2004 Customer Reviews

Dear TCG Team,

We would like to thank you and especially your guides Hua, Emma and Scott for the wonderful days which we enjoyed in your country. We learned so many new things and got a good impression of your wonderful country.

All of you took so much care on us and answered the questions we had with great knowledge and a deep understanding of the context. Naturally there are so many places which we have not seen during our trip and therefore we will try to visit China again. In any case the travel service of Travel China Guide will be then our first contact.

We wish you Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year !

Christine & Dietmar G.

P.S. Please find enclosed a few of our pictures we took during the trip.

To the Management, Bessie Zhao and the Team

Thank you to all for your efforts in making my trip to China a very special experience. Your dedication to your clients is of the highest standard and the service you provide is second to none. Thank you for your seasons wishes and in particular your thoughtfulness to celebrate my birthday while in Chongqing. The knowledge and friendliness of each of the guides you provided made me fell very much ease and has increased my understanding of China and its history greatly. The skill of your drivers also needs to be commended as they made me feel very safe and comfortable in what I could only describe as a very hostile driving environment. Again thank you to all your staff, and I will return. Wishing you all a very merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

Your friend and very satisfied client
Malcolm MacBride

Hi Rita & Echo, On behalf of our "Gang of Ten", I would like to thank Tibettrip for their excellence in organizing our recent trip and delivering the services as promised. I can tell you now that initially some members of the group were a bit hesitant in dealing with an unknown company located in China, they felt that it would be safer to book through an established local tour company in Canada despite the extra cost. However, after doing some research on your impressive Web site and reading some of the testimonials from fellow travelers plus the endorsement from the New York Times Travel supplement, I felt comfortable enough to encourage my friends to join me in booking with you. In retrospect, this was the best decision I have made this year. With the majority never having set foot in Asia before, we would like to share with you some of the concerns we had prior to the trip, and our impression of them now. English proficiency of the Local Guides Since most members of our group could not understand Chinese, we were concerned whether the local guides would be able to communicate sufficiently enough for us to understand them. We must tell you that, overall, the guides were excellent and beyond our expectation, not only with the language issue but also with their warmth and responsiveness to our needs and request. In Beijing, Gloria was so friendly and helpful, she even assisted one of us to get a replacement credit card that was misplaced. In Xian, we were impressed with Echos command of English and knowledge of Chinas history and culture. In Shanghai, Xu was an excellent guide her English was impeccable and she was very informative. We did not spend much time with the other guides but they all did their job well. Transportation The buses you provided were very nice, spacious and clean. Although the drivers could not speak English, they were all courteous and drove skillfully in what seemed like perpetual traffic jam in city areas. We got to know and like Mr. Feng in Beijing, and we enjoyed very much the "western" music that was played on his bus. Although this was a definite area of concern early on, we were impressed with the three domestic air flights we took. The flight attendants were friendly and had a smile on their face when they talked to you. They even served food on such short flights which is not the norm in North America. The "soft seat" train that took us between Shanghai and Suzhou was OK, although we expected something more "luxurious". The China Regal is not a cruise ship like we know it in North America but it served its purpose well. Accommodation We were uncertain what a 5-star hotel in China was like, based on North Americas rating. We would like to tell you that we were impressed with all of them, especially the Sheraton in Suzhou which was a most charming hotel with its landscaped gardens and indoor pool with a waterfall. The hotels were very clean, all of them offered currency exchange and other services normally associated with a higher-end establishment, and the rooms were spacious. The only negative we can say is that there was no designated non-smoking areas, not even in the restaurants. It seemed like everyone smoked in China. Food With our "western" stomach, we were pleased that none of us got sick from the food despite "pigging" out at times. Breakfast typically was the best meal and there were quite a variety to choose from, the best ones were served in Hyatt (Xi'an) and Sheraton (Suzhou). As for lunch, they varied from good (Beijing & Xi'an), to OK (China Regal), to one that was just awful (restaurant next to the silk factory in Suzhou). Dinner was fine overall, although we did not enjoy the Peking Duck dinner in Beijing as we found the ducks to be too fat and oily. Of the places we ate on our own for dinner (i.e. not included in the tour package), we would highly recommend the chinese restaurant in Beijing's Peninsula Hotel, the restaurant in Suzhou's Sheraton, and the 24-hour caf on the ground level in the Hua Ting hotel in Shanghai which served excellent western food. The Shows The 3 shows we attended were very enjoyable, with the highest rating to the Tang Dynasty Cultural Show in Xi'an, followed by the Portman Acrobatic Show in Shanghai, and the Opera in Beijing. The nightly entertainment put on by the staff on the China Regal was quite entertaining too. Summary China is such a land of contrasts that in just two weeks we were able to "journey through time" from the rich history of old China (Great Wall, Forbidden City, the Terra Cotta Warriors that dated back some 2300 years), to the tranquility of the Yangtze River with its magnificent Three Gorges, and then fast forward to the ultra modern 14-year old metropolis of Pudong in Shanghai, a city that boasts the worlds fastest passenger train. This has been a memorable trip indeed and, once again, thank you for helping to make it happen. I will be pleased to be a reference and I can be reached via e-mail at felixlee@rogers.com All the very best to everyone at Tibettrip. Regards, Felix Lee Client's information: "Gang of Ten" - Felix & Val Lee, John & Natasha Crerar, Gary & Jan Bartlett, John & Kitty Yeung, Jack & Bonnie Burkholder - Toronto, Canada, December 15, 2004

Hello Hebe,

Sorry for the delay in reply.

We just came back home, almost exhausted after 25 days trip with you. In the final days in China, we were just reluctant to return. We are planning back to China in a not remote future. I and Bob just want to say "a big thank you" to all staff at Travel China Guide that made our China vacation so smooth and impressive.

We have met so many beautiful and friendly Chinese, we think we will keep those faces and eyes and lovely smiles forever in our hearts. To be frank, initially, we felt a little bit uncomfortable by contacting a travel company in the other side of the world, we read the "testimonials" pages and contact a few who did business with you, what we received were all praises and strong recommendations which, of course, were unexpected. All the email responses were so efficient and prompt and informative.

We were lucky to have Nancy, Echo and many other nice young people as our guides, their knowledge of their hometown and command of English just amazed us! All of them were punctual and went out of their way to make our tours enjoyable and informative. It is hard for us to pick the "best" of all. All the drivers were very polite and always ready to help, one of them (I can't remember where) even understand and speak some simple English. You just can't imagine how happy we were with so many young and hard-working people. We saw China's future from these people.

We will recommend Travel China Guide to our friends who intend to visit China.

Again, thank you very much!

Elizabeth & Bob

Nyima- our guide in Tibet went out of her way to make our trip comfortable & fun. She shared a lot about local culture & helped to make it one of the best tours we have taken. We definitely will use TravelChinaGuide again! Good service, excellent sensitivity to our preferences & wonderful knowledge of the area.

Dear Eileen, Thank you for your message. Finally I am back at home but I am flying off to France today, so I am rushing to give you a little feed back before I leave. Let me know if you still would like a few pictures from our trip and what kind of pictures, and I will try to send them to you when I get back (around the 13th of September). In the meantime, I just want to tell you how impressed all three of us were with the reliability, efficiency, and quality of the services of your agency during our trip to the Silk Road. Our itinerary was rather complex, involving plane, train, and car segments, yet everything went perfectly smoothly. We were met by guides and drivers and supplied with plane and train tickets exactly as planned, which meant that the trip was entirely free of worry. Our guides (Dragon in Xi’an, Stephen from Jiayuguan to Dunhuang, and Aynoor in the Xinjiang) were all remarkably competent, knowledgeable, eager to please, and great company. Aynoor (with whom we spent the most time) in particular deserves special mention for her exceptional sensitivity to our needs and her enthusiasm in presenting the wonders of the Xinjiang in a way that was extremely catching and endearing. The drivers were also friendly and professional. The hotels were well chosen and lunch meals for which you arranged were copious and delicious. We also liked being able to choose where to have our dinners, and the guides were quite willing to help us make the right choices and assist us in menu selections. All in all, this was a great and fascinating trip and we are grateful to you and your staff for helping us customize it and make it a resounding success. What we will remember from our trip is the friendly and efficient service, the wonderful sites, and the extraordinarily beautiful scenery... And, should we come back to China, we will not hesitate to contact you again. In the meantime, we would enthusiastically recommend your agency to anyone looking to travel in China. With all our thanks, Jade Zelnik Pierrette Vu Thi

Hello @ travelchinaguide, dear Ms Zhao & Ms Wang

We have safely returned to Switzerland. Thank you for organizing our trip across China.

We enjoyed it very much. We met many friendly people, guides and drivers. If I had to select one guide to award him/ her "best guide", I'd choose the Zhongdian guide - his knowledge about tibetan buddhism was unbeatable, very impressive.

If you have clients from Switzerland who need some good reference about you, you may forward my mail address to them. I will gladly act tell them about our great trip & excellent organization.

The meals were very good. In general, there was too much food served - we could not eat everything... However, we had to learn that this is quite usual in China to serve too much - we're just not used to this, as in our culture, usually, much smaller portions are served. But as I mentioned, the food was excellent. Nothing to complain at all!

Dear Grace Wang and Andy Lu, First let me say that our trip was fabulous! I loved your country, the people, the culture, the scenery, and the food. Our trip was perfectly planned by you and your staff. Everything went smoothly, everyone was professional, courteous, attentive, helpful, and very knowledgeable. We could not have chosen a better agency to plan our trip. Thanks to all that assisted in the planning, coordinating, and execution. The food was delicious! Naturally everyone's taste buds are different so I very much liked having the variety. My only concern was that the portions were so large, and there were so many dishes, that we all felt very wasteful as we could not eat all of the food. The last restaurant we had lunch at in Beijing, is a must as the food was wonderful. I am not a duck fan, so I could have done without the Peking duck, but that again is my personal taste. The other dishes at the Peking duck restaurant were very good. The Tang Dynasty dinner was terrific! That entire evening was very enjoyable. Overall I found the food to be fabulous, just the portions were so large. All of our guides were unique in their own way, and were exceptional. If I had to choose a favorite, it would be Echo, the young lady we had in Xi'an. She spoke very westernized English so she was easy to understand, and she could easily converse in English. We did not expect any of our guides to know English to the level that Echo did. She had a very bubbly personality, and was very likeable. Again, this is no criticism of our other guides as they were all wonderful. I believe I have convinced my father to go to China in the spring and he will definitely use your services. My brother, Buck, or myself will let you know. Thank you again for making our trip one that we will always remember. Lynn I. B.

Nancy, I was so happy to meet you in Xi'an before the Tang Dynasty Dinner Show. Thank you so much for coming. We both want to thank you so much for arranging the most wonderful trip for us. Everything was simply wonderful! The guides were always waiting for us. The hotels were very nice. The choice of restaurants and food was excellent. The service provided by the driver and especially the guides was simply outstanding. The shopping stops at the Jade and Friendship stores in Beijing, the Terra Cotta factories in Xi'an and the Stanley Market in Hong Kong were wonderful. We purchased many treasures to enjoy for years to come. We have no complaints whatsoever, only compliments all the way! Our guides, Emma in Xi'an and Alex in Hong Kong took exceptional care of us. They were kind and considerate at all times. The best guide for our trip was Hua Rong in Beijing. He immediately felt like an old friend. His knowledge of Chinese history and culture was amazing, and certainly enhanced our visit to Beijing immensely. He has a wonderful sense of humor. We had so much fun with him. Please make sure that his management in Beijing knows how pleased and lucky we were to get him for our guide. It has been a pleasure doing business with you. I'll be sure to recommend Tibettrip.com to anyone I know that is interested in visiting China. THANK YOU VERY VERY MUCH!! Nancy and Samuel

Nancy,

I was so happy to meet you in Xi'an before the Tang Dynasty Dinner Show. Thank you so much for coming.

We both want to thank you so much for arranging the most wonderful trip for us. Everything was simply wonderful! The guides were always waiting for us. The hotels were very nice. The choice of restaurants and food was excellent. The service provided by the driver and especially the guides was simply outstanding. The shopping stops at the Jade and Friendship stores in Beijing, the Terra Cotta factories in Xi'an and the Stanley Market in Hong Kong were wonderful. We purchased many treasures to enjoy for years to come.

We have no complaints whatsoever, only compliments all the way!

Our guides, Emma in Xi'an and Alex in Hong Kong took exceptional care of us. They were kind and considerate at all times. The best guide for our trip was Hua Rong in Beijing. He immediately felt like an old friend. His knowledge of Chinese history and culture was amazing, and certainly enhanced our visit to Beijing immensely. He has a wonderful sense of humor. We had so much fun with him. Please make sure that his management in Beijing knows how pleased and lucky we were to get him for our guide.

It has been a pleasure doing business with you. I'll be sure to recommend TravelChinaGuide.com to anyone I know that is interested in visiting China.

THANK YOU VERY VERY MUCH!!

Nancy
and
Samuel