China South Tour Review from USA

Client: Rex

Nationality: USA

Group Code: TCT-RW-FIT-141213

Pax: 2

Itinerary: Shanghai-Zhangjiajie-Changsha-Guizhou-Xiamen-Guangzhou-Sanya-Hong Kong

The following is our report on our South China Tour, with suggestions of how it could be
improved.
Day 1 & 2: Shanghai Flight on time
"Sunrise on the Bund” was a misnomer, No sunrise, Fog/visibility was down to 50 to 60 meters.

"On the Bund” made us believe that we could have a river view nowhere near. The bund was a
disappointment, after a long trip no nearby shopping. A hotel near Nanjing Street or near the
airport would have been better.


We did have a problem with the hotel room, safe would not open with our credit card; opened by hotel staff. Advice to us do not use a credit card, use the digital number.

Zhangjiajie – possibly the best hotel. “Quinhe jinjiang”

Tianzi Mountain was the highlight of the whole tour (yes we did all the hiking)

The location for the film of “Avatar” is very popular in the US.

2nd Zhangjiajie mountain trip via cable car was also good.

NOTE: We did not see the Tianmen or the yellow dragon caves.

Day 5: Changsha arrived 7pm
5 hours 20 min on the road, each kilometer of highway all looked the same, the van broke down with a water leak halfway, took 55 min to repair.

The Xingwei Huantian Hotel (owned by Mr Scrooge)
-Room refrigerator was empty
-No face cloths in the bathroom
-No English spoken
-Breakfast restaurant was like an old black and white Movie, long full length tables, bread to toast with no toaster, we asked the waitress where was the toaster, it was on the floor under the table, she dusted it off and plugged it into the power outlet. I tried toasting two pieces of bread, it only toasted one piece on one side, a bit like a comedy movie.

Day 6: Kaili Short-skirt Miao village for a one hour walk.
Long-Skirt Miao Village, we met the leaders’ family for 2 hours, this was a lot of kilometers for
the time spent in each village.

High speed driver did not slow down for speed bumps, shock absorbers were non existing, a
very rough ride, some of the bumps lifted us up off the seats. Good meals at the restaurant with the propane fire wok.

Day 9: Xiaman good hotel, good Island tour good guide

Day 10: Kaiping Good history tour lunch was the worst meal of the whole tour.

Hong Kong we were unable to find the BO4 counter, we asked two security people, they were unable to help, in hind sight perhaps we should have asked for the hotel shuttle counter. The red taxi driver was possibly the only one in Hong Kong that spoke no English, we showed him the “Mercer hotel” in writing and we still ended up in Kowloon.

The Mercer hotel was good, new hotel with only a breakfast restaurant.

Gray line did a good job of the Lantau Island Tour.

TCT people were a no show, they did send a van with driver to take us to the Macau ferry

NOTE: It was a good move that we already had tickets, the standby cue was over 50 meters
long

TOUR GUIDE REPORT
Shangjiajie- Chris most experienced, thoughtful by far the best guide. English is good but could be improved.
Guiyang-Kaili- Tom- English is very good, very knowledgeable, needs more training, we suggest that he spends 3 to 4 days or one week with Chris
Xiamen- Madeline- bright chatterbox, good English, did a good job.
Guangzhou- Kaiping, Jack (Mr. Scam) very good English, most informative, knowledgeable.
Sanya- Alan (Mr. Stingy) good English, not flexible, not interested in arranging a tour of other parts of the island.

DISSAPOINTMENTS
1. Sunrise on the Bund
2. The road trip to Changsha was a complete waste of time and should be deleted from the itinerary, we suggest add an extra night in Zhangjiajie.
3. Sanya Island, we only saw the hotel and Yalong Bay Park Mountain, both not good, the hotel is 15 kilometers from nowhere, with no nearby shopping. The mountain is much less that the Wulingyuan Area. We suggest change to a downtown hotel with around the Island tour. We note that there is a choice of 120 hotels in Sanya.
The Golden Palm Resort has clay floor tiles in the bedroom with no floor mats, Maureen called it a dump, we used bath towels to step out of bed, the staff were most pleasant with no English.