Adventure Tours

Dear Jessica,

My friend and I had a wonderful time trip in China. We were impressed with the quality of the hotels and food, and the knowledge of local tour guides.We learned so much about Chinese history and culture! Your guides were so patient and helpful in answering our questions and accommodating our special requests.

Our only suggestion would be to allow more free time in each of the cities like relaxing at a cafe to enjoy the atmosphere or strollin in the city street. On the other hand, there is so much to see, so we were glad that the itinerary was full.

We have already recommended your company to some of our friends. Your well-run service is worth of it.Thanks again for the wonderful experience.

Best regards,

J.Marine

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.

Dear Sue, Sorry that I didn't reply you immediately. Below is my evaluation of the tour. We were happy with the service of the tour guide, they varied in abilities, but they all tried very hard to please us. The best guide was Summer in Xi'an. She was very professional, her English was excellent and her knowledge of Xi'an and the archaeological details were impressive. We were also impressed with the guide in Beijing for his knowledge of history. Drivers in general were well educated persons with good knowledge of traffic and safe driving. Cars were clean and showed good mechanical conditions. The hotel of the three cities were all comfortable and humanized. In Beijing, the Pecking Duck left me great impression, and the Tian'anmen Square were so crowed. Many people of China came to visit this square. Xian was a ancient capital. The noodle there are delicious, and I still miss the food there. Jade Buddha Temple, Yuyuan Garden, Oriental Pearl TV Tower and Shanghai Museum were worthy of going. The traffic of Shanghai was relatively better than that of Beijing, I considered. The laat stop to Guilin was also fantastic, and we plan to visit other cities of China in the future. This time, we had a very enjoyable experience with China Expedition Tours, my husband and I would definitely use CET again for our next trip in China. Sincerely, Paul &Kerry Williams

Dear CET, My wife, son and I just returned from our trip to China, arranged by Monica. I wanted to jot a note to tell you how impressed and appreciative I was with the services that she provided. From the first email, through the final itinerary, through the execution of the trip, she was an absolute professional. She provided expert advice, helping me craft an itinerary to my needs. In the process she became as much a friend as a Travel Advisor. The trip was handled to perfection, no doubt a tribute to her expert planning and follow-up on the all the details. I asked for specific qualifications on the guides and in most of the cases it was spot on. All of the guides met the minimum expectations, and most of them far exceeded the expectations. I had an opportunity to use a number of different travel agencies in China, but it was her proactive and prompt responses, with very good information that made the difference. She is absolutely terrific -- I can't say enough positive things about her. Sincerely,

Hi, Monica, we just came back home and still in jetlag.  We enjoyed our tour, the guide was very nice, his english was very good and the driver was also very nice. They were on time at the hotel. We enjoyed the lunch at the jade factory resturant. The food was very tasty , according to our liking. The only thing I would suggest that I wish some one had called us a day before at our hotel  and confirm, because I tried to call the the phone # on the papers, but due to holiday no one answered. I was not sure if some one will show up in the morning. The adress you gave me in Chinese writing was very helpful. 

It seems a little difficult for me to figure out which is the best one in my tour because all are wonderful. I really like the Garden of the Master of Nets in Suzhou; it is a classical Chinese garden. For the shooting experience, the Great Wall made me impressed the most, it was just very amazing. Next morning, I enjoyed the beautiful sunrise at the top of the Xianggongshan Hill. Next, we had the cormorant fishing and took many photos with the white beard fisherman and his cormorants standing on his bamboo raft. It was very special that shooting on the Bund in Shanghai they organized. I had such a great shooting experience. This was a bucket list trip for me. Stepping foot on the Great Wall, seeing the Warriors, experiencing the few remaining cormorant fishermen, it was all breathtaking and deeply informative. Alex and Peter provided great insight on their country.