Testimonial

Candy,

I can't tell you how great our trip was. Great wall was beautiful and the history and majesty of it all was overwhelming. To make it all better, the day was beautiful and Lucy was very accommodating and knowledgeable. That is one place that I will never forget.

Lucy was great and very flexible. She answered all our questions, had amazing knowledge of the history and current situation in China, and was very accommodating to make us feel relaxed. The driver Mr. Lien was wonderful too and both of them made our stay very comfortable. I would recommend any of my friends to use China Highlights and Lucy in particular.

Hotels and meals were great. We have no complaints. By far we enjoyed (and are now missing) Kung Pao Chicken!!!!! Wonderful!!!

China is a wonderful place full of mystery and history and should not be missed. My suggestion would be to see as much as possible and substitute a good mix of temples and cultural attractions with fun and interesting things. See the circus (Chinese acrobats) and if you have time to visit the Kung-Fu show. The circus should not be missed, but the Kung-Fu show could be missed if time does not allow for it.

Thanks,
Chris

Dear Eva,

Further to your note to Tiffany please find the comment we made. Terracotta Warriors was the most memorable attraction we visited. Jang was the most outstanding tour guide during our itinerary especially for her flexibility. All the hotels were up to standard except the lunch restaurant on day 1 where it was with very slow service and not very friendly manager. I have already recommended your company to my friends, and I will strongly recommend cycling on the City Wall of Xian and tour to Terracotta Warriors.

Best regards,
Steve

Hi Candy,

We are now back in the USA and we had a great trip. We would rank the Great Wall and the Forbidden City as the two best visits in Beijing. In Shanghai the Yu Gardens were spectacular.

Sarah was our favorite guide and we would use her again. I would recommend you agency to anyone and would be happy to speak by e-mail to prospective clients. We may return next year with our children and I would certainly contact you. All in all it was a great trip. We loved China and hope to return.

Dennis

Hello Michael,

Just wanted to say big thank you for organizing our trip in Guilin and Yangshuo. We had a very good time, even though the weather was a bit cold. Tracy was a very good guide, well done to her for dodging the rain and reorganizing the route in Longji, so we did get a good view of the rice terraces. She was very helpful too with speaking to the hotel in Yangshuo for us to arrange the heating system to be repaired and we even got a fruit plate from the hotel to make up for the fact that they didn't repair it on the first day, when we asked ourselves.

Both hotels were really good (well, as far as good hotels in China go, I suppose), definitely good value for money, we would stay there again and would recommend them to other people. We'll definitely be using you again when we go to China next!

Oksana

Dear Ms. Sunny Xie,
 
I did have a nice 17days-journey with the guidance of your 3 local tour-guides as well as drivers.
The only problem was the rainy&cloudy weather during the whole trip with a minor exception --- 1 out of my 2,5 days at Mt. Huangshan was dry with some sunny intervals.
Weatherwise, I had to take it as it was.

1. Mt. Huangshan --- East Sea/Notrh Sea/West Sea ONLY on dry & sunny day
    as well as GUAN LU [a village 4km west of Nanping in Yixian County] with its 'Badajia'.
 
2. My most outstanding guide during my whole trip is Mr. Jerry Cao from Huangshan.
    His friendly, cooperative and flexible attitude was appriciated by me as well well as his knowledge of taking me to various places/restaurants for tasting various typical local foods and snacks.
 
3. # Not all the hotels are up to standard --
    1. Best Western Huangshan Resort&Spa at the Hot Springs/Wenquan had on Wednesday, 23rd Feb, 2009 no lift working but the WORST of all was NO HEATING and room temparature was only 10*C.
        The front desk did not notify me and the local guide and I had to complain at 22:00PM at the front desk before they sent me a portable heater.
    For a 5-star hotel it is far below standard; the front desk has at least  the minimum duty of alerting c.q. notifying the guests about the defect of their heating system.
    In winter season it is important to be warm inside the room but on Wednesday night it was almost as cold as outside !!! 
    What a shame for such a new/modern and sophisticated 5-star Resort.
 
The one I enjoyed most was the Wuyuan Jiangwan Hotel with superb city-view room and excellent working heating system as well as spacious bathroom.
N.B. When I booked my trip I had doubt about this hotel when looking at the map of the village Ziyang, Wuyuan County.
I even asked you to look for a hotel with heating as basic in Wuyuan but it was proofed to be the best hotel of my entire trip.
 
4. Sure, I will recommend my family or friends who are willing to book their tour to China thru internet.
 
5. My comments about my tour are
a. Your 3 tour guides assigned to accompany me were flexible, as one of my preference when booking this tour, polite with good manners and always on time.
    The drivers were rustic in driving and did their best to get me to nearest possible location from the entrance of the attractions or restaurants.
b. In general, the hotels were good with exceptions of the 2(two) mentioned above.
c. As a Chinese food-lover and critic  I am prefering for the future a tour in China excluding meals since there are abundant of good restaurants even at small town/village as long as you are consulting your local tour guide and sometimes the driver. This is only valid for Chinese food critics with no restriction in any type of Chinese cuisines & ingredients.
 
My suggestion for other travellers is to make an internet survey/study of the areas to be visited before organizing or booking their own custom-made tour of 'remote' China.
Moreover, inform the local guide on time in case of wishing to visit uncommon or less visited attractions.
 
Furthermore,
# Due to global warming the weather statistics are just to be taken as a reference instead of guidance.
# West Sea Grand Canyon of Mt. Huangshan is only suitable for those physically fit and weather permitting as the gates are only open according to the weather condition of the day.
# Xidi of Yixian County, Anhui is a place to see the well-preserved Hui-carvings and Hui-architectures.
# Guan Lu of Yixian County, Anhui is a place to see the maze of houses of the '8 brothers' or 'Badajia'.
# Jiangling, Wuyuan County, Jiangxi is a place to see terraces (especially rape flowers in Spring).
        NOTE: The road uphill is officially closed, as I was there at the begiining of March 2009. It seems as if the local government is building a cablecar from the valley to higher ground.
                    If the road is firmly closed and the cablecar is not available then there is only way to go uphill is by walking along the existing road which is about 2-3km with at times with inclination of 30 degrees.
# Bao's mini-landscape garden near Tangyue Archways is a garden for bonsai-lovers.
# Xijindu Jie/Street in Zhenjiang is an renovated old street with a stone pagoda on an archway. According to me, it is the only archway with a stone pagoda on it in China.
# He Yuan and Ge Yuan of Yangzhou are recommended for Chinese garden-lovers.
# Lu's Residence Restaurant of Yangzhou is for those interested in Chinese old-style banquet in restored old style environment.
        NOTE: Minimum number of persons is 6(six!!); price starting from 150RMB per person as from March 2009.
                    There is also a mini museum about Yangzhou cuisine in the Lu's Residencial Musem.   
# Wang Shi Xiao Yuan & Daodai Wu(Wu's official residence) in Yangzhou are interesting residential houses with more than 100 rooms built during Qing Dynasty.
 
Again thanks for arranging my custom-made tour of Mt. Huangshan.
 
Best regards,
 
S.L. Jauw

Hello Karen

I wanted to email you to advise that our tour to Mutiyanu was wonderful. We had a fantastic day at the Great Wall and weather was perfect. Laura was an excellent guide and we really enjoyed her company for the day. The restaurant lunch was delicious. Her english is perfect! I have referred your name to my sister who is travelling to China in May with her family. I expect her to book some tours through your company.

Sincerely,
Andrea

Dear Sunny,

Thanks for all you did to organise our wonderful holiday. It was lovely meeting you at the end … it rounded it off so well – and we felt good that you were interested in how we felt about everything.

I attach my account of our time with China Highlights. We have not yet processed our photos, but I’ll send them later.

Yours,

Jo Calder-Potts

Our Holiday in China. 1-12 February 2009.

6am First of February 2009 found us at Shenzhen airport, clutching folder, passports and bags, waiting for the desks to open. Shenzhen is the Chinese town at the border with Hong Kong, from where we had come by train. We were travelling as a group of 3, my husband Peter and I, and my son George who is 23, and is teaching English in a town near Shenzhen … it was his urging that prompted the trip to coincide with his school holidays during the Chinese Spring Festival.

We had booked an online holiday with China Highlights, and had run the course owing to the professional way they handled our enquiries and changes. After much mind-changing and tweaking (my nephew had warned against the cold in Beijing) we settled on a trip which would take us to Chengdu in Sichuan province, Lijiang in Yunan, and Guilin of scenic beauty, and back to Shenzhen. Nevertheless – this wasn’t sitting at my familiar pc at home – this was reality …. Would they come up with the goods? I had religiously printed out the itinerary and details supplied by Sunny, our agent at China Highlights.

The desk clerk looked at the folder, then took our passports and confirmed that we were on the Chengdu flight at 8am. We were through!  Shenzhen airport – and all the airports we saw in China – is new and clean and shiny, and very spacious. We were called on time, and after a comfortable flight with Air China we reached Chengdu.

Chengdu is an historic city in the Sichuan province in south west central China. We were going there because my son wished to go – Sichuan is famed for its spicy food and tea-houses – and because it is the home of the pandas.

Michelle our guide awaited us at the barrier waving a card with my name on it. She introduced herself and escorted us to the car where we met out driver. (At all stops we were given a seven seater vehicle to ourselves. Transport was always clean and comfortable. Drivers all had us feeling safe, and helped with our bags. We had the same car and driver for the duration in each town) We briefly discussed the itinerary – we had 4 places scheduled for that day, but the weather was a little dreary and we were tired, so we agreed to rest first, and defer one activity to the final day (we found that all our guides were very flexible within reason) and our scheduled lunch became a dinner (we had breakfast and lunch in the price on most days).

So after settling at our comfortable 3* hotel, we set off. That day we saw Dufu’s cottage, a museum, and Jinli Street. All placed us into traditional China – though I confess to have got very muddled by references to their different dynasties … I found a page in my phrase-book which dated the dynasties, and that helped. We saw statues and paintings and roofs with curly ends and animals on the ridges. We learned about the multiple structures of buildings, and were lucky to hear a Chinese orchestra. All places had New Year decorations in place. Jinli Street was great fun – market stalls selling all sorts of delicacies – we had a walking and snacking lunch – excellent, and cheap. We then rested up in a tea house – an expensive but memorable experience.

The next day Peter and I had a rest day while George went skiing. He had fun and so did we, wondering around central Chengdu at will. And enjoying Starbucks coffee!

The final day we went to see the Panda Breeding Station – a great experience, and a good healthy walk – the place is huge! With everything you ever need to know about pandas, including a museum and a movie. After lunch by our request we went to see a Brocade and embroidery museum/shop – we could have watched the man at the ancient loom all day. And the silks were fascinating. Then we went on to our final destination – a park beside the river, with a pagoda and statues, and many different types of bamboo.

That evening we said farewell to Michelle and our driver and flew to Lijiang in Yunan, southwest China, near the Tibetan border.

At Lijiang we were met by Louise who is a member of the local Naixi Minority (we learned much of the minorities during our time in China). She could not tell us enough about them! I am a little deaf and struggled to understand her, but my son is used to accents, and speaks rudimentary Chinese, and acted as interpreter. We were driven to Lijiang old town and to our comfortable and traditionally built hotel where we spent the next three nights. Old town is beautifully reconstructed – the oldest city in China to have survived the cultural revolution – but oh so full of tourists! And all the shops sell knickknacks for tourists – the few squares were a welcome relief from the press of bodies.

The next day was lovely - we visited a high meadow and saw the highest peak in China – Jade Mountain – and museums and monasteries. Lovely outdoor walks and splendid scenery, an ancient magnolia tree which was just coming into blossom – and a ride in a cable car!

The following day we walked through lovely riverside  parks in town, and were exposed to more minority culture at the Dumba Museum. Lunch was spoiled by loud Karioke music thumping out of the next restaurant. That afternoon we opted out of the city walk as there were too many people. I do not recommend beautiful Lijiang during Chinese spring festival.

We Left Lijiang and flew to Kunming where we were to catch a train. At Kunming we were met by Joe, who took us to a restaurant for lunch, and then a lovely walk round the fascinating back-streets and markets of Kunming. We were taken to the train station – very modern and more like an airport – and right to our compartment! Full marks to China Highlights for arranging all transfers.

The train journey was comfortable and fun – and there was enough of a moon to see by. We must have gone through mountains as we spent a lot of time in tunnels!

Our final destination was Guilin (with Jenny as guide) – a beautiful City with wide roads, parks and waterways, surrounded by and encircling the steep humpy mountains of the area. We had a night there, then a cruise down the Li river to Yangshuo for a night – where we did Kung fu, tai chi and went cycling! as well as walking round the lovely town and markets. We were driven back to Guilin for another 2 nights where we saw parks and lakes and Pagodas and did an extra tour – a night-time cruise round the lit city lakes – which was well worth the extra money. Guilin town certainly has done a lot to show itself off! There were even two different stages on the lake, performing Chinese Opera.

Son George flew back to Shenshen on the 10th to resume his teaching – the guide, Jenny, once more accommodated us and we went to the airport to see him off – we have no clue when we’ll see him again. Our scheduled tours were redistributed to accommodate this change.

Pete and I had a rest day at the end – Jenny arranged for us to keep our hotel room until 3pm on the last day, then took us to the Reed Flute Cave (fascinating, well lit cave but alas no more reed flutes on sale) visit a park and then we had a leisurely supper prior to catching the overnight train back to Shanzhen that evening. For the last time our China Highlights guides placed their charges onto a scheduled carrier. Jenny was our most mature and experienced guide and had empathy. Full marks to her, and to Mr Lucky our driver, for giving us a wonderful time in Guilin.

The whole trip went smoothly. Hotels were comfortable. Once we were in the rhythm we had few worries. We left all our bags and valuables in the car with peace of mind. At no time did we feel threatened or unsafe in China. A holiday to remember.

Oh – before we caught our train that last day we were taken to meet Sunny Xie (pronounced “sheer”) at the China Highlights Head Office in Guilin. What a charming lady! With really good English. She was interested in our comments, and we were each presented with a traditionally woven Bouquet Garni to remember our tour by. As if we could forget!

Hi Karen,

Thanks for organising such a wonderful trip for us. It is real hard for me to pick between the Li River tour and the Three Gorges for which one is the best. because they were both amazing and the boats were fantastic. We also saw the show on the water in YangSuo ... all were outstanding.

Meanwhile, please forgive me that I refuse to pick between Mark (GuiLin) and David (Chongqing) as both had their own style. We spent more time with Mark who was so careful. He fretted when I stayed in the boat on the Li River tour, wanting to make sure I missed nothing. I was have a wonderful time sitting the best seat in the boat (thanks to his getting us there early) and drinking local wine and tea. I felt like a princess. He ran between me and my husband to make sure we both got the information. David is very energetic and marched us through our short time in his town like an expert. I really felt I got to know the city a little -- he is very proud of his city and the accomplishements. Later I learned that the former mayor of Dalian was now in charge of the area. Both were excellent and flexible ... we are slow tour people and neither got frustrated wtih us. It was such fun.

The accommodations and meals were great. I loved the water view in Guilin (Guilin Osmanthus Hotel) -- we could watch the lights come on and sparkle on the water. People were still firing off rockets. This was memorable. The hotel is Yangsuo (Aiyuan Hotel) was very well placed for a half day walk-about. The nicest was the Howard Johnson in Chongqing, but we only slept there and didn't even have the wonderful breakfast. All the beds were too hard for my liking, but I have been in China long enough to know that is standard.

Finally, we will definitely recommend you, and I will contact you personally the next time I have a chance to travel. We had excellent guides, good transportation and drivers, clean and attractive hotels and a variety of dishes. It was nice to be met and not have to worry about getting around an airport to find our way to the city, to be taken to the front of the line at some attractions, and to be able to ask all the questions I wanted. I especially appreciated how you, Karen, were able to communicate the changes in airlines and cruise ship. Timely, professional and helpful. For your information, be sure you ask the guide about the local food. The pre-ordered food is what foreigners like, but you miss an experience if you don't try more. I loved the river snails ... and shared them with some other foreigners who were in the restaurant (sissys wouldn't even try). The beer fish (had it twice) was worth the little extra. Also, buy books from the locals at the front gates of the attractions. They are much cheaper and you are helping a family when you do.

Thanks again,
Karen

Dear Karen,

Thanks for organising our travel to Beijing and Xian. The Great Wall at Mutianyu is the most memorable part, and Jeff in Beijing was an absolute pleasure – very knowledgeable, spoke wonderful English and is very friendly and outgoing. Our driver was also a lovely man. We book our own hotel at Xian, however, Crowne Plaza in Beijing you referred was excellent.

With such a pleasant journey, I certainly would highly recommend your company.

Best Wishes,
Sharon

Nancy,

We just want to tell you how delighted we all were that we found you. Jonathan, the young and charming guide was both knowledgeable and extremely helpful and considerate. All through the 2 days he was with us, he never forgot that Audrey (Our Australian friend) and I needed help up steps etc--there he was with his hand held out.

It was so nice not to have to go with the flow of an organised tour, and greatly added to our enjoyment of Beijing, and all it`s incredible wonders. We would have no hesitation in commending your company.

Yours sincerely,
Barbara