip which will probably be over the Chinese NY. Thank you again.

Dear Vivien,

Sorry for the delay of my reply.

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

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

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

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

Lunches included were good and beyond our expectation as well.

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

Some minor suggestion:

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

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

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

With kindest regards,

Yaowadee and Ezio

Hi, Vivien,

Thank you very much, it’s very nice. the nature here is breathtaking, we just came back from cycling, wonderful

everything went perfect again, thanks, and you provided perfect weather as well

It was good Rita thank you.

Only this morning the weather was not with us. But all went very well. Thank you.

Dear Leo,

Here are our comments and feedback for the trip.

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

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

Hotels

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

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

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

Activities

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

-       We really enjoyed the guided hikes

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

Guides

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

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

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

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

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

Best regards,

Louise and Morten

Hi Wonder,

Our trip around Guilin and Yangshuo was utterly amazing. We were expertly driven to the best scenic spots to take wonderful photographs of the breath-taking scenery.

Our local guide Kenny was very knowledgeable and funny. He was very easy to get along with (and has a great singing voice!). I only have high praise for his guidance and assistance. Both Kenny and our driver were extremely patient and I felt safe at every part of the journey. The hotels were adequate and authentic, and most importantly in prime locations to facilitate the tour. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time in Guangxi and heartedly recommend this tour to everyone not just photography lovers. Thank you and I hope to use your service again in the future.

Hi Leo,

Here are my answers:

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 on your tour arrangements? 

It was well organized and accommodating.

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

Absolutely.

4. Your general opinion on us? 

Quick response, flexible, provided good guidance, punctual, efficient, friendly.

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

None. Only recommendation is to change the hotel in Yangshuo.

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? 

Absolutely. I will send photos via Wechat.

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

Sure!

Hi Wendy,

Just landed in Beijing. Trip was great (except the weather - but that's something out of our control).

I will recommend your planning and the guides.

Sunshine hotel was also good, except for the coffee.

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 Jack,

My trip with China discovery was outstanding! It was the first time I have ever used a travel agency and I would definitely use them again. Very easy to organise the trip with lots of flexibility.  Everything that they promised to do was done. The tour guides were excellent - very knowledgeable and again willing to adapt based on personal interests. I went to Guilin and Zhangjiajie - both destinations were stunning - lots of variety packed into the both parts of the trip. I had an amazing trip and would recommend to anyone who likes the outdoors!

Dear Vivien, I think Linda has already provided feedback to your website. A couple of additional notes from my side:

• The trip was well organized, with the appropriate balance between personal time and time used for guided tours
• The hotels were good, great locations, we would have preferred more ‘continental’ options for breakfast/dinner
• Our guide (Evelyn) was great. She was extremely nice and willing to go ‘the extra mile’ to help us living a great experience
• ...last but not least, one comment on your support. Our decision to travel with China Discovery come from your initiative to contact me and follow up a request that I made months ago. When I received your email I was almost ready to confirm the trip with another agency. What made the difference was the quality of the program you offered but also the very professional way you interacted with us. We appreciated the ‘tone’ that you used in your messages or in our phone conversations. We appreciated your ability to follow up on our requests in a short timeframe, your depth in checking what was concerning to us.

Thank you, we look forward to our next trip together!

RF

Hello Vivien, 

Everything perfect up to now.  Evelyn is very nice and professional. 

Everything is going very well.  

Everything was good and we enjoyed a lot the trip.  Thanks for organizing and for asking

It was amazing Zeva. Thanks for asking. We had a bonus visit to a tea farm for lunch which was something unexpected but really really fun. I’m not a tea fan but am now. We’re having a wonderful time.

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 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

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

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 Vivien,

Arrived in Yangon!  We had a great trip in China.  Thanks for everything!!!

Hi Mark,

Happy New Year to you as well.

My responses in the trailing mail.

Regards,

Vidit

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 Riley

I have just submitted a review to trip advisor.

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

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

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

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

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

Regards

Lee

Hi Riley,

Thank you for your help in organizing our holiday in Guilin.  Below is our feedback as requested.  Apologies for the delay as life has been very busy since we returned from Hong Kong last week.

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

Riley was an excellent consultant who went beyond the call of duty to stay late in the office to respond to time critical queries as we were a bit late booking our trip to Guilin and we needed information for our Chinese Visa application.

2. How do you comment your tour arrangements?

The tour was excellently organized from the time we arrived in Guilin train station until we left the same station 6 days later.  Accomodation was excellent and our guide Daniel was extremely patient in taking into account our food requirements in organizing our meals for us.  The tour activities were well balanced to our abilities and interests.  We especially enjoyed the hiking and the rural atmosphere in the Longji Rice Terrace area and also along the Yulong River.

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

We would highly recommend China Discovery and their guides to others visiting the Guilin region.  Our guide Daniel was enormously helpful in describing the history of the area as well as the sights and went well beyond the call of duty in helping us.  We especially liked the fact that there were not frequent visits to "shopping experiences".

4. Your general opinion on us?

China Discovery provides an excellent service.

Regards,

Martin

Hi Lily,

Thank you for your help with our tour planning.  We had a great time and enjoyed all the food & places we visited.

Have a Merry Christmas and happy New year!

Wing

Thank you Lily!

We had a wonderful holiday, thanks to you!

Happy New Year to you too!

I had trouble posting on the link you sent me, because of difficulty with Chinese language.

But I have posted a review today on trip advisor on the Australia site. If there is anyway to link this to your home page I will help however I can.

This is what I wrote:

Heading: Thanks Lily

I can’t praise China Discovery enough. Lily Xu put together the perfect holiday for my wife and I. Two nights in Guilin, a boat tour to Yangshuo, and two nights in Yangshuo. Everything was better than we had hoped for. Lily did a fantastic job. Nothing was too much trouble for her. Our guide, Alma, was fantastic. An interesting story teller who was fun to travel with. Our driver was first rate. Safe, friendly and helpful. We will definitely use China Discovery again and have recommended then to friends and family.

I hope that helps Lily. We will definitely be in touch again for a holiday in Szechuan and Yunnan.

Regards,

Rob.

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 Wing,

Please see below my comments...

1. The tour arrangements were excellent, I like that there was sufficient time for every location and we enjoy the easy going pace throughout the tour. First of all, a big thank you to Ms Wing Zeng, the Travel Consultant who has provided us an excellent service in organising the tour that suited us best. The tour guide, Mr. Lee was outstanding and trust-worthy. He is definitely knowledgeable about all the places, and I like how he always came out with Chinese poems to describe the places that we visited. He took the extra mile to help s to take a lot of great photos and videos throughout the tour. The driver was very pleasant and the vehicle provided was in superb condition which made our tour very comfortable. I would highly recommend to my friends and relatives, and in actual fact, I have already recommended to a few friends.

2. As our last 2 days were free and easy. Mr. Lee, the tour guide has suggested us to go to Xianggung Mountain to have a panoramic views of the river and the surrounding karst peaks which was not a disappointment to us. I would highly recommend that Xianggung Mountain be included in your itinerary for your potential customers at all times.

3. I would not hesitate to use your service again when I go to China again.

Hi Wendy,

Replies to your questions below. You are welcome to use the attached photos on your website if you wish.

Regards

Gary Mc Guinn

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

Yes. Communication from my travel consultant was excellent. Wendy was very helpful in setting out options for the tour, answering my questions and helping me make the right choices. She was always responded promptly and with clear, concise information. 

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

Yes. I was very happy with the tour. The guides and driver were great. My girlfriend and I both had a good time. We saw a lot of unforgettable sights in 6 days but we also had opportunity to rest and to do our own thing.

Do you have any suggestions on improving our services?

No. I only hope that Tibet can become easier to visit in the future while at the same time being protected from overdevelopment so it retains its unique charm and heritage. I think managed tourism is good for the local economy for everyone’s benefit.

Hello Wendy,

Yes, I would be happy to provide you with some feedback on our experience with your travel services. My answers to your three questions are below.

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

Wendy provided timely and professional travel services to us for our Li River cruise, and answered all of our questions quickly and accurately. We particularly appreciated the confirmation emails and giving us needed advice, such as notice of road delays due to a biking event which might impact our arrival time at the boat. We also appreciated the clear email communications in English, which was easy to understand.

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

The tour was very well organized and was one of our favorite experiences during our 2 week trip to China. It actually exceeded our expectations and I have already recommended it to others. The taxi driver was on time, and was polite, and took care of getting the cruise tickets also.

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

No suggestions for improvement, as we are very satisfied and everything went perfectly.

Thanks for your travel assistance, again,

- Blaise Barney

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 Johnson,

Hope this email find you well. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks again

Regards

Sharon

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

Hi Echo,

I just wanted to drop you a line to say a huge “thank you” for organising our wonderful trip to China!

Both myself and Claire had an absolutely fantastic time and seeing China of today was awe inspiring.

We were delighted with the itinerary – although tough, (hotels, trains, planes and cars), it was worth getting to see every iconic site and more besides!!

We met the wonderful guides and drivers on our travels, and although it is very difficult to single any out one, I thought Danny, who looked after us in Guilin and the surrounding areas – was incredible.

The other guides were equally fantastic and they ensured we visited every site and more, to really make our trip to China a fantastic and memorable trip of a lifetime!

Thank you again for all your assistance and help you have provided over the past few months – you made this a trip to always remember.

If you could pass on both Claire and my thanks to everyone involved in making our trip very special, I would really appreciate it!

Best regards always,

Dear Lily,

We have now returned to Australia after the holiday you organised for us in The Guilin and Hunan areas and are happy to provide some feedback on the service you offered.

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

Lily was efficient and polite and always got back to us within 24 hours of our contacting her.  She was very patient, particularly when the first trip we planned had to have major changes made due to our personal circumstances.

2. How do you comment your tour arrangements? 

The tour was everything we expected.Timing was excellent and the attractions we visited were beautiful. Your country has spectacular scenery.

Some things are worth mentioning:

• The Guilin Park Hotel, while comfortable, was not really 4-star. The bathroom was very old, with mouldy wall tiles.  We would not recommend this hotel to others, although the location was perfect and the exterior and foyer looked beautiful.  The restaurant was uninviting, and the bar was not operating at all.

• The One Art Hotel in Ping’An was superb, and the family operating the business were very friendly and welcoming. This hotel is highly recommended.
• If we had our time over again we would have liked 2 nights in YangShou.  It was a lovely town and small enough for us to wander at our leisure
• The bike ride along the Yulong River and then to Moon Hill and The Banyan Tree was great fun
• There were long car trips involved in our visit to Fengshuan.  Perhaps we could have made a return trip from Zhangziajie by train and then flown from Zhangjiajie to Shanghai.
• Steven was an excellent guide and he provided advice as to where we should eat for our evening meals. He also suggested things for us to eat.
• Kevin was good, but perhaps not as helpful as Steven. He tended to rush us past things we wanted to see and we often had to ask him to slow down. 
• It was difficult for us to order from restaurants in the Zhangziajie area.  There was very little English spoken – and I had not downloaded a translation service to my phone before I left.  I was not able to access this once I was in China as access to Google was blocked

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

We certainly are. This is the second time we have used your service and have no complaints whatsoever.  It is an excellent service and Lily is a pleasure to deal with.  We only wish we could have met her personally to thank her.

 4. Your general opinion on us?

5 star!  Well done

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

2 suggestions: 

Perhaps you could advise future customers to download translation app before they arrive.

Your guides could have with them a simple menu in Chinese/English that customers could refer to when in a non-English speaking restaurant. 

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?

See attached photos

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

Yes, of course.

Thank you once again for a wonderful itinerary,

Warm regards,

Lovely Villages and Beautiful River in Hunan and Guilin

Good morning Mark,

Thank you for all your support. Here are the answers to the questions:

1. Very good service: Patient, good arrangements, great hotel suggestion in Yangshuo (Li River Resort), answered all questions. Would recommend!

2. Drivers were all perfect. Tour guides were too, and Dickson had been very flexible due to rainy conditions, appreciated.

3. Guilin/Longsheng/Yangshuo is outstnading.  Jinshanling Great Wall should be one of the 7 wonders of the world.

4. All was great. A suggestion for hikers like us: Offer either optional lunch or take-out lunch as we often want to hike/explore on lunch time and not spend 1 hour in a restaurant in the middle of the day, especially when sunny.

I will plan to do the TripAdvisor recommendation when back at home.

Many thanks and best regards,

Dear Yanny He,

We just came from Hong Kong. We would like to thank you very much for the organisation. We had wonderful trip to Guilin . We enjoyed every moment of our trip. Our guide  was very professional and wonderful person! Thank you.

Best wishes

Edita Conte

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 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 Lily,

Is it normal to be charged 500 yuan deposit at the Sunshine Hotel? I hope I will get it back later?

So far the trip has been great! I loved Guilin! What beautiful scenery!! Amazing.

Question: do you offer walking tours of the Great Wall?

Thanks!

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

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.

Hi Wonder, 

The tour was very good. We managed to cover a lot of places in a short period of time, thank you for arranging it. 

Here are the answers to your questions: 

1. Yes, very prompt with detailed replies. 

2. Tour guides were all good. 

Christy in Guilin was good, however, she could have done a better job in accommodating our food preferences as she preordered all meals for us without giving us the options from the menu or choice of vegetable/meat. She took us to many interesting places and did a good job of that. 

Eben in Chengdu was very good. His command over English was really good, and shared a lot of knowledge about Chengdu and China with us. He managed to get us into the Panda reserve without waiting in line at all. Food options from him were very good, and he helped us order even for dinner. 

Phoenix in Xi'an was also very good and showed us a lot in a short period of time. 

3. Yes

Thank you for all your help over the past few weeks!

Best,

Dear Lily,

We are having a wonderful trip. Thank you for your organisation. 

Kind regards,

Beautiful Autumn Scene in Longsheng

Lyn,

We had an incredible experience in China!  Your planning made everything go so smoothly and our guides were so informative and helpful. Please find attached four pictures taken from some of our favorite places.  Take care 

Family Tour in China

Dear Lyn,

we have now arrived home and I would like to thank you for a truly wonderful trip - we have so many amazing memories to thank you for.
Your help and organisation from beginning to end was excellent - thank you for being so responsive and patient with all my queries - I am amazed the whole trip ran so smoothly, which is a credit to you!

Our personal favourites:

Our favourite hotels were Longsheng Lian Lodge, Yangshuo Tea Cozy, St Regis (Lhasa). Our least favourite hotels were Grand Soluxe hotel (Dunhuan) and Huangshan Xihai hotel.

Our favourite guide was Ms Tu Tu - Zhangjiajie - she was amazing at negotiating long queues and tourist buses. 

We really loved all the amazing locations - Dunhuang was our least favourite - more time in the Mogao Grottoes would have been nice.
Thank you again Lyn for showing us your amazing country.

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

Hi Yanny,

Thankyou. Fantastic Xi’an was magical, you have some really great staff there, Bruce Johnny and Mary really know their stuff and know how to keep people engaged... well done

Guilin is the icing on the cake, the cruse was sensational and the hotel right near the lake is a great location, beautiful view from window 

Thanks again for keeping in touch.

Rosetta

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

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...

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.

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 Zoe,

How are you doing? I guess you are occupied with other customers. As usual, upon return from the latest trip, my time has been very tight with several commitments and tasks. Nonetheless I would like to write and thank you once again for organizing a wonderful trip for us.

We are so happy and keep looking at our photos of memories again and again. It is a perfect travel plan; it is not too tight or hectic. We do not feel too exhausted at the day end or the end of the tour. The last day of our tour in Guilin is so impressive and unforgettable from our bicycle trip along the scenic river and mountain ranges. We made lot of efforts in walking up to the top of the Moon Hill. It was tiring but we love it and enjoy it so much.

Throughout the entire tour program is fantastic, though there is a small mishap in Zhangjiajie but it is not really a big issue. We appreciate your spirit and will in making effort to correct it through the reimbursement which we really appreciated it.

Still we do not expect any perfection. We only want to share it with you what we think or feel. I believe it is useful for a planner like you. Should you have any specific issues to ask me, please feel free to do so.

Thank you so much again and again.  

Best regards.

Dear Lyn,

Frank

Shirley

South west China

Guangxi

Guangzhou

Gullin

Guangzhou

Lijiang

All were spectacular

Shirley was patient to teach me even Chinese

She took me to an ancient 400 years old legacy house

I could pick up enough Chinese words and culture

I could learn about Mio Tang and Druam minority tribes 

It was heavenly

Thanks

I am longing for my next visit to China

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 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

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 Vivien 

We have not had enough time to answer emails but we have received. Have had a wonderful few days with Kennedy and enjoyed Guilin and Yangshuo. Looking forward to Chengdu. Now to pack for the train.

Hi Wendy - I'm sorry for the late response.

Everything went perfectly during our trip and we had a great time. The train connections you booked for us were ideal and timing worked out great. Guilin and Yangshuo were well worth the trip. We even made it out to the rice terraces in Longsheng. 

Your help is much appreciated. I will definitely reach back out if we plan a next trip to China and will recommend you to anyone else who needs help with travels to China.

Review on tripadvisor was just posted, too.

Thanks again!

Dear Wing Zeng:

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

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

Here is some feedback that you requested.

Question 1.

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

Question 2.

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

Question 3.

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

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

Sincerely,

My Family Traveling Guilin and Kunming

Hi 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,

Sorry for the late reply.

The tour was very good, sadly the weather gods were against us.

As for our trip to Xian, we were very satisfied with the arrangements made for us as well as the tour guide. We particularly appreciated the fact that we could deviate from the planned schedule to accommodate the tour due to the bad weather conditions.

Attached a picture of us three, feel free to put it on your website.

I am reaching out to you because we are potentially planning a week-end trip in July to Guilin.

Note that the flights have not yet been booked. So we could return on a later flight if needed.

Please provide us with a fee quote for 4 Persons in 4 and 5 star hotels.

We would like to do Longji Rice Terrace Hiking as well enjoy the Lush Guilin Li River Scenery.

Many thanks in advance for your reply.

Best regards

The Three of us Having a Cruise Tour

Livia,

The company China Discovery provided us two professional tour guides for Zhangjiajie and Guilin.

They had good English and knowledge.

They always tried to satisfy our requests.

The places we visit were amazing.

We send many pictures to our friend through the Face book. We got a lot of wwooww's

You ,Livia, were always available for us and immediately solved all our questions and requests .

Big thank you for your devotion.

We will recommend your Company to our friends.

Best regards

 

Li River, Reed Flute Cave, and Zhangjiajie

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

Hi Lyn, I had a great time!

Here are some of the pictures I took.

Thank you for all the support and I hope I can come back to China some day!

Beautiful Guilin & Huangshan

Hi Vivien, 

Sorry for the late reply. 

The tour was overall good. The cruise on Li river was very nice. 

I suggest the evening cruise in the 4 lakes and 3 rivers in Guilin should also be included as part of the package. 

Rest it was okay. Thanks for organising it. 

Sharing couple of pictures below

Regards, 

Guilin at Night

Beautiful Rice Terraces

Riley,

No problem with the train although obviously better if we were together! The rest of the trip was excellent, the guides and drivers first class, the hotels very good and the landscaper around Guilin terrific and we really enjoyed Xian, if a little cold. In fact we saw everything we wanted to see. So we would not hesitate to book with you again in the future. Thanks again for all your help. Best Wishes for 2019.

 

 

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.

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

Leo Li,

Absolutely. I also plan to write a review for the website.

1.    All hotels were excellent with the breakfasts exceptional

2.    The sights were very well planned hitting the highlights of each area

a.    Really appreciate the activities (typically 6-7 hours including lunch)

3.    Exceeded my expectations with the vehicle style and size

a.    Comfortable, roomy with working air conditioner

4.    All the drivers were excellent

5.    Flights were well arranged with only 1 being an early departure (0630 departure)

a.    Seemed like the guides wanted us to be at the airport 2.5-3.0 hrs before the flight.  This seemed a little early for our US standards

6.    Guides were excellent.  Danny in Guilin was the only one where the English was difficult to understand.  Very workable though.  Jerry in Lijiang was exceptional.

Overall, a wonderful and very memorable trip to your country.  I really would not add or change anything to the itinerary, guides, drivers, or locations.

I really appreciate your coordination on all of the issues.  No doubt you were very involved to make sure nothing was missed.

Thank you and would highly recommend China Discovery again (5+ stars)

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 Jack,

I thoroughly enjoyed the tour. Guilin, Yangshuo and Zhangjiajie are world class tourist attractions. The scenery is spectacular. I was amazed I did not see more foreign tourists. I think it is because most people I have spoken to overseas have not heard of these places or realise how good these places are.

Guilin, Yangshuo and Zhangjiajie town centres are nice. They are a pleasant change from the crowded, polluted, concrete jungles of Shanghai and Schenzen.

The tour guides were very good. I especially liked Smiley. She tried very hard to make sure I was happy. She did well to change my itinerary after my flight was changed. The optional night boat cruise in Guilin and night show in Yangshuo recommended by Smiley were very good .

My only disappointments were:

- spending so much time travelling from Guilin to Zhangjiajie after my original flight was cancelled

- not being able to go out with the cormorant fishermen

- not being able to see the staircase through the hole in the hill in Zhangjiajie (because it was too far away and I had to leave for airport)

- having mist and low cloud obscuring the view when I went on the worlds longest cable car to the mountain with the glass walking platform (you can't control the weather)

Overall, I was very happy with the trip. If I had to do it again,  I would allow more time. I think you need at least 3 days in Zhangjiajie.

You did well to organise the trip at such short notice Jack.

I am sure you would get many more tourists if you advertised these areas overseas.

Best regards

Tony

Dear Rita,

Thank you. We had a wonderful time in Ping'an Village. 

Kind regards

Dalia Yaacov

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 China's mainland 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

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 Wendy,

Yes, we have had a good time in Guilin, Thanks to your support and the great professional Evelyn is.

Regards,

Clelia

Hi Ian,

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

Dear Wonder,

I just came back from our trip to Guilin. I wanted to thank you for all the services that were programmed for us. We enjoyed very much this trip. 

I would like to particularly underline the quality of the service provided by our guide Evelyn and the Driver Ms. Huang. They were always very professional and friendly, attentive to our needs and great facilitators with local people. Particularly Evelyn, shared with us lots of information, not only about local attractions, but also about the history and economic development of Modern China. She was really outstanding. I sincerely would recommend her for hosting visitors from Latin America. 

Looking forward to continue enjoying your services.  

Best regards,

Ofelia Cervantes

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 Isabel, 

All goes well and I am back home and over the jet lag.  

Regarding my China trip arranged through China Discovery, from start to finish, I was pleased with the entire experience.  

Thank you Isabel for making the arrangements and putting the pieces in place to make my trip a success. Your prompt responses to my inquires/requests and suggestions made the planning phase smooth.  Expediting the confirmation letter was especially important in getting a visa on time.

Upon arrival, I was met by the guide (Carina) and the Driver at the airport who remained with me for the duration of the trip.  While I realize that they were working, I am not used to such individualized attention and am appreciative of the time that they spent away from their homes and families to ensure that my time in Guilin~Yangshuo was carefree and memorable.  Please thank them for me.

The destinations were completely in line with my expectations. I especially enjoyed visiting the rice terraces in Longsheng and the memorable trip down the Li river.  Though the Pearl Museum was impressive (I learned a lot), it was not to my taste. The additional suggested excursions (Xijiangyuan Scenic Area and Two Rivers and Four Lakes Night Cruise) though, were well chosen and enjoyed very much by me. Weather prevented other optional activities (in Yangshuo) from taking place.

The guide and driver were punctual and professional.  My interaction with guide Carina was easy-going and enjoyable. She exhibits a genuine/natural and pleasant personality and was easy to talk to.  She was knowledgeable about the area's geography and especially the people.  She took care of every detail of my trip (without worry on my part). In fact, when the forecast or the actual weather was bad, Carina began to plan for contingencies.  The focus and attention to detail allowed me to relax knowing that she had everything under control.  When weather required adjustment of plans, she communicated options and recommended reasonable alternatives based on safety.  This was important since there were thunderstorms with lightening in the area and I love to hike.  After consultation, the final decision was made & documented, we proceeded to explore the area.

Should my travels take me back to the Guilin ~ Yangshuo area (strong possibility with my family in the near future with the expectation of a deep discount from China Discovery :)), I would definitely request Carina as a guide again.

The lodgings and food (sometimes a bit too much for one person) were in line with my expectations.  

Overall, the trip was a success due to good planning and excellent execution by the guide and driver.  I would definitely recommend this combination to friends.  

Life is what you make it.  Enjoy and be good to everyone you meet.

Best regards,

Lenny

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

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 Rita,

We had an amazing time in Guilin and the driver and the guide did a very good job.

Regarding the arrangement/offer for Beijing we would like to move.

Best regards

Urs

Hi Tiger,

In general, Guilin is very scenic and we enjoy the tour very much. We like the tourist spots at Li river, rice terrace, bamboo water rafting, silver rock cave and national park.

The hotels at Shangri-La, Lotus Green and Longji one art hotel are very nice and comfortable. Longi one art hotel is strongly recommended, next to rice terrace field, the views are fantastic.

The bus driver and the tour guide are very professional and knowledgeable. All the tour programme were properly arranged according to the itineraries.

Appreciate very much of your patient and advice on the proposed itineraries. Overall, it was a well organised tour. Hope we can join your company again for future China tour.  

(The following photo is shared by Steven)

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

Hi Wonder,

In Shanghai:
"I want to thank you for arranging a very good guide & driver in Shanghai. Both Rocky & Siao Ma are very efficient & caring, Rocky is very knowledgeable and very well verse about our Chinese history, very impressive. I highly recommend both of them."

In Huangshan:
"We had a wonderful time in Huangshan, we were brave to climb that mountain, even my husband did it, slowly, but we did it.  The Huangshan guide was excellent, the hotel you booked us was beautiful and people there were very friendly. Love the food too, especially bamboo shoot."

In Chengdu:

"What a pleasure to finally met you!! Meeting you was the highlight of my visit to China!! And thank you for taking us to dinner and given us such wonderful experience! The food was so tasty, the ambience was wonderful, my husband liked it very much! But the best part of all was having it with you! We enjoyed it enormously! This is such a memorable journey, and you helped made it happened Thank you for being so detail oriented; it is incredible for you being so young yet so thorough!

Yesterday we saw the Big Buddha at Ling Yun Mt, the weather was perfect and no crowd. We did not go down the stairs to the foot of the Buddha cause it really is too high and steep. Later we went to the Ebony Museum, what an amazing & massive collection! In the evening we went to see a show, it was the 4th show we saw,  one in Shanghai, one in Huangshan, one in Yangshou, and the best one here on Sichuan. It was almost 10:30 pm my time we got back to the hotel.

And this morning we had to wake up early for our 8 o'clock journey to Mt.Emei. We climbed the steeped & very wet steps, it was a little hard today because it was so cloudy and cold and the air is so thin on top! We did not walk down the mountain, instead, we rode the Sedan Chair! What an experience! We loved it. Those guys are so strong and fast!! "

Thank you.

Rosy

(The following photos are shared by Rosy)

Rosy and his family visited Chengdu in March

Rosy and his family visited Fenghuang Ancient Town

Rosy and his family visited Tulou in Nanjing County, Fujian

Rosy and his family visited Tulou in Li River, Guilin

Hi Wonder,

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

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

GUILIN:

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

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

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

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

KUNMING:

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

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

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

LIAJIANG:

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

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

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

JINGHONG:

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

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

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

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

Thank you for all of your assistance.

Kindest regards,

Paul Hamill

Hi Tiger !

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

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

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

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

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

We appreciated you calling to make sure everything was alright !

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

Thank you for everything!

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

Kindest regards and have a nice week-end !

Michèle

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 Olivia,

Brad and I have arrived safely back to the US.

Our trip was wonderful and we really enjoyed having Candice as our tour guide. We may have relatives visiting Guilin this year as well- would it be possible to request Candice for them if they book a tour with your company?

Thank you again,

Cheers,

Melissa

Hi Selina!

Greetings from snowy Idaho Falls!

We got about 20 cm of snow on Christmas, and everything is beautiful. 

We did not check our email while we were in China, so I did not know you had tried to contact us while we were there. Our trip was wonderful! Vivian, Linda, Jenny, and Candy all did an excellent job of taking care of us and answering our many questions. Each of these guides had a unique and pleasant personality. We thought of each of them as a good friend by the time we moved on to our next destination. I felt like Vivian in Shanghai was the "rock star" of the guides, while Craig felt that way about Linda in Guilin. Candy was exceptional in her attentiveness to all 3 of us. Jenny got us a free upgrade to an incredible room in our hotel in Xian. As far as accommodations go, they were also excellent. The food was excellent at all locations. We really enjoyed the variety of unique things to try.

Selina, it has been a great pleasure to work with you. You are an exceptional travel agent. All parts of our trip went very smoothly and everything was on time. All the concerns I had about visiting a country like China, where the culture is so different and so few people speak our language, disappeared when we arrived at the airport and met Vivian. Our guides really looked out for us and made us feel comfortable. I will miss our daily exchange of emails.  You really put together a great trip for us. Thank you.

Have a great 2015!

Karl

Hi Ian,

Thank you for organizing our trip in China; this was a great experience and we enjoyed the trip very much. My overall impression of the services provided is excellent. We had no issues with hotel reservations, flights, guides, etc. 

All our guides, especially those who we had a chance to spend more time with (Guilin, Chengdu, Lijiang, Zhangjiajie) were great. Always very accommodating, punctual and attentive. The drivers were good. The hotels in the big cities (Chengdu, Chongqing, Shanghai) were excellent.

Chongqing - Dazu Rock Carvings were a great suggestion. It was a little far, but well worth the trip.The Yangtze River Cruise accommodations, cruise and tours were great. The only letdown was that we passed one of the gorges in complete darkness so could not see anything at all. I am still glad I chose this cruise and got to see the Three Lesser Gorges. Also, on the cruise we paid extra to dine at a smaller dining room and based on what we heard from other travelers, this was a good option. The tours in Chengdu were great. We did not get to see the sunrise on Mt Emei, but the night we got there, it was crystal clear and no people. It was one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. Lijiang tours were great. I highly suggest Tiger Leaping Gorge for those that want a more active vacation - it's beautiful and peaceful. In Zhangjiajie we were able to visit Tianzi Mountain and Huangshi Village on the same day. We had enough time, but I suspect it was because we did not have to wait in long lines anywhere.

I also appreciate your prompt e-mails and your answers to all my questions during the entire time you were planning this trip and I appreciate you checking in with us a couple of times during our trip. It's been a pleasure working with you and I look forward using your services again some day when we visit China. I hope you find my comments useful. Please let me know if you would like me to go into more detail about any part of my trip.

Thank you and take care,

Zane

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