Jul 24, 2001

"We had a wonderful time in China, and will be pleased to recommend your travel service to others! Everything went very smoothly on our trip, and we enjoyed all parts of it. It was especially nice being there when Beijing was chosen as the site of the Olympics!

As comments on our trip, our favorite guide was Linda, who was with us in Xian. She is excellent, in that she is very friendly and funny, as well as knowledgeable. Peter, who was with us in Guilin, was nice and knowledgeable, but really needs to improve his English somewhat as well as to try and relax and smile and interact with his guests more personably (like Linda does).

Also, although we do not usually mind seeing "factories" (i.e., jade, carpets, silks, etc.), it got to be rather boring by the time we saw our 3rd silk factory and 4th carpet factory. It would be helpful if you could have your guides better coordinate things, so that we only saw 1 or 2 of each type. Also, in those factories, I can assure you that Americans do not like being followed around all over the showroom and constantly told about items they did not ask about. If the salesmen would instead just let us look around by ourselves, and let us come to them with questions, they would probably sell a lot more.

It would be helpful, for future guests, that you make suggestions prior to travel regarding tipping of the guides and the drivers. Our tour books in the United States all state that tipping is really not done in China, but we quickly learned that is not true. It would have made things easier for us if you had indicated before our trip about a range of tips for those helping us in China, so we would have known what is expected.

If you are interested in having more American tourists go to China through your agency, it would probably be helpful for you to have an American travel agent or agency representing you. That way, more people would learn about Travel China Guide.

Thank you again for putting together such an excellent trip for us! Im sure we will be back to China again in the future!"