Sep 23,2009

Dear Kina Lu / Flora Cu,

Thank you for your interest about our satisfaction. Here you are with my comments:

Meals:
Nanjing - some meals were good, some average. Our guide Jimmy was not interested in advance about the meals we would like to eat.
Suzhou - some meals were good, some of them excellent. Our guide Helen was interested in advance about our meals and tried to find such meals we would like to have (e.g. boneless poultry or fatless pork). Excellent hotel Holiday Inn in Suzhou.
Hangzhou - some meals were good, some of them excellent. Our guide Jamie was interested in advance about our meals and tried to find such meals we would like to have (e.g. boneless poultry or fatless pork).
Huang Shan - some meals were good, some of them excellent. Our guide Jean was interested in advance about our meals and tried to find such meals we would like to have (e.g. boneless poultry or fatless pork). Jean was much better than our guide we’ve got there two years ago.
Beijing - some meals were good, some of them excellent. Our guide Sarah pretended to be interested in advance about our meals and tried to find some meals we would like to have.

Guides:
Nanjing - our guide Jimmy: He was experienced enough, good knowledge, but we’ve got a feeling he is interested more in himself than in our group.
Suzhou – our guide Helen was excellent, excellent knowledge, active and engaged.
Hangzhou - our guide Jamie was very good, active and engaged.
Huang Shan - our guide Jean was excellent, active and engaged.
Beijing - our guide Sarah was average and interested essentially only in the factories she pushed us to visit.
Nanjing –Jimmy’s English was all right.
Suzhou – Helen’s English was all right.
Hangzhou – Jamie’s English was all right.
Huang Shan – Jean’s English was all right.
Beijing – Sarah’s English was average.

We have been in China for the fourth times using TCG every time and we like China. We hope to do so again in the future.

Sep 21,2009

Hotel buffet breakfasts were very good. The other meals were okay.

We were very pleased with the standard of the guides provided. They were proficient in English, knowledgeable and helpful.

We were very impressed with the driver during our stay in Guilin. His driving was safe and he kept his car meticulously clean. We were rather anxious prior to our trip as we were informed that drivers in China were all speedy Gonzalez!

My elderly mum (80+ years old) and I enjoyed our holiday in Guangzhou and Guilin organised by TravelChinaGuide. Travelling with an elderly person, we required alot of service and flexibilty. The standard of tour certainly met our expectations and we had a great time.

If travelling to Guilin, my recommendation is to include:-

(a) the Zhang Yimou cultural show, Liu Sanjie, in Yangshuo. As this is an evening performance, it would be good to spend a night in Yangshuo instead of returning to Guilin after the show as you would not be able to see the beautiful karst rock formations at night on the way back to Guilin. Liu Sanjie is truly a spectacular performance which should not missed.

(b) the Longsheng rice terraces and it would be good to spend a night there but can also be done as a day trip out of Guilin. The car journey to the rice terraces passes beautiful mountain scenery. Upon arrival at the base, it requires some trekking and climbing steps passing through mountain villages of the minorities to reach the peak of the rice terraces (approx 2 hours trekking one way). From the peak, the view of the vast expanse of rice terraces is breathtaking. These rice terraces have been cultivated by many generations and approx 800 years old. As the rice terraces are cultivated on mountain slopes, machinery and animals cannot be used and the rice terraces are painstakingly hand cultivated. You also get to see a glimpse of the life of the minorities and sample their food.

TravelChinaGuide gave us the fliexibilty to include the above in our itinerary. The visit to the Lonsheng rice terraces was a last minute decision. We were glad we didnt miss this.