Testimonial

Dear Rebecca,

We just returned from our great vacation to China, and surely our Yangtze cruise was a highlight, not least owing to your outstanding service. Our trip and especially the transfers to and from the ship were totally hassle free. The guides were very helpful and polite. It was no problem to find them, and with the help of our guide we very easily catched the bus to Wuhan in Yichang in time to get our plane.

Surely we are totally satisfied with your service, and even if you would not have sent the evaluation mail, it would have been my wish to express my gratitude for your outstanding organisation. It ensured that our trip was totally a pleasure. We will surely recommend your service to anybody who will travel to China.

We were impressed by the scenery along Yangtze river, and therefore it is difficult to highlight a specific sight. In general, we were impressed by the Chinese culture and by the friendliness of its people. We travelled on our own without knowledge of Chinese, but encountered no bigger problems because of the helpfulness of the people. So perhaps this is what we can say to your potential customers: Don't be afraid of travelling to China, even if you do not speak Chinese and if you do not travel with a group. If one stays in bigger cities and if one relies on the service of a travel agency like yours, than there will be no major difficulties.

Nevertheless, on another trip to China in the future, I would surely rely on your service again.

Kind regards,

Dirk Michael Schulte

Hi Jean,

We enjoyed our trip very much.  Thank you very much for organizing it.  All of the guides were terrific and the service was outstanding. 

The minority villages and terraced rice fields – PingAn and the Dong Village were the most memorable attractions we visited.  These were spectacular.  Also, the Terracotta warriors.

Probably Sean in Beijing was the most outstanding tour guide during our this travel.  Though all guides were great but we especially liked Sean.  He was very attentive and was there when we needed him but also very flexible and looked for what we wanted or preferred rather than feeling a need to stay with a preplanned itinerary.  He also was very good at giving us a little space and privacy when needed.  His style included the needed information, history etc, but was also more relaxed and conversational.  He did not overwhelm us with more facts than we could remember.  There were many more excellent guides but he probably was the best fit for our family.

 
We felt that we may have been too hard on Tang (in Guilin and Yangshaou) than he deserved.  That was early in the trip and I think we were harder in our rating for the first one than for others.  Tang was also excellent and worked very hard to take good care of us.  
And all hotels were excellent.  But we especially enjoyed PingAn Inn and the Hotel in Beijing. Our travel was also excellent, but if we did it again, we would spend more time in minority villages in the west and would not take the Yangtze cruise

Jeff

Dear Sunny,

The travel was very nice and I would like to inform you that the service of China Highlights has been very very professional since the beginning.

Thanks
Manuel

Dear Michael,

We are now safely backed home. We have returned with such a positive impression of China that we have been telling our friends all about it.

We were impressed not only with all the history but also the current economic development that we saw all around.

The Wall of China and the Terra Cotta Army come on top of the list. I would say the Terra Cotta Army is one of 100 places in the world one must see before one dies! We also thought that the TV tower in Shanghai offered a very interesting sight. The Forbidden City was also very impressive.

Each of our tour guide had a side that was different than the others.

Our first guide, Joy was very charming, cheerful. She always had things under control and she went out of her way to organize things that were not on our tour program, such as the Peking Opera. She did not leave us until we were safely in the Opera and made sure we got good seats, as the seats were not numbered. She was also a good guide in the city Adam.

Our tour guide in Shanghai was a very knowledgeable, smart and experienced person. He was also fun and cheerful and a very good organizer. Most of what we learnt about modern China, we learnt from him. Adam is a very intellectual person and it was a pleasure to discuss with him politics, economics, education and health systems etc about China and to compare the situation in our own countries.

Sally, our second tour guide was maybe not so well organized, but her knowledge on history was outstanding. She gave us a lot of important and interesting information about Chinese history, culture and religion. Xian has a lot to offer in terms of history and Sally was very well equipped in that respect.

The hotels and meals were all up to standard. The dumpling banquet in Xian was our favorite! Also, Joy took us to a hotpot restaurant the evening of the Opera which was not in the program, and we liked that very much! Maybe you can add that to your program.

Overall we had a very good, interesting, enriching and culinary trip. The trip was very well organized. I believe having a private tour guide made the trip richer and private transportation made it more efficient. I would especially recommend that.

Thank you for all your help in the organization of this wonderful tour. Our tour guides were the greatest asset of this trip. Without them and their explanations on the history, culture and current life in China, we would not have penetrated China or the Chinese culture and history so well.

All the best,

Gül

Hello Jean,

I trust you had a good vacation.

I want to thankyou for arranging our tours in Chengdu and Guilin. Michelle, our guide in Chengdu was the best guide we have had in China, her English was excellent.

But mostly I want to extend a very big thankyou to your colleague Michael who was extremely helpful when one of our flights was cancelled. He could not have been more helpful or understanding, especially there was no one in our hotel with sufficient English to help us and our Chinese is non existant.

I will be recommending China Highlights very highly.

Yours sincerely,

Thelma Drinnan

Dear Karen:

We have returned home smoothly, we were very impressed with the well organized itinerary, the tour guides, drivers and all the arrangements.  Everything went like a clock!!  .

There is several places that are memorable:  the great wall, the forbidden city, Suzhou was surprisingly enchanting. All of the your guides were not in a hurry and they adapted the pace of my parents. Especially Jay in Beijing and the one in Suzhou, very knowledaeable and friendly.

Every hotel and meal was good.  The selection of food chosen per the tours were my favorite.  The opportunity to eat in restaurants were no tourist is a great idea. We love it!  During the times, that it was a la carte/menu – we like the food – but preferred the other way.

Everything went well. We loved the trip to China and we’ll be sure to recommend your company to others.  

Thank you,

Ivette

Eva

Thank you for all of your work on our trip.

Most memorable attraction was the Li River area. All of the three guides were outstanding.  All of the hotels were good. I would highly recommend your company.

The time difference is so big that it takes a day or two to adjust.  We did too much too soon.  I would not recommend the night train from Beijing to Xian.  You don’t see anything at night and the sleeping arrangements are marginal.

We would be happy to speak to potential customers.  The email contact above or the telephone number below work fine. We very much appreciate your work.  I’m sorry that we were not able to get in touch with you when we missed our connection in Japan.   

Thank you again!

Jim

Hi Grace.
 
We are still on our travels in Asia - in Vietnam for the next 10 days then moving on to Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. After that we go to Australia and New Zealand to visit our daughters who went on a world trip last year and never came home!! We go from there to Chile and finally to Brazil and the Amazon jungle. So we won't be home for quite a long time. We will certainly write very positively about our trip to China and about China Highlights and will, of course, send you photographs.
 
There are some points below we would like more time to consider, so if you want to remind me with another e-mail, send it around the end of August.
 
In the meantime, I will attempt to answer your questions below - but rather quickly as we are just about to leave our hotel for a visit to the national art gallery.
 
We enjoyed everything, and everything was memorable, but for me the most memorable was the clay making factory in Jingdezhen because it was NOT a tourist attraction but a genuine working factory using original machinery. As to the guides, it would not be fair to discriminate between the guides. All were very nice and tried very hard to meet our demands. There were variations in their command of English but we probably got closest to Rainy in Guilin and Yangshuo, and she certainly did some great things to accommodate us.
 
As to the hotels and meals, we found the food in northern China better than in southern China. Meat with all the bones in is not something we usually eat. All our hotels were of a good standard. The Bell Tower in Xi’an stands out for the view we enjoyed. The Paradesa in Yangshuo was the most interesting architecturally and had a good swimming pool.
 
We will certainly recommend your company to our friends or colleagues. Again, we'll send mail to you with more information when we get back to Ireland and have an opportunity to view the 5,000+ photos we took in China!
 
Best wishes,
 
Mike

Hello, Michael.

We are safely back in Australia after a wonderful holiday.

Thank you, China Highlights, for a memorable experience.

Michael, everything was fine, all three Tour Guides were professional and went out of their way to assist us. The itinerary gave us a real insight into China:- Beijing, the present, Xian, the past, Shanghai, the future. The accommodation and transport arrangements were exemplary.

Thank you for your special assistance when we found the Bund Riverside Hotel unsatisfactory. The carpet was dirty; the room was not ‘superior’; the room smelled of smoke. We accept responsibility as we selected that hotel ourselves. If you encountered financial outlays in moving us from that hotel we will be happy to reimburse you. “The Bund”, where you moved us to, is a very nice hotel indeed. We recommend it strongly.

Best wishes,

Steve and Angela

Dear Michael,

The Water village and Silk Factory in Suzhou were the most memorable attraction We have visited.

The hotels were up to standard. The breakfast at The Bund Hotel and Lakeview Hotel were excellent.

Jill, tour guide in Hangzhou appeared to care her subjects and also gave us time to shop.

Overall, China Highlights did a great job of setting up the guides and tours. We also appreciated the guides getting us through the train stations.

Thank you for your assistance.

Regina