1999 Customer Reviews

"We are finally back in New York after our tour to Silk Road and also after spending about a week in Beijing. First let me say that our experience on the Tour was very positive overall and we are very impressed with EduTours. We will not hesitate to recommend Travel China Guide to other people in the future. In fact we have already recommended Travel China Guide to many of our friends in Beijing and when I was posted to Beijing with UNDP we have used your company many times for our guests. Women Shi Zhong Guo Tong! We are very familiar with China, having spent five years in Beijing and having travelled extensively to many areas of China, including many poor areas where we have projects on Poverty Allevation. So we understand the business, social and cultural environment in china very well. I take this opportunity to provide you with some feedback:
What you are doing well: 1. Very fast prompt reply to all queries by email. Excellent email website. Comprehensive information on your tour. 2. Itinerary, hotels, etc organised carefully. 3. Pricing competitive. 4. You are receptive to feedback. This is a very important feature enabling you to improve your service. In fact, I suggest that as part of your standard procedures, you should ask guests to fill in a form to provide feedback (like for hotel service).
Problem: It is unfortunate that the problem with the train happened. How can we be informed suddenly on the day that the train schedule has been changed? Maybe more explanations should have been provided and what alternative arrangements would be made to make our journey smooth. (instead of us asking for it). I understand that sometimes it is the problem with your local agent. Certainly, they did not explain clearly what caused the change in schedule and who was responsible. It is important to accept responsibility and then to propose alternatives (e.g. some suggestions: next train, no disruption in programme, extra performance or special dinner to make up for the time having to wait for the next train, provision of bathroom to have a shower as it is very hot during that period).
The idea is: 1) Advise the guest of the problem asap, 2) explain what caused the problem, 3) accept responsibility, 4) fix the problem asap, 5) offer some token compensation to minimize the disruption/incovenience caused. That way, the guests will be inconvenienced but will be understanding.
In the end we were happy with the resolution but only after we got angry and had to request for a few things ourselves.
Improvement: Meals in general were good. However, the quantity was too much. I think this will vary from guests to guests, groups to groups. Maybe it is advisable to ask the guests/groups, as the tour progresses, on whether there should be a change in menu or quantity. For us, 2 adults and 2 children, 12 dishes pre meal were just too much! I know this is the standard but maybe it is time to change the standard! Most days we would be happy with 3 or 4 dishes or even 1 sandwich for lunch, for a change. The idea is to be flexible, if possible, to the requirement of the guests. Maybe it is too difficult to change the standard meals but if you manage to tailor it more to the guests taste (especially for foreign guests), it will be a major improvement in your service (for all tours actually!).
Conclusion: Mr Wang, please take these suggestions in good spirit. As I said, overall the experience was very good. In fact it was one of the better tours we have been on in China, as we have travelled extensively. We look forward to using your tour agency again in the future and we certainly hope to refer other guests to you."

"Thanks so much for the wonderful tour you organised for me during my recent trip to China. My tour guide Angela and the driver Mr Jiao were fantastic. They are both assets to your company and I would appreciate it if you would pass on my sincere thanks to them for the great service they gave me during my stay in Beijing. I thoroughly enjoyed all of the spots we visited. I especially enjoyed the Hutong tours. I have one suggestion however. Have you ever considered a bike tour to places such at Tianamen and the Palace. It would make a lot of sense to me that with the traffic conditions in Beijing and the short distance from the hotel to these spots, a bike tour on this day would be quicker and more flexible than taking a car over to these particular places in the thick traffic. I would thoroughly recommend this tour to anybody. It was very interesting, informative and I had the time of my life."

"We have now returned to The Netherlands after a couple of days in Hong Kong. We have had an excellent holiday. Tibet was very interesting, weather was great, scenic spots were very good and the hotel reasonable. The boat trip through the Three Gorges was also very exciting with good accommodation although the weather was not very good, a lot of rain unfortunately. At all locations we were met by good English speaking guides and transport was well arranged. In view of the weather or our physical condition, we sometimes had to change the schedule. This was never a problem and the guides provided good advise and support. Very flexible. All in all the logistics of the trip went very well, which was a great relief and substantially contributed to the success of the holiday. I would like to take the opportunity to thanks you for your kind support and hope that if and when I plan another trip through China, I can use your services again. Where applicable I will recommend your company to friends who are in the process of planning similar trips through China."

"I would like to thank you for such a well organised tour. The tour guides were very good, friendly and well spoken. My hotel accommodation was also very good. Over all, you offer a well organised service. Your help in answering any queries via the internet were also well appreciated. At all times you have been proffessional in the services you provide. It would be fair to say however, the cost involved would still rate as one of the most expensive. US$ 592. 00 for a three day tour is a little pricey. Other than this, I wish you all the best for your future endeavours. Please thank all the people involved, who made my stay most enjoyable."

"I have just arrived from my journey and I wanted to write you to congratulate you for the the tourist services I received in Xian. The solicitude and kindness of both the guide Miss Ciao and the car driver helped to make this visit unforgetable. I had already wrote my appreciations in the evaluation form I fulfilled at the end of the tour but I wanted to send you this short email to thank you for your services. My husband and I had decided to come back to China next year or the other, so I will like to know if I can get in touch with Travel China Guide again to organize the tour."

"The tours were great in both services and accomodation except that the tour guide (Mrs Tong) in Beijing was not knowledgeble enough to explain all the historical details and events. She was not attentive and initiative at all as we had to ask many questions to get one anwer. We were very disappointed with her quality as we spent the longest time in Beijing but did not complain to her as she was a nice old lady. However, I did attach a note when gave her the tips. One additional point is that the train from Shanghai to Souzhou was old and not clean. Ive learned in Shanghai that people actually take a one day trip to Souzhou by mini Bus and back to Shanghai on the same day which is quite a good idea since nothing to do in Souzhou at nite. Overall, we were satisfied with the trip and certainly would recommend to our friends and will pass your business cards around."

"It was a good trip overall, quite an experience for myself and my family. The tourist guide and driver for the first part (Urumqi and Turpan) are very nice and the arrangements are well thought out. So I paid them a little bit more on tips. The tourist guide for the second part (Dung Huang) is so-so, there are slacks in the itinerary. He sent us to the hotel to sleep for 3 hours for both afternoon. On the trip to the sand dune, he asked me if there is camel ride included. It seemed to me that if I didnt insist then he would not arrange camel ride or asked me to pay for it. But anyway the tour of the Mogao Gotto was good. Thank you for the arrangement."

"Sorry for taking so long to respond to your message. We returned home safely from China and have been busy ever since. Overall, we were very satisfied with the experiences you arranged for us. Tour guides met us promptly at each destination, hotels were excellent, and sites selected were good. Two of the guides were exceptional. Tang Chen in Xian is a remarkably well-informed and professional young woman. Both she and the driver helped to make our experiences pleasant and memorable. She should be commended for her fine work. We enjoyed our stay in Xian very much. Guilin offered fascinating scenery but the level of service from the tour guide was a disappointment after the attentive, informative guide in Xian. Shirley Tam seemed most interested in rushing us through sites to get us to the next shop. At the seven peaks park we saw virtually nothing of the famed scenery. We understand that guides make commissions on purchases, and in fact we are more than happy when such a mutual benefit occurs, but not when that goal becomes the primary focus. Our touring ended on a very high note. Miss Wang Jun, who met us at Huangshan airport and accompanied us during our stay in that area, was another exceptionally bright, well-informed, and personable guide. She became a part of the very pleasant memories we have of our time there. The guide in Shanghai met us at the train and helped us resolve a problem with luggage that had been transported on the baggage car. She was pleasant and efficient. We are grateful for the assistance you offered us. We will recommend your services to friends. It is possible that we will visit China in the future with a small group of colleagues. Would it be possible for you to arrange tours with a single guide to accompany us to all selected locations? "

"I am sorry to have taken so long to reply to your message. As I am sure you will know, we much enjoyed our visits to Beijing and Tsian because of your excellent guides and drivers. We were also able to survive in Beijing for five days on our return without any help because of the advice and information you and your guides had given us. We were glad to have added Banpo to our itinerary and recommend that you include it for other visitors. We also think that Mutianyu was well worth the longer journey from reports we had from other visitors that Badaling was too crowded and commercialised.
The entertainment, lunches and dinners you arranged were all much appreciated by us and we should not have found them without your help. We have had some photographs taken of us in our judges robes which we are sending to the two guides which we are sure will amuse them. Thank you again for making it such an enjoyable and memorable holiday. We shall certainly recommend Travel China Guide to our friends. We are very sorry that the Americans bombed your Embassy in Belgrade the day after we returned to England. I promise you we had nothing to do with it!"

"Our tour was most successful and we were pleased with the arrangements you made. All arrangements in Kunming were in order and to our satisfaction. The local guide Judy was very helpful. A spare half day to walk around the city and shops would have been of interest. We enjoyed Lijiang very much. The local guide Huang Huaihai we considered the best of our tour. The Guan Fang Hotel (5 star) was a very nice hotel however we felt that the Gelan Hotel being located near the entrance to the old city would have been more convenient for walking around and perhaps have more Chinese atmosphere. We missed going to the Yunshanping Pastureland. The day was partly cloudy however the biggest deterrent was the long delays to get on the chairlift. 1.5 hours on the way up and 1.5 hours again on return. 3 hours standing in a queue is very much a waste of half a days sightseeing. The tourist management should look at some system of reservation for tour groups to book allocated times to use the chairlift. The Dali sector was well balanced and all aspects satisfactory. The Jinghong sector was perhaps the most disappointing. The three day programme did not seem to be very well organised and there was a lot of spare time and duplication. The visit to the National Minorities Park etc on 29 May was good. The guide advised us that the Royal General Temple and the Buddhist White Pagoda scheduled for May 31 were what we were seeing in the Minorities Park Manting Temple and Manting park on 29 May. 30 May being specially selected as a Sunday we had expected to be able to see the famed Sunday early morning market at Menghai with its many colourful tribal people in National costume and jewellery. We were advised that this was not possible. It could easily have been scheduled as our only other activity for the day was to travel to Menghan and visit the Ganlanba and check in late at the Scientist Activity Guesthouse. The guide did take us to an extra market in Menghan however we do not believe this to be as colourful as the hilltribes in Menghai or Menghun. It would only have meant an earlier start for the day perhaps around 6am. 31 May the overnight stay at the Gardens was very good and we had a nice quiet inspection of the gardens before returning to Jinghong. The other activities scheduled for this day had already been attended on May 29 (above). We enquired why the return to Jinghong was the same route as the outward journey and not Via Mengyang and the Elephant Banyan Tree and were advised that although the alternative route was shown as a main road it was in fact a difficult road to travel with many large trucks! To tighten up this schedule a return flight to Kunming on the evening of May 31 would have allowed a free morning in the city of Kunming to shop and walk around on June 1.
All meals were upto the standard expected, Yunnan Air flights were all on time and efficient and the hospitality of the Chinese people wonderful."