Testimonial

Hi Rebecca,
The most memorable attraction you visited was Mount Huaushan.,Roy was our tour guide for the whole thing and he was awesome. Couldn't get any better.There was just one hotel and it was very good. Bring a raincoat in summer for the Mt Huashan trip.
Kieran

Dear Michael,
We have now left The Miao Land and before that Guilin. The trip to those parts of China has been a wonderful experience for us. The week at Guilin was to a good part spent together with Cherry Wan and it was a great success, especially due to her capability as a tour guide. She gave us a extraordinarily good insight into many things; the places we saw, the people we met, the food we ate etc. She is a wonderful girl and we felt we had a very good contact with her as a person. But above all she acted as an excellent ambassador for China. She is very knowledgeable and can also communicate with her tourists. As you can understand we are pleased with her job in helping us to study Guilin and its surroundings, but also to give us information on today's China in general. We wish her all success for the future. The week in The Miao Land was also a great success, and here it was again due to an excellent tour guide, Richard Wu. He helped us around for almost a full week. His knowledge about the different minority people, especially the miaos, is exceptional. He knew about every detail in the complicated patterns of the broideries and the silverware and the way these people live, what their customns and traditions are and their history . The visits to the villages were extremely interesting and we learnt a lot about the way these people live. He can communicate very well with his tourists. The trip was well organized, there was ample time for every part of the visits, and even if you can imagine doing more, seeing more places, we feel this tour was well worth the money we spent on it. Richard is a very nice person, he is easy to get along with and during the transfers he told us many stories about China today. He is a very flexible person. Like Cherry China Insight can be proud of having such a good guide. I think I wanted to tell you, Michael, already now about our experiences from these two weeks of travelling and not wait until we return home to Sweden in about two and a half weeks. I might come back to you at a later time, and thank you once again for organizing this trip and for all the efforts you have taken to help us. We feel that China Insight has done a very, very good job thru your efforts. Have a good time and thank also your colleagues, Alex and Ethel, and of course, Cherry from us.
Best regards,
Harry Albinsson

Dear Morgen,
Thank you for your message. Hope you liked the t-shirt that my wife got for you. It's a souvenir from Chicago, where we live. Hope we can have you here some day, it's a great city and most likely you would enjoy it. Thank you as well for the photograph you sent with Foster. Thank you very much for all your work in putting together our trip to China. We had a fantastic time! I would like to highlight who in our opinion were the best tour guides during our trip; Jack in Hong Kong, April in Xi'an and Foster in Guilin. Special thanks to them, they went "above and beyond" to make sure that we had a great experience. We hope this was the first of many trips to China. Going forward and I'll be more than happy to recommend your services to our friends. Thank you once again and best regards.
Carlos A Ortega

Good Morning Karen,
Ted and I just were talking last night that we needed to email you and check in and say thanks again for organizing such a WONDERFUL trip. We got home around 6:00 pm on the 7th...which was already the 8th for you and played catch up with mail and phone calls all day yesterday...but are adjusting well to our time zone surprisingly. It was such a nice touch to get to meet you in person...we would have regretted not getting to see who had put together such a great trip. We met Jennifer and Jessica on the Li River cruise who had also worked with you...and they spoke very highly of you as well. So first off let us say you are personally doing a great job. I have not downloaded my photos yet...but when I do, I will send you the picture we took in the office immediately. I will probably send you some other pictures on a disc via the mail as well...it is hard to email large numbers due to their size. But I will let you know when they are sent as well. Interesting to hear about the Jinci Hotel...it was really pretty form the outside. You might still want to see if you can develop some arrangement with them...because the grounds and it's location to the temple were really exceptional especially compared to the city itself. Also while we are discussing hotels...I know we booked the Sofitel in Suzhou and the Grand Hyatt in Shangai ourselves...but here i s a little feedback on them too just for your own use. The Sofitel in Suzhou was one of the least enjoyable hotels we stayed in...we had VERY beautiful room but the service there was very poor...the staff didn't seem to know how to operate the equipment, coffee maker, computers, etc. in the club lounge and just in general service was off even in the restaurant. We did notice from the cab....the Sheraton in Suzhou...looked REALLY NICE and very impressive form the street...also now that I think of it...the Sheraton (walked into the lobby of it) in Guilin looked REALLY nice too. Now on the contrary the best hotel we stayed in was the Grand Hyatt in Shanghai....Karen, it was unbelievable...probably one of the top hotels we have ever stayed in ANYWHERE in the world....we were totally blown away...by design, interior decor...and service was impeccable. And with Ted's Hyatt status we were given a room on the club floor...on the 85th floor...the top floor for rooms....it was spectacular. The view was amazing. The Grand Hyatt Hangzhou also was AMAZING....following closely behind the one in Shanghai. Great location....great club lounge. Hangzhou the city itself was great....SO beautiful. The West Lake area was one of our favorites. Would liked to have had another night or two there....but glad to have seen it and stayed there. We loved the visit to the village....but I thought the village we visited was called YIMA...regardless it was a beautiful drive...the scenery was breathtaking...the visit the house on the way and the two older ladies there were so sweet....loved them. We also did a bamboo boat ride at the end of the drive out...and enjoyed that.... also beautiful scenery....got a little wet as the boat went over the little waterfalls. But the scenery of both the village, drive, and boat trip were great. Highly recommend ALL of that...also LOVED the hotel in Yangshuo. We had an exceptionally nice room...and wondered if you had had us upgraded....it had a REALLY good view...if that was your request...thank you very much.

Dear Karen,
I would like to thank you for the excellent organisation of my trip in China. Everything was OK, guides and drivers both in Zhengzhou and Beijing were very good. The itinerary that you suggested was interesting, especially the art district. I hope that I will have the opportunity to visit China again and to use again the services of your company.
Best regards,
Evelina Stoykova

Dear Candy,
Great Wall and Summer Palace were the most memorable attraction we visited. Our guides Anna in Hong Kong and Jing Jing in Beijing were very good. We had a very nice time in Beijing and Hong Kong, and it was very useful to have your guides and drivers to take us around to all the sights and get all the tickets, order the meals, etc. I imagine it would have been much more difficult on our own. It was also great to have the flexibility to make minor changes in the schedule as needed, since it was a private tour.
Maureen

Dear Candy:
Hello again! The recovery, after more than 24 hours of traveling to get home a week ago, has no ended yet. We are very happy about our trip to China, with a lot of good memories, and images printed in our souls. We are very pleased with your services. It was great meeting you in Guilin, and we are grateful for the gifts you gave us, that have a special place at home. You will find attached to this email the picture Lilly took from the terrace in your building. The most memorable attraction was the rice terraces in Longji; an extra tour suggested by our guide in Guilin for the previous ours to our flight to Chongquing. It was simply breathtaking! The most outstanding guide was Lilly, in Guilin. As I put it in the evaluation form, she was like a guardian angel to us. Always aware of our needs, constantly suggesting additional options, permanently taking care of us. Cristina in Xian was also very helpful and very efficient in doing her job. The lunch in our tour to Longji was unforgettable, especially the bamboo rice Lilly ordered for us. Our first lunch in Xian was very good too. I am not sure we will have a next China tour, there are so many places to visit and so short time, but I surely transfer my discount to a friend. Best regards to you Candy, it has been a pleasure doing business with you!
Victor Blanco

Dear Karen,
The camel riding in the desert of Erduous was the most memorable. Susie was a wonderful guide for us. She was knowledgeable and easy going and while we were not the easiest group, she was perfect for us. I would recommend her for any group going to Inner Mongolia. The yurt was interesting and the Inner Mongolia Hotel and the Erdous Hotel was very fine. The meals, especially at the yurt, were delicious. That meal was our favorite in Mongolia. I would just say that our trip to both the grasslands and the desert should be on everybody's travel list. The desert trip was like going to an amusement park -- with atvs, camel rides, sand sliding, etc. It should not be missed.
Sarah

Hi Michael and Karen,
I just wanted to report back from my China trip and to send you some photos. I was at first apprehensive about the language barrier I may encounter in China but I was met by Lola at the airport in Guilin and she was an amazing and friendly person. My apprehension immediately disappeared as she showed me around the night market in Guilin late that Friday. On Saturday I was met by Ada and it was just me on the city tour. It was a lovely day and Ada showed me the sights of all the parks. On Sunday the Li River trip was fabulous and again Ada was my guide. Unfortunately due to the flooding I could not stay in Yangshao but I did get to see the villages around the area (although we had to pay extra for this and was not told this at the start of the trip). Xian and the warriors was my favourite day, again my guide met me at the airport and was amazing. My guide on the day of the warriors was very informative too and was flexible when we needed to change the trip course (one of the women wasn't very well). In Bejing I again had a wonderful tour of the great wall. Our guide was very funny and full of useful facts. In summary, your guides were lovely and welcoming. The Chinese people are warm and surprised me with their kindness. I would definitely recommend people to travel this way through south China due to the language barrier in some towns but in the north of China it appears that many people speak English so a guide meeting at stations may not be necessary. I will also recommend the tours I did as they were superb. Thank you again for your help and advice at the start of my trip.
Vinesha

Dear Karen,
We had an excellent time throughout, thanks to your faultless organising. We quite understand about the train, & do not see what else you could have done, except perhaps point out to us in advance about the train problem. Shanghai Museum was fabulous, and also the city itself with some spectacular buildings and the brilliant neon of Nanjing Road. Also loved the 'water city' of Suzhou. And the Yellow Mountain on the cruise. Our guide (English name Cherry) was very helpful & had a very pleasant personality. Her English was pretty good and on rare occasions when needed she also had a very effective dictionary on her phone to cope with difficult words. She was always prompt when meeting us and made great efforts to help us when we wanted to go to an evening show -came back, took us there, got the tickets. Also helped with shopping. (Driver was good too). You arranged only 2 hotels - the Sunworld in Shanghai & the Central in Beijing. Both were excellent & I would have no hesitation in recommending them. The meals arranged with Cherry were all excellent. The Chongqing lunch in I think a Great Western hotel was not so good and service was poor. Certainly, and will do so, also in particular you Karen who always replied to my emails by return, sometimes the same day if I had sent mine early enough. You or colleagues were also very helpful whenever I telephoned you. We had a very enjoyable time throughout, though not as much time in Chongqing as we'd hoped because poor weather on part of the cruise meant we arrived late at Chongqing. Apart from 2 above, we enjoyed things we organised ourselves - eg, cycling round hutongs in Beijing, the 798 Art District & the National Art Museum, both Beijing.
Rhonda and Michael