China Tours included Shanghai

Dear Mrs. Chanel,

We were really pleased with the whole trip that You organised for us.

All aspects were studied very well and we had the opportunity to see beautiful landscapes and to know and love China. All the guides were good and prepared; we remember with special affection Nancy that we had in Shangri-la and who really loved us.

Nancy anticipated of one day the visit to the Jade Mountain Snow and in this way we could see the spectacle of minorities that will not forget for life.

The visits to Guillin were exceptional and Lizzie was really good at explaining. The rice fields of Longji were an exciting experience because they are the demonstration of the secular ability of the Chinese people to adapt to the environment even in the most difficult areas.

The dinner at Your house was a demonstration of friendship that we will not forget and we wish you every luck for your Husband and for Your very good and polite daughter.

Shanghai was amazing and Luisa guided us with great advice in a huge but extraordinarily friendly and organized city.

My wife who speaks very little English has always found herself at ease; all the accommodations we tried were well above European standards and especially made us appreciate the China of small villages and ordinary people.

We gave Your references to all our friends and our 3 daughters encouraging everyone to live this experience because in fact we know little here in Europe of the reality of this great country and only through direct experience is possible to understand a civilisation that thousands of years of history and much to teach us.

We hope to come again and visit the center and north of China that surely reserve us new reasons for wonder and joy.

Dear Mrs Chanel,

Still many thanks for everything You have done for us.

Aurelia e Mario Bignami

After looking at trip advisor, we picked 3 China based travel agencies who we thought might be able to plan a tour of the area around Beijing. One agency suggested factory tours from the outset whilst another was fairly insistent that we travel overnight by train, but Monica proved to be thoughtful and flexible.
We have friends in Beijing and so started and ended our trip with them.
She suggested a day trip to the Great Wall from Beijing plus a tour of Pingyao, Xi'an and Luoyang with 3 bullet train journeys and one plane flight.
We decided not to go with a couple of her suggestions, but she was comfortable with that and re-jigged the trips to suit.
The actual guides provided are generally contractors who can work for several agencies depending on the work available. But the choice of which guides to employ still falls on the travel agency (and availability).

We were also very happy with our guides "Nelson" in Pingyao/Taiyuan, "Grace" in Xi'an and "Frank" in Luoyang as well as the drivers. They all turned up flawlessly on time for every appointment, helped us order lunch and always seemed happy.

There appear to be one or two 'scams' running with guides taking commission on purchases made. But having ordered an evening dance show + meal at our hotel "Grand New World" our guide in Xi'an certainly earned what ever commission she got by making sure that my meal contained no sugar or MSG/Soy Sauce.

Chinese drivers seem to learn to all drive at the Kamikaze school of motoring, but the drivers in Pingyao, Xi'an and Luoyang (Frank did his own driving) (also contracted but independently of the guides) did a good job of not frightening us too much.

Chinese cyclists and motor cyclists don't even follow the correct direction of flow and often drive on the wrong side of the road. Chinese drivers hoot constantly if they want to overtake and can't quite squeeze by!

Coffee in China generally doesn't seem very good (apart from at the large American chains).

The Tian yuan kui hostel in Pingyao is an interesting mixture of traditional and modern. The staff were extremely lovely and the food was tasty. The hundreds of recommendations on A3 sheets on the wall in English, French, Italian, Spanish and other languages were also testament to that.

The Grand New World hotel in Xi'an was a slice of America transported to China. Service was slightly variable. E.g. I had to go to 3 receptionists in order to find the one who was allowed to do checkouts. English from staff was variable though usually adequate.

The Peony Hotel in Luoyang was also like a slice of America. Our safe would not work as it had no batteries in it. We struggled with language problems for about half an hour to get 4 new batteries to fit into it and then to get the Chinese maintenance lady to fit them right way round.

The manager agreed a special picnic lunch for our train journey, but I ended up having to explain to francophone Chinese tour guide in French what we needed! But I guess episodes like this make a tour more interesting.

Many thanks to Monica for arranging this memorable holiday.

Someone told us that if you want to know modern china, go to Beijing and Shanghai; If you want to know ancient China, then go to Xi’an. We were very lucky to take this tour and visit these three cities of China. We appreciated your service during the trip, especially the guide who gave us an excellent explains of china’s histories and developments. Besides, everything in the tour was considerably managed by China Expedition Tours, so we could have a light heart sightseeing and knowledge learning around China. Thank you so much.

This is our first China Trip. Our guides did a wonderful job. All drivers are very nice,we don't have to worry about the driving. The hotel in Xi'an is very beautiful. Thank you so much for this wonderful trip!

 We had a really good day, and enjoyed the tour. Our guide was friendly and knowledgeable. For me, the best part of the day was actually when we took a open sided car and drove around the countryside around Yangshou. It might be worth incorporating this into the tour? My only negative feedback was the food on the boat wasn’t great, although I know that your company don’t manage the boat directly.  I don’t know if there are any boats that don’t have food, as it might be worth not eating, and letting people eat in the town when they arrive?

Anyway, in general the day was great. We all really enjoyed it.

Thanks,

Nick