Dear Maggie & Sally,

Sorry for the delay in replying to you but I got really busy after our return home.

Thank you very much for a very well organized China tour and thank you for coming to meet us all in Xian. It is good to put a face to a name!

Below are my answers to your questions.

The time spent at each site was quite adequate and we never felt rushed. The guides did a very good job of explaining everything and also gave us enough time to see things on our own. In some places (such as the Tiananmen Square and Forbidden city tour) a mid morning coffee break would have been nice as it is quite a long tour.

The meals were excellent! We never expected a "banquet" of 10 dishes at every meal and we really enjoyed them. As for choosing one meal - I think the best was the Beijing Duck dinner in Beijing. And the least favourite was the dumpling dinner in Xian - mainly because the dumplings were already hard and cold by the time they served them. Dumplings should be fresh and soft and warm.

The other comment I have about meals is that sometimes the lunch and dinner were too close together. In some places we did not have lunch until almost 2 pm and then we were told to be ready at 5:30 pm to have dinner before the evening show. My suggestion would be to give a light and quick lunch as most foreigners do not eat huge meals at lunch time and would be quite happy with a light meal knowing that they will get a large dinner in the evening. This way they would also not mind eating early in the evening.

All the guides we had were good and their English was also good. In fact we were very impressed with their knowledge and their pride in their city. They were all very helpful and went out of their way to make us comfortable and attended to all our requests. They were also cheerful and seemed to enjoy their job.

All the buses were clean and tidy and the drivers were skilled and pleasant.

Yes, we would like to say a special "thank you" to David who was our guide in Beijing, and to Carol Chen in Xian and Sherry in Shanghai. All three were excellent. David has a wonderful sense of humour and he kept us entertained. His English is very good and he is also a good singer!! Carol was most efficient and very knowledgeable about all the sites in Xian. She is very proud of her city and really enjoys her job. She would explain all the dishes to us at lunch and dinner and always made sure we had enough. We really liked her a lot and were sorry to say good bye to her. Sherry in Shanghai was also very good. Her English is excellent and she was very helpful and was even willing to help us out after the tour was over (we stayed an extra 3 days).

Travel China Guide far exceeded our expectations in every way. All the hotels were good (the Holidy Inn in Beijing is the best Holiday Inn I have ever stayed in. But the Hyatt Regency in Xian was a bit disappointing. It is definitely not 5 star!) and there were no delays anywhere. The guides were efficient and pleasant and helpful. Everything was on time and very well organized. We had a wonderful time in each city and thoroughly enjoyed the excellent food and beautiful sites. We would not hesitate to recommend Travel China Guide to our friends and family and I am sure we would love to go back and do another trip with you - perhaps to another part of your beautiful and vast country.

Once again thanks for a wonderful China holiday.

Best regards

Rehana Potter