China Tour Review: Hiking the Great Wall, Gubei Water Town, Cooking with Local Farmer's Family, Beijing, 18-Day Trip

Review by traveler

Logan S.

12.3.2019

General Info

Traveler Review

Which Country (Countries) did you visit on this trip?

China

Your overall comments on the trip and the travel company:

I am going to break this into a couple different segments to more effectively provide my comments.
Planning Phase Agent:
Working with our agent during the planning phase was probably this lowest part of the trip. I travel for work so it fell to my wife to make the arrangements. She is a very good planner and had many specific requests for this trip. Due to both of the travel companies lack of desire/ability? to change the itinerary we almost didn't book through either travel agent. After we discussed it, we gave this travel company another shot and things were marginally better. We felt like our voice wasn't being heard when we asked specific questions or about activities not on the itinerary. We ended up booking because the trip that was pre-planned sounded good enough but the whole experience left my wife very unhappy. Especially after we started the trip and some of the things requested that were denied, were definitely things we could have done. Being more flexible with their itinerary would have done wonders to improving our satisfaction.
On-Trip Phase Agent:
Once we were on the ground in China it was clear that this company had planned things very well. In 18 days, with 6 domestic flights and 8 guides, there were no hiccups that the company could control. Daily check-ins by the travel agent were also very welcome. This was one of the best experiences we have had with a travel agent during a trip.
Trip Negatives:
-We had two guides that we didn't get along with. One of them wouldn't speak to my wife and dragged us through our destinations. The second was basically a second driver, only getting out of the car to get us tickets to the activity. Both guides had a difficult time with the language but so did several others. The problem was a conflict in expectations of what their job was. We expected guides, (which our other 6 met our expectations) not a forceful leader and a ticket machine.
Trip Positives:
Everything else! Activities were great, accommodations were as expected (first hotel wasn't spectacular but was picked for location), and China was beautiful.
Overall Trip:
The trip was magnificent and memorable! The activities were well planned and the weather co-operated as much as could be expected. It was one of the busiest trips we have ever taken but it was hard to imagine removing any of the wonderful attractions in our itinerary. Our only negative feelings are towards how the trip was planned and the two guides we didn't get along with. If the travel company was a little more flexible with their itinerary, or listened to our requests, this would have been the perfect trip.

What were the most enjoyable or memorable parts of your trip?

The through hike on the Great Wall was sublime! We hiked for four hours and didn't see another person. We were alone on the Great Wall on a beautiful sunny afternoon.
The farm visit was also very special. This was the first time on the trip we got to see how many locals actually live. Making the Tofu was cool but mostly the experience of cooking in a local farm house with the local farmers family was something to remember.

If you could take your trip again, what would you do differently?

There are several modifications we would make:
We would have gone straight to Gubei Water Town on the first day. We would have started with the Great Wall through hike and did the Great Wall night the same day. We could have spent the morning in Gubei getting breakfast and enjoying a hot soak before going back to Beijing for the rest of the itinerary. The way it was setup just didn't flow very well and we felt like time was wasted before our flight because we already saw the quick Beijing highlights.
There were several things my wife had wanted to do on this trip that we didn't. We had asked to visit a tea house or tea farm because we are very interested in chinese teas. We were told we couldn't but our local guides said that is something that we could definitely do if we came back.
We also didn't enjoy flying. We love trains due to their efficiency of loading and comfortable ride. All of our flights were red eyes which made the next day miserable. We would definitely try and schedule our travel days to be more streamlined and comfortable. We probably spent over 24 hours in airports due to our guides dropping us off and waiting for a late flight.

TRAVEL COMPANY'S COMMENTS
Dear Logan,

Good day and Thank you so much for your detailed trip reviews on the trip to China. We highly appreciate your feedbacks both on positive and negative sides which helps us know better on the happened things. I take much time to check the problems as you mentioned. I'm really sorry that the whole trip makes your wife unhappy. It's our responsibility to make sure that everything is going smoothly in the whole trip and make each guest satisfied.

Firstly, we will definitely take the measures to control the quality of the guides from the guide language, skill, knowledge, responsibility etc in each city. We will forward the situation to our local suppliers. Although 6 of 8 guides were good, 2 guides did a bad job and couldn't show the best things there.

Secondly, for the experience to the local tea house/tea farm, we did arrange the local tea house in Chengdu and Shanghai. However, for the tea farm, we couldn't make it. To be honest, we normally recommend the tea farm trip in Hangzhou(Zhejiang province), Huangshan(Anhui Province), Wuyishan Mountain(Fujian Province), Yunnan province, Jiangxi Province where the best tea is planted. However, you didn't have the time to travel to the places as mentioned in your fast-paced trip. I guess that the guide in Guilin might told you that it is possible to do it there. To be honest, I didn't know it before when I had the chance to talk with our local supplier yesterday. But please notice that the tea farm in Guilin/Yangshuo is not the famous one.

Thirdly, regarding the domestic flights, we did book the earliest flights for you in each section if it is possible. For the section from Beijing to Zhangjiajie, there is only one non-stop flight to Zhangjiajie each day. It departs at 7:15pm and arrives at 9:50pm. For the section from Zhangjiajie to Xi'an, only the late-night flights available and we booked the earliest flight for you. We have no better choice. For the section from Chengdu to Guilin, there are only two flights available on the travel date. One departs at 6:35 am and another departs at 8:15 pm. If we select the early morning flight departing at 6:35am, you have to leave the hotel in the very early morning around 4:00 am. We selected the night flight for you so that you could maximize your time in Chengdu, do the cooking class and other sites. For the section from Guilin to Shanghai, it is a normal time flight departing at 4:15pm and arriving at 6:40pm. Besides, for transportation from Beijing to Zhangjiajie and from Zhangjiajie to Xi'an, there is no speed bulletin available. For the section from Chengdu to Guilin, the shortest running time for speed train is around 6 hours. We didn't recommend it as it almost wasted one day time on the way. Hope you understand.

All in all, We will take a lesson from the case and take the measures to improve our service in future tours. We really hope that we will have the chance to serve you again in the future and plan a wonderful trip for you.

Thanks again for your support and understanding.
Best wishes.

Photos

China Tour Review: Hiking the Great Wall, Gubei Water Town, Cooking with Local Farmer's Family, Beijing, 18-Day Trip

General Info

Which Country (Countries) did you visit on this trip?

Your overall comments on the trip and the travel company:

What were the most enjoyable or memorable parts of your trip?

If you could take your trip again, what would you do differently?

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