May 8,2010

Photo offered by our client Mr. Karl Dutton

Dear Flora and Kina

I am sending you the feedback on our recent visit to china and a selection of photographs that you may wish to use.

Kind regards Karl and Mark
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We were very pleased that we chose to use Travel China Guide for the second time to organise our trip to China this year and when we return for the third time we will definitely use your company again.

All our guides were highly professional, friendly, relaxed and extremely knowledgeable and spoke perfect English.

We would like to thank our guide, Evan, in Kunming, who thanks to his research skills and forward thinking, changed our itinerary to make sure that we were not caught in traffic for hours. We were most grateful for this as it meant we could spend more time in the Stone Forest – an absolute delight and certainly one of the many highlights of our trip. The saying, “If you have been to Kunming and not seen the Stone Forest, then you haven’t been to Kunming” is certainly true.

Alice, our guide in Dali was an absolute delight. Her knowledge of the local area was outstanding and we thoroughly enjoyed walking the streets of Old Dali with her and felt that we were spending our holiday with a friend. We were surprised at the size of the Three Pagoda Complex and were grateful that we had such an experienced guide to offer us excellent suggestions on what to see and when to walk or when to catch a bus. Having spent most of our first trip to China on the Eastern Coast we were delighted to have the opportunity to see the more traditional way of living in places like Xizhou. Once again, having a guide like Alice was a necessity, as she knew when and where to stop and could answer any of our millions of questions.

Another of our highlights this trip was visiting Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. We laughed when we saw a sign advertising oxygen for sale. We soon realised that it was no laughing matter as the next day Karl was extremely ill with altitude sickness when we travelled higher up into the mountain region. Our guide Tom was very caring and we thank him sincerely for everything he did to make our experience in Lijiang as comfortable as possible. This included getting our check out time extended and also speaking to the manager, after which, we received much better service from the hotel staff, especially at breakfast. Nothing was too much trouble for Tom and we are extremely grateful for his professional attitude and friendly smile.

Tom took us to a local Naxi family business in Baisha - The Embroidery School of Mu’s Family. Here they create silk pictures with long stitch. The work was truly outstanding and having acquired a piece of art work I am very happy to be able to say that I met the artist, Mo Mei Yan. For anyone who is interested in seeing superb art work in silk which is of the highest quality, a visit here is a must.

Having local guides, like Tom and Alice, means that you have someone with you that not only has excellent local knowledge of customs and beliefs, but also can speak the local dialect of the minority group in which they belong. This was certainly to our advantage. One example of this is when we were in Baisha, we were walking past a private residence and after Tom said hello in the local dialect an old lady invited us in to see her garden – she was all smiles. It was a delightful and friendly encounter that we are sure would not have happened without our guide.

We spent a day in Chengdu last year and our guide, Kevin, suggested that we come back and spend more time there – so we did! Travel China Guide very kindly organised for us to have Kevin again as our guide this year and we are very grateful for this as we immediately relaxed in each other’s company. Highlights in this area were visiting the Pandas again, the Giant Buddha near Leshan and visiting the Temples on Mt Emei. The hotel we stayed at, Building No 5 of Hongzhushan Hotel was outstanding. And a walk at night in the lit up gardens around the hotel was magical – even in the rain.

All our drivers were exceptional. They were excellent at driving, in what at times, seemed insane traffic. They took good care of us and their cars. It was always a delight to step into a comfortable and clean car after a long days walk! We are grateful for the small details such as making sure the windows were clean so we could take photos and video from inside the car.

One of our most interesting and enjoyable lunches was at the Impressions Baisha Cafe in Baisha. The cafe has excellent facilities and superb local dishes.

Once again we would like to thank all the staff at Travel China Guide, our guides and drivers, as without your highly professional attitudes and wonderful suggestions we would not have enjoyed our second trip to China as much as we did.

We trust your company implicitly and we look forward to using your company again. We are more than happy to recommend Travel China Guide and please feel free to pass our names and email addresses on to anyone who might wish to ask us any questions about your company and how everything can work.

Many thanks and kind regards,

Mark deGaris and Karl Dutton
Adelaide, South Australia, Australia