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.

   We highly recommend you for visiting China. Our guide Miss Zhao was a very good teacher. We will be very glad to share our experiences with anyone who wants to take a China trip.

Dear Miss Zhao,

Thanks you for your excellent tour of Xian. We learned a lot about the history of China, even though we read books. Your explorations helped us to understand what we were seeing. You have a very pleasant way of being a guide which we greatly appreciated. We really enjoyed he museum and visiting the Terracotta Warriors. Xian truly presents a world wonder. All in all, we like all the arrangements your agent made for us.

Xie Xie!
Stephanna & Tom Tewey

  Many apologies for taking so long to reply. I had a lot to catch up with when I got back home!!!

First of all I would like to say thank you very much for all your help in setting up the trip, answering all my questions so promptly. It was very good service, and the trip was very enjoyable. All the arrangements went very smoothly. I would certainly recommend your services to anybody wishing to visit China.

Some comments to make:

The size of the group was just right. Small groups are best. The fact that you can do different things is also a very interesting way to organize thing, for example some of us went to Tibet, some went to Guilin. It was very nice to meet back up again and exchange stories about our different trips.

The standard of hotels was very good. I always prefer a hotel to be in the centre of a city, so I would have preferred a more central hotel in Shanghai and Xian, but the quality was very good.

All the facilities in Lhasa hotel, guide etc were a little lower quality than in other cities, but it was ok. They are clearly the best that Lhasa has to offer. It may just be a good idea to warn people to expect lower quality in this part of a trip. For example, a 4-star hotel in Lhasa is not the same as a 4-star hotel in Shanghai. The guide did not speak such good English as the other guides, but again he seemed to be as good as or better than any other we saw in Lhasa. We gave him top marks in his survey, but would say he was not as good as the guides in the other cities.

Talking of meals, this was the one small disappointment for me from the trip. I would also like to have been able to choose what I eat, rather than having a set selection of food provided? We never got to choose from menu. On our last night in Xian Echo took us to a different restaurant near the hotel, which was not on the plan I dont think? That was very good of her and it was a very good meal. I would have liked to do this more often.
Overall it was a great trip.

Finally I cannot go without saying something about Ms. Zhao in Xian. All of our guides were good, were very knowledgeable and helped us a lot. But she was the best and is the best guide I have had on any trip! Her English was fantastic and she was able to describe so much, not just about the sites we were visiting, it really made things so much better and her jokes were good too! You are very lucky to have her working for you.

Once again many thanks for providing me with an excellent, enjoyable and smooth trip. I hope to speak to you again in future if I get the opportunity to visit China again, which I certainly want to do.

  I was going to send you feedback on our trip to Sichuan, which my parents and I found wonderful.

From start to finish the trip ran very smoothly. Every point of organization was satisfactory or more than satisfactory. Our guide worked very hard to meet our needs and was knowledgeable about all the things and places we visited. The driver supplied was of the very highest caliber, which was a great comfort, since the road we travelled was sometimes fairly dangerous.

All in all, it was a wonderful trip and we thank you for your efficient, professional and economical organization which helped us to enjoy the breathtaking scenery of Jiuzhaigou and other parts of Sichuan. I would have absolutely no hesitation in recommending you to anybody who wants to see China.

  Now that I am settled back at work and home, I am pleased to provide you with some feedback on my tour of Beijing.

The tour started with one hitch. This puts me at some unease as I thought it may be a sign that the whole tour would not be run well, but, fortunately, everything turned out very well after that. Just to note the "one hitch," there was a mix up of names and the guide had another persons name to collect from the airport. Our guide however, did have the presence of mind to approach me to ask who we were expecting and quite quickly sorted the problem out. This was encouraging for my wife and myself and things only got better from that moment.

The tour exceeded my expectations in every way. Our guide, (Zhao Lijun,) was very knowledgeable about the sights, history, and was able to explain what we saw and our many questions in an easy to understand way. His English skills were very good and we found him a likeable and patient person.

Our driver was expert and we always felt safe, even in some very heavy traffic conditions. The vehicle was comfortable and it was very nice to have the air conditioning on the hot days.

We think the timing of our tour was just right. There was enough time at each of the stops to take in the amazing sights and we had enough free time to look around ourselves. We were tired on the one big day and it might of been nice to separate out the Beijing Duck dinner and the Peking Opera to separate days if possible.

The meals provided were superb! In fact, of all the meals we ate while in Beijing, both the lunch with the live entertainment and evening Beijing duck meal will be remembered mostly. They were absolutely delicious and very memorable.

We were happy with the hotel which was in a very convenient location for other sightseeing and for other meals and shopping. The staff were efficient and good to us

I thought your web site was excellent and it provided quality information on all of the questions we had while we were planning our trip. Your web site gave me confidence that it was a well prepared and professional tour operator.

I should also comment upon the excellent service provided via email and your office. Your prompt replies to my questions were very efficient and left nothing undone.

Could I take this opportunity to thank you for excellent service, providing comfortable and safe tour and a memorable experience of Beijing? I will not hesitate to recommend you if any of my friends travel to China in the future. I too hope to return to China in the future to see more of your wonderful country. I hope we can again do business with you then.

  Hello!

Now that I have recooperated from my trip to China, I wanted to let you know
how much I enjoyed it. I did fill out some comment forms given to me by my
travel guide; however, I did want to write you this e-mail. Overall, I feel that my trip to China was excellent and will definitely recommend you to my family, friends, and colleagues. I visited Beijing, Xian and Shanghai.

I appreciate the attention that was made to practically every detail of my trip. Everything went very smoothly and well organized. The drivers were polite and very nice.

My favorite part was spent in Beijing. My tour guide, "Ray" Hua Rong, was by far the best! From the moment I arrived in Beijing, I felt very comfortable, safe and well attended to. Hua Rong had a great personality. He not only is extremely knowledgeable, but is very professional, thorough, kind and friendly. Hua Rong speaks excellent English and was able to explain so many interesting facts about the areas we visited in Beijing. I learned so much! He was extremely helpful with answering my questions and made my 4 days there most enjoyable. Please thank him for me and tell him that I appreciate everything he did to make my visit most pleasurable. I would definitely request his services when I return to China.

I enjoyed Xian and Shanghai, too. I had two young gals as my tour guides, in Xian I had "De", and in Shanghai I had "Chris". Both were lovely young ladies and very nice. "De" was extremely knowledgeable of the area, and "Chris" did a very good job as well. I think because they are younger, some of my questions perhaps were unfamiliar to them. I had asked "Chris" after she stated that the radio tower in Shanghai was the 3rd tallest in the world, where were the 1st and 2nd located? And she had no idea. This may be just one example of a question that a tourist might ask and it would be good if the guide could be able to provide the answer too. If you are boasting of the tower being the 3rd tallest, then it would be helpful to know as compared to what? People may have traveled elsewhere or have knowledge of other places, so it would be interesting for them to be able to compile new information they are learning while in China with their prior knowledge. This is simply a suggestion to possibly help. People are going to come to your beautiful country perhaps having done extensive traveling or are well educated in geography, history and cultures. The more knowledge the tour guides have, the better. Hua Rong I found to be extremely proficient not only in speaking English, but especially so in his thorough knowledge of Beijing. De would be the next and then finally Chris. I simply believe that the later two guides are just not quite as old and experienced. They do have a lot of potential though! I do not mean this in any negative way. I am sure that they will get even better with more time and experience.

The hotels were all very nice. Thank you! The best hotel, service and breakfast were at the Marriott New World Hotel in Xian. The breakfast was absolutely delicious with so many options. The SongHe Hotel in Beijing was my 2nd favorite, and the Pacific Luck Hotel was the least favorite. The breakfast there was not very good and had very little selection.

I realize that it may be difficult but if possible, I would suggest being aware of construction going on near the hotel where your guests may be staying. In Shanghai, directly across from my hotel room, construction was going on until 11:00 pm each night. I had to raise the volume on the television in order to drown out the noise. This may be distracting for your customers.

I had met a lot of foreigners traveling like me through China. Most agreed with me as to the beauty that China offers. Thank you ever so much for making my trip to China a memorable one. I look forward to returning soon! Your country is very beautiful, the people are very nice and friendly, and of course, you have a wealth of cultural and historical sites of interest. As I mentioned before, I will not hesitate to recommend your services to anyone who plans to travel to China. Your service was excellent! I just hope that you will just listen to some suggestions and comments I have provided you. I certainly wouldnt bother if I didnt think that you already are the best tour agency....I just would like to help you improve. I do not mean any of the things to be offensive in anyway, just some points that I think might be helpful for you to be made aware of.

Thanks again, and I will be in touch for the next time I come back to China!

Sincerely,
Jane Hayes