Hi Judy,
Please find our comments below:
All meals were fabulous; I would like to complement all the guides on their efforts to select food for us that exceeded our wishes. They all asked if we did not like anything or had any preferences. We specifically liked the Cuisine in Beijing, and our guide certainly knew how to select some very interesting dishes.
The guides were all different, but all good. Winnie is still young, but she came right over when we heard about problems going to Dunhuang, and also offered to guide us through the Hutong’s after we had some extra time due to a later flight.
Robin in Guilin was probably the most experienced, and made it easy to have a very pleasant communication.
Jenny? or Cheng in Xi-an was a delightful guide, very refined, and has no doubt a bright future ahead of her.
The guide in Shanghai also was helpful going to a few places to buy some clothes, and help us with some guidelines. The next day when we were on our own, we did spend some time following up, and were quite successful.
All cars were good.
The highlights of the tour were:
1) The food.
2) The guides.
3) The hotels.
That was also the order we would have preferred (food, sightseeing, hotels).
Beijing had a mediocre hotel with a great location. All they require to do is to clean the rug in the room to maintain their 3 star rating (something that should not be difficult, but will be important for foreign visitors). Their breakfast was also simple, but OK. The room could have been because we arrived late and we stayed in the old wing. However, management does seem to have room for improvement.
Xian had a pleasant hotel in a fabulous location and good food.
Guilin was upgraded to 4 stars Bravo, which is indeed 4 stars as it applied to service, food, staff, location and a TV with many English channels.
Shanghai was a good 3 star hotel, very close to train, metro and bus, they had a good restaurant where we had dinner twice (partially also because of convenience).
China was a very interesting county, and it is truly amazing the unbelievable accomplishments everywhere. Both the imperial palace and the new skyscrapers are awe-inspiring.
Tourists should also show some patience with the Chinese people who often try to adjust to tourists from very different cultures.
As far as ChinaTour360: We are pleased in spite of the Dunhuang disappointment, but we are both glad we did not have to go through hoops for a few hour sightseeing.
My suggestion to you is to add a footnote on the web that people who prefer some extra time for relaxing, shopping or self-directed sightseeing are encouraged to add an optional extra day to certain cities of interest. Especially Xian, Guilin and probably Dunhuang as well, could do with one extra day. Even with the extra day were not able to visit a few things we would have liked. In addition, Guilin is just delightful for a relaxing weeklong holiday, or at least a visit to the famous show in Yangshuo
I had looked to many tours in China, and saw some attractive tours like S601 and others. However, they required all a large number of changes in accommodation (packing a suitcase every other day), and B604 was a good compromise. At least the budget tours seem to take a little extra time. However, to have the same tour with even more extra days to relax in Xian, Dunhuang and Guilin would have been ideal, and worth an extra 500RMB/day for just a hotel and breakfast.
As it turned out, the extra 2 days we had in Shanghai were quickly filled up with a little shopping and revisiting the old town, the museum and the Bund to view the evening lights.
They are all honest comments we made, so we have no problem you using or rephrasing anything we have stated as long as it reflex our statements.
Henk Wondergem
Please find our comments below:
All meals were fabulous; I would like to complement all the guides on their efforts to select food for us that exceeded our wishes. They all asked if we did not like anything or had any preferences. We specifically liked the Cuisine in Beijing, and our guide certainly knew how to select some very interesting dishes.
The guides were all different, but all good. Winnie is still young, but she came right over when we heard about problems going to Dunhuang, and also offered to guide us through the Hutong’s after we had some extra time due to a later flight.
Robin in Guilin was probably the most experienced, and made it easy to have a very pleasant communication.
Jenny? or Cheng in Xi-an was a delightful guide, very refined, and has no doubt a bright future ahead of her.
The guide in Shanghai also was helpful going to a few places to buy some clothes, and help us with some guidelines. The next day when we were on our own, we did spend some time following up, and were quite successful.
All cars were good.
The highlights of the tour were:
1) The food.
2) The guides.
3) The hotels.
That was also the order we would have preferred (food, sightseeing, hotels).
Beijing had a mediocre hotel with a great location. All they require to do is to clean the rug in the room to maintain their 3 star rating (something that should not be difficult, but will be important for foreign visitors). Their breakfast was also simple, but OK. The room could have been because we arrived late and we stayed in the old wing. However, management does seem to have room for improvement.
Xian had a pleasant hotel in a fabulous location and good food.
Guilin was upgraded to 4 stars Bravo, which is indeed 4 stars as it applied to service, food, staff, location and a TV with many English channels.
Shanghai was a good 3 star hotel, very close to train, metro and bus, they had a good restaurant where we had dinner twice (partially also because of convenience).
China was a very interesting county, and it is truly amazing the unbelievable accomplishments everywhere. Both the imperial palace and the new skyscrapers are awe-inspiring.
Tourists should also show some patience with the Chinese people who often try to adjust to tourists from very different cultures.
As far as ChinaTour360: We are pleased in spite of the Dunhuang disappointment, but we are both glad we did not have to go through hoops for a few hour sightseeing.
My suggestion to you is to add a footnote on the web that people who prefer some extra time for relaxing, shopping or self-directed sightseeing are encouraged to add an optional extra day to certain cities of interest. Especially Xian, Guilin and probably Dunhuang as well, could do with one extra day. Even with the extra day were not able to visit a few things we would have liked. In addition, Guilin is just delightful for a relaxing weeklong holiday, or at least a visit to the famous show in Yangshuo
I had looked to many tours in China, and saw some attractive tours like S601 and others. However, they required all a large number of changes in accommodation (packing a suitcase every other day), and B604 was a good compromise. At least the budget tours seem to take a little extra time. However, to have the same tour with even more extra days to relax in Xian, Dunhuang and Guilin would have been ideal, and worth an extra 500RMB/day for just a hotel and breakfast.
As it turned out, the extra 2 days we had in Shanghai were quickly filled up with a little shopping and revisiting the old town, the museum and the Bund to view the evening lights.
They are all honest comments we made, so we have no problem you using or rephrasing anything we have stated as long as it reflex our statements.
Henk Wondergem
- Name: Mr. Hendrik M Wondergem and Ms. Ann Victoria G Innes
- From: Ontario, NZ
- E-mail: quickclic.net|hmw
- ltinerary: 14-Day Budget China Tours of Beijing - Dunhuang - Xian - Guilin - Yangshuo - Guilin - Shanghai
- Date: 12/17/2007
