Dear Ruby and Maggie

My wife and I are very happy with our China travel experience. It really could not have been a better trip for the 17 days we were in China, including the extra day we spent in Beijing before the tour began. We both thank you for your help in making all the arrangements that resulted in such a pleasant and memorable time for us to visit your country and to learn more about the great people, places, and food of China.

Evaluation to the specific items as following:

1. We had a very interesting group of 17 people beginning in Beijing, and we were very compatible. We enjoyed meeting them, and we traveled well together. After Shanghai, we had our private group of 4 friends going to Guilin and Hong Kong together, so that part was also very nice.

Concerning the places we visited, we think we would like to have spent more time in Shanghai, and that could have been done by flying to Shanghai immediately after our visit to the Three Gorges Dam project. Once we left the cruise ship, we could have skipped the Sturgeon Museum and gone directly to the airport for the earlier flight that day to Shanghai. Because we waited for the later flight, we arrived in Shanghai too late to explore the city on our own that day. If we had arrived earlier in the afternoon, it would have been much better, since we could have spent more time walking along the Bund.

Similarly, after the wonderful excursion on the Li River and the most interesting visit to Yangshuo and the farm family, we could have departed Guilin the next morning without visiting either the Reed Flute Cave or the Seven Star Park, thereby arriving in Hong Kong much earlier in the day. We would have preferred more time to explore Hong Kong, but we arrived so late that day we could only check into the hotel and eat a late meal there and go to bed. The tour and the lunch the next day were superb, but we had only part of the one afternoon to walk around Hong Kong on our own before preparing to pack and depart for the US the next morning.

Everything else was fine. Of course, you cannot control the weather, but we had only one blue sky day in Beijing and two in Hong Kong during the whole 17 days. All the others were hazy from natural and manmade causes, which reduced the beauty of the countryside trips.

2. The meals were spectacular in general. We appreciate the wide spectrum of regional dishes. The guides chose very well to give us a pleasant balance of tasty choices at each meal. The restaurants were all excellent, and appropriate to each city. It is difficult to choose just one to recommend because they were so different in ethnic dishes. The Beijing Duck dinner and the 15 dumpling Dim Sum in Xian are the first that I can quickly recall as being very different, but all were enjoyable. We also recommend the Hot Pot dinner in Shanghai that we found on our night on our own. If you change the itinerary to include dinner in Shanghai, we recommend you include a Hot Pot dinner.

3. 1) The guides were all terrific. My wife and I both agree that we have never been on a trip where the guides have been as consistently outstanding as they were on your trip.
2) All of the guides spoke good to outstanding English. We never had a problem communicating with them. They understood everything we said, and we understood them just fine.
3) All of the guides were highly knowledgeable about their cities or places we visited with them. We were highly impressed with their backgrounds, their training, and their ability to express their knowledge in easily understandable English. It really made the trip very pleasant to be guided by such professionals. They were clearly interested in their work, and proud of their cities, and wonderfully forthright in answering our many questions. They should be commended for their patience and courtesy to foreigners.
4) The cars were clean and big enough for our needs, and the drivers were courteous and professional and careful generally. Getting used to the driving style in China compared to the US took a few days, but we were sometimes warned when not to look out the front windows! (-:

While you did not ask for specific comments on the hotels, we must say they were all first class (four and five star). We have never stayed in so many luxurious hotels on one trip in our lives, and we have traveled a lot. The breakfast buffets were unbelievable. I would have gained a lot of weight, but we walked and climbed steps (so many steps!) every day, that I hardly gained more than one kilo during the whole trip, despite eating much more than I normally eat.

All the guides were fine. We recall quickly that Juliet in Beijing, Echo in Xian, and Lulu in Shanghai were especially patient with my attempts to learn to speak a little Chinese. Xie xie! Of course, the visit to the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, the terra cotta warriors and the Muslim souk (market) in Xian, the Three Gorges river cruise and dam, the Li River cruise and the peaboats, Shanghai, and Hong Kong all were special highlights for us. We had read so much about them, and finally we were able to see them ourselves. We will always treasure those days in China.

You have our permission to publish any or all of the above comments for your own publicity purposes. You may include our names and e-mail address if other people wish to ask us further questions about our trip. I am sending you separately several photos that you may also publish as our souvenirs.

Many thanks.

Joanne and Bruce Malkin
Alexandria VA