Testimonial

 Dear Karen,

I have returned home safely, thanks for helping me traveling around China.

There were a couple that were particuarly memorable. If you ask me give the list, would be 1>Great Wall Hiking,  2) Terra Cotta Warriors 3) Temple of Heaven 4) Forbidden City, and 5) Summer Palace.

If a traveler was in Chongqing and had time, Dazu Grottoes was excellent. In fact I enjoyed the drive to Dazu very much. It provded me an opportunity to see people and sites other than in the larger cities. My least favorite was a visit to a 'bed' museum....this just seemed to be a visit to fill some time early in Chongqing. Except for the silk store, the market was a disappointment.

While a couple were not. Xiushui Street (Silk Market). It was scheduled for Sunday, 11 Oct. The silk store there was fine and I bought some items. There are probably others who would enjoy the several other floors in the building.....but I did not. It is not a major thing. I had been given a referral to another silk store from people who could assure me of the quality of the silk. The major consideration is buying quality.

However, all of my guides are attentive, flexible, knowledgable and focused on me enjoying my visit. Henry and Helena were outstanding, Sherry was good--very knowledgable. And

For the hotels, Sunworld and Eling Park were OK. My room at Bell Tower was small, cramped with cracks in the ceiling and the furniture was dirty.....though their service was good. Eling Park had the nicest and most spacious room. My room at the Sino-Swiss Hotel was dirty though again, service was good.

Overall I was very pleased with my trip, and the service I received. I am considering Inner Mongolia and Tibet in the future. If I do decide to go to either one, I would only use China Highlights....

 Regards,

Gary

Hi Eva

Thank you for your email. We are now back at home but suffering from the effects of jet lag. We had a marvellous holiday in China and we would like to thank you once again for organising our trip, without you we would not have had such a wonderful time. Your organisational skills and the professionalism of both your company and guides are exceptional.

I would like to recommend the following things:

Beijing - try to move away from the tourist places if possible, visit the lakes Quanhai and Houhai. Stop at one of the bars, sit on an outside sofa and watch the world go by.
Beijing - Walk around the hutongs to get the feel of the true Beijing.
Beijing - Bamboo Garden Hotel is a gem, a quiet oasis in such a very busy city. I have posted a review on Trip Advisor.Com.
Beijing - Must try Hutong Pizza, near Silver Ingot Bridge. The most delicious pizza ever.

Yangshuo - get out and see the rural villages especially Juixian. If you are not able to cycle then find a good guide. Get away from the normal tourist places and find the real China.
Yangshuo - Try roast duck at 7th Heaven Cafe - absolutely delicious.
Yangshuo - really nice snacks, including chips (French fries) at Kely's Cafe.
Yangshuo - Rosewood Inn, good hotel. I have posted a report on Trip Advisor.com
All the guides we had were excellent but we both admit that Katy our guide in Beijing was a truly delightful young lady. Apart from excellent English she is so nice that she brightens your day.

I would definitely recommend your company to anyone thinking of travelling to China.

Well, we had a wonderful time, the only problem being lost luggage in both directions by Air France (not your fault at all as we booked our own international flights). Fortunately, we reveived our luggage in Beijing later the same day in it took Air France 2 days to find the luggage on our return. All is well now.

Thank you once again for all your help and we will contact you if we decide to visit China again.
Regards to you and your colleagues.

Eunice & Brian

Dear Eva,

We arrived home from Hong Kong last evening, and I am delighted to have an opportunity to send feedback to you about our trip. I would not hesitate to recommend your company to friends and colleagues.I have also forwarded this e-mail to my sister, Susan , so that she can respond to you directly with her feedback. It was one of the most memorable trips I have ever taken, and it is my pleasure to tell you why.

First, I want to apologize to you directly for not having visited you in Guilin. When we arrived in Hong Kong, I called  you to leave my cell phone number for you. I know that you were celebrating the holiday, so I left the number with one of your colleagues to forward to you. I hope that you received my message. Later, when we were in Guilin, I had planned to call you, but with the very busy schedule, I failed to do so. Once we had left Guilin for the Li River cruise, our guide, Claire, mentioned the possibility of returning to Guilin the following day to visit with you. She encouraged this, but the two remaining activities on our itinerary, the bike ride and the cooking class were the two activities that we were most looking forward to, and we were reluctant to let go of either of them to add a trip to Guilin before our flight back to Hong Kong. To not return to Guilin was our decision in spite of Claire’s encouragement that we do so.  I sincerely hope that this decision has not caused offense to you. Your services as a travel advisor have been excellent, and we have valued them very much. Susan and I look forward to another trip to China when we can meet you personally.

We enjoyed the spectacular geography of Yunnan and Guilin, the parks we visited, and the museums and cultural centers that we toured, but the attractions that moved me most were our visits to the markets and small villages in Dali, Lijiang and Yangshuo. These visits gave us a look at “real” life in the countryside in modern China.

 Each of the tour guides was highly qualified, full of interesting information about the history and culture of their area, exceptionally attentive and reliable, warm, open and welcoming to us. Each of the guides was very solicitous of our particular interests and needs. Each had a good command of English. We enjoyed all of the guides, but I have to say that I enjoyed Claire the most. Her manner of speaking is soft and soothing; her command of English is excellent. She clearly likes her work and made an easy and comfortable rapport with us right away. We very much enjoyed her energy, enthusiasm and, most of all, her humor. She is a lovely young woman, and China Highlights is very fortunate to have her services.

Each of the hotels was up to standard. We liked the Landscape Hotel and the hotel in the Ancient Village of LIjiang very much with their traditional architecture and courtyards. The Guilin Bravo was quite luxurious with a great location in the city. The YWCA Garden View Hotel was a wonderful base in Hong Kong with a very comfortable rooms, spectacular views of the downtown and harbor, and proximity to the Peak tramway and botanic garden (and my son!). The service at each hotel was very good. I would say that all hotels were more than adequate; the hotel I enjoyed the least was the hotel in Kunming. While we have great sympathy for the need for energy conservation, we found the air conditioning and general lighting in the rooms in the New Era Hotel in Kunming, the Landscape and Lijiang hotels quite a challenge.

WOW factor: It will take me quite a while to assimilate all of the rich sights and experiences of this trip, the activities that I think of immediately as the most meaningful were those that engaged us such as the cooking class, the bike ride in the countryside in Yangshuo, the hikes at Jade Snow Mountain and Tiger Leaping Gorge, and, especially, the visits to the markets in each location. We were wowed to witness the spectacular growth and development in modern China in the form of new highways, airports and railways, and the restoration of ancient villages and parks.

Other comments: First, I wanted to mention (and thank you for) the very comfortable transportation that you provided for us. The vans were extremely comfortable. We were very, very impressed with each of the drivers, Mr. Feng, Mr. Li and Mr. Zhu (I hope that I have these names right.) Each was very safe and careful, always following the speed limit. The driving conditions, particularly on the trips to the Stone Forest, through the mountains to Tiger Leaping Gorge and from Dali to Lijiang, were to our American eyes, very difficult with narrow roads, traffic with vehicles of all types including bicycles and large trucks and busses. The drivers were a marvel, and we were always very comfortable. Secondly, the food on this tour was very good. The one restaurant that stood out above all was Kaiyi’s Kitchen in Dali. We returned there for dinner the same day. In each location, the guides recommended dinner restaurants that were wonderful and very economical. In a couple of cases, we very much appreciated the guides’ help in translating menus and pre-ordering food for us in restaurants where little English was spoken or an English menu was not available. The food was great!

I would be willing to speak with a potential customer. If you have someone with whom you would like me to speak, please call me or send me an email.

 During this trip, each day unfolded like clockwork. Every activity moved on schedule with a comfortable pace. Everything worked more smoothly than any tour I have ever taken. We were extremely impressed with all of the arrangements and the exceptional communication. You all can be very proud of the good work that you do to share China with visitors. We wish you continued success and look forward to another visit to China and to meeting you face-to-face in the future.

Sincerely,

Mary

Dear Michael,

Both guides Michelle in Chengdu and Echo in Xianwere excellent and the drivers were very good as well.  They were very knowledgeable and they were flexible to adjust the schedule to fit my personal needs.I certainly will recommend China Highlights to others.

The most impressive sights for me were the Pandas in Chengdu and the Terra Cotta Warriors Museum and City Wall in Xian.I have previously read and seen movies about these sights but, there is no substitute for visiting them in person.

Thanks for your outstanding service.

Best regards,

Edward

Sunny,
 
I am leaving China today, and I wanted to take the opportunity to thank you and your staff for an outstanding trip. Your help in planning the trip was wonderful, but I didn't quite expect the high level of professionalism, courteousness, timeliness, and genuine interest by all of your staff in each of the four cities I visited. Traveling alone in a country with no ability to speak the foreign language can be very stressful. However, you team made sure I was attended to at all times, and as a result I truly was able to enjoy visiting your wonderful country.
 
I will certainly recommend China Highlights to my colleagues within Merck, and to my personal friends as well. Keep up the good work!
 
Alan

Hi Candy,

Now that we are back and somewhat rested I thought I would let you know how things went.

First let me say your company does a great job, the only suggestion I have is your descriptions should be a little more informative as  to the amount of walking and climbing involved at each venue, so people can decide if it is going to be to much for them and choose something else a perfect example is the Forbidden City.

Now to the guides, the guides we had in Qingdao and Dailan were very good but our guide in Beijing Betty was a standout she was well informed, great personality, and very helpful in all areas, in the restaurants she stayed on top of the servers and made sure everything was as it should be and even was able to get us private rooms in many since we don't like smelling smoke while were eating, she was very helpful negotiating prices with the merchants we dealt with and made sure we were always able to use Western style bathrooms she is a great asset to your company, even walked us into the airport and helped us check in for our flight while helping with all our bags. We were very pleased with Long Long last year in Shanghai but Betty was the best by far, and all our drivers was very good also.

Thanks again to your company for making our China experience a great one.

Jerry and Jeanie

Dear Carol,

Our trip was amazing and we all really enjoyed it.

We are really grateful about all the arrangements you made for our trip. Tony was fantastic guide and we had really nice time with him.
It was really nice that he also arranged some additional program for as: eating with local people, harvesting, pearl museum, tea farm, silk factory, light show in Guilin...Thanks to him, we had not difficulties to find special food for us and we really enjoyed delicious chinese meals.

I think that hiking in the rice terrace fields was the best part of the trip! One of the highlights of the trip was visiting in the local house and have a lunch with them.

Food was really delicious and tasty. It was really interesting to see how minority people live. It was also really nice to try harvesting. We all are originally from countryside and interested in to see real-life! That trip gave possibility to see it.

Light-music show in Yangshow was also one of the best parts of trip. It was so amazing that there is about 600 people making this show. Show was really beatiful and we enjoyed it.I think that it should be in the program.

About the silk factory, it was nice to visit there, but we would have been more interested in to see how silk is really made in the factory. Not only buy silk products.

Anyway, it was really nice tour and we really can recommendate it for our friends :)

 I will send some photo to you at the end of this week.

Thank you for an unforgetable trip!

Heidi

Dear Karen,

I have returned home, thanks for organizing our China trip again, and the 3 other travelers were impressed by the China Highlights service.

All the accommodations were up to the standard promised.  Meals good, service good,  The Sanya Baohong Hotel was the best - appearance, location, beach chair service. Once again, Yangtze Cruise is our favorate, beacuse it is relaxing and impressive. While Claire (our guide at Guilin and Yangshuo) was outstanding, good English, very flexible and accommodating,  We have a lot of fun and wow when taking Tachi Practise at Yangshuo.

Thanks again, if you have any potential clients are hesitating, you are welcome to give my e-mail address and phone no to them. I am happy to recoommend you and China Highlights.

Best wishes,

Jean

Hello Grace,

I hope all is well.

I had a truly great time in China. It was really good and I thank you so much for your help. And will be referring you and your company to many people

The Great Wall and The Terracotta Warriors was the most memorable attractions.The best Tour guide I had was called Eleven in Beijing I really enjoyed her company. The Tour guide lady I had in Xian was also really good and helpful too. All of the lunches were great on the Tours. The Breakfasts were OK but not a problem at all. The best hotel by far was the Courtyard Marriott Beijing. It was totally brilliant and the breakfast was super and the Chinese restaurant in house was some of the best Chinese food I ever had. It was good and would be worth charging and paying extra to have this hotel included for its great location. I also enjoyed the City Lion hotel in Xian a great location and a great lunch Buffet too. The Hengshing Peninsula was good too I heard bad reviews about it but it worked out just great so I was very happy

Our visit to the great wall was my Wow factor and for being recommended a show In Xian and an Acrobatics show in Beijing. Thanks to the tour guides for the advice and help on that. I definitely would and will be very happy to recommend your company. I will share my photos. I need to load them onto my PC. Thanks,

Neil

Dear Grace,

I have been thinking about my trip to China and I am delighted to have choosen China Highlights as my tour company. I am an independent traveler but for China I needed to rely on a professional tour group and you were the one-WOW. All my connections and guides were there when they were suppose to, very impressive. I felt safe and secure  with their help and guidance. My most memorable guide was Jenny, always up beat, an excellent teacher about not only the sites but gave me insite into your culture and the people. The Great wall by gondola was terrific, a true wonder of the world.My favorite city was Guillin, big cities have the sites and museums but your city was WOW. My favorite hotel was the Sheraton Guillin, food, room, loved the free internet connection, good sevice. Least favorite was the Crowne plaza Beijing, room ordinary, food good, charged me per minute for internet access-very annoying. The Raddison Shanghai was superb, good food and superb service, upgraded my room and even remembered my needing a charger from my 1st visit. Pan was a great guide and also a good teacher, cared for me where ever we went. When I come back you need to give me at least a 12% discount, and be competive enough to get my business. I loved the day in the country with Jenny and the water buffalo's, relaxed, beautiful, and WOW.

Regards

Dr. Odro