Hiking Tours

5Tours

What customers say about us?

  • Richard and Sylvia
    British

    After looking at trip advisor, we picked 3 China based travel agencies who we thought might be able to plan a tour of the area around Beijing. One agency suggested factory tours from the outset whilst another was fairly insistent that we travel overnight by train, but Monica proved to be thoughtful and flexible.
    We have friends in Beijing and so started and ended our trip with them.
    She suggested a day trip to the Great Wall from Beijing plus a tour of Pingyao, Xi'an and Luoyang with 3 bullet train journeys and one plane flight.
    We decided not to go with a couple of her suggestions, but she was comfortable with that and re-jigged the trips to suit.
    The actual guides provided are generally contractors who can work for several agencies depending on the work available. But the choice of which guides to employ still falls on the travel agency (and availability).

    We were also very happy with our guides "Nelson" in Pingyao/Taiyuan, "Grace" in Xi'an and "Frank" in Luoyang as well as the drivers. They all turned up flawlessly on time for every appointment, helped us order lunch and always seemed happy.

    There appear to be one or two 'scams' running with guides taking commission on purchases made. But having ordered an evening dance show + meal at our hotel "Grand New World" our guide in Xi'an certainly earned what ever commission she got by making sure that my meal contained no sugar or MSG/Soy Sauce.

    Chinese drivers seem to learn to all drive at the Kamikaze school of motoring, but the drivers in Pingyao, Xi'an and Luoyang (Frank did his own driving) (also contracted but independently of the guides) did a good job of not frightening us too much.

    Chinese cyclists and motor cyclists don't even follow the correct direction of flow and often drive on the wrong side of the road. Chinese drivers hoot constantly if they want to overtake and can't quite squeeze by!

    Coffee in China generally doesn't seem very good (apart from at the large American chains).

    The Tian yuan kui hostel in Pingyao is an interesting mixture of traditional and modern. The staff were extremely lovely and the food was tasty. The hundreds of recommendations on A3 sheets on the wall in English, French, Italian, Spanish and other languages were also testament to that.

    The Grand New World hotel in Xi'an was a slice of America transported to China. Service was slightly variable. E.g. I had to go to 3 receptionists in order to find the one who was allowed to do checkouts. English from staff was variable though usually adequate.

    The Peony Hotel in Luoyang was also like a slice of America. Our safe would not work as it had no batteries in it. We struggled with language problems for about half an hour to get 4 new batteries to fit into it and then to get the Chinese maintenance lady to fit them right way round.

    The manager agreed a special picnic lunch for our train journey, but I ended up having to explain to francophone Chinese tour guide in French what we needed! But I guess episodes like this make a tour more interesting.

    Many thanks to Monica for arranging this memorable holiday.

    Date of experience: 01/09/2017-13/09/2017
  • Martin

    Hi Alex

    Our trip was great, really enjoyed it. Also, both Grace and Li Li (I can't remember her name sorry) were great hosts. The highlight was definitely the Li river trip. Also really enjoyed the visit to the little country village.We took some nice pictures and shared one with you.

    Thanks for setting things up....all worked out very well

     Martin

    Date of experience: 09/08/2015-14/08/2015
  • Drew
    poland

    Thank you very much for such a nice trip. Please see our comments below: The distribution of the time was fairly done, Meals were excellent in general. All guides were knowledgeable of the place and able to answer our questions. The best one was Sarah in Beijing and Ruth in Xian. All guides versed in English. All drivers were fairly good. The hotels were very nice and excellent breakfast.

    Date of experience: 13/08/2016-14/09/2016
  • Sherrie and Gary Blundell
    the U.S

    Dear Monica,

    Thanks for an extremely well organised tour.It was fantastic to have somebody there to meet us at every airport and to have a seat as planned at every airport.
     
    All our guides were very helpful and spoke good English.
     
    Our favourite was Zoe from xi'an .  She was very flexible and knowledgeable. 
     
    The best hotel was the new world hotel in Xi'an.
     
    The homestay in Guilin was amazing, we couldn't believe the views. Guilin is a beautiful city and our hotel room provided views of the river.  Unfortunately the hostess could not speak English and the host was away on business.  Amber stayed with us until quite late to ensure we were comfortable.  Amber spoke the best English of all our guides.
     
    We saw an incredible acrobatic show in shanghai and would like to thank Tony for changing us to the Circus World show.  We had wonderful seats in the middle of the stage. I think this was the best  show we saw.  The Yangshou river light show was good but 280yuan per person was a little expensive.  It would be good to make you customers aware to the optional tours and how much they cost so that they can plan their time and budget appropriately.
     
    The only disappointment was the Yangtse River Cruise.  We paid for a room to accommodate 3 people.  On arrival we were taken to the room and told that we could squeeze a bed into the room but we should upgrade.  I had to agree, we could not fit into the room if we had another bed in there. A double room was not appropriate for a family of three.  So we had no alternative to upgrade to an Executive room with plenty of room to accommodate 3people.  This room was extremely comfortable but cost 990yuan extra.  We would have preferred to have paid for the correct room first.
     
    As we did not have accommodation vouchers we did not know what was booked so had to believe them that the booked room was inadequate. Lunch was not included on the last day of the cruise as indicated on the itinerary.  The food and service on the cruise was not 5 star and they were regularly trying to upsell us.   Morning Tea and afternoon tea were not included and coffee was extra except at breakfast.  On a 5 star ship you would not have to pay for anything except alcoholic drinks.
     
    Our room in Shanghai was too small to fit our luggage and 3 beds.  Once again we could have upgraded for 100yuan a night. This is definitely something you should consider in the future. We would prefer to pay a little extra to be comfortable but would prefer to be offered this in advance, not on the day of arrival.
     
     
    Regards

    Sherrie and Gary Blundell

    Date of experience: 23/09/2017-08/10/2017
  • Daniel Prohaska
    USA

    I traveled to China with a college group in January as part of a Winter Term course at my school. I would not know where to begin planning a trip to a country as diverse as China, but our itinerary put together by Alex Guan was superb! We went to six major cities and we had a genuine cultural experience. We got to see everything from the Great Wall in Beijing to the Li River in Guilin and everything in between!
    A particular highlight of the trip was that China Expedition Tours took our group to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall - this section of the Great Wall is very well preserved and is much less crowded with tourists. Most other tour groups would have taken us to another section of the Wall which would have been more crowded. The little things like this detail of our trip made our experience with China Expedition Tours exceptionally good.
    Alex stayed with our group throughout our trip as a national guide. Everywhere we went we got an exciting history of attractions we visited and we had local guides with impeccable knowledge of their cities. Alex and our local guides did an amazing job of keeping our group on schedule so we got the most out of our trip and made every location a unique experience. Everyone at China Expedition Tours cared deeply about our enjoyment of the trip and went above and beyond what we would have expected from any tour group.
    More than just giving us an incredible trip, we made lasting friendships with the people at China Expedition Tours that I know I will be back to visit in the future. I would not trust anyone else in China with planning a future trip!

    Daniel Prohaska02.jpg

    Date of experience: 06/01/2017-21/01/2017
  • Jonathan Edelshain
    the U. K

    Hi Monica

    Sorry I took a while to reply but went to Wales for a few days!

    First of all a Big thankyou-your guides Rockie and Grace were superb-nothing was too much for them and they were very professional and enthusiastic making my experience in China a trip of a lifetime!

    I enjoyed trip immensely ,learnt a lot,took 1000 photos and 2 hrs of video-Am inviting whole family around for a china night to show off photos and video!

    Thankyou to you and your superb guides Grace and Rockie!!

    Yours Sincerely,

    Jonathan Edelshain

    Date of experience: 13/08/2017-18/08/2017

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