Testimonial

Dear Rebecca
  
I have attached some of the photos taken during the trip.  Hope you like them.

Things were good in Jinan, Taishan, Qufu and Suzhou.  The guides were great, both are very knowledgable and looked after very detail of the tour.  Your compnay should be proud of them.  I wish I had a bit more time to spend in Shandong and Suzhou as there are still places that we have not visited.  We will likely go back at some point, and the same can be said about Beijing and Xian as well, too many sites to visit and too little time.
 
regards

Tom

Eva

Thank you  for organising everything.  I was actually surprised at how well organised and smoothly it all went.

China is one fantastic country and I was quite impressed with some of the things I saw.  It was completely different to what I had expected given the impressions I've heard living in the west.

The most memorable attraction I've visited was the Yellow Mountains. On the first day I went there it was raining quite badly and very foggy so you couldn't see anything.  The next day the rain stopped but it was still foggy.  The fog was so thick you could not see more than 10 meters in front of you even when standing at the peak of the mountains.  But during the 24 hours I stayed there, the fog cleared for about 5 seconds and the view during those 5 seconds were absolutely stunning. Those 5 seconds revealed a beauty unlike anything I have seen before.  The strangely shaped peaks with odd looking pine trees growing on it, the sea of cloud and fog separating the peaks.  Definitely something that needs to be witnessed with your own eyes at least once in your lifetime.

I think all your tour guides were outstanding. Each one had their own style and they all were polite and made absolutely sure of your well being. Gill, your Hangzhou guide, being in her late 30s early 40s and had a wealth of knowledge and experience to share. Leo your Suzhou guide was down to earth and more like a friend and his English is near perfect.  But the most outstanding tour guide for us is a close one between Doris (yellow mountain) and Cherry (Shanghai).
Doris gave us the best balanced tour, she expressed culture, history, humour and gave us a deeper insight into the lives of the Chinese. Also she probably ordered us the best balanced lunches too.  I was quite impressed with her selection!
Cherry took real good care for us. On the day we were leaving Shanghai for Suzhou, the train was booked a little later than usual. She waited with us and helped us against the wild people that kept coming up to us while we were waiting at the station. Also when the train arrived it was mass chaos in the station, she waited with us and lead us to our carriage. She even boarded the train and kicked off the two people that were on our allocated seats!
If I had to decide between the two, then I'll choose Doris because we spent the longest time with her.  But I would also like to make an honourable mention for Cherry.

Yes all the hotels were up to standard.  The worse hotel was probably the Beihai hotel on the yellow mountain. I can understand why it's quite bad because it's at the top of the mountain and it uses people to run up and down the mountain carrying supplies as water is scarce up there.  My favourite was the Raddisson New World Shanghai as it has the best range of food and the food was very well prepared, very good gym equipment, free wireless Internet everywhere, a fantastic view of the city and it is located in a prime spot.

Things that made me go wow are the view from the Raddission hotel, the Suzhou gardens, the tomb of the king on Tiger hill, the view from our hotel in Suzhou, the Yellow Mountains and the stone carvings in Hangzhou. I wouldn't mind if you (your tour guides) can recommend and possibly take us to some nice bars or restaurants to visit during the evening/ night to soak up some of the local atmosphere.  Also maybe have the option to visit some performing arts, theatre or sporting/local events.

Once again I would like to thank you for organising this trip to such a high standard. From organising the logistics and travel to selecting excellent people to be your tour guides.  This holiday has been life inspiring and in some ways life changing.  I will definitely be back (with chinahighlights of course!) to visit all of China's 10 wonders.

Many Thanks

Tuan

Sunny,
Your people did a great job with the trip. Thanks for all the follow up.
Jack

Dear Grace,
Now we just arrive to our own "Hutong" after a wonderful holiday in China.
It has been a fantastic tour to the most beautiful place on Earth. You have created a very, very wonderful tour. We thank you many times. It was very nice to meet you. It was a great surprise. Thank you very much for a splendid dinner and for your nice present. We have placed them in our home.

We ask you to send our regards to Way. He is a great guide. He is very helpful, careful and has much knowledge. Please tell him, that one of the DVD we bought in Longsheng unfortunately is empty.

We hope that you will create a new holiday for us another time - but not next year.

Kindly regards from

Susanne and Jorgen

Dear Grace,

Marlene and I have just got back from our 16-day tour of China, and want to thank you and all at China Highlights for the excellent arrangements that made this a truly wonderful vacation. We much appreciated your flexibility in helping us to customize our trip to cover our priorities, and for making suggestions  that reflected the realities of how much time was needed at our chosen venues. Our guides at each stop - Terry (Beijing), Jasmine (Xian), Foster (Guilin), David (Chonqing), Peter (Yichang), and Rainy (Shanghai and Souzhou) were all excellent and knowledgeable, and ready to make on-the-spot changes or additions as they got to know our preferences. At no stage were we pressured into selling situations, although they would have taken us to appropriate places had we been seeking particular souvenirs. Our drivers were safe and conscientious, and negotiated the difficult traffic in Beijing, Xian and Shanghai especially with great skill. Our five internal flights were fine, with only one flight delay due to air traffic control congestion at Shanghai. Our hotels were of 5-star quality and comparable to what we would expect in the West. The 3-day Yangtze cruise was outstanding, and was full of things to do on board or as shore excursions. The only slight negative for us was the quality of food in the lunches at local Chinese restaurants. This mainly related to the quality of meat and level of spiciness, but this may not be an issue for most of your customers, and was certainly beyond China Highlight's immediate control. As soon as we specified vegetarian food only, our guides accommodated our specific need.

Altogether you arranged a fantastic trip for us, and worked patiently with us to get the most out of our available 16 days. The highlights for us were the Forbidden City, Summer Palace, and the Great Wall (Mutianyu - less crowded than Badaling) in Beijung; the Terracotta Warriors in Xian; the Reed Flute Caves, River Li cruise to Yangshuo from Guilin, and the meeting with the country family in Yangshuo; the amazing Impressions Show in Yangshuo; the discovery that Chonqing - where we boarded the Yangtze Cruise ship - was the largest city in the world at 32 million (!!); the side boat trip to the lesser 3 Gorges; the amazing Acrobatic Show and Museum in Shanghai; and the very beautiful and peaceful gardens in Souzhou. For those interested in Chinese-American cooperation during WWII, a visit to the General Stilwell Museum in Chonqing was highly illuminating. However, we've left out many wonderful buddhist temples and gardens that are also 'must see'!

Based on our experience of how you helped us to arrange our ideal customized tour, we can thoroughly recommend your services to anyone planning a China vacation. You really listened to our needs and responded promptly to all our pre-trip questions and concerns. Please feel free to use any or all of this on your website.

Thanks again for a great trip!

Marlene & John Ayre.

Richmond, Texas.

Hi Eva

We had a wonderful holiday and all the arrangements were spot on. Han Yang tomb in Xi'an was the most memorable attraction we visited. I found this as wonderful as the terracotta army. Somehow it is on a more human scale, less ostentacious and show offy. So wonderfully evocative of the period in history.

All our guides were wonderful. Cherry in Shanghai found extra things to occupy us when we had time to kill before the train in the evening. Angela in Xi'an was so lovely. She recommended a local 'fast-food' restaurant and wrote down what to order, which was all a very tasty experience. She told us lots of wonderful things about the attractions we were visiting. Katie in Beijing was a true star! When we encountered problems with my sons' visas, she stayed with us all day at the bureau, to help us through the maze of paperwork and bureacracy. She made sure we didn't miss the tour we had been scheduled to take during that lost day, and arranged it for another day. She was able to engage my 15 year old sons in things which were of interest to them. She told us lots of lovely anecdotes about history of China. In Shanghai again Cissy was very efficient, meeting us at the train station and delivering us to the hotel, and back again. In Hangzhou, Yvonne was so beautiful! Her English was impeccable. She was interesting and natural and like a friend. She was able to engage my boys. She took us to a tea plantation that wasn't in our tour, because I said I was interested. She told us lots to explain what Hangzhou is like to live in.

Mostly the hotels were fine. The location of the hotel in Beijing was perfect.  A quiet street, but within walking distance of restaurants and a night market. Also close to travel routes. The meals were very good, It would be hard to single out any particularly special. But the one in Shanghai the first day was fantastic, the right mix of new things to try and familiar things. In Beijing we went to a Mongolian restaurant, the food here was splendid, very tasty, too bad we arrived just as the show was ending.

Making dumplings was a wonderful activity, my sons and I enjoyed it so much. We have since made our own dumplings at home, and had a very enjoyable time making our own fillings and a very tasty meal after! I will always remember the welcome we got in the peoples home, and the patience with which the woman showed us again and again how to make a dumpling. Now we have made our own here at home and practiced on a few dozen, we can make a dumpling not unlike those she showed us.

Ask tour guides to recommend local restaurants that they go to. We had two such recommendations and guidance on what to order, and we thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Be careful when bargaining. I have travelled quite a lot and am no stranger to bargaining and have always found it a rule of thumb that half the original asking price is about the right value of the goods. However, we had many instances of prices being dropped, to a tenth or less of the original price. A pack of post cards original price Y189, after bargaining and then giving up they cost Y10! Also check how many postcards in a pack,some have fewer than others!

Thank you!

Mary

Hi Delia,

When we arrived home after going on a 24-day long trip it made us feel quite tired.  It is a challenge for the four of us to sleep overnight on a train and plane two nights in a row. Finally we are coping well.

Yellow Mountain of course was the big wow factor for us. We thought that we were going to have bad luck as the Weather Bureau predicted rain. However, there were fantastic breaks in the poor weather that gave us just enough time to take lots of amazing pictures, so don't be mislead by the weather report.

I thought that the last 2 days of the itinerary featured similar attractions and it probably could've taken 1 day to visit them, so that might be the only suggestion for improvement I can make.

The five tour guides have done their best to make us happy. Libby is the one who looked after us until the very last minute. She not only actively brought up relevant information during the trip but was also more considerate than other guides and brought us extra bottles of water for the next day. The food at Lu bo Lang Restaurant was delicious and tasty and worth a return visit.

 I will definitely recommend your company and travel advisor Delia Xie to my friends in future. I'm happy to act  as your reference

Nelson

Dear Eva,
In short, we enjoyed our first visit to China a LOT! The most memorable attraction we visited is Great wall and Terracotta Warriors. Unfortunately, we have had an overcast day on the Wall, but I intend coming back to Beijing, just for a photographic trip to the Wall. And your representatives have been extremely helpful. Kattie - what a wonderful chatty (talking) lady. She chatted away with great ease, and we enjoyed her stories. Lee - Cool, calm, super professional, and she knew her stories. She was probably the best of the 3 (very good) tour guides. Rainy - Another excellent choice of Tour Guide. Her command of English was the best of the three. So, all in all, we were thrilled by the three guides and we thank you for allocating them to us. We booked 5 star accommodation and the Beijing and Shanghai hotels were magnificent.
For us to be in our own vehicle with our own Tour Guide made us felt like Kings. We loved the attention and support from your tour guides. We were so impressed that all 3 of them insisted staying with us until we were actually booked in on the plane. That is Super service, thanks.
Yes, absolutely. We intend using you again in the future, and as mentioned above, I would like to make up a private tour of 12 - 14 South African friends.
I will see if I have some good photos to share with your website. I have taken about 3000 photos and need to sift through it all, discarding about 90% of them before the good ones will emerge.
Regards,
Charl

Hi, Jean,

We just returned from China. We enjoyed our China tour very much!

The most memorable attraction we visited in China is the Great Wall and Teracotta Army. The guide in Beijing and Xian-Very knowledgeable and good spoken English..

No one should miss the attractions like Great Wall,Toracotta and Summer Palace. I will be glad to recommend your company to my friends who are also interested in China.I am also very happy to share my experience. Please feel free to have your potential customers to contact me if necessay

Irampilly

Dear Grace,

Sorry for the delayed response....catching up on work and due to Muslim New Year, staff all on leave and there were only two of us left to man the office.

Huangshan was the most memorable attraction we visited during the tour. The Most outstanding was Allan in Suzhou but generally all the guides were good and they have their own strengths in  different ways.  For example in Jiangziajie - Sunny, although her English was not excellent, she tried to express herself quite well...she reacted very well when on the way to airport we came across an accident and we were advised by the  Police that they don't know when the traffic would clear, she asked the driver to go by the village way (long and winding) and along the way, she also had to help to direct the vehicles as none could pass without any direction in view of its narrow road.  Journey was longer for us.  We still manage to go for our massage but missed out on dinner.  We even learned how  to sing a song on the way to the airport.  Any chance you can contact her and ask her to write it down in 'pin yin'  for us so that we can still sing the song.  She did write it down in mandarin for one of our co-member.

Bund Hotel in Shanghai was the best with its wide choice of breakfast.  The best lunch was in Suzhou organised by Allan.  We only had 5 minutes to go before closing time but Allan managed to wrangle through and insisted that we have the lunch  at this restaurant when the reception made so much noise that we did not have the booking there and that we were late. It was the best lunch we had. The wow factor is the lunch we had in Suzhou when Allan insisted we have lunch there as we did tell him we could go somewhere else if the restaurant was not willing to serve us. We enjoyed the shopping in Yuyuan Garden and went there twice during our short stay in Shanghai. 

Thanks again for your help. We have been most happy with your service.

Rgds

Jen

PS:I have also told my cousins who came from Perth recently that should they want to go to China, do contact me for your email address as we have been most happy with China Highlights services todate.