Aug 11,2008

Hi Maggie and Ruby,

We had a wonderful time in China on our tour and are so glad we decided to go with Travel China Guide. The entire tour exceeded our expectations and we wouldn't hesitate to use your services again or recommend it to others. Hopefully these answers to your questions will be of use to you.

1. We thought that all of the timings for each location were excellent the way they were. For many of the sites we visited (Forbidden City, Ming tombs, etc.) our guides did a great job of showing us the highlights of such large grounds. We never felt rushed or that we had missed anything. Having the guides only enhanced our experience as they were able to share fascinating information about each site and provide a personal insight into each visit.

2. All of the meals were very good on the trip, in fact the food exceeded our expectations on several occasions. The best breakfast that we had was at the Holiday Inn. Their breakfast buffet is one of the best we've ever had. Our favorite lunch was actually in Yichang at a local Sichuan restaurant our guide Gary took us to. We had mentioned that our group liked spicy food so he picked a restaurant (sorry I don't remember the name) and the food there was incredible. The best supper was by far the Peking duck supper. We had never tried this type of duck before and really enjoyed seeing it roasted and cut in the restaurant.

3. All of the guides that we met provided a high quality of service. They all spoke excellent English and had an astonishing knowledge of the cities and sights. They were able to answer all of our questions and were entertaining and likeable.

4. All of the cars were very clean and the drivers provided excellent service. Bottled water was always available and we felt safe leaving our belongings inside when need be.

We really enjoyed the company of all of our guides and hope you can pass on our thanks to all of them. In particular:
-Ray in Beijing went out of his way to show us some of the Olympic venues and showed a great passion for his hometown. We really enjoyed the wine he provided for us on the great wall and the short lesson in mandarin (he taught us how to say that we climbed the great wall).
-Echo in Xian took some members of our group to get foot massages when the temperature outside was too hot to stay shopping in the market. We really appreciated her flexibility and suggestion to get the massage. The place she took us to was very clean and provided great service. Our group also appreciated the bathroom rating system she developed. This aided many in decided which bathrooms to use and which to skip!
-Gary in Yichang was a great tour guide and took us to two excellent Sichuan restaurants when he heard we liked spicy food. Gary also took us on a bus tour of the old and new city of Yichang on request. On our tour we saw an embroidery shop and he was more than willing to stop and let us look around and make some purchases.

We also really enjoyed the Shanghai acrobatic performance. We felt it was the best evening show of the trip.

Overall we were extremely impressed with TravelChinaGuide's service as it made the trip as memorable as it was. Please feel free to use our comments although I'd prefer if you didn't publish the email address.

Xiexie :)

Sarah and Scott