Silk Road...Xinjiang...West China Comments

West China tour

Our trip to the Northwest of China along the silk road was better than I could have ever expected. We were
met at each stop by wonderful guides. The ones in Kashgar and Urumqi were exceptional. The guide at
Dunghua was our only complaint and that was with the food choices she made. Other guides made certain that
we had tasty local food of interest. She also neglected to tell us that the trip from the train
station was long and that we should use the bathroom before going on. It might be something to mention to
guides at this section of the trip. Another suggestion. At Dunghua the caves were really amazing
but when I got back to the hotel & read my guide book I realized that she neglected to take us to the museum
there that is reported to be one of the "best in China." We were taken to the shops for shopping
instead. Bad move. Our last guide tuned into what we liked and offered interesting side trips that took no
extra time. His English was great. Please don't take this as a complaint. We were very satisfied with this
trip and could not have done it at all without your professional help. Your company really knows how to
cater to someone like us who wanted a unique travel experience. Thank you.

-Elourine Alspach, USA Oct 25, 2004

Silk Road tour

The trip was outstanding!

While all of the guides were very good, the guide in Dunhuang and Jiayuguan was outstanding. ?Not only was she full of information and took us to the made the most of our trip (no shops etc) but she also did well in managing some ongoing intra group disputes which some others may describe more fully.

The hotel in Urumchi was great and it was welcome after Kashgar but aside from Tian Chi, there was not much but a museum and shops - of which I had enough. ?Kashgar was exciting and different. Dunhuang and Jiayuguan were just right. ?Lanzhou was not very interesting to me.

Joseph E. Rogers
May 12, 2004

Silk Road trip
Christy,

A rather late reply - apologies! Here is a quick summary of our Silk Road trip:

- As you know, the flights via Urumqi were delayed and since no one spoke English we had to call you in the early hours of a Sunday morning to ask you to translate so that we could find out what was happening. The airport was basically a shambles with no announcements being made and airline staff saying they didn't know when the next flight to Kashgar would be. We arrived at Kashgar, with three young children after four in the morning ... but we still made the Sunday market which we all enjoyed. - Hasan, our guide in western Xinjiang, was great. As an Ugyhur he was in touch with the local people and was able to tell us so much. He was extremely helpful,
very friendly, excellent with the children, flexible with the itinerary and his English was good - the perfect guide.
- Our next guide, David, who was with us from Urumqi for a couple of days, was a disappointment. He clearly had no affinity with the local people and was more interested in telling us about modern infrastructure development and how marvellous everything was. He sounded like a member of the CP and sure enough, when asked, he said he was. He was kind, and good with the children, but I really recommend you find people who are more in touch with reality as guides for foreign tourists. As a guide for Chinese who want to hear that everything is
marvellous I'm sure he is fine. He and the driver were quite inflexible about deviating from the route they had been told. As you know, we had a disagreement about a trip to a village which was on the itinerary you gave us but not on the one they had. I strongly recommend you ensure the guides at least get a copy of
what the client receives (and thinks they have paid for). - The final guide was your friend Christy. She was very friendly, even singing us songs, and was full of knowledge. Sometimes I misunderstood her English but
overall she was very good. Overall we enjoyed the trip, but not quite as much as Tibet which was incredibly
special.

Marc Rosling and family
Dec 22, 2003

Silk Road and Train Tour

Mr & Mrs Mohin come from the United State. The journey by train was a little bit surprise for them.

We had arrived home from China and wanted to thank you for all your work in setting up our Silk Road
Tour. The trip was wonderful, and we found China to be a beautiful and fascination place. We loved
Dunhuang, and hope to return to Xian some day.

We had two comments to make to you in specific. First, our tour guides in Beijing and Xian were
excellent. Chen Lin, our guide in Beijing, was very knowledgable about the history of the sites we
visited... She took very good care of us. Our guide in Xian had a super attitude, bery bubbly and also knowledgable about Chinese history. Her English was the best of all our guides. We enjoyed her
commentary and her sense of humor. Our drivers in all cities were excellent.

Secondly, we thought our feed back to you about the train might be useful in arranging tours for other
citizens of the US. Since train travel is less common here, we didn't have a good sense of what the
Chinese sleeper train would be like. Considering the cheap cost of the train, we would have been
happier spending the extra money to buy an entire compartment for ourselves.

Also, we were so happy to be on a private tour rather than part of a big group. It gave us some
flexibility with our itinerary.All in all, it was a wonderful trip-we were in Beijing when the Olympic
Committee awarded the 2008 Games. The whole city went crazy! Thank you once again for a well
planned trip to China."

Catherine & Timothy Mohin, Jul 2001

Traveling in the west part of China during SARS period

Dear Christy

We have had a great trip and we have discovered so many beautiful and different sceneries that we have had the feeling to be in a different country.

We have greatly appreciated the organization of the trip, everything was perfect (but the food that is sometimes terrible because the local restaurants are not that great) and we want also to congratulate the different guides we have had : they were so nice , especially with our kid!

Just one comment about the hotel in Khasgar and in Xiahe : could be better… In Xiahe, as the hotel is not good, it is even better to go to a small family pension : the service will not be that different but the cost will be much lower. In Kashgar , we would have preferred to sleep in the old Russian or English consulate.

During the trip, we have asked the guides for some extensions : some Buddha caves in Turpan (close to some beautiful red hills) and the Bingling Si caves in Lingxia.

I highly recommend that you had these extensions in your next program as the landscapes are great and as we have had the time to do it.

We would be very happy to organize our next trip in China with you!

Regards

Marc Gigon
May 14, 2003

Lovely Time in Xianjiang

Mr & Mr. Varma come from India, are recently living in Shanghai, China. They went to Urumqi, Turpan
and Kashgar with their 1-year-old daughter during the first week of October Holiday 2002.

Thanks for the arrangements. We had a lovely time in Xinjiang.

At Urumqi, the guide, car and the hotel were very good. The hotel choice was very good on all
aspects - room, food. Even the arrangements for the day trips to Turpan and Tianchi were very nice
and we had a very good time. The guide and the driver were very helpful and made things nice and
easy for us.

A few suggestions for Kashgar though (for your future clients who may wish to take your help for Kashgar),
overall the agency at Kashgar doesn′t seem to be of a good enough standards. While they were there to
pick us up at the Airport and drop us to the Airport (this went through very well), some points to note

- the hotel they booked us in was very sub standard. It had no proper eating-place and as a result we
never ate there, even our breakfast payment went a waste.

- the room itself was almost shabby. The bathroom floor tiles were stained and dirty, the bed sheets had
dirt stains on them and the bath tub did not even have a shower curtain, hot water was not available
always and came at some times and not at others, the Air conditioner never worked (we were not even
given the remote for it. So in short it was not the kind of place one would want to stay in when on a holiday.

However, as a final point on the trip we would like to point out that the holiday was really nice and we had
a good time and enjoyed ourselves. Thanks for everything. We would go on to recommend this same trip
to our friends also. Possibly with all the same arrangements (except the hotel in Kashgar)

Thanks for making this nice holiday for us.

Bye
Mohita, Oct 2002