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Un-edited Testimonials

We have so many feed backs from our clients. We are proud of our our services and constantly better ourselves through the feedback from our clients. Here are testimonials from our customers who have gone to China with us. All testimonials here are un-edited! We thank Mr. & Mrs Finden for their time, sincere suggestions and allowing us to publish their testimonial on our website.

Hello Monica and Chien

Thank you for a super holiday!! We were looked after with great care by the operations manager, Michael, and by our individual guides in each centre. By giving us a sim card and local numbers for ourselves and Michael we always felt in contact. Apart from a slight problem with the guide and hotel in Guilen, which was quickly and readily resolved by Michael, everything was outstanding.

We enjoyed the great history of China and the many cultural and heritage sights. The Chinese people are friendly and certainly know how to deal with tourists. Our guides, who were in the main, university graduates, were knowledgeable and professional and always willing to accommodate any requests. We were impressed by the cleanliness of the city streets and the sense of community exhibited by the people. We found it most illuminating to visit parks where people were engaged in group activities such as ballroom dancing lessons, tai che lessons, orchestra practice, opera practice etc - to name but a few. There appears to be a growing and thriving middle class - a strong indicator of a favourable developing economy.

BEIJING - a city that has so much to offer. We certainly will not miss the televising of the opening of the games as the performers at the concerts we saw throughout China were consummate artists. We purchased CD's and DVD's of all the shows we saw. The restaurants were excellent - especially our sampling of real Peking duck! We enjoyed the heritage sights as well as seeing the modern China as epitomized by Tiananmen square. What a delightful idea - to sample food in the Hutong area. Our hostess, Mrs Wei made us most welcome and her cooking was excellent. The experience of the wall was great. We walked as much as we could before coming down again. We took our own photos as well as receiving a large formal one, presented in an album about the wall. The first day, by the way, was hectic and exhausting!!!. We are both fit from our dancing - but felt very uncomfortable and extremely hot in the clothes we had been in from 7:00 the previous morning. We requested that the guide take us to the hotel for a shower & change in order to enjoy our supper - he did so and we obliged by effecting the change and clean up in record time!!

XIAN - a personal highlight. To learn about the discovery of the warriors first hand was an amazing experience. We also found it most interesting to see the work in progress of the archaeologists (a second great passion of mine). The Tang dynasty show was excellent as was the restaurant in the theatre. Here we sampled what I would call a type of 'nouvelle cuisine' of China. The guide was once again excellent.

CHONGQING - Our flight was on time but the arrival of that flight does not allow for time to drive from the airport to see the pandas as the zoo closes at 17:00. Michael found out about this and offered to organize a viewing of the pandas in Shanghai. Missing the pandas did not worry us, as, although we know that zoos are found in major cities around the world, they are not favourites with us. It is suggested however that for other clients the flight time be re-examined as this omission may upset others. The guide took us to a view-spot of the city where a local guide took us through a model of the Three Gorges Dam project. This was useful to know before boarding the ship.

THE YANGTZE CRUISE - we had a super time. Just after settling in our very adequate cabin ( which made the Russian cruise ship look like a barge), the head of housekeeping called to show us the Presidential suite, which was offered to us for the three nights at a very acceptable additional charge. We took the offer and enjoyed the luxury of the spacious cabin and sunroom, from which we had an outstanding view of the sights as we passed. I was very flattered to be asked by the River Guide if I would accept the Captain's invitation to open the dancing. After that we all enjoyed an evening of fun and dancing. We were also very fortunate in our table companions. We took the optional tour but did not find it particularly worthwhile. The other included trips were enjoyable and enlightening. The trip in the sampan to cruise the Shennong stream was very exciting. We did however feel uncomfortable when the boat was pulled by th boatmen with all passengers aboard over the rocky surface for the return trip. This we were assured was customary.

SHANGHAI - What an amazing city - lights a plenty!! Our guide here was outstanding. She was warm and considerate as well as knowledgeable and interesting. We shopped at all places along the way - but found some great stuff at the silk factory!!!!. The TV tower is certainly a modern phenomenon. As we could not get to Tibet we really enjoyed our visit to the Jade Buddha Temple . Here we found some excellent music of the monks chanting which we have enjoyed on our return home.

GUILIN - as mentioned, the guide was not as professional as the others. The sights of Guilin and the countryside offered a good 'cool down' from the frenetic pace of the cities. We took an evening boat ride which was well worth it and could perhaps be included in the itinerary for others. The long arduous climb in Longsheng was well worth it -the view was spectacular. We went to the last point of the summit - although the guide did not!!

YANGSHUO - As suggested to Michael, if this place only has a 4-star hotel we should have been booked into a deluxe room and not a standard. The standard rooms are appalling. However he soon rectified this. The hotel had suffered recent flood damage - but there was no damage to the deluxe rooms. We did enjoy the Li river cruise and the limestone hills and saw some of the rural agrarian population.

After a visit to the Reed Flute cave we had a good lunch and then the long day ahead before the flight from Hong Kong Kong. The 'new' local guide offered to take us to other places but we chose to sit at the airport, read and re-hash our happy memories. This guide wrote a letter to the check-in clerk to ensure that we were booked to JHB and had our boarding passes for the Hongkong leg as well. It was fortunate that this was done as we arrived in Hongkong, had time to change in the toilet and had to board immediately - with not a moment to spare. The airport at Hongkong is so large that it takes considerable time to move from one flight, through transit to the next flight. Perhaps an earlier flight from Guilin may be considered or investigated?

When selling the tour clients need to be advised that there is a considerable amount of walking and climbing. This was not a problem for us but we did find the heat excessive. When we first enquired about the trip it was suggested that the average temperatures were about 26 to 28 in June/July. We experienced temperatures of between 29 and 34.

Ensure that clients are aware of the wonderful cultural and heritage sights - this is a highlight of visiting China.

By the way when we heard on the news, while we were in Beijing, that Tibet was to be opened to tourists we chatted to Michael about it. He was more than willing to effect changes - but we realized it would have been a logistical nightmare at that late stage so we thought - we will visit China again!!

We do hope that this brief resume of our trip will be helpful to you. We can and have recommended Dragon Holidays to our friends.

Your Sincere Clients

DAWN & PAUL FINDEN