Feb 20,2009

Photo offered by our clients Bruce and Ruth Campbell

Dear Flora/Eileen,

The tour was fantastic, far better than we could have expected.

Even when the ship was delayed by immigration for two hours our guide was able to alter our schedule so that we achieved everything that we had planned for the first day. And the next day was a delight - the Badaling Great Wall was magnificent and the beautiful ice sculptures at Longqing Gorge were a surprise and a highlight of our tour. On our last day we enjoyed a full tour of the spectacular Lama Temple, a great lunch, and a 2.5km stroll around the lake at the beautiful Summer Palace, and we were still delivered to the airport on time for our late afternoon flight.

1. Meals: The meals were excellent, it would be hard to choose a best - perhaps the duck dinner, perhaps the lunch on the last day.

2. Guide:

1) Gloria was the best! She was always there to help my wife on stairs or steep climbs (she has had a hip replacement recently and we thought this tour could be too difficult), she made sure that we understood the menus and ordered the right food, and she guided us past unwelcome street sellers and helped us when we wanted to shop.

2) Gloria had no problems communicating in English - she could even understand Australian. Her accent was easier to understand than some Irish, Scots, and Americans we have spoken to!

3) Gloria had considerable knowledge of the places we visited, and prepared us with all the information we needed before we arrived at each one.

3: Car: The car was spotless inside and out. The driver was extremely competent and we felt quite safe in Beijing's busy traffic and on the highways. He was very helpful and very patient and we enjoyed his company even though we relied on Gloria for communication.

We chose TravelChinaGuide because their quote was cheaper than their competitors.

We wondered if that meant the service might not be as good as we hoped, but we needn't have worried - it was even better than we thought possible. We were always met on time, the guide was charming, intelligent, knowledgeable and considerate, and the driver was very professional. The hotel, restaurants, and tour sites were beyond our expectations. We will have no hesitation choosing TravelChinaGuide again, no matter how much cheaper their quote is!

Please publish anything you think might be useful. I have attached a few of the 1000 photos we took!

Thanks for everything,

Bruce and Ruth Campbell