Customer's information:
Name: Mr. Juan Carlos Marset Caus
Nationality: Spain
Itinerary: Beijing-Xian-Taiyuan – Pingyao-Xi’an-Guilin-Lijiang- Dali-Lijiang-Chengdu- Yangtze River Cruise - Shanghai
Dear Ivy,

We returned from our trip to China some weeks ago and, first of all, we want to thank you for all your collaboration in travel arrangements. It has been a great experience for all of us. So, we are very happy and pleased to have relied on China Tours for organizing our journey.

The possibility of having Spanish guides in some places has been also fantastic for us, especially for childs. In general few people in China speak English and therefore communication, especially for girls, was very difficult. The possibility to have Spanish speaking guides was very good for them, and they enjoyed and learned a lot during visits.

Also in general all guides and drivers were very friendly and professional. The services provided were very accurate, as well as vehicles with air conditioning, large and comfortable. We want to thank all guides and drivers for their kindness, but especially to Miss Long during our stay at Guilin. She was always friendly, nice and ready to solve anything we ask for, even beyond the programme. Also her Spanish is excellent! Better than our English...!

Having said this, I would like to add also some words about the things we most liked during the trip and those we think maybe can run better. We hope these comments helps you to improve and offer even a more great service to your future customers.

The visits we most liked were the Terracotta Warriors in Xi’an, the whole area of Guilin, Yangshuo and Longshen, with its incredible scenery, lush nature and ethnic minorities, really impressive... The city of Lijiang and... the visit to the pandas in Chengdu, spectacular! In general we take with us a pleasant memory of our visit to your fantastic country!

As for the weakest, I would point out first of all the visit to the Great Wall. The wall at Mutianyu area is spectacular and the visit is a great experience, but in our view was not well planned: we departed maybe too late from Beijing (8.30-9 am) and went first to visit the Ming Tombs. After the visit and lunch in a mediocre self-service restaurant in the top of a large shop building, we reached the Wall at Mutianyu at 14.30 or 15 hours approximately... with a terrible heat! Despite the magnificent setting we hardly could walk for a while by the heat... Perhaps we are wrong, but surely would have been better to depart early on the morning and visit the Wall when it was not so hot yet, although it had been necessary wake up early on the morning...

Also the organization was too rigid. We went to the Wall by cable car as planned, but we could not descend with bobsleig... because was not scheduled! In such cases some flexibility would be welcome... obviously we will pay the difference if there is an additional cost , but should have to be enough flexibility to do it... In spite of this the guide, Fernando, was very kind and the visit to the Summer Palace for example was great. Other positive examples in this regard were the guide and the driver in Chengdu... or the guide and driver in Chongqing, who kindly agreed to go for a walk and to have a coffe to the city center once we had finished the scheduled visits...

The restaurants where were taken by guides during the trips were superb (except for the excursion to the Great Wall). The food plentiful, varied and delicious. The only thing that, in general, we think can be improved in meals is that some restaurants just included a glass of drink per person, beer, water, soda, etc... At such cases we often had to ask for some more drink, and pay for it separately. That was not a problem, since the prices were very affordable, but we think that a meal should include at least one full drink per person, maybe a bottle, even individual... Seems a bit strange that in some places (not everywhere) we can have just a small glass of water or any other drinking with lunch, and have to buy a bottle apart. I suppose this is not an economical issue, because don’t represents an important cost... perhaps is more a custom, but for us this was a little uncomfortable...

One thing that really bothered us, and we suppose has nothing to do whatsoever with the efforts of China Tours, was that in the Yangtze cruise, in Century Sky ship, the extra bed for the girl was of very bad quality, little more than a table with a very thin mattress on top. When we asked the ship’s staff they replied very politely that there was no problem to change it to a normal bed, but we would have to pay an additional amount of 800 yuan (offer price, because the standard rate was 1,200 yuan). They also offered to change the cabin for a suite paying 3000 yuan more. The truth is that seemed to us almost like a joke, because the real cost to put a regular bed instead of a table on the floor with a mattress is really nothing... Yet, finally we accepted because the girl had to sleep there for three nights and we prefered to pay the difference rather than worry by this issue. Otherwise the cruise was very nice, quiet, and we had no other problems. The staff was kind... So, we enjoyed some very pleasant days on board.

I hope these observations don’t suppose any inconvenience for you. Overall we are very satisfied with our trip to China and services provided by China Tours. So, our comments should only be considered as small details in a whole fantastic trip of which we get the best impression.

Finally, I send you a copy of the photo we took in the hotel’s garden in Xi’an. We also want to thank you the detail in coming personally to the hotel to meet us. We also send you a photo with Ms. Long, from Guilin. We can not send it directly to her because we have not her address. There is no problem if you also want to give her our address...

Well, be sure that if we return to China we will contact you again.

Kind regards from Barcelona,

J. Carlos Marset

September 29, 2011