Client's information:

  Hello Dora

Our tour was terrific. Here are a few specifics:

1 Our Guide Lilly in Xian was fantastic. Her English was excellent and her personal touch made our visit extra special. She was very knowledgeable about Xian and the Terra Cotta Warrior site. She shared many insights into Chinese culture and history. Her warm and caring personality shown through each day of our visit. We give her very high marks indeed. She was very professional and on time for all our scheduled dates. We recommend her for any awards your company might have.

2 Our driver was very good. He was quiet and professional for the entire trip. His van was kept spotless and he made sure we had bottled water each day. He also got very high marks from us. Note the air conditioner in the van worked very well to keep the temperature comfortable.

3 The breakfast buffet at the Grand New World Hotel also gets high marks from us. It had a wide variety of western and Chinese offerings. The staff was pleasant and provided excellent service. Likewise the hotel was very nice. The room was comfortable and clean and the lobby area very pretty.

4 Other restaurants in general were fine but you should consider adding a few western style restaurants to your offerings. The American stlye Chinese food we are accustom to here in the USA is not the same as the true Chinese food offered in Xian. Too many pure Chinese style meals may overload the western stomachs. We found most of the soups that were offered to be too strong for our palates. Lilly did her best to offer us a variety of Chinese items that she thought would please our palates but a few Western style restaurants would be a good addition. The Horizon was very nice. The Dumpling Dinner was good but with 14 different dumplings offered to us, it was too much of a good thing. A suggestion we offer is to have a small menu at the dumpling dinner that is in English and explains a little about how many dumplings we would be getting and what was in them. The waitress at the Dumpling dinner did not speak well in English so we were sort of lost. Note we did attend the Tang Dynasty show and it was wonderfull. Lilly got us tickets but it would be good to make the travelers aware that the show is a separate admission . Most tourists will want to see it.

4 The train accommodations worked out fine in the end. Having all 4 compartments in the soft sleeper was much better for us. It would seem very strange indeed to have 3 of the berths for ourselves and a complete stranger in the 4th berth. That would not be a comfortable situation for most Westerners. There was some problem in the tickets in Beijing for the train. The tickets should have been at the hotel when we first arrived but they were not. Instead I had to have the front desk folks call your office to get the tickets. This made us a little nervous. Then instead of all 4 berths being booked for us there was some mistake and we had only 3 of the 4 berths. Luckily, Tricia from your Beijing staff was able to come to the train station with us and fix the situation. This left us a little nervous as well. This should have been handled more smoothly given how far in advanced we paid for the tour.

Overall I would give you high marks for the tour. Mt Huashan was a great change of pace from the busy city life of Beijing and Xian. I could have stayed there for a few days just to be out of the cities but our schedule would not permit it. Thanks for a great tour. Feel free to publish our comments to your website. By the way your website is terrific and very well laid out. Congrats to the folks who put it together.

Thanks again

Bill Norris