Customer's information:
Name: Ms. Lyn Randall
Nationality: Australia
Itinerary: 24 Days tour of Shanghai/Suzhou/Wuxi/Hangzhou/Huangshan/Jingdezhen/Changsha/Zhangjiajie/Shanghai
Dear Candy and Tracy,

In every aspect, my dealings with China Tours have been excellent. They were always very responsive to emails, were friendly and helpful and provided exactly the tour we asked for. They made suggestions to improve the itinerary I proposed and were happy when I asked for a few changes before we booked. Once in China, our tour progressed without any problems at all, everything was very smooth and professional. We plan to make further trips to China in the future and will have no hesitation in using them again.

As we travelled to so many places we had 6 guides in total. They were all very polite and their English was quite understandable. None of them arranged stops at factories or souvenir shops unless it was in the tour or we asked them to do so. We never felt pressured in any way to shop. All of the guides were keen to explain the local customs and history and to show us the best places to photograph. Standout guides were Tony in Suzhou, who was very polite and helpful; Ben in Wuxi who has been to Australia several times and knew how to deal with crazy Aussies!; Nick in Huang Shan who had excellent English and good knowledge of his area and finally Victor in Zhangjiajie, who’s strong accent was sometimes more difficult to understand but was more than made up for by his friendly nature and sense of humour! We would happily use all of them again in the future.

The drivers in all places were very good. We felt safe and the vehicles were clean and all air conditioned.

Our tour included all breakfasts and lunches but only 1 or two dinners. We were keen to try local dishes and were happy with the choices made by our guides. I think they were surprised that we could eat (and preferred) more spicy food, which was useful as we went further west, where the staple seasoning was chilli, closely followed by ginger and garlic! There were one or two meals where the dishes were rather bland but overall we always found something that we could eat and never went hungry.

Most of the hotels were in a good location so we could walk to shops and restaurants easily. The staff were very friendly and helpful and we enjoyed trying out our limited chinese to order meals etc. as in many of them there were no English speakers. We chose our hotels with these reasons and were very satisfied with the result.


All of the hotels we stayed in were fine, apart from the Gusu in Suzhou. The room we had there was dark and in desperate need of a repaint and refurbish. It stank of smoke so we had to spray with air freshener. Our travelling companions had the room next door to ours and theirs was fine so we were just unlucky. We were there for two nights and if we had thought of it sooner we should have asked for a different room.If we return to Suzhou in future we would probably stay in a different hotel or at least make sure we were happy with a room at the Gusu before we settled in. The linen and the bathroom were clean otherwise we would certainly have asked to be moved.

As far as we can remember, we had enough water in each place, although I don’t think it was supplied in Changsha.

I am happy to be a reference for you and for my comments to be posted on your website. If anyone wishes to contact me regarding any aspect of our trip then please supply them with my email address.

Lyn Randall

on behalf of Lyn, Jon, Kathy and Jann




May 04, 2012

Customer's information:
Name: Barb Taylor
Nationality: Australia
Itinerary: 14 Day Beijing-Xian-Shanghai
Dear Candy and Tracy,

Dear Candy/Tracy,

Firstly, let us say that we all had a wonderful time in China and would definitely recommend China Tours.

There were two places on the itinerary that we were particularly looking forward to visiting.

1. A different place on the Great Wall to our previous visit. THIS DID NOT HAPPEN!

2. To see the Terracotta Army. THIS WAS EXCELLENT!

Please keep us informed of any specials you have on offer we would love to come back and see some more of your vast country.

All the guides were very friendly, spoke excellent English and very polite.

Beijing - Maggie. (My daughter says the best thing about our trip to China was ‘Maggie’.)

XIAN – Lisa (My daughter liked Lisa lots also).

She was great. Lisa repeated a bit of what she said but we found this excellent as we remembered more. She tried to entertain us on the long trips with jokes and songs.

She was very friendly and we all liked her a lot.

Shanghai – Miranda (My daughter also liked Miranda).

Also an excellent guide and a lovely girl. Our family was the only one on the tour with Miranda and she offered us lots of choice to do what best suited us.

We told Miranda that we didn’t like the food at the restaurant for lunch and she was very concerned and apologetic.

All the guides took us to factories (usually one each day) but they were all good stops with informative staff and interesting products.

We did not ever feel pressured to shop.

All drivers were very efficient and competent at their job. The tour vehicles were all clean and all fully functional.

We enjoyed the majority of the lunches and there was a good variety of restaurants and food.

The noodle station (where the man made the noodles as you ordered) at the restaurant in Xian was FANTASTIC and delicious.

The only restaurant that we did NOT like was the one on The Bund in Shanghai. The food wasn’t very nice at all.

Beijing – Great staff, great hotel, quiet street, great facilities. We loved the breakfast in the restaurant but NOT in the group tour restaurant.

Convenient change money facility as reception with good rates. We did find it a little far from the subway. We would recommend this hotel and I probably would stay there again.

Xian – We didn’t seem to have much time at the actual hotel but when we did it was a good hotel. We were very impressed with the reception area.

Breakfast was great. Dumpling dinner was great but did feel a bit rushed. Dance performance was excellent.

Shanghai – Great staff, quiet location as it wasn’t on the main street. Close to lots of restaurants and subway.
April 19, 2012