Robert's Feedback on 30-Day China Tour

I recently returned from the above trip and thought I would give you some feedback on the trip. Overall the trip was excellent and well organised. I will give you feedback on the individual sections: 1.Suzhou: This section was not meant to be a photo tour but rather just a regular tour of the area. The hotels were good and the places visited were also excellent as were the guide and bus driver. The main critique would be how tight the program was since it didn't allow for time to just relax. Altough all the gardens were wonderfull, after a while they became very similar since the visits were so tightly packed together that we became fatigued. Overall however this section was well done. The watertowns of Tongli and Luzhi were wonderful and more relaxing. 2. Photo tour of Guilin including XingPing, Yanshuo and Longi Rice Terraces: Without question this was the highlight of the trip. Both Jessica and Mr. Chin (our photoguide) and driver were excellent and I believe everyone on the tour were extremely happy with them. I came away with a lot of great photographs and I can say without hesitation that this is the best photo tour that I have ever been on (and I have been on a lot). Both Jessica and Mr. Chin made sure that we were in the right place at the right time to get the lighting that we needed. I also loved the fact that they were able to arrange for models in Daxu as well as in Longji Rice Terraces. Although the accomodation varied in each place no one had any mahjor complaints and of course the food was amazing. Meeting with Mei Mei was a pleasure. 3.Zhangjiajie, Tianmen mountain and Fengyuan Phototour: - Summer was an excellent guide. We could not ask for a more pleasant person. In the Zhangjiajie mountains Mr. Zhou was our photo guide. This part of the trip was plaqued by bad weather. Although Mr. Zhou is an excellent photographer and guide, the photographic part of the trip was not as good as in Guilin. This seemed to be more a combination of photo tour

Hi Cecilia,

I recently returned from the above trip and thought I would give you some feedback on the trip. Overall the trip was excellent and well organised. I will give you feedback on the individual sections:

1.Suzhou: This section was not meant to be a photo tour but rather just a regular tour of the area. The hotels were good and the places visited were also excellent as were the guide and bus driver. The main critique would be how tight the program was since it didn't allow for time to just relax. Altough all the gardens were wonderfull, after a while they became very similar since the visits were so tightly packed together that we became fatigued. Overall however this section was well done. The watertowns of Tongli and Luzhi were wonderful and more relaxing.

2. Photo tour of Guilin including XingPing, Yanshuo and Longi Rice Terraces: Without question this was the highlight of the trip. Both Jessica and Mr. Chin (our photoguide) and driver were excellent and I believe everyone on the tour were extremely happy with them. I came away with a lot of great photographs and I can say without hesitation that this is the best photo tour that I have ever been on (and I have been on a lot). Both Jessica and Mr. Chin made sure that we were in the right place at the right time to get the lighting that we needed. I also loved the fact that they were able to arrange for models in Daxu as well as in Longji Rice Terraces. Although the accomodation varied in each place no one had any mahjor complaints and of course the food was amazing. Meeting with Mei Mei was a pleasure.

3.Zhangjiajie, Tianmen mountain and Fengyuan Phototour: - Summer was an excellent guide. We could not ask for a more pleasant person. In the Zhangjiajie mountains Mr. Zhou was our photo guide. This part of the trip was plaqued by bad weather. Although Mr. Zhou is an excellent photographer and guide, the photographic part of the trip was not as good as in Guilin. This seemed to be more a combination of photo tour and a regular tour. The weather was partly to blame for this but I also think it was due to the fact that Mr. Zhou lives in the mountains and depended on the public bus service to get around the mountains as were we. Although we did visit beautiful areas in the park it was at a time when there were large crowds and the lighting was not the greatest. As I indicated above I suspect that logistics played a role in this and isn't a reflection on either Mr. Zhou or Summer. The Pandora Inn was not the greatest accomodation although I understand that it may be the only one available in the Park. We enjoyed visiting Tianmen mountain and Fengyuan. Although we did get photos in these areas because of the large crowds and lighting it seemed more like a regular tour than a photo tour.

Overall I was very pleased with our trip and the positives in Guilin far overcome any negatives in Zhangjiajie.I will certainly consider using China Highlights again. I think building photo tours in other areas of China is a great idea but since it is a totally different mindset from a regular tourist tour you need to have great photo guides like Mr. Chin and Mr. Zhou and they must be supported with the infrastructure which allows the group to get around to shoot locations independent of public transportation.

I hope this feedback is helpful for you and your team.

Thank you