Xian Reviews - What Our Customers Say about Their Xian Tours

Hi Mr Wang,

Thanks! I had a weekend away to Xi’an, China to celebrate my birthday. It was an exciting weekend and it was certainly something off the beaten trail for most of my friends. The itinerary you have suggested provided good coverage of the city’s rich history. From the fascinating Terracotta Army to the City Walls to the sacred Mount Hua, to the Muslim Quarter to the Drum & Bell Towers, there’s an interesting story from every historical era in Xi’an. I managed to hike up Mount Hua from North Peak to West Peak, but I didn’t get to do the dangerous plank walk as it was closed.

The hotel Eastern House was very accessible too with food places within steps and its proximity to the Drum Tower is a plus. The room was very clean and comfortable.

At this point, I have to quickly mention our amazing tour guide Betty Jiao Yan who was assigned to us as part of our private tour package. She made our time feel so very special and I wonder if Xi'an would have been as awesome without her. She had such a positive and caring nature and when we had to say goodbye, we felt very sad. It was strange to miss a guide after only knowing her for 5 days! Luckily we still keep in touch on WeChat. Our driver Mr Ma was very polite, punctual and accommodating, making our travel a pleasant experience

Anne

Dear mr. Wonder Wang

We have arrived at Chengdu and met Kevin. He is wonderful.

We do have a very great time during our tour at Beijing and Xian. Jack and Jessie, both are amazing. Also many thanks for the whole amazing trip here.. hopefully, someday we can go back to China again.. your country is very beautiful and rich of history.. we do really love and enjoy it..

Diana

Hi Rita,

yes we’re back in Shanghai now. The trip was lovely. We had such a good time! Thank you for organising everything for us.

Kevin

Hi Wonder,

Thank you again for coordinating wonderful itinary seamlessly. My response to tour questions is under each question.

1. Yes. They provided very detailed answers and clarification to my questions in a timely manner. Also they facilitated abundant invitation letter so I could apply for and get China tour visa on my own without difficulty.

2. Every tour guide was kind, friendly, welcoming and informative. Especially guide at Dunhuang and Kashgar acted beyond my expectations and helped me solve problems with money exchange and airport check-in respectively.

3. Definitely. Only one thing I would like to note is that Kashgar Bazaar (typically sunday Bazaar) was no longer available in Kashgar.

Thanks in advance.

mija

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 Tracy,

I would like to thank you for arranging this trip which was truly appreciated. The services provided were excellent. All the guides and drivers were very professional and helpful. The Century Victory cruise can be rated top of the line. Will ask you to book our next trip in China again.

Best regards

Yu

Thanks Wing,

Thanks for your excellent services.

I actually have been meaning to email you to say thank you so much! We had the best time with Jamie and Angela. They were seriously great tour guides and made sure everything ran smoothly.

Of course we would love to answer the questions, have even been thinking to ask if we can book something for Shanghai but probably too late now! We are here for another week. When we come back to China we would definitely book with you again!. Have attached some pictures

Sara

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 Evelyn,

we thoroughly enjoyed the trip, and we’re so glad that we went with the China Discovery private tour. The tour quides weregreat, Jamie especially went above and beyond. Our favorite was the Great Wall, but they were all amazing.

Thank you so much

Maree

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

Dear Rita Jiang,

Thanks for your message. We have just landed back in Santiago and we are a bit "out" at the moment. We will come back again to you with some photos and more detailed comments. Now, just a summary: it was great, everything run smoothly and we are very happy to have arranged the travel with you. The problem with the hotel was just a human, understandable mistake and anyway it was arranged very promptly and well: the new room was also very good and the Maria´s guidance in Beijing was outstanding. The only "black spot" on the whole tour was the room in Shanghai: the hotel was great, very well located, breakfast very good, but the room they assigned to us was old, small and not in accordance to the hotel category. I think it was even small for a single person and the shower was just an old fixed thing inside the bathtube with cheap plastic courtains. I guess that is more a failure of the hotel itself, but we wanted to let you know. Anyway ,we had a very good time in Shanghai.

Jose

Dear Jack

Feedback as follow:

Hui Hui and I have returned to Singapore after the vacation in Chengdu and Xi'an. We wished to thank you and the local teams in both Chengdu and Xi'an for making our stay in both locations a relaxing and enjoyable one.

During our time in Chengdu, we were most impressed with the attentiveness and thoughtfulness of Ellen, the tour guide. Ellen paid careful attention to our preferences for meals and selected restaurants and dishes according to our tastes. She was also mindful if we were feeling tired and adjusted the programme accordingly. Ellen was superb in making sure we have the best view of the Pandas by taking us on different routes, avoiding the hoards of big tour groups. Ellen also made the extra effort to help find out more about certain locations which we casually enquired, providing us details of how to get there and return to return to the hotel. We were also very appreciative of the driver, who was always patient with us and always on-time at pick-up locations. He was especially careful with our safety, always ensuring that we hopped into and off the car safely.

Ben, the tour guide at Xi'an, impressed us with his enthusiasm when introducing the various sites. He was ever ready to share relevant information and was patient and tireless in answering all our queries. Ben was also very helpful in offering suggestions on spending our free & easy day in Xi'an. The driver in Xi'an added much laughter to our time in Xi'an, enriching our knowledge of Xi'an with many local fun-facts. He is a safe and skilful driver and helped to save us much time manoeuvring around the heavy traffic of Xi'an. We also appreciated very much the efforts of Ben and the local agency for making alternative plans within short notice when we requested to change the itinerary.

In summary, we had a good time in Chengdu and Xi'an. The itinerary and pace were just right for us, relaxed and not rushed. The local guides and drivers were excellent and we are happy with the selection of the hotels throughout the trip.

Thank you for helping to arrange this vacation for us. We look forward to more of such trips with China Discovery.

Cheng

Hi Tracy,

Everything’s been great! Thanks for checking in ☺ I think I overdid my own itinerary. We’re exhausted everyday! It’s all been worthwhile; we’re loving every moment.

Tia

Hi Tracy.

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

Lori

Hello Rita!

We have received your gift and the postal card!! That was so nice of you, and pandas so cute, thank you so much!

We are having an amazing trip so far. Thank you for that as well!

Best regards,

Javier and Leyre

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 Wing,

Feedback as follows.

1. Our consultant from China Discovery- Ms Wing Zeng provided excellent service and responded promptly with our enquiries. Ms Wing Zend always provided detailed advice and suggestion to ensure our visit to China was successful.

2. The tour arrangements and Ms Wing Zeng local knowledge of the worthwhile attractions ensured we visited tourist sites that showcased China.

3. We can Highly recommend China Discovery as tour consultants and also highly recommend Ms Wing Zeng as a consultant

4. Discovery China provided a first class service and acted professionally at all times.

Brian

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

Rita,

Thank you for the Silk Road Tour. We family and I have thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

My wife and I have just reflected it was also the first time the flights were not subject to any delay or cancellation. Great planning and insight on your part.

Best Regards,

Richard

Hi Rita

Thank you, the tour was amazing.

Am in Taiyuan now for a wedding & return to Sydney on Thursday.

May I forward this and photos to you when I return, please?

Kind regards

David

Hello Rita,

Thank you for helping us organise the whole trip. We have mostly enjoyed it.

Berlinda

Hi Wonder Wang,

Yes the tour was great, Woldener was such aknowledgeable. Tour guides and so so nice! Always madesure I had a good spot at the Terracotta Army and the food places he selected were just wonderful! The show was so amazing, I will never forget! Already will think about when to come back to China forthe next vacation!!

Thank you for quickly organizing a replacement, and I amvery happy all turned out great in the end! Kind regardsHanna

Elisa

Hello Tracy,

Hello Tracy, I left a completed feedback sheet with Ben, I can do another one for you if you wish, no problem.. We are very pleased with the service.

Gerard

Hello Leo

I have just come back to Brisbane.

Thank you very much for organizing such an enjoyable trip for us. I have been to China many times, this is the best trip for me.

The hotels were very good (except for maybe 1). The food was excellent and the guides were very friendly, knowledgeable and patient with us.

The places the guides took us to were very interesting and beautiful...full of history.

I would like to say a special thank you to the guides who made our trip so enjoyable...

Joe - very knowledgeable, patient and looked after us very well.

Ben - helped us get porridge when a few of us were sick with food poisoning.

Frank - loved his humour and knowledge of Lanzhou. Also very helpful with helping us use the washing machine on the last day.

Sally - she is so helpful and made sure we were warm. Also very helpful in rearranging pour trains to Jiayuguan.

Aisha - very good knowledge about the places went and arranged good food for us.

Siddiq - very helpful, good sense of humor and we enjoyed his company very much.

Cathy is also very good and knowledgeable, very passionate about being a guide. She gave us good tips on how to go to the nearby market in Dunhuang and Turpan.

Once again, thank you very much Leo and thank you to China Discovery for such a memorable trip.

Adrian

Hi, Ms.Wing Zeng,

sorry to reply till now, as follows:

(1) Is your travel consultant of our company fast enough to answer your E-mail and patient enough to answer your questions?
Generally, the answer to my email is fast enough except for weekends for instance when the consultant seems not to be working. As for patience, no problem, we discuss the issues concerned at lengths until it is “solved” one way or the other.

(2) How do you comment your tour arrangements?
Well, the travel plans are created successively as the time goes by, mainly from the customer side. It undergoes quite many changes , even big one (like changing South Xinjiang plan to North Xinjiang plan) and/or at the late stage of the planning discussion to take into account other unexpected issues like the air plane schedule. Some arrangements e.g. those from Shanxi part are mainly taken from your company’s template offering until later when we are adding Hukou Waterfall to it as “it is on the way to Xi’an”.

(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?
From the practical experience with the tour guides you are providing, it shows the difference with other trave company’s offering. Keep on using good tour guide to make the travelers happy.

T.H.Go

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

Hi Jack,

My Review as follows:

Unforgettable China Journey with Outstanding Organization!

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

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

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

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

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

Viren

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,

Overall, my trip and travel to China from 9/1/23 - 9/17/23 was very nice and satisfying.

Thank you all for the travel arrangements, especially the Yangtse Cruise.

I am now already back in Los Angeles USA. Hopefully, I will be able to travel to China again next time.

Thank you so much.

Madiana L.

Hi Leo

still not adjusted but should be 90% in a few days, on the local guides no complaints, top three Jamie Wang Beijing total knowledge of Chinese history asked him tough questions he gave honest answers , number 2 Seven Shanghai again total knowledge , we became friends, number 3 Sarah Chengdu so young and enthusiastic cares 100% wish we could have spent more time with her. On hotels you made very good choices only one I would change was the Intercontinental Tibet which my wife wanted to stay in , problem far from center of town, we chose not to do some sites because we had seen before on previous trips, that’s what great about private tours we can change itinerary, Leo you provided great service thank you.

Gene

Hi Tracy

Hotel- we loved the size of rooms, swimming pool and staff were very friendly

Driver- very smooth driving

Guide- very knowledgeable! 1 small thing I have to criticise is his photo taking technique is not that good.

We enjoyed of course Terracotta Army but kids really enjoyed making terracotta! Really good experience!

Schedule was perfect!

Finally thank you for organising perfect holiday!

Aya

Hello Leo,

For the guides all were great. Knowledgeable and helpful. One snag was our flight from Urumuji guide misread the flight we were to be on . I told her the correct one but we were directed to an earlier one Ted 8.25 instead of 9.55. Small matter. We just had to check out very early . Most highly recommended. Drivers were fine, patient and know their routes.

Sights were interesting and well arranged. Lunch mist did they best to meet to our requests. Hotels all ok. Grand Mercure was the best.Kashgar’s if it was one of the best was very chaotic especially at breakfast time.

That’s all.

Regards,

Ms Ong

Hi Leo,

I'm so sorry it has taken me this long to be in touch.

I have been travelling around Asia and Europe since the middle of June and have finally returned to work in the UK.

First of all, I would like to thank you so very much. Your planning of my trip was absolutely impeccable. The hotels were absolutely fantastic, the locations were brilliant and the service in all hotels was also great. The only one which was a little out of the way was in Shanghai, although for me it was perfect.

The tour guides were brilliant in all 3 locations I visited and their knowledge was excellent. The drivers were always on time and did their utmost to make me feel comfortable and hydrated in the heat!! I do think next time i come to China i will come in the spring or autumn when it is a little cooler!!

I am going to leave a trip advisor review for you and your amazing tour company. I have already told my friends and family and my parents are now thinking of planning a trip!

Leo, thank you so much. I have travelled the world and I can categorically tell you China was my favourite country of them all and I will be back!!

My kindest regards and I will be in touch in the future for another trip.

Jack

Dear Mr. Wang,

My trip was excellent and perfectly organised. Travel consultant was prompt in replying to my emails and patient enough to answer all my questions. Whole trip just happened exactly as per itinerary shared in advance. Tour guide was excellent, speaking fluent English, with excellent knowledge of the sites visited and able to give detailed explanations on all of my questions. Driver was very professional, his driving during the entire trip was pleasant despite heavy traffic through XiAn city.

Velimir

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 Rita,

We had some really good time with Suti, Lee and Shane. Ladies were very nice and helpful. Tours were well organized. Especially many thanks to Shane for using her car to pick us up from train station in Luoyang and to bring us back. I think taxi would be very confusing for us due to many reasons. Also, it seems best to recommend Ali Pay app for payments. I hope this helps.

Predrag

Hi Wonder,

I apologize for the late response, I am continuing my travels in china with close friends and very busy.

1) You were amazing. I was very impressed by how quickly you responded and adjusted the tour to my requests. Perfect service from you!

2) Both tour guides were good, very friendly and flexible to suggestions and shared lots of good knowledge. Both also did very well with English. Bruce especially was very good in Xi'an!

3) Yes, absolutely. Very good experience with you.

I can send some photos at a later time if you would like.

Justin

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

Dear Zeva,

We had a wonderful time in Beijing as well! Besides the rainy days and hot day we enjoyed the tour. It was a very well planned tour and very interesting! My favorite was the Forbidden city!

Linda as a great guide, knowledgeable and understanding as I was traveling with teenagers. She was also very happy to help with other thinks like dinner reservations and other recommendations. Very nice!

Now we are looking forward to Beijing!

Thank you very much for the treats and additional items for the tour. The lama temple was worth visiting and we enjoyed the boat ride at the summer palace.

I am glad we came early as the Air Asia checkin line was extremely long and disorganized. We just made it to the gate on time for boarding!

Thanks again!

Giovanna

Hello Zeva,

We enjoyed our first visit to Xi’an and Bruce was wonderful! Very knowledgeable, enthusiastic and his English was great! We also very much appreciated the driver and the good car with air conditioning, as it was extremely hot!!

Now we are looking forward to Beijing!

Giovanna

Hi Rita,

Thank you for checking. Yes, unfortunately our flight was delayed for too long and we have missed our connection to Sydney. We can’t leave until tonight. Not a great way to end our time in China, but not much we can do about it.

On a positive note - we had the most wonderful time on our holiday!!! Everything you organised was just perfect - from the program, to the guides, to the accommodation. You managed to fit in all of the things on our 'bucket list’ and we loved every moment. All of the guides were very knowledgable about their local area and so passionate and welcoming! I cannot express in words how fantastic our trip was. So, thank you, thank you, thank you.

We will definitely recommend you to our family and friends!

Warm Regards,

TONI

Dear Tracy,

Up to now everything worked perfectly. Thank you for all your support.

All was good in Xian.N ancy met us in Yichang, and so did the guide in Xi’an, who - good surprise - speaks a very good Italian (he is a long time teacher at the local university, and an archeologist).

Gift received and appreciated: many many thanks from my wife (and me). The best gift has been your perfect organisation of our trip: we encountered no problem at all: I will give your reference to my friends when they plan to visit China.

Everything was OK in China, so we are very happy to have been there, and I thank you for your help; specifically, we must say that everything you planned went ok.

Giorgio Garuzzo

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

Hi Rita,

we are having good time here. Jessie is very knowledgeable and showing us all things local. She is very helpful too. We loved Huashan very much! Thanks for the coordination. Highly recommended your company to my friends if they travel to China

Shirley

Hi Rita,

Out to airport now. Thx u for arranging the trip. Have a wonderful day.

Karuna

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

Good Morning Tracy,

Now we are back in the UK, back to work and nearly back to normal.

What a time we had in China. I would like to thank you and your amazing team for a wonderful time and experience. The team looked after us so well. Our holiday even though it was a hundred miles an hour was exciting, informative and we really enjoyed it. We experienced lots of new tastes, culture and knowledge.

I would like to say a massive thank you to Fang Fang, who looked after us at the beginning. Her knowledge, detailing & looking after us was exceptional. Nothing was too much trouble for her. Please say a massive thank you for the way she looked after us.

I would highly recommend yourselves as a travel company for any one thinking of venturing to your amazing country and last but not least a hugh thank you to you Tracy for your help all along the way in making our adventure truly rememberable and amazing. Thank you Tracy.

Lots of regards and love

Angela

Hi Tracy ,

We have left Xi’an and Jessie.

Thank you for arranging the trip. It was great and my father is very happy that we managed to see the Terracotta Army.

I want to personally express my satisfaction with Jessie. She is an exceptional guide with a tremendous knowledge of Xi’an, great humour and a really great person.

Her ability to adapt to small and big changes made this trip go smoothly.

Therefore my highest recommendation to her and a 5 out of 5 ⭐

I’m sure we will talk again soon.

Troels

Hi Tracy ,

I hope you are well. I have just left a review.

We finally got home safe though already early in the morning. Thank you again for organizing this wonderful journey for us!

Thanks so much for all your work and also to the wonderful guides. They were great. I will highly recommend you and your company.

Have a lovely evening and best wishes,

Paula

Hello Wing,

The tour was excellent. Timo and Zhou were excellent guides and drivers.

1. Without hesitation we would recommend your company.

2. Your service was exceptional.

3. We are already planning to visit Inner Mongolia later this year. We’ll be in touch. Thanks Dave and Debbie

Dear Vivien,

Happy Chinese New Year. The trip was really nice. Our family enjoyed it.

Dear Vivien!

Thank you very much for our tour! We'd like to express our particular gratitude for our guide Bruce who has demonstrated excellent professional skills and assistance The only thing that surprised us was the location of the breakfast restaurant (in another building), but everything else was perfect. Thanks again!

Hi Vivien,

Okay, thanks for an amazing trip, we will definitely be doing more traveling with you.

Elisa

Hi, good evening Wonder,

trip was fine..although we could'nt see wild goose pagoda and the musoleneum..the wall and old city part were great.

Roy

Rita,

The trip to Xi’an was incredible. The activities were perfect and the guide was great and knowledgeable. His English was very good. We had a wonderful driver who stayed with us and had a very nice and comfortable car.

I will definitely contact you for my next trip. Thank you again for the flexibility in changing plans a few times.

Adrienne

Hi Jack,

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

Christelle

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 Johnson,

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

Cameron

Hi Zeva,

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

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

Tiffany

Hi Johnson,

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

Things to improve upon:

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

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

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

Regards.

Cameron

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

Beatriz

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

Lisa

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

Matthew

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

Cameron

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

Kylie

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

Tessa

Hi 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.

Hi Rita. Thank you for arranging our trip!

We had a wonderful day. Thank you!!

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 Johnson,

We are really enjoying Xi’an, Timo and Bruce have been great, thanks for asking! We will certainly reach out if we need anything, thanks for the offer!

Hi Johnson! The Grottoes are amazing and so is the Fuxi temple. So glad this was on our itinerary!

Yes the hotel did check the Covid test. We are also not able to get the Gansu green code because it is setup for the Chinese ID, but they did take the travel code (the one with the arrow). They definitely wanted the most information of any place we’ve encountered! Including residence in shanghai and future travel plans. But David did a great job. If we came back we would definitely add a day to take the tram and wander around the river! It’s a cool place.

We had a marvelous time on our trip! Thank you so much.

Could I ask you to send us a personal Fapaio? Thanks again!

Alex and Steve

Hi Wonder,

The trip to Xian and Luoyang was great. It helped us to know what to expect on the long trip and what to prepare. Excellent: drivers, guides & tours. The arrangements were efficient and timings good. We enjoyed the balance between tours and rest. The hotels were good. Only 1 disappointment: we could not keep the entry tickets to the Warriors. Kai explained the reason but I wish we had known. Those tickets were important souvenirs for us so we would have paid to avoid Kai having to use the ticket to claim the expense. Thoughts for the next trip: we will need the guides help to get food for the meals not catered for in the trip. For example, on the river cruise where can we buy food/snacks? Will there be a shop and restaurants on board? Will all the hotels have a kettle to boil water? And finally, could you tell me if any of the hotels have a swimming pool or gym facilities? These are not essential so it's ok if not but we will pack according.

Gillian

Good morning Jack,

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

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

Hi Tracy,

It was good. Bruce was knowledgeable and helpful. Car was good and the driver was driving safe. Terracotta Army was a great experience. We also went to the Han yangling. That was ok but no must-see. Thanks

Hello Vivien,

Going very well. Thanks!

Jeremy

Hi Vivien,

Xi’an was very nice. But I think two days enough. Good weather.

Thank you, was very nice location, definitely worth visiting it.

Hi Vivien, and I skipped the boat tour and went on the mountain, very nice. I can recommend. Nearly no clouds.

Yes, as an option. You even don’t have to climb, the view from the top station is already perfect.Pictures are taken from there.

Hi Vivien, sorry for writing late. We came home yesterday late and did some washing and housework today. Thanks again for the very nice trip. We got lots of positive feedback from our friends and some are considering to visit Xinjiang as well. Thanks again and have a good night.

Thank you Vivien and I know you will look after our friends trips, that’s why I can recommend you without any doubts.

Thomas

Vivien,

We have arrived in Sanya and are on the way to our resort.  Thank you for arranging the very helpful guide and driver this morning. They were professional and prompt.  

Do you have a feedback form that I should complete or would you like me to write something in my own words?

I must tell you, the cruise was amazing!  I have never felt so much like a queen as I did on the cruise.  The staff was unbelievable, the accommodations were excellent by my western-standards, and the activities were splendid! Nobody wanted to leave the cruise!!  

The two boys enjoyed the unlimited “mocktails” drink package and flying kites on the sundeck.  The two girls enjoyed the “mocktails” and the variety of relaxing spaces on the ship.  Sometimes they wanted to relax in the Executive Lounge, sometimes they wanted to do karaoke.  It was wonderful that the children had easy access to any place in board that they might have an interest.

As you know, we already recommended you to my friend Sylbeth. We will continue to recommend your services.  If we have time for one more vacation before leaving China, we will definitely arrange it through you.

Thank you,

Wendy

Hi Vivien,

Wonderful! Sandy is a great guide. It's been a real pleasure.

We've just returned from our Chengdu-Xi'an trip. Thank you for such a wonderful tour.  

We are already looking toward our next trip.  We'd like to travel to Beijing from April 30 - May 3.  

We really like the "4 Days Beijing Family Tour with Kids Fun" itinerary, with some changes - Like removing the Beijing zoo and hutongs on the fourth day and instead moving Temple of Heaven to that day.  

Can we work on this trip with you, or should we request through the website again?  Thank you.

Hi Wendy,

Everything was great!!

Hi Wendy,

Yes, we got connected rooms today. Everything is fine here. The numbers of travellers we are not able to control. We didn’t expect to be alone. Ellen did a super job today, guiding us around Chengdu and the Panda “park”. We are now filled up with fantastic memories from the last four day.

One day tour of Xi’an China

Having had a great experience using Chengdu Bamboo International Tours to explore the Yunnan province, we only felt it was right to do so a second time when touring Xi’an.

Our organizer Riley was extremely efficient and accommodating, linking us with Waldner, our tour guide in Xi’an. With an effortless decorum and compelling attitude, he took me to visit the Great Wall and the Muslim quarter on a half day expedition.

Then, one the second day, my husband and I went to see Emperor Qin’s Terracota warriors, the highlight of our trip!  An absolute must-see.

We enjoyed the explanations and funny antidotes Waldner shared along the way. He was timely and communicative, spoke excellent English and had a deep understanding of a history and culture so unique to our own.

We would definitely recommend this service to anyone looking to explore China.

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.

Hello Wonder!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks for checking in!

Take care, 

Keena (and Mark)

Hi Riley,

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

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

Dear Rita,

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

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

Hi Riley,

Thank you! The Great Wall was phenomenal.

Good morning Tracy,

I just want to tell you that we had a great trip. Our guide Timo is the best guide we have had. He made this trip perfect with his nice personality, very good English and his very good knowledge about everything. His choice of lunch and dinner places was perfect. He took really good care of us! Thank you for all your support. Everything went without any problems.

Hi Tracy!

Thanks for the excellent arrangement for our trip to Xian and Louyang.

I will gladly share some positive feedback on trip advisor, please send the link to secure I will give feedback on right place

Best regards Per

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

Here below are the questions for you: 

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

      Yes

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

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

3.     Would you like to recommend our company? 

 Yes, definitely.

Thanks,

Cynthia 

Hi Wonder,

Thanks for everything! The tour was great! We really enjoyed it!

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

Thanks Mike;

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

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

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

Best Wishes,

Rick

Dear Wing,

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

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

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

Sincerely,

Deborah and Steve

Dear Wing Zeng,

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

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

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

Thank you again for all your kindness.

Take care and stay safe and well.

Regards,

John

Dear Vivien Li,

thanks for your email. I have a good memory of China which I think is one of the countries that I liked most today for the courtesy of its inhabitants and the tourist beauties, as well as being one of the most advanced in the world.

You have dealt with the coronavirus problem seriously and with determination and you can be an example for many other countries.

In Europe we are not as good as you but we hope that our politicians will learn from you.

I hope everything will pass and I will still have the opportunity to visit your beautiful country.

Mario

Dear Wing,

So sweet of you to get in touch. It's a very difficult time for everyone. I'm glad you are returning to some normality in China. We are so lucky to have taken and enjoyed our trip last year.

Wishing you continued good health and luck for the coming year.

Kind regards

Tamesha

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

Hello Vivien,

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

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

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

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

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

Sincerely,

Chris & Jude

Yanny,

Thank you for your concern and the information on how to prevent catching COVID-19. Myself and Ping are both ok at this stage and I hope we stay this way. I hope you and your family are all ok. China has lead the way on how to deal with this pandemic. We need to learn from your experience. Australia has been a bit slow to take action however it is happening now. I'm sure we will get through this OK and I am looking forward to have another holiday in China when everything is back to normal.

Regards,

Steve and Ping

My very Dear Wing Zeng,

I very often thought to You in the last months…but I was afraid to write to You. So now I AM VERY HAPPY TO HEAR AGAIN FROM YOU !!!

How do You do? Are You well? And Your Dears, and Your Family are all well?

What all You Chinese People did in this period  is something heroic …and now that You are almost free from the virus, and You almost won this terrible

battle匶ou already and immediately started to help us: THANK YOU, You are GREAT ! !

Thank You as well for Your attachment, now I will forward it to all the people I know, and we all will follow Your advices.

Here in Italy we are in a very bad time, specially in the North of Italy : we Italian are a strange Nation : most of us are following strictly the advices of the Goverment,

and stay home in order to avoid the contagion, but someone goes around the streets like nothing happened….

Well, let’s look to the future, hoping to see it!

Grazie, mia Cara Amica Cinese,

I and my Family just love You and Your People.

Carlo

Hi Echo,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thank you for a wonderful trip.

Hallo Lily,

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

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

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

Cheer up!

Franca Bergoglio

Lily,

You were definitely correct in getting us to leave China right away. We did not want to leave as we were really enjoying the trip you had arranged for us.But it was correct to leave.

I am now trying to claim part of our flight back to Canada. To make this claim could you please send me:

1) A letter stating that our trip was terminated on January 25 when we were in Tiger Leaping Gorge and the reason why ( Because of coronavirus and the towns of Lijiang and Dali our next two stops were being closed and other parts of China were going to close soon). So we were advised to end trip, get back to Shanghai and leave China immediately.

2) Letter should include both my husband's and my full name

3) Letter should include our itinerary number

4) Needs to be on official paper

5) Include your name and contact information

If you could send this as soon as possible, it would be appreciated.

Again thanks for getting us out of China and also for arranging a great trip.

Hi Wendy,

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

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

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

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

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

Hi Vivien,

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

Dear Ms Zeng,

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

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

Here are my comments about the tour in more detail:

Xi’an 

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

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

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

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

Beijing

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

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

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

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

Shanghai

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

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

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

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

So overall I was very happy with the tour 

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

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

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

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

Thank you again for organising the tour, Ms Zeng

Best wishes,

Chris

Hi Wendy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dimity Simes

Hi Wendy,

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

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

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

Thank you,

Ann

Hi Jack

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

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

Thanks and regards

Sandeep

Hi Mike,

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

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

Thanks again, and Happy New Year.

Rick Valek

Dear Rita,

Welcome New Year 2020 , I hope we all become more successful and always healthy ...

I will write the comments soon

Tks Brgds/ Feisy

Hi Jack

Took us a couple of days to get back to normal here

Both tours were amazing

We all agreed that Zhangjiajie is one of the most amazing places we have ever been

Beautiful scenery, unbelievable landscapes and basically incredible sights and attractions

Disappointed we missed the Fairy Fox show, but that was just timing

Xian was equally as interesting and to spend our Christmas Day with the Terracotta Warriors was a Christmas to remember

Both guides were brilliant and very knowledgeable

Thanks again for arranging this for us and I have already been passing China Discovery details on to others and will continue to do so

Hi Mark, 

Thank you for your email follow up. 

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

1. How’s the hotel and meals?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Certainly a Yes. 

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

Jeslyn

Hi Mark,

Happy New Year!

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

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

1. How’s the hotel and meals?

Hotels were very good.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kind Regards,

Hi Echo

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

Julia

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

Hi Lyn

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

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

Hello Wing,

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

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

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

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

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

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

 YES

Hi Leo

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Regards

Jacqueline

Wonder

Thank you for the Christmas greetings. Thanks for your help. We had a very unforgettable experience during our stay there. Warm regards.

Emilie

Hi Leo,

Upon arrival at Chengdu, we were greeted at Airport by the guide and driver and driver to Hotel. In it our next 2 days itinerary was explained and confirmed . After day 1, it was decided that instead of climbing Leshan Budha, we should consider taking the boat ride which is less demanding and we opted for that. Day 3 was our free day and I googled for things to do and end up going for Global Mall & one old tourist street within the city vide subway. Day 4 was our trip vide train to Xian and we we were taken by our guide to the station and after some 4 hours plus we were greeted by another guide in Xian. Our itinerary in Xian only involved one day guided tour to the terracotta warriors and Muslim quarters ( which we spend almost every day as our hotel is within walking distance) . All in all, it was a good holiday . Chengdu is modern and clean and Xian is historical , I wonder why there is very little organized tour on both cities .

About the guided tour, both our guide in Chengdu and Xian can speak good enough English but we converse mostly in Mandarin , I guess the only reason I ended up with China discovery was because I search tour sites in English as my chinese is not good enough to web-search and write in chinese  and I guess that most of the customer would be non chinese speaker.  I am an experience traveler and I always took my family to new places on my own and prior to my holiday I would plan all the logistic . In places like Japan and Korea, I usually opt for  separate day trip to  places where public transport is logistically troublesome , I either hire guide for a day or limo service for certain trip or  took the single day package , usually vide Viator.

My only reservation is the costs, all in all,  china discovery charge me RMB 12k plus for 3 days of guided tour and 4 transfers (hotel to air port of train station) , I am not sure how much saving I would get if I attended all transfer myself although I think getting the train ticket can be troublesome for outsider like myself. Anyhow, I think it is better to make contact at Air-port compare to meeting at Hotel Lobby the next day. For the record, this is my 3rd time using China Discovery. I was on my own in Beijing (private guide)  - Tianjing (taxi driver as guide)  and Xiamen holiday.

Quah

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

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

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

Wing - 

Thank you very much for the emails and I apologize for the delay. First off let me say that we have traveled to over 30 countries with our children and this trip was among the best organized we have experienced.  The people were extremely welcoming throughout China and it all started with us working with you at China Discovery.  We knew that November is not the ideal month to travel due to the colder weather but that did not detract us from a wonderful vacation.  Here are some additional answers for you below:

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

Your services were exceptional! I appreciate your prompt responses to our questions and you were always willing to help. Since I have returned from China, I have already spoken with someone who is interested in touring China next year and I have strongly recommended that they ask for you: Wing Zeng at China Discovery for support. 

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

That is difficult to say. All tour guides we experienced spoke English very well and we enjoyed their company. Typically the tour guide is vital to the success of the vacation and we liked all them all which made everything great - Special thanks to our guide in Yichang who found an incredible restaurant on the way to the Yichang restaurant / The food we had was wonderful.

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

Without a doubt! I will always recommend China Discovery and recommend they specifically ask for Wing Zeng. 

Please send this to the leaders of your company.  Thanks again and let me know if you have any further questions. 

Rob

Hi Rita!

Today was a little colder, but everything is fine and the baby is doing well! We spent the day in Xian today also. We thought our tour yesterday was going to see the Terracota Warriors (our mistake!),so we took the day today to do that.

Thank you for everything! And also, I'd like to say that both our guides, in Chengdu and Xian, were great! They took very good care of us, were very patient and understanding, and helped a lot more than expected! As usual, the service was top notch.

I'm sending some photos attached. And be sure that we will post good reviews!

Sincerely,

Luis

Hi Yanny,

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

respectfully

Alon

Hi Rita,

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

Security: 

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

Comfortablity: 

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

Special Thanks: 

To you and team for organising . 

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

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

Best Attraction out 5 which we felt the Best 

1. Zhangjiajie

2. Xian

3. Beijing 

4. Shanghai

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

Once Again

Thank you soo much. 

Harika

Hi Echo,

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

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

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

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

Thanks again for a wonderful trip!

Regards,

Alanna Wong

Dear Echo,

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

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

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

It was a pleasure doing business with you and China Discovery

Best wishes

Russell & Anne

Dear Mark,

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

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

Best regards,

Jenny Tan

Hi Wendy,

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

Thanks again!

Jamie

Dear Ms. Wing Zeng,

Yes, I am back home and back to work, although still trying to recover a bit from the time change. I have answered your questions below and you are welcome to use my input on your website. I have not yet downloaded my trip photos, but will be happy to share some when I do. I also plan to do a very complimentary TripAdvisor review in the near future.

Thank you again for all of your help in setting up my two tours - I enjoyed them both very much.  And my apologies for getting everyone so excited during my mountain tour, but please know that I still had a great time while everyone else was worrying!

Finally, please extend my sincere thanks once again to Crystal, and to Mary for her kind gift and for arranging a car to the airport for my Sunday departure. It was very generous of her and much appreciated. Plus my wife loves the tea pot/tea cup!

Best Regards,

Neil Berryman

Hi Tracy,

We have a wonderful times on this Xian trip. Our guide, Kelly, is very exceptional and knowledgeable. She took good care all of us .

I will definitely recommend your company to any of our friends who interest in exploring China on a small group and we will definitely use your company for our next China trip.  

Please say thanks to Kelly from all of us. She made our trip enjoyable and memorable.  

Thanks again and hope to use your company in the near future.

Regards,

Sak

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

Hello Leo,

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

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

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

Good luck and thank you,

Best regards,

Dear Riley

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

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

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

Best regards

Dear Lyn Wang,

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

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

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

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

Thanks again for a Job Well Done.

Bet wishes, 

Joseph

Hi Ashley! 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

Dear Wing Zeng,

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

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

It is GREATLY appreciated.

Regards,

Hi Wonder,

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

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

Many thanks for all your help.

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

Hello Yanny,

Thanks for the tour planning and sorry for my delayed response.

The tour arrangement was very professional,

I will recommend the tour service to my friend if they come to China.

Our general opinion is that the travel tour is very organized and has much experience on organizing tour.

Attached are some of the picture we took during our travel

Best regard,

Taking a Selfie with the Terracotta Warriors

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

Dear Wing Zeng, 

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

Did you receive them?

A Tripadvisor recommendation will follow soon.

Best regards,

Beijing & Xian

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tips :

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

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

VPN : Buy it to stay connected.

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

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

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

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

China fascinates.

Dear Jack,

Globally, the participants were very satisfied of the trip

Everything was on time and organization without any problem

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

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

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

The visits were well orgarnized and very interesrting

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

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

I shall send some pictures in another mail

Bests regards

Hi Wendy,

I hope you had a good National Week.

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

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

Many thanks,

Dear Johnson,

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

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

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

2.    How do you comment your tour arrangements?

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

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

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

4.  Your general opinion on us?

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

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

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

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

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

Of course.

Our China Trip in Beijing, Xian, Shanghai

Hello Catherine,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Regards,

Hi Mark,

Please see our feedback below:

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

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

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

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

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

Increíble guides and choferes too!!

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

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

4. Of course I will send pictures

I will write in Trip advisor and recommend specially you mark

You were so kind with us all the time

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

Increíble increíble trip!!!

Enjoy Our Time in Beijing and Xian

Hello Mr Li

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We would be pleased to recommend China Discovery

Best regards

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

Echo,

I finally have the time to say how thankful Valerie and I are to you for putting together a wonderful excursion.

Everything went very smoothly and we would certainly recommend you and China Discovery to our friends.

Ruby and Waldner were very knowledgeable about Chengdu and Xi’an and the places we visited. Both spoke very good English which made Valerie and I very comfortable. They were particularly very helpful at the airports and train stations.

The drivers also were very helpful and skilled.

You did a great job in selecting the Hotels and setting up the logistics of meeting with the guides.

I would like to let your supervisor know what a wonderful job you and the guides did.  If you send me a name an email address I will let them know 

Sincerely

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

Hi Echo,

Greetings from Michigan!

I will do my best to send photos from each city we’ve visited. Here is Xian.

I will send the survey after I’ve sent all photos.

Thanks much for the excellent service.

Best regards

Travel Xian with Family

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...

Hi Wonder,

我们昨晚平安回家了！这一路多亏了Bruce 和陈师傅，在中秋节假期和滂沱大雨的周末，开了一辆9人座的大车，带着我们游遍西安甚至一路到壶口！谢谢你的安排！

Hi Lily

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

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

Regards,

Dear Ashley,

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

which we received on arriving home.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Hilton Capital suite was also a welcome surprise.

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

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

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

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

Hi Vivien,

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

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

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

Beijing

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

Xi'an

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

Shanghai

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

Aloha Echo,

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

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

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

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

Thank you very much!

Hi Tracy

All ok at X’ian. Our guide Carla very available. In Beijing too. Now we are in airport for the flight. Your country and your people very beautiful.

We liked everything, it was a beautiful, comfortable journey with excellent organization.

We will advertise your agency

Hi Zoe,

Just leaving for XiAn. Linda our guide was everything we could ask for. Awesome person and excellent knowledge. Our driver and Linda did a tremendous, top quality job. Hope the guide in xian is half as good. Thanks

Tim

Howdy! 

We are leaving china today to Japan. We enjoyed our stay here. It is a mind boggling, and amazing country.  So many many people here.  Our drivers did an excellent job on getting us to the tour sites. Linda and zoey were great guides, but my daughter says no one is better than Linda. She is the tour guide master!  Nothing in the tour we would changed. Very pleased and we thank you.

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 Lyn

Thank you very much for your great organisation of our trip, we had a fantastic time and the guides were very knowledgeable, especially Mr Pippo in Tibet. We haven't sorted our photos as yet but will send some when we do. My only comment would be to include in the itinerary the need to change trains in Xining when travelling from Xian to Lhasa - our guide had mentioned this but was not correct about the time - so this was a surprise to us when everyone got off the train 2 hours before we were expecting it.

Thank you again for a wonderful trip.

Kind regards

Dear Johnson, 

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

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

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

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

Hi Leo,

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

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

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

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

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

Overall an excellent and memorable trip

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

Thanks

Hi Leo,

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

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

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

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

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

In short, my fears were unfounded.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Our Customized China Trip

Hello Zoe,

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

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

Thank you so much,

Hi Wonder,

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

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

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

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

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

3.     Would you like to recommend our company?

Most definitely. 

Thank you for all your help, Wonder.

You are very helpful.

Hi Wendy,

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

Kindly find our reply to your questions below.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hope the above helps.

Thank you again for the great service and memorable trip.

Best regards

Good morning Lily.

My family had reached KL safely and is on our way taking bus to go back home in Johor state. Again, many thanks for the excellent arrangement for us to have a nice stay in Chengdu and Xian. We had enjoyed the nice sight seeing and histories of our old ancient cities, as a Chinese. Hope that the tips paid to the tour guides and drivers are to their satisfactory.

Good morning Livia,

Well we are now home after spending 3 days in Sydney after our China tour.

Very very happy with our trip to see the Warriors our driver who picked us up from the hotel was great, he helped us go through the train station and was there to pick us up to take us back to the hotel.

We spoke to Shirley prior to leaving the hotel she was extremely helpful.

The train trip was excellent very comfortable.

When we got to Xian Carrie was waiting for us, what a lovely young lady she made us feel most welcome.

Cannot remember the drivers name but he was very good.

We had a wonderful time seeing the Warriors. Carrie was excellent with the knowledge of the Warriors. It was lovely spending the time with her, she took us to a very nice restaurant for lunch the food was delicious.

Then it was time for our return journey back to Zhengzhou, Carrie took us through the station.

We highly recommend your company for the ease of the booking and how everything just went so smoothly.

Could not of done this tour without you.

Many thanks

In Front of Terra-Cotta Warriors Museum

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

2. Judy - Zhangjiajie

3. April - Shanghai

4. Kelly - Xi'an

5. Randy - Beijing

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

Best regards,

Hi 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

Hi Catherine:

This is Susan Lee. Thank you for organizing my trip to China (Chengdu, Tibet and Xi'an). I was in China in 1987 but did not visit these cities but in general I see such so much modernization. I had a great time. Attached are the evaluations for each of the cities. Would you kindly send the evaluations to the local agencies in Tibet and Xi'an. Under separate cover, I will send some photographs of pandas. Once again, thank you preparing the itinerary. Best regards.

Happy Panda Eating Bamboo

Tired Pandas Resting

Dear Johnson

Please see my review below;

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

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

2.    How do you comment your tour arrangements?

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

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

Yes we would definitely recommend China Discovery.

4.  Your general opinion on us?

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

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

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

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

I have attached 2 pictures of us on the holiday.

Kind Regards

Tian'anmen Square

The Great Wall of China

Hi Lyn

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

Travel was very smooth and done seamlessly.  

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

Best Regards

Dear Johnson, 

Please see my feedback under each question.

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

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

2.    How do you comment your tour arrangements?

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

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

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

4.  Your general opinion on us?

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

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

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

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

You can use my comments on your services.

Hi Rita,

Thank you for the tour.

Ms Zhang and the driver are all very good. We enjoyed the tour.

In front of Giant Wild Goose Pagoda

Dear Catherine

We have now returned home from our holiday in China and would like to thank you for making the arrangements for us which all went successfully with no problems at all which all made for an enjoyable time in your country.

Everything went well and your guides and drivers were all very good especially Johnny who looked after us for part of our time in Xian.

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to your country and hope to visit again in the future as we have a two year visa and will contact you again when we make our plans
Many Thanks

Hi Wing,

I just sent you the questionnaire and my thoughts on the trip.  Also, here is a blurb that you can post into your website as per below:

China Discovery has a numerous variety of tours on offer, and they have a great team of agents to help you customize your plan. They go above and beyond to ensure that your trip is planned just as you want it to be.  My family and I took a trip to Xi’an and a Yangtze River Cruise. Our agent, Wing, did a fabulous job with everything!  We can not speak highly enough of her or the cruise.  We also had a special request to be on the 4th floor and she was able to arrange this too.  All of the hotels were outstanding, the guides and excursions and tours were great and everyone’s English was perfect!  The food was delicious, and the guides are very personable and extremely knowledgeable.  You can’t go wrong with China Discovery.  I give them 5 stars!

Hello Ashley!

I'm good, the tour was great! Here is my evaluation:

1. My travel consultant was both fast and patient and extremely helpful in helping us create a great tour for our family.

2. The tour guides were both great, they had good English and good knowledge. We were dropped off at the airport in Xi'An over 4 hours before our flight, so it would have been nice to spend more time at one of the sites or be taken somewhere else.

3. I would definitely recommend your company!

Thank you so much for all your help!

Hi Vivien,

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

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

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

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

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

Hello Lyn,

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

The guide in Xian, Jahana, was excellent.

Best wishes,

Hi Wendy,

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

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

To answer your questions;

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Best regards,

In Front of the Bird's Nest

Brook and Andie Walking on the Great Wall

OK perfect Vivien,

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

also I have already posted the review on Trip advisor.

Best regards

Great Wall, Tian'anmen Square, and Forbidden City

Travelling Shanghai, Xi'an, and Zhangjiajie

Hi Riley, 

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

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

Thank you very much again.

Vivien

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks again for everything till now.

Hi Lily,

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

Too many problems with modern technology!! Lol!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Is there a way to correct this at this point? 

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

Time for rest tonight. 

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

Sincerely,

Dear Johnson:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Regards

Hello Riley,

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

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

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

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

Sincerely,

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.

Hi Wonder,

Thanks for your Christmas greeting .and thanks for your organization of our trip to China in October.

We had a wonderful time and were very impressed as everything went very smoothly and our guides were very helpful and informative. We found China to be an exciting and forward moving country. Both the cities and country side are interesting and there are so many highlights that we enjoyed on our trip. The time we spent on the cruise was very restful and enjoyable, we loved cycling on the old city wall in Xian, visiting the "Avatar Mountains" and the favourite city was Shanghai with the Bund and the lovely water village that we visited there.

The tour was extremely well organized and we were met and transferred by very reliable guides in each destination.I would recommend your company to anyone

wishing to have a personalised more independent tour of China. Thank you very much

Kind regards,

Vivien,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hi Riley,

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

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

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

I would recommend you to my friends.

Hi Ashley,

You asked for some feedback about the services your company provided for us in China. Before mentioning detailed feedback, I have to say that you gave us a fantastic holiday. Also, you should know that my wife and I are independent travellers who like to do things for ourselves as far as possible and so are perhaps not typical Western tourists.

However, we appreciated that China is very different from Europe and so in the time available to us we would have not been able to see so much and get an understanding of modern- day China without the services of your guides.

For us it was great to know that when we arrived somewhere new there would always be one of your guides waiting for us. It was also good to have you as our guardian angel on WeChat in case anything went wrong such as our delayed flight from Jiayugan to Xi’an. I don’t know how often flights are delayed by nearly 4 hours but this wasn’t really a problem for us because you were able to assure us that our guide, Waldner would be waiting for us.

Your guides provided us with a great service. Lindsay gave us a great introduction to Beijing, Daniel told us so much about Tibetan culture and gave us an unforgettable visit to the Tibetan museum in Xining. Jessica was so enthusiastic and was a pleasure to be with. Waldner told us much about modern China, David did a great job of showing us Chongqing even though the weather was not so good

After we got off the cruise ship Amanda gave us a very pleasant afternoon in Yichang where there wasn’t much to see. She was right to suggest that we might not have got our train if we had gone to the Sanyou caves and so arranged an interesting visit to the Yichang museum instead. We were particularly impressed by Jennifer’s knowledge of Wuhan especially the stories she told us which brought the Yellow Crane Pagoda to life.

After a four-hour train ride to Shanghai it was good to meet Tina who was also helpful in accompanying us to the Airport on the Maglev train.

We were also impressed with the programme that you organised for us. Generally speaking, it was everything that we wanted although there were some items not on your programme that we did see / would have liked to have seen. These were:

1. In Beijing we would have liked to have seen the National Museum of China and go up the tower next to the Olympic Park.

2. In Xining Daniel showed us the Tibetan Culture Museum with it fantastic 620-metre-long prayer scroll. This incredible scroll should be part of any itinerary you offer in Xining.

3. In my free time in Shanghai I went up the Shanghai Tower which was a much better experience than the Shanghai financial tower we went up as part of our tour. This was not just because it was higher but because, unlike the Financial Centre Tower, the Shanghai Tower had an excellent exhibition of how it was built with many photos of old Shanghai.

4. We were sorry not see the Urban Planning Exhibition in Shanghai which was closed on the Monday when it was planned we should visit it.

We are perhaps different from most tourists in that shopping is not our priority. For this reason, some of the shopping experiences that were arranged for us did not add much to our holiday. We do not like the idea of factories and museums that were in fact just tourist shops. In some case such as the Silk Workshop and Tea Museum we had a very interesting explanation of the process but at other places such as the Pearl Museum and Terracotta Warrior workshop we had only a few minutes explanation before being taken to the shop.

Although it’s only a small thing another thing that spoilt things for us was that at some of the restaurants only a small amount of beer was served, perhaps three mouthfuls, yet at other places were given a full bottle.

However, the above are only small points and I must stress that your company has given us a fantastic experience of China that we could not have experienced in any other way.

As well as learning of China’s history the holiday you arranged for us has given us a good understanding of China’s present for which we are very grateful.

With best wishes and thanks again for all your assistance.

Hi Tracy

Just want to thank you very much for organizing such a wonderful holiday for us.  Everything went according to plan and our guides were all excellent. A special thank you to Laura in Shanghai who ensured that we got a connecting flight to Hong Kong when our original flight was delayed. The highlights, of course, were the pandas followed by the terracotta warriors. The weather was great with only one day of rain in Chengdu. We will certainly recommend your company to our friends and relatives and hope that we may return to China one day.

Kindest regards and with grateful thanks,

David and Hellen

Good evening Mr Wang,

I just wanted to send you a quick message to wish you a happy mid autumn festival holiday and to say thank you for your flexibility and help in arranging a fantastic trip for us to Xian. Angela was a spectacular guide who adapted the pace of the tour to suit my older mother and shared her deep knowledge of Xian with us at every opportunity. 

My sincerest gratitude for your assistance in planning this trip.

With kindness,

Hannah Caspar

Dear Isabel,

A wonderful trip amongst wonderful people and a lovely country.

I real eye opener. New Zealanders could learn so much in terms of respect and pride from your countrymen and women. I think we New Zealanders have a long way to go toward civilization.

Your guides were excellent. I would not like to single anyone out but Jenny was exceptional. I fell in love with girl at Zhengzhou (Vicky Gee) who worked on reception at the Hotel. Vicky had the most radiant and beautiful smile I have ever seen in my life. I will never forget her. The sites we visited were all excellent but the road trip from Zhangjiajie to Jishou was also a stand out feature. The accommodation in Jishou was excellent. Although we primarily came to see Engineering and construction which were mind blowing, to me the most outstanding feature were the people.

Everything ran like clockwork.

When I come back I want to spend most of the time in the countryside and mountains. I would not be concerned about having 5, 4  or even 2 star accommodation. To me the countryside is what a land is all about. I am not a city fan. I have not downloaded any pictures as yet but will sort some out for you. In Xian Bruce picked us up in a minivan. This was not suitable for the long day out to the Terracotta Warriors and then the drive to the Zhongnanshan Tunnel as the windows were very low and we could not see out of them. Bruce remedied this and provided a 22 seater which along with the rest of the transport was very good.

Thank you so much for organising this trip and your support.

Kindest regards

vince

Hi Mr Wang,

Thank you so much for that. We had a great day today. Saw the terracotta warriors and enjoyed it very much as well as having a nice walk on the Xian city wall. Appreciate all your help very much.

Ann Lewis

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

Hi Wendy,

Thanks. I have enjoyed my stay in Xian and looking forwards to Chengdu. I hope I will be able to meet you there.

Regards,

Siromi

Hi Ian,

Everything has been very beautiful. We loved the travel.

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

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

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

Best regards,

MIGUEL A. CALDERÓN

Dear Isabel,

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

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

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

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

Thanks and Regards

Pravin Karkhanis

Hi,

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

Ray

Comments on TripAdvisor by Ray:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dear Wonder,

how are you!? Just came back to London. I wanted to really thank you for the amazing trip you prepared for us!!! We had the best time!!

You were the best travel consultant ever, answer my emails almost immediately (and there where many because we were planning a long trip!) even if it was late night or even weekends. You were more than patient to answer my questions and very helpful in every way, when I had to change the dates at last minute you work all weekend just to help us out. The tour guides where excellent! We enjoyed every place and we did because the tour guides where really nice and locals to the places we visited, that was really the best.

Anything else you need please don’t hesitate to tell me!!!!

Many Kisses and thanks again!

Lucia

(The following photos were shared by Lucia)

Lucia and her husband visited Lhasa, Tibet

Lucia and her husband visited Xian