Testimonial

Dear Sunny

It's been almost a month since we came back from Hong Kong and we finally found time to give you a feedback about our trip.

We absolutely LOVED it!!! Sanya is beautiful, the beach is very nice, our guide Angela was EXCELLENT, the cars were very good, the drivers were very good and trustable. China Highlights at its very best!! Angela, in particular, was brilliant: she suggested some alternative excursions for our one day trip to the island, which was exactly what we wanted! We ended up going to the Li village museum, to the island (as scheduled) and to Nantian Springs. This all contributed to make of this one of the most memorable days of our trip.

We were extremely happy with all the arrangements made by China Highlights and by you, in particular. Thank you ever so much!!!

We fell in love with China in our first visit; now, we want to go back to China immediately!!! :)

The rest of the trip (arranged by ourselves) went very well too. Hong Kong is amazing, Macao is beautiful; we felt really well in both cities and came back to Europe really sad.

We are already planning our next trip to China and this time we are bringing some friends!  Anyway, unfortunately this won't be this year, so we have plenty of time to think of an itineray and put your patience to the test once again for calculating a budget.

Thanks for sending all the regular information about China Highlights tours and about China; we really appreciate it.

Best regards to you and to everybody at China Highlights

Paulo and Corneliu

Hi Candy,

Our client Jane and Les had a wonderful trip!  Thank you very much for arranging so well for them.

Here are the additional comments they made.

Our trip was wonderful!  Thank you again for your part in the planning.  We could not have planned this on our own!  Every thing went like clockwork the whole time.  In fact, we really appreciated the fact that we had an English speaking guide even more when we arrived in Hangzhou and tried to go to West Lake on our own without one (our choice, right!)! 

Feedback on the tour sites:  We really had excellent guides, but the one in Guilin was particularly wonderful.  His name is Foster (who was probably close to our age),  If you get a chance to request him on any trip, I would highly recommend him.  The driver’s name was Mong (or similar) but I assume they are paired differently each trip by China Highlights.  Guilin was beautiful!  I wish we could have stayed longer and participated in one of the night shows.  We could hear the singing from the hotel, but it was raining that afternoon and we were tired so we opted out of any additional outings.  It was raining on our Li River trip… got a little wet, but it made the views so much more magical and misty. The countryside drive (in our golf cart) was probably the highlight… seeing the people as they live in the countryside.   Again, if we could have had more time, I would recommend staying in Yanshao.  I understand the evening light/music show was directed by the Beijing Olympic show director.  Moving on… another highlight of our trip was the Tongli tour and boat ride through the canals!  That was so worth the extra time and money.  The gardens were nice in Suzhou… I don’t remember our guide’s name (Les would) but he was younger. He was very patient with my picture-taking and very courteous.  I think he felt we were needing to rush to make it to three gardens in one day (in addition to Tongli and our pick-up first in Shanghai), but it really worked out ok.  Just for your information, they are doing a lot of construction on the Bund, so we had to detour a bit to find our way to the other side of the river.  We took a 45 minute boat ride up and down the river near the Pearl tower and that was nice.

Feedback on the hotels:  Guilin Bravo was beautiful.  If you go there, ask for a room that faces the lake.  At first they put us in a king sized room that was on a main floor level that was near a smoking areas and looked on a wall with a barbed wire fence.  I asked if we could move and they were VERY accommodating and gave us a twin room that faced the lake.  PERFECT!  The Holiday Inn in Shanghai was very nice as well.  At first there was confusion as they said they only had a smoking room, but they showed it to us and it was very fresh and nice.  The Bamboo Grove Hotel in Suzhou was also quite lovely.  Again, we got a room that faced the lake/garden in the center. I think this was Les’ favorite, but I liked them all.  We normally had the western breakfast in each of these (except Shanghai) and they were good.  In Shanghai we ate in the western restaurant for a buffet dinner and it was excellent, too. 

Let me know if I can answer any other questions.  Again I want to stress we had a WONDERFUL trip!  The only thing I would have done differently was to stay longer in each town!!!!  My husband wondered why we didn’t stay longer.  I had to remind him that he was the one who could only take a few days off work!

Blessings!

Jane

Dear Candy,

It was good meeting the charming, eloquent Chinese travel agent, who organized our voyage! Thanks again for organizing this great journey for us.

 
Hike beside Li River, Yangdi-Xing Ming, Yangshuo show, Walking Huang Shan were very memorable!

 
Mark in Guilin was our best guide. He spoke good English, he liked his job, was interested in his clients, and he was well informed.

The Kung Fu Show in Beijing is heavily overpriced for what it is.

CH and Candy Wei were very professionel! I will certainly recommend！

Best wishes,
Christof

Dear Candy,

Birds Nest, Oriental Pearl TV Tower, Terracotta Warriers were the most memorable attractions.

Lucy, our tour guide, was extremely friendly and knowledgable.  Also told very interesting stories of her childhood and background in China.  Was a delight to spend time with her.

Definitely see the acrobat show and I will definitely recommend your company to my friends.

Thanks again for a great trip.

Steve

Dear Candy,

We were so happy to meet you.. Thanks again for tbe delicious dinner. We are having a great time.

I will send some highlight photos. We had a great day today. The Li River cruise was everything I had hoped for and Yuzi Paradise was an incredible experience. If you have not seen it, GO! Lily was extremely helpful and has lived up to the high standards set by Woo and Helena. Also, thank you for changing the van to a very comfortable car.

Stan

Dear Candy,

Sorry it has taken so long to respond. We have been busy. I do want to say our trip was wonderful. Chinahighlights did a great job with everything. Our tour guide, Stefanie, in Beijing was the best! Do everything possible to keep her and keep her as busy as she would like to be.

The most memorable attraction was the ice sculptures in Harbin. You must include this in any tour to Harbin if it is during the Ice festival!

Stefanie. She knew her history, information and was able to listen to us as to what we wanted to see, how much time we wanted to spend at places. Most of all, her command of the English language was far superior to any tour guide.

Unless you have excellent Chinese language skills – both reading and speaking- it is well worth having a guide show you the sites. Do your homework first so you have an idea of what you would like to see and the history of places you would like to visit.

Absolutely I will recommend China Highlights to my friends and my families, actually I already have!

Best regards,
Nancy

Hi Candy,

So we decided that we would explore Northern China the week before Chinese New Year, reasons for this.....well crowds for one. Surely things would be much quieter during this week and that means for me......more relaxing. Living in the craziness of Shanghai this is an important criteria when choosing a destination. So it was decided we will spend 4 days in Beijing and then take a chance and try the overnight train from BJ to Harbin for the Ice Festival.
 
So arriving in BJ we were met by Stephanie who was to be our guide for 1 of the 4 days we were in BJ. She was very knowledgeable about BJ and gave us lots of interesting information on the ride from the airport to our hotel......we had a snowboard on our laps as we had a little too much luggage hehe. We arrived at the hotel and it looked pretty good, low-rise but with a nice reception and friendly staff. We were on a winner :) We checked in and said goodbye to Stephanie, we would be seeing her the next day for the one tour we were taking with here. We wandered outside and thought we would get acquainted with the area around our hotel, we were next to Tiananmen Square which was fantastic. We strolled though the parks and ended up at the entry to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, it was amazing to see. After all these years seeing it on TV and hearing about this place here we were standing out the front gates. Even though we have been living in China it was still a great feeling to be standing near such a famous set of buildings. From here we went onto the main shopping street, had a look around and then got a cab to Sandliton Bar Street for some drinks.
 
An early start the following day as we were picked up at 8am by Stephanie and our driver, today was a busy day. Temple of Heaven in the morning and The Great Wall in the afternoon. My initial impression was we would be in and out of the Temple quickly, my experience of temples in other countries is that they are small and a little boring. Man, was I wrong. The Temple of Heaven was ENORMOUS and amazingly beautiful....we spent all morning there, wandering around, listening to the history from Stephanie who was great. We took literally hundreds of photos and made our way outside the temple and played with some of the locals with their bats and balls and played their kicking game with the feather things (not sure what they are called). Fair to say we were very tired after this, we had not even left for the Great Wall and we were already needing a sleep! We had an hour long car drive to the restaurant for lunch and after going to the wrong restaurant we wandered around the corner and found 'The orchard' funnily enough in a fruit orchard which is where we would be eating. The restaurant was spectacular, a buffet lunch was offered and the food was amazing. Full cooked salmon, amazing desserts, salads, western and Chinese foods as far as the eye could see. We had only an hour so we ate as much as we could as fast as we could before our big trek over the Great Wall. From here we had about 45 minutes to the wall, it was a nice drive, little traffic and seemed to go quite fast. Living in Shanghai it was nice to see mountains again. We finally arrived and I must say we were very excited, the Great Wall......Yayyyyyy!!! We took the cable car to the top and were left there by Stephanie who waited for us in the car, we chose to take the more challenging route and reflecting back maybe the wrong one. It was STEEP, some parts were almost vertical but the views were unbelievable. The best part is there were virtually no other people on the wall, we had this amazing structure and the miles of mountains around us all to ourselves. After walking for a few hours our legs told us it was time to head back and relax on the drive home.
 
Day 3 is a relaxing day.....yesterday was very tiring and I have the feeling this holiday wont be relaxing as there is so much to see and do in such a short time. We were up early again, onto the subway and zooming off into the Olympic Green area. Seeing this on TV made us want to see it in person. It was fun to see the size of the buildings and see them up close. From there we got a Taxi to other parts of BJ to do some shopping and have lunch etc. Finally we headed for the CBD to see the CCTV building which is an amazing piece of architecture. Hot Pot for dinner and into bed!
 
Our last Day in BJ and it was off to the Forbidden City. We did not use Stephanie for this tour, we used to self guide headsets which can be hired at the Forbidden City, in actual fact they are great little devices that give background on the entire Forbidden City. They use GPS technology and depending where you go they will talk about that part of the Palace. The Forbidden City is huge, apparently 9,999 rooms.....obviously I did not try and count them but by the end of the walk I was very sore and tired. There were a lot of people here, lots of school groups which added to the excitement. I preferred the Temple of Heaven but again it was a fantastic experience walking though the various areas and seeing how the people lived back when it was occupied. We jumped in a motorized Rickshaw and went back to our hotel via the Hutongs which was actually cheaper than a taxi....Bonus!!

Now it was time to relax before we were to be picked up by Stephanie and taken to the BJ Train Station for the next part of the adventure. We waiting in the station for 2 hours, we chatted to a Chinese girl who was heading to see her boyfriend for Chinese New Year. We almost missed our boarding time until she mentioned we better go haha. So on we went, carriage 3 was ours in the soft sleeper section, I personally had never been on a sleeping train hence why we decided to take this up to Harbin. We found our room , which we were sharing with another young couple.....we dropped our things and headed to the restaurant carriage for some food and to get some space.....the rooms are tiny!! We settled into our bunks and listened to music until we turned the lights off at about midnight. Sleeping was actually quite nice on the train, the rocking movement made it easy to sleep and it was very quiet. Before we knew it a yelling voice indicated we had arrived in Harbin, a quick check of the watch and it was 7am with snow on the tracks. Its going to be Cold!!!
 
Off the train we found a taxi and made our way to the hotel which was right in the middle of the city on the river. Perfect position to explore the city....initial impressions were that it was not like other Chinese cities, the Russian influence gave it a much different feel. Taking of feeling, we could not feel anything because of the cold, we had to buy more clothes, boots, more gloves, more hats haha.

Our time in Harbin was much more relaxed, we had 3 days here. The highlight was the Snow and Ice Festival, it is hard to imagine people can create these things with snow and ice.........the only problem with the Snow and Ice Festival is it is away from town and there are very few taxis there. We found it best to pay a taxi to wait for you or to go with  bus group, that way you save yourself the pain of trying to get home, ordinarily not a major problem but in the -20 degree cold it can be a challenge (not that we had to). Harbin at this time of year is a winter wonderland, there is a lot to do over the course of 3-4 days although I think this was long enough for us.......we left before we were bored. We ate Russian food for the entire time, it was delicious, cheap and something new for us.
 
The final part of our Harbin trip was to head to Yabuli for 2 nights, the drive was 3.5 hours due to the icy roads, this was made bearable by the nice car our driver had. Once we arrived at Yabuli it was pitch black, we arrived at our hotel........not sure it was a hotel, more like a hostel that University students were running and living in as they were working on the mountain over the holidays. It was a challenging part of the trip as very little English was spoken, there were no lights in the area and no one knew where to buy lift tickets for the mountain. Fiona who organized the Yabuli part of the trip came up in the morning and took us to get lift tickets, the problem was the lifts were not working because of the wind. Great I thought.....all this  way and we cant even Ski. We eventually went up and down the beginners run which was boring after a few runs and waiting for the main lift to open. By midday we had decided we will head back to Harbin for the night rather than stay another night in Yabuli, just before we left we managed to get one run on the main mountain which was a consolation for the long drive. It was actually quite nice to get back to Harbin, that night and spend one more night enjoying the city.
 
The next day we headed home to Shanghai, overall a fantastic trip, both BJ and Harbin are must visit cities. 
 
Steve

Dear Michael,

I just wanted to thank you again for your excellent service. My entire trip that you helped me plan was wonderful.

Both local guides (Chongqing and Yichang) and drivers were very friendly, knowledgeable, and professional. All of the staff on the cruise ship were also very friendly and professional. This was a great trip, and I felt very confident knowing that all of my arrangements were taken care of, thanks to your continuous professional and friendly communication with me prior to and during the trip. Thank you! I would highly recommend you and your company to anyone who is looking to travel in China. Thanks again!

Best regards,

Holli

Dear Eva,

It took some time to reply on your request because our stay in Shanghai took longer than anticipated and we thus up till now we had no time to evaluate our trip.

First of all let me tell you that it was a real pleasure to meet you in Guilin. It was so nice to meet the person we had only been in contact with through mails.
The evaluation:
 
Overall we rate our trip as fantastic. Your itinery was excellent and we enjoyed every moment. It is very hard to select only one most memorable attraction but we think that the rice-paddies were probably the winners. However the Jangtze cruise was a very good runner up.
 
We were very satisfied about your guides. The absolute topper was Ann in Guilin, who is
the best guide we have ever had on our travel and not only this trip. This lady is a natural who has only the interest of her tourists at heart and realy goes the extra mile. Top !
We would definitely recommend your company to other people, so again overall we were very happy with your services and we will travel with you again in  the future.

Kind regards
Family Steffen

Dear Candy,

Hope you are doing well. Here is my feedback,

the most memorable attraction you visited---The Li River Cruise, for sure.  Also really enjoyed the country side tour. I will never forget it.

most outstanding tour guide and why---Claire.  She was outstanding! She exceeded all my expectations for my tour guide. She is very intelligent and has outstanding knowledge of the area.
 Plus, she adds a very personal touch that made the trip AWESOME. We actually became good friends. I give her all the credit in the world!

the hotel and the meal you enjoyed most---The hotel and meals were great. I espcially enjoyed the meals at McFound. Candy showed me great personal attention. I was fortunate enough to have a nice dinner with Her. I really like the personal touch! Claire and I also had meal there before I left for the airport. It was really good too. Excellent food. (Fried dumplings were awesome and the spicy food was really great! )

I have recommended China Highlights to my some of my friends and colleagues. Some are already talking about making the trip to Guilin.

I really enjoyed my time in China. I hope to return very soon! I would defintely suggest the Li River Cruise its very nice.
I would like to spend extra time in Yangsho area when I return.

Best regards,

John