2004 Customer Reviews

Now that I am back home, I wanted to let you know that this trip was absolutely great! Everything about it more than met all my expectations. The unexpected stay in Chengdu before getting to Tibet (due to weather) became a highlight of the tour for me as Lewis (who took care of the stranded group) took us to visit the Panda Preserve where I had a once in a lifetime opportunity to hold a 6 month old baby panda! And even with the delay, we still were able to see all the things in Tibet that were most important to us. The small size of the your groups is really a plus. In our case, we were even more fortunate in that the 13 of us really got along great. And the mix of nationalities made it interesting. The hotels were outstanding. And the guides [Rose in Beijing, Jesse in Xian, YanZee (not sure I spelled this correctly) in Tibet, and the guide in Shanghai (sorry, I dont remember his name)] not only spoke English very well but were also all very informative, personable, and accommodating. As an example, when leaving Xian, our bus broke down about 1/2 mile from the airport and Jesse got us to the airport by flagging down taxis (including some with passengers already in them!). Instead of a bad moment, it became another one of those great stories to tell about our visit! It was great to actually meet Nancy, as we have enjoyed our E-Mail contacts with her over the past 8 months. Your company does a great job of keeping us informed! Thanks so much for a very memorable time! This trip to China will always be one of my favorite journeys!

During our trip we have been very surprised by the low number of french tourists visiting China, and especially of individual tourists. All our guides noticed that and were very worried about this situation. Also, as we would be very glad to share our experience with anyone (french-speaking) who wants to visit China through the your help, hereafter we add a message that should appear in the testimonial as the first written in french! Mon epouse et moi revenons dun voyage de deux semaines en Chine, entierement organise par lAgence localisee XiAn, Chine. Il sagissait dun voyage individuel (a deux) ou, a chaque etape, sest chargee de fournir, outre les prestations hotelieres de tres bon niveau (3-4 etoiles) et un certain nombre de repas, laccompagnement a chaque etape par un guide parlant francais et une voiture avec chauffeur. Cela a donne une grande flexibilite dans les visites (meme si la plupart de celles-ci taient planifiees a lavance au moment de la definition du voyage) et nous a permis de nouer des contacts extremement enrichissants avec les guides/interpretes, de grande qualite, tres devoue(e)s et parfaitement competent(e)s, y compris dans laide apportee au moment des divers transferts aeriens, bateau ou train. Notre tour comprenait aussi une croisiere sur le Yangtze qui restera un grand souvenir (ayant beneficie dun temps superbe pour la saison). Le bateau (5 etoiles), le service et les excursions offertes etaient de tres grande qualit et les paysages traverses (en dpit de la montee du niveau du Yangtze depuis 2003) demeurent superbes. De retour de ce voyage en Chine, un pays extraordinaire qui merite la visite, nous sommes totalement satisfaits des prestations offertes par vous, et sommes persuades quil sagit la dune offre de voyages extremement concurrentielle en termes de rapport qualite/prix. Une connaissance elementaire de langlais est recommandee pour les echanges avec le staff de vous pendant la definition du voyage et, eventuellement, pendant la croisiere sur le Yangtze. Les lecteurs interesses par des renseignements complementaires peuvent nous envoyer un message. English version of my testimonial Back to France after our 2-week wonderful tour in your marvelous country, we would like to thank you for your excellent and really professional organization and services. We are really glad you arranged so perfectly our individual tour, directly in China. Our first and most sincere acknowledgments are for Ms. Sally Si (All staffs in XiAn) who organized so friendly and perfectly our tour. We would like also to transmit our best regards to your staff members who received us (on Sunday!) in their office during our visit in XiAn. All of our guides were French-speaking guides and we would like to thanks for providing so thoughtful attention to us, French tourists. We add all of them were perfect and so kind, very fluent in French, really efficient and we learned us a lot of interesting information or anecdotal insights about dynasties paving the complex imperial China history. We are grateful to them, Ms. "FanFan" Liu Fang in Beijing, Mrs. "FanFan" Zhang in XiAn, "Brigitte" Cui Xin Jing in Shanghai, and Mr. Qu in Suzhou. We thank Mr. Hu Zuo Qiang in Chonqing and Mrs. Qu Ping in Wuhan for their ability to manage short transfers and changes in the program induced by delayed flights (or boat) in Chonqing and Wuhan. We add a special mention for "FanFan" in XiAn: we really appreciated her comments during the Terracotta Warriors, Forest of Stone Steles, Great Mosque and museum visits. She enlivened our car transfers with anecdotes about the life of Empress Wu ZeTian. Our guides have done a wonderful job, they love France and French culture, and we hope more French tourists will visit China and highlight their competence. All the cars (or minivans) were in perfect state, and all our drivers were perfectly courteous and professional and, in spite of a charged traffic, everywhere skillfully drove us in secure conditions. Our Yangtze River cruise on the very comfortable Princess Sheena boat was outstanding and will remain an unforgettable souvenir. We were the unique French among 14 individual foreign travelers (on a total of 50 non-Chinese passengers), but we received all during the cruise a personal, courteous and delightful attention from all the ship staff. Excursions, specially the Shennong Stream cruise and the visit to the Pharaonic 3-Gorge dam, were very enjoyable. We make some minor comments concerning the detailed organization. The chosen hotels (3 or 4 stars) were all very comfortable and breakfast buffets were great. We especially enjoyed two evening events, the performance of Opera in Beijing and Acrobatic Show in Shanghai, but less the too tourist Dynasty show in XiAn, except the great Pans pipes player. We also enjoyed most of the restaurants (excepted the lunch in Suzhou in the silk factory), even if most of the lunch meals were served in "tourist" restaurants, fortunately not overcrowded at that time (3-14 March). On an other hand the set up individual program (with many free dinners) offered us the opportunity to taste by ourselves the local delicious "cuisine" served by Chinese restaurants. So, we greatly enjoyed our tour and, above all, your so dynamic country impressed us, as well as your lovely people that, without forgetting its millennial culture, construct the future China. We would certainly recommend your reputed services to anyone wishing to visit your beautiful country.

Dear Eileen, Carole and I had one of the most memorable and enjoyable vacations that we've ever had. We owe this pleasure to you, to Tibettrip.com, to the excellent guides, and to the great drivers. Last, but certainly most important, we owe our pleasure to the wonderful people of China. Everyone made us feel welcome and we were surrounded with warmth and friendship. I will be sending photos to you, to our Xi-an guide Carol, to the other guides, and to many of the people that we had the opportunity of meeting. I am just in the process of organizing the pictures in my computer. I see that I shot 2,349 digital photos plus 144 35mm photos. It will take me a little time to organize them, but I will print out the photos that I wish to send first. In addition, dozens of Chinese people wanted to have photos taken of themselves with me. Louisa, our Kunming guide, told me that it's because I look so much like Karl Marx. I've decided that I should go into business in China. I can tour the country with a large sign stating, "Have a photo of yourself with Karl Marx's grandson. Only 40 yuan." I should become a millionaire in no time! Please feel free to use us as a reference for others to contact. Carole and I will be very happy to discuss by email, borissojka@adelphia.net or phone: (Omitted by Tibettrip) the experiences that we had and the quality of service given to us by all the employees of Tibettrip. Regarding the specifics of our vacation: 1. All your personnel were very professional, friendly, and supportive, and responsive to our needs and requests. The guides were all very knowledgeable. The quality of their spoken English varied from good to excellent. At no time did we have a problem with language. 2. Even though one flight was delayed seven (7) hours and we arrived in Xi-an at 03:00, Carol and the driver were at the airport cheerfully waiting for us. 3. All our lunch and dinner meals were Chinese. We enjoyed the wide varity of foods and experienced many new tastes. On the whole we felt that the quality of food that we ate at the restaurants you provided, or recommended that we visit on our own was much better than the food we ate four years ago when we were with a large tour group. The best meals that we had, I believe, were in Xi-an (Xi-an Canton Palace), Dali (Lucy Cafe), and Lijiang (can't remember names). We are telling our friends all about the excellent quality of service and freedom that we had on our vacation and will certainly use Tibettrip for our next vacation to China. There is one business that if I were younger I think I would like to start in China. We found that many of the shops do not have a shipping service. There were a number of items that we were interested in, but they were too large, too heavy and they would have to be carried away in hand luggage. I would like to see a service that would pick up the items from the travellers hotels, properly package and address the items, and ship them for the travellers. In that way the travellers could purchase quality, larger items in the various cities, have them shipped by a reliable service and not be concerned with excess baggage. One overzealous ticket seller at Narita Japan grabbed a bag from Carole, dropped it and broke a beautiful plate that we puchased in China. Perhaps you can expand it's services to include shipping services. I need a good business reason to return to China very soon. There is so much more to see of your beautiful country and there are so many more people to meet and make friends with. Ask Carol to explain to you my other ideas for making dumplings with new tastes. I just have to get back to China soon. Thank you for everything and please keep in touch. I'm also attaching two articles that were in todays and yesterdays New York Times. I don't have Jack's email address in Lijiang. I hope that you can forward the article about Lijiang to him. Sincerely, Boris and Carole Sojka

During our trip we have been very surprised by the low number of french tourists visiting China, and especially of individual tourists. All our guides noticed that and were very worried about this situation. Also, as we would be very glad to share our experience with anyone (french-speaking) who wants to visit China through the TCG help, hereafter we add a message that should appear in the testimonial as the first written in french!

Mon epouse et moi revenons dun voyage de deux semaines en Chine, entierement organise par lAgence TCG localisee à XiAn, Chine. Il sagissait dun voyage individuel (a deux) ou, a chaque etape, TCG sest chargee de fournir, outre les prestations hotelieres de tres bon niveau (3-4 etoiles) et un certain nombre de repas, laccompagnement a chaque etape par un guide parlant francais et une voiture avec chauffeur. Cela a donne une grande flexibilite dans les visites (meme si la plupart de celles-ci étaient planifiees a lavance au moment de la definition du voyage) et nous a permis de nouer des contacts extremement enrichissants avec les guides/interpretes, de grande qualite, tres devoue(e)s et parfaitement competent(e)s, y compris dans laide apportee au moment des divers transferts aeriens, bateau ou train. Notre tour comprenait aussi une croisiere sur le Yangtze qui restera un grand souvenir (ayant beneficie dun temps superbe pour la saison). Le bateau (5 etoiles), le service et les excursions offertes etaient de tres grande qualité et les paysages
traverses (en dépit de la montee du niveau du Yangtze depuis 2003) demeurent superbes. De retour de ce voyage en Chine, un pays extraordinaire qui merite la visite, nous sommes totalement satisfaits des prestations offertes par TCG, et sommes persuades quil sagit la dune offre de voyages extremement concurrentielle en termes de rapport qualite/prix. Une connaissance elementaire de langlais est recommandee pour les echanges avec le staff de TCG pendant la definition du voyage et, eventuellement, pendant la croisiere sur le Yangtze. Les lecteurs interesses par des renseignements complementaires peuvent nous envoyer un message.

English version of my testimonial

Back to France after our 2-week wonderful tour in your marvelous country, we would like to thank you for your excellent and really professional organization and services. We are really glad you arranged so perfectly our individual tour, directly in China. Our first and most sincere acknowledgments are for Ms. Sally Si (TCG staff in XiAn) who organized so friendly and perfectly our tour. We would like also to transmit our best regards to the TCG staff members who received us (on Sunday!) in their office during our visit in XiAn.

All of our guides were French-speaking guides and we would like to thanks TCG for providing so thoughtful attention to us, French tourists. We add all of them were perfect and so kind, very fluent in French, really efficient and we learned us a lot of interesting information or anecdotal insights about dynasties paving the complex imperial China history. We are grateful to them, Ms. "FanFan" Liu Fang in Beijing, Mrs. "FanFan" Zhang in XiAn, "Brigitte" Cui Xin Jing in Shanghai, and Mr. Qu in Suzhou. We thank Mr. Hu Zuo Qiang in Chonqing and Mrs. Qu Ping in Wuhan for their ability to manage short transfers and changes in the program induced by delayed flights (or boat) in Chonqing and Wuhan. We add a special mention for "FanFan" in XiAn: we really appreciated her comments during the Terracotta Warriors, Forest of Stone Steles, Great Mosque and museum visits. She enlivened our car transfers with anecdotes about the life of Empress Wu ZeTian. Our guides have done a wonderful job, they love France and French culture, and we hope more French tourists will visit China and highlight their competence.

All the cars (or minivans) were in perfect state, and all our drivers were perfectly courteous and professional and, in spite of a charged traffic, everywhere skillfully drove us in secure conditions.

Our Yangtze River cruise on the very comfortable Princess Sheena boat was outstanding and will remain an unforgettable souvenir. We were the unique French among 14 individual foreign travelers (on a total of 50 non-Chinese passengers), but we received all during the cruise a personal, courteous and delightful attention from all the ship staff. Excursions, specially the Shennong Stream cruise and the visit to the Pharaonic 3-Gorge dam, were very enjoyable.

We make some minor comments concerning the detailed organization. The chosen hotels (3 or 4 stars) were all very comfortable and breakfast buffets were great. We especially enjoyed two evening events, the performance of Opera in Beijing and Acrobatic Show in Shanghai, but less the too tourist Dynasty show in XiAn, except the great Pans pipes player. We also enjoyed most of the restaurants (excepted the lunch in Suzhou in the silk factory), even if most of the lunch meals were served in "tourist" restaurants, fortunately not overcrowded at that time (3-14 March). On an other hand the set up individual program (with many free dinners) offered us the opportunity to taste by ourselves the local delicious "cuisine" served by Chinese restaurants.

So, we greatly enjoyed our tour and, above all, your so dynamic country impressed us, as well as your lovely people that, without forgetting its millennial culture, construct the future China. We would certainly recommend your reputed services to anyone wishing to visit your beautiful country.

Dear TCG Team,

We would like to thank you and especially your guides Hua, Emma and Scott for the wonderful days which we enjoyed in your country. We learned so many new things and got a good impression of your wonderful country.

All of you took so much care on us and answered the questions we had with great knowledge and a deep understanding of the context. Naturally there are so many places which we have not seen during our trip and therefore we will try to visit China again. In any case the travel service of Travel China Guide will be then our first contact.

We wish you Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year !

Christine & Dietmar G.

P.S. Please find enclosed a few of our pictures we took during the trip.

To the Management, Bessie Zhao and the Team

Thank you to all for your efforts in making my trip to China a very special experience. Your dedication to your clients is of the highest standard and the service you provide is second to none. Thank you for your seasons wishes and in particular your thoughtfulness to celebrate my birthday while in Chongqing. The knowledge and friendliness of each of the guides you provided made me fell very much ease and has increased my understanding of China and its history greatly. The skill of your drivers also needs to be commended as they made me feel very safe and comfortable in what I could only describe as a very hostile driving environment. Again thank you to all your staff, and I will return. Wishing you all a very merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

Your friend and very satisfied client
Malcolm MacBride

Hi Rita & Echo, On behalf of our "Gang of Ten", I would like to thank Tibettrip for their excellence in organizing our recent trip and delivering the services as promised. I can tell you now that initially some members of the group were a bit hesitant in dealing with an unknown company located in China, they felt that it would be safer to book through an established local tour company in Canada despite the extra cost. However, after doing some research on your impressive Web site and reading some of the testimonials from fellow travelers plus the endorsement from the New York Times Travel supplement, I felt comfortable enough to encourage my friends to join me in booking with you. In retrospect, this was the best decision I have made this year. With the majority never having set foot in Asia before, we would like to share with you some of the concerns we had prior to the trip, and our impression of them now. English proficiency of the Local Guides Since most members of our group could not understand Chinese, we were concerned whether the local guides would be able to communicate sufficiently enough for us to understand them. We must tell you that, overall, the guides were excellent and beyond our expectation, not only with the language issue but also with their warmth and responsiveness to our needs and request. In Beijing, Gloria was so friendly and helpful, she even assisted one of us to get a replacement credit card that was misplaced. In Xian, we were impressed with Echos command of English and knowledge of Chinas history and culture. In Shanghai, Xu was an excellent guide her English was impeccable and she was very informative. We did not spend much time with the other guides but they all did their job well. Transportation The buses you provided were very nice, spacious and clean. Although the drivers could not speak English, they were all courteous and drove skillfully in what seemed like perpetual traffic jam in city areas. We got to know and like Mr. Feng in Beijing, and we enjoyed very much the "western" music that was played on his bus. Although this was a definite area of concern early on, we were impressed with the three domestic air flights we took. The flight attendants were friendly and had a smile on their face when they talked to you. They even served food on such short flights which is not the norm in North America. The "soft seat" train that took us between Shanghai and Suzhou was OK, although we expected something more "luxurious". The China Regal is not a cruise ship like we know it in North America but it served its purpose well. Accommodation We were uncertain what a 5-star hotel in China was like, based on North Americas rating. We would like to tell you that we were impressed with all of them, especially the Sheraton in Suzhou which was a most charming hotel with its landscaped gardens and indoor pool with a waterfall. The hotels were very clean, all of them offered currency exchange and other services normally associated with a higher-end establishment, and the rooms were spacious. The only negative we can say is that there was no designated non-smoking areas, not even in the restaurants. It seemed like everyone smoked in China. Food With our "western" stomach, we were pleased that none of us got sick from the food despite "pigging" out at times. Breakfast typically was the best meal and there were quite a variety to choose from, the best ones were served in Hyatt (Xi'an) and Sheraton (Suzhou). As for lunch, they varied from good (Beijing & Xi'an), to OK (China Regal), to one that was just awful (restaurant next to the silk factory in Suzhou). Dinner was fine overall, although we did not enjoy the Peking Duck dinner in Beijing as we found the ducks to be too fat and oily. Of the places we ate on our own for dinner (i.e. not included in the tour package), we would highly recommend the chinese restaurant in Beijing's Peninsula Hotel, the restaurant in Suzhou's Sheraton, and the 24-hour caf on the ground level in the Hua Ting hotel in Shanghai which served excellent western food. The Shows The 3 shows we attended were very enjoyable, with the highest rating to the Tang Dynasty Cultural Show in Xi'an, followed by the Portman Acrobatic Show in Shanghai, and the Opera in Beijing. The nightly entertainment put on by the staff on the China Regal was quite entertaining too. Summary China is such a land of contrasts that in just two weeks we were able to "journey through time" from the rich history of old China (Great Wall, Forbidden City, the Terra Cotta Warriors that dated back some 2300 years), to the tranquility of the Yangtze River with its magnificent Three Gorges, and then fast forward to the ultra modern 14-year old metropolis of Pudong in Shanghai, a city that boasts the worlds fastest passenger train. This has been a memorable trip indeed and, once again, thank you for helping to make it happen. I will be pleased to be a reference and I can be reached via e-mail at felixlee@rogers.com All the very best to everyone at Tibettrip. Regards, Felix Lee Client's information: "Gang of Ten" - Felix & Val Lee, John & Natasha Crerar, Gary & Jan Bartlett, John & Kitty Yeung, Jack & Bonnie Burkholder - Toronto, Canada, December 15, 2004

Hello Hebe,

Sorry for the delay in reply.

We just came back home, almost exhausted after 25 days trip with you. In the final days in China, we were just reluctant to return. We are planning back to China in a not remote future. I and Bob just want to say "a big thank you" to all staff at Travel China Guide that made our China vacation so smooth and impressive.

We have met so many beautiful and friendly Chinese, we think we will keep those faces and eyes and lovely smiles forever in our hearts. To be frank, initially, we felt a little bit uncomfortable by contacting a travel company in the other side of the world, we read the "testimonials" pages and contact a few who did business with you, what we received were all praises and strong recommendations which, of course, were unexpected. All the email responses were so efficient and prompt and informative.

We were lucky to have Nancy, Echo and many other nice young people as our guides, their knowledge of their hometown and command of English just amazed us! All of them were punctual and went out of their way to make our tours enjoyable and informative. It is hard for us to pick the "best" of all. All the drivers were very polite and always ready to help, one of them (I can't remember where) even understand and speak some simple English. You just can't imagine how happy we were with so many young and hard-working people. We saw China's future from these people.

We will recommend Travel China Guide to our friends who intend to visit China.

Again, thank you very much!

Elizabeth & Bob

Nyima- our guide in Tibet went out of her way to make our trip comfortable & fun. She shared a lot about local culture & helped to make it one of the best tours we have taken. We definitely will use TravelChinaGuide again! Good service, excellent sensitivity to our preferences & wonderful knowledge of the area.

Dear Eileen, Thank you for your message. Finally I am back at home but I am flying off to France today, so I am rushing to give you a little feed back before I leave. Let me know if you still would like a few pictures from our trip and what kind of pictures, and I will try to send them to you when I get back (around the 13th of September). In the meantime, I just want to tell you how impressed all three of us were with the reliability, efficiency, and quality of the services of your agency during our trip to the Silk Road. Our itinerary was rather complex, involving plane, train, and car segments, yet everything went perfectly smoothly. We were met by guides and drivers and supplied with plane and train tickets exactly as planned, which meant that the trip was entirely free of worry. Our guides (Dragon in Xi’an, Stephen from Jiayuguan to Dunhuang, and Aynoor in the Xinjiang) were all remarkably competent, knowledgeable, eager to please, and great company. Aynoor (with whom we spent the most time) in particular deserves special mention for her exceptional sensitivity to our needs and her enthusiasm in presenting the wonders of the Xinjiang in a way that was extremely catching and endearing. The drivers were also friendly and professional. The hotels were well chosen and lunch meals for which you arranged were copious and delicious. We also liked being able to choose where to have our dinners, and the guides were quite willing to help us make the right choices and assist us in menu selections. All in all, this was a great and fascinating trip and we are grateful to you and your staff for helping us customize it and make it a resounding success. What we will remember from our trip is the friendly and efficient service, the wonderful sites, and the extraordinarily beautiful scenery... And, should we come back to China, we will not hesitate to contact you again. In the meantime, we would enthusiastically recommend your agency to anyone looking to travel in China. With all our thanks, Jade Zelnik Pierrette Vu Thi