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Welcome to China Odyssey Travel Consultant - Karen Yang's Homepage
travel consultant: Karen Yang
Li River Cruise, Yangshuo County, Guilin Enlarge this photo

I'm a patient, passionate and optimistic girl. I grew up in Guilin and graduated from Guilin Institute of Tourism. My dream during the college days was to make a satisfying trip for each tourist, and now the dream has come true. Working for China Odyssey Tours, a company full of vigor, makes me become more and more knowledgeable. I enjoy my job very much and I am honored to have the opportunity to make a fantastic China tour for you. Warm welcome to China!

 

China Odyssey Travel Consultant - Karen Yang

On this page, I have collected some of my customers' testimonials, articles and photos. I'm very proud to serve customers around the world, and with China Odyssey Tours, I'm able to tailor services to meet your specific needs.

Meeting and talking with my customers More


Cook family meeting their travel consultant Karen Yang at COT office.

Karen Yang with Jeff and Benay Katz

Karen


Karen Yang with Mr. Max and his accompannier

Karan Yang with Anneliese and Peter

Jill, Paul Stiegler and Karen

China in my eyes! - My customers' travelogues More

You are not alone in China! - What my customers say! More

dd

Dear Karen,

We have just arrived this morning back from Shanghai. My family and I would like to thank you and China Odyssey for making our journey and holiday truly memorable. I am especially grateful for your gifts which we received in Guilin and also for Julie’s birthday cake which was truly fantastic and unexpected.

As you would recall I was quite worried when I booked with you but now that the tour is over we cannot thank you and China Odyssey enough for what a fantastic job you have done.

I also want to congratulate you on your choices of hotels and also your guides who were all very good. It is hard to single out one guide but to me Ivan in Xian was by far the most professional guide that we had. He checked our flight details, checked our rooms and even came up with us to the rooms to check that we are happy. He told us that he had done all this prior to picking us up from the airport. The driver and van was the cleanest van that we had and water, tissues and moist towels were there ready for us. This was truly the best service that we could ever expect from a guide. Please don’t get me wrong all the guides were good with the vans some clean and some not so good but Ivan and his driver was by far the best. Ella in Chengdu also did a fantastic job to get us on the flight to Lijiang despite our flight being delayed in Jiuzhaigou. Bruce Lee in Lijiang knew all the clean western toilets which was truly appreciated by my wife. We have had so many guides and they were all great but please convey our special appreciation to the ones mentioned above.

Thank you once again and I will be happy to recommend China Odyssey to any of my friends and family who wish to visit China.

Best wishes,

Tim and family
(Jan 29th, 2012)

dd

Karen,

I wanted to let you know that Linda and I were extremely happy with the arrangements you made and with the tour guides in setting us up additional activities. The whole trip went off without any issues or problems.

All the guides were super, on time and accommodating and choice of ship was perfect for us. We heard stories from fellow passengers that there are ships of inferior accommodations.

You were easy to work with as well.

I do not know what else to say except that we discussed between us and could not have asked for anything more.

Please accept my thanks for such a job well done.

Sincerely,

Tom Brandlein
(December 30th, 2011)

dd

Thank you, Karen. Very kind of you to send Holiday greetings. We had a very nice time in China and I would like to give you some feedback. For the most part, our guides were wonderful, with our first guide getting a birthday cake for Heath. She went above and beyond and we very much appreciated that. All of the ladies were delightful and worked very hard to make us comfortable.

But we did also had some disappointing experiences with one. Our guide Bruce almost ruined the entire vacation. He spent all of his time either talking on his phone or texting. When we went up to the mountain he rode in the same gondola and spent the entire time texting and we could not enjoy the scenic beauty. What you have to realize is that texting is not quiet. Every time he received a message his phone chirped. He also had us on a tight schedule because he obviously had a date that night. We never did get to the top on the path because he insisted we had to get back down to the bus. Additionally, when we were at the top of the mountain he drank and ate his tip. He ordered beer and food and certainly enjoyed himself. Again, as a family, we were unable to enjoy ourselves because he was very annoying. Anyway, I would plead with you not to use him again. He was immature and not very accommodating. He did other things also, but I do not need to share everything.

Anyway, thank you for your email. For the most part we had a wonderful time and you live in a beautiful country!

Kindest regards,

Heidi

Dear Heidi,

Thank you for the feedbacks about you China tour.

We are sorry for the disappointing experience in Qingdao, it is our guide’s mistake, as the organizer agency, we are sincerely feel sorry for that, and please accept our

deeply apologize for that.

We have made negotiate with our local travel agency in Qingdao about you mentioned the guide problem, and we have decided to make a refund USD 140 in total to you family so that to make up you unhappy experience in Qingdao. We are still hope you can trust us and could service you again in you next China tour or Indochina tour.

How do you want us make refund to you? Below are the 2 optional ways for you, you could choose one as you prefer:

1. Refund the money to you Paypal account. (you have paid the tour money to us by paypal, we will refund you by the same account)

2. Keep the money in our company, you can use it as you next time visit China or Indochina included Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Myanmar.

Please kindly advice that, wish you have a wonderful Christmas and New Year holiday.

Yours

Sincerely

Karen


(December 22nd, 2011)

dd

Dear Karen,

I am now in the plane flying back home. We had a great experience in China and everything went just right. Thanks a lot for taking such good care of us.

Best regards

Martha Luz
(December 19th, 2011)

dd

Dear Karen,

Thank you for your note. Yes, we arrived home safely last night. We had a wonderful trip in China, we found your country very beautiful and I appreciate all your prompt assistance. I look forward to filling out your questionnaire, I have many good things along with some improvement suggestions. I also appreciate all our guides support, I have to say Mr. Li was my favorite. I did not know your office was in Guilin. I would have liked to meet you.

Have a great day.

Doreen
(December 9th, 2011)

dd

Hi Karen

We must thankyou for arranging such a wonderful holiday for us. The Tour ran perfectly, without any problems. A big thankyou for this must also go to your guides--they were all superb, organising many extra visits which were not on the itinerary! The drivers were also very flexable.

Maybe a special mention should go to Leo in Beijing,who was not only 100% efficient, but a great personallity who did everything possible to make our visit so memorable. (resturants, shows, shops, etc). A very good ambasador for your company.

Sorry we could not find the time to visit you in Guilin---maybe next time!

Please feel free to give my Email to anyone who wants a recommendation.

Thanks again. John and Angela Denning.
(November 5th, 2011)

dd

Hi Karen

We must thankyou for arranging such a wonderful holiday for us. The Tour ran perfectly, without any problems. A big thankyou for this must also go to your guides--they were all superb, organising many extra visits which were not on the itinerary! The drivers were also very flexable.

Maybe a special mention should go to Leo in Beijing,who was not only 100% efficient, but a great personallity who did everything possible to make our visit so memorable. (resturants, shows, shops, etc). A very good ambasador for your company.

Sorry we could not find the time to visit you in Guilin---maybe next time!

Please feel free to give my Email to anyone who wants a recommendation.

Thanks again. John and Angela Denning.
(November 5th, 2011)

dd

Hi Karen

We had a perfect tour thanks to all your help!

The fireworks festival was better than we thought possible. Our hotel room was located in perfect position for photographing the fireworks. Wow!!!! We were also interviewed by local newspaper that night as they were curious as to how we came to be there.

We were very lucky with clear blue sky in Beijing which was perfect for photography of great wall and other tours. Also had perfect weather for Panda photography in Chengdu and all the Pandas were very active and moving around a lot.

We were also very lucky with clear blue sky while visiting top of Yellow mountains making perfect mountain pictures. Very impressive!! Sunrise was outstanding on mountain top next morning!

Weather was good for Guilin tours and really enjoyed everything there. The Impression show that night was outstanding!

The guides that you assigned to us were all very good and we enjoyed being with them.

In a couple weeks we will post some of our best pictures on web.

Thanks Again!!

John

(October 28th, 2011)

dd

Hi Karen

I just wanted to let you know how much we enjoyed our trip and say thank you for all your organization. All your arrangements for us went very smoothly and the hotels you chose for us in Beijing and Xian were excellent both in location and comfort.

I wanted to give you some feedback about the hotel in Pingyao, not as a complaint but just so you know for other guests. When we wre there, there was no hot water to have a shower in the afternoon or before 8am in the morning so we had to have cold showers before we left for Taiyuan. There was also no electricity to make a cup of tea in the mornings.

I also wanted to say thank you for making arrangements in Xian at such short notice. Our guide Stella was fantastic. She was knowledgeable, friendly and went out of her way to make our stay as enjoyable as possible. We are so glad we chose to have a guide, we certainly wouldn't have seen or learnt so much without Stella showing us around. We will happily recommend your company to our friends. Thank you

John and Jane

(October 21th, 2011)

dd

Hi Karen

We are safely back in Australia. It has been a wonderful trip, we have seen lots of beautiful sights and achieved what we set out to do. Your country is amazing. Your staff, in the drivers and the girls who took us on the tours, were fanastic.

The girls were all pleasant and caring and attended to all our requests and needs. They were all very knowledgable, it was very impressive. They did their very, very best and I recommend them to anyone of your customers. The drivers are very impressive drivers. The traffic in each state was very difficult conditions to drive in and I was not concerned at any stage of coming to any harm. They were there on time and took us safely to and from our accommodation.

With reference to accommodation, flights, meals and sights we are happy to make both positive and negative comments for you so you can fine tune your arrangements for other tours such as ours.

Regards Mary Walsh

(October 19th, 2011)

dd

Hi Karen

We are back from our trip and I just wanted to let you know we had a great time. Our guides Chris and Tracey were great. Very professional, fun, organized and flexible. All went well and we got to see a tremendous amount of Chinese history. Thank you for your guidance and planning assistance. We will definitely use China Odyssey Tours again.

The one thing we learned, as it says in your tour guide book, is that the Chinese 4 star hotels are not what we (Westerners) were expecting. The hotels were very old and needed much repair and paint. The rooms were small with tiny bathrooms. The Beijing hotel did not even have an open bar in/near the lobby for evening cocktails. I am not blaming you or China Odyssey Tours it was my decision but I guess I was going on the US star rating. Some (luxury) differences between 4 star and 5 star but don't lose much going with 4 star. Next trip we will know better.

Thanks for the support and patience. Please pass on our thanks to your management staff for setting up a great trip.

What do you have in the way of a Yangtze River tour? Days, debarking ports, arriving ports, stops along the way, etc.

Thanks again.

William C. Jordan

(October 8th, 2011)

dd

Hi Karen

Once again thank you for arranging our recent short trip to Shanghai. We were very pleased with the arrangements After we left Shanghai we flew to Vancouver where we joined the Holland America "Volendam" for the cruise from Vancouver to Sydney. We arrived home only yesterday and so I have not had the opportunity to thank you earlier.

We hope to arrange another tour within China in the next year or so and will contact you again then

Kind Regards

Kevin Kennedy

(October 5th, 2011)

dd

Hi Karen

I just wanted to say a special thanks to you and all of the wonderful tour guides and drivers that have made our time in China so special. It was truly remarkable. Also, a special thanks to Lee and Mr Wei in Guilin for getting my camera back to us. Although all of our tour guides were fantastic, Summer in Beijing and Ivan in Xi'an were so exceptional.

If you ever need a testimonial for great service, just let us know. You are all so professional and China is beautiful.

Thanks again,

William John Lawrence

Gerald Krogman

Debbie and Masanori Matsuzaka

(September 30th, 2011)

dd

Hi Karen

Salujas and us are back to New York. Dhalls are in Japan.

We had a wonderful time in China. The tour guides (Willie in Beijing, Tony in Xian and Junie in ShangHai ) were great and very professional.

Thank you for being so patient with us.

We will be more than happy to recommend China Odyssey Tour co and especially you to anyone interested in going to China

Jasbir (September 27th, 2011)

dd

Hi Vera,

I want to commend Karen Yang for the excellent job she did in planning our trip. I did extensive research and had a million questions and almost as many emails to her. She responded immediately to every email, even on the weekend to say she receive my questions or changes and would respond first thing Monday.

She listened, gave suggestions, revised plans, and adapted to our needs, planning an itinerary that worked for us. I had other companies that I emailed but Karen shone above everyone as diligent, helpful, and willing to keep trying until we were satisfied we had the perfect trip for us. We went places Americans rarely go (Jiuzhaigou & Zhangjiajie) and found them fascinating.

She picked great guides who were interesting, knowledgeable, experienced, and good English speakers. They made sure we were safe and satisfied at the end of each day.

With all the personal research I did for 3 months we could have easily booked this trip ourselves. I booked with Karen because I was confident that “we would not be alone in China”.

I am glad I booked with your company and Karen. She did an excellent job.

Sincerely,

Linda Poore
(June 28th, 2011)

dd

Hi Karen,

You did a great job and I would like to send a note to your boss about what you did. (I will copy it to you). Please send me a good email address for this letter and I will send you details about our trip in a separate email.

One of the best surprises was the food at the Hutong in Beijing. The husband and wife (4th generation in the home) were friendly, warm, and delightful – we felt very welcomed! The table was filled with a delicious array food. After lunch they taught us to make dumplings. This was at the end of our trip when we were tired of Chinese food so it was amazing. I have copied their address information below in case.

Regards,

Linda
(June 16th, 2011)

dd

Thanks Karen

We had a great time and we thank you for your work in organizing everything for us. We have provided a feedback survey to China Odyssey and made comments of the excellent services you provided to us.

We are now looking at a possible trip to Hanoi and northern Vietnam next year and I understand that Odyssey does tours there as well. Do you look after Vietnam trips as well as China or would that be another consultant?

Regards,

Chris Makepeace
(June 14th, 2011)

dd

Hi Karen,

The holiday was wonderful and all your arrangements were excellent. All the guides and drivers were very very good and extremely knowledgeable. I enjoyed it greatly and will certainly use your agency again.

The only point to consider is the hotel at Leshan as it was extremely 'quiet' and too far from the town to walk about in the faternoon - and the meal arrangements there were quite sparse - I think westerns may prefer another hotel.

I will be back in China later in the year and am not sure whether I will tour this time as my daughter is expecting a baby. However, I do intend to come again in April 2012 and at present am considering Tibet or Mongolia so will be back in touch later.

Thank you.

Penny Mayo
(June 13th, 2011)

dd

Hi Karen,

We are back from China and must say that we had an incredible journey through China and Hong Kong!

We were a bit unsure of how things would work out with a China based tour operator, but are expectations were exceeded. The tour guides were pleasant, very helpful, full of knowledge and facts, courteous, and reliable. They showed up on time to meet us at our entry point of each destination and sent us off to our next destination, making sure that we made the correct connection. Tours were both informative and comfortable and the drivers and vehicles provided for us were excellent.

One of the advantages of being with a private guide (and driver) is that you get to see things and have dining experiences with them that one cannot provide on a large group tour. The pace of the sightseeing can be slowed down a bit when necessary and we found that helpful as I am 65 and my wife is 67.

We are pleased that we arranged this customized tour with China Odyssey Tours and are very thankful for your superb assistance in organizing it! You did well.

Best Regards,

Fred Rosenfeld
(June 13th, 2011)

dd

Dear Karen,

We are back from our trip to China. The services you provided where very good. All the guides where on time and very helpful. The driver where outstanding and very good at there jobs. When we return to China we will be glad to use your services again.

Thank you!

Roger Clinton
(June 12th, 2011)

dd

Dear Karen,

We are still remembering our wonderful trip, and the fantastic arrangements that you provided for us. We enjoyed every part of the trip, and appreciated how quickly you changed our trip from Tibet back to Chengdu. Your professionalism and helpfulness is unbelievable, and we have recommended China Odyssey Tours to our friends.

We liked all of our guides in each location. They were very knowledgeable, and made our tours very interesting. The drivers were also very good, and the cars were very clean.

There was no favorite place, as each area that we visited was unique. The hotels in all the the places were exceptional.

So again we really thank you for such an enjoyable journey.

Sincerely,
Brian and Inia Tunstall
(June 6th, 2011)

dd

Dear Karen,

Everything was really good with the tour. The guides are very nice and everything was arrange previously so nothing got bad during our stay in China.

I want to thank specially Nick, our guide in Beijing, who was really effcient and always with a great attitude and customer service. Please send to his manager my recognition for a real excellent job.

We will be in touch in case any friend needs your service or maybe next year to help us planning a new trip again.

My best regards,
Kiam
(May 16th, 2010)

dd

Hi Karen,

Thank you for organising our china trip – everything went great!

Guilin is a lovely place to visit with its mountains and rivers. Our guide Angela was fantastic – she was knowledgeable, flexible and very caring to make sure we had a good time.

I will contact you when we next want to have a China tour.

Thanks again.
Adrian Reincke
(May 11th, 2011)

dd

Karen,

Just a word to tell you how happy I was with the trip you organised for me in Yunnan. It is the best I have ever had. This part of China is incredible and I really enjoyed your choice of hotels, they were all very beautiful and well situated. I also enjoyed the company of the guides we had ( specially I enjoyed the kindness of the girls in Shangri La and Dali) and the good English of the guide we had in Kunming; only was the guide in Lijang not very friendly and not very good at English!

If I can, I would like to go to Sichuan next year, again you will be the person I will call to organise this trip.

Meanwhile, I have spoken about your travel agency to my friends in France who enjoy travelling and I am sure they will contact you if they decide to travel to China.

Thanks again for this trip.
Martine Laurent
(May 4th, 2011)

dd

Good Morning Karen,

On behalf of myself and Mr. Mitch I would like to thank you very much for a superb trip and tour in China.

Sally, Ivan and Michael were a treat to meet and they made the trip of Beijing, Xi-an and Shanghai even more enjoyable.

Would you please pass on our thanks once again to the three of them and also the drivers.

Our hotel accomodation was way above our expectations and really added to the trip.

Many thanks once again and continued sucess with you endeavours. Do not hesitate to use me as a trip reference to anybody who is thinking of visiting China on a trip such as ours.

Take care and thankyou once again.

Thanks again.
Simon Sawyer and Mr. Mitch
(March 30th, 2011)

dd

Karen,

Just wanted to say many thanks for helping organise our holiday to China. Everything went very smoothly, and all of our guides were friendly and helpful. It was a truly remarkable trip.

Thanks again.
Andrew & Shelley
(November 28th, 2010)

dd

Karen,

We missed our flight to Lhasa because the flight was delayed due to fog.

We have very high praise for Johnny and Joy at the Chengdu office. We did not find Sichuan airline staff very helpful but we realise they were very busy. The only flight they could give us was 08:00 on the following day.

A call to Johnny at the Chengdu office & he helped us get a hotel close to the airport with transfers. Joy, who had been our guide was fantastic, she actually called into the hotel to make sure were ok & organised a meal for us. She checked our airport transfer arrangements and made sure we understood what to do at the airport the following day. If not for Joy we would have been very hungry by the time we got back to the airport this morning.

Please thank Johnny and Joy for us.

Joy is the best! I would recommend she should train new guides for your company. Her integrity is very good. She is very organised.

I would be very happy to recommend COT (China Odyssey Tours). Please use my email if you have Australians who wish to check on your company.

A very grateful client.

Thank you,
Leanne
(November 20th, 2010)

dd

Karen,

I just wanted to write a brief note to thank you for making our trip wonderful. We were treated very well at every step of the trip and it gave us a very interesting view on China. It is an experience my wife and I will never forget.

Regards,
Guillermo
(November 18th, 2010)

dd

Hi Karen,

Ciqikou Old Town, Chongqing
A aged artisan demonstrating calligrahpy
at Ciqikou Old Town, Chongqing

Just wanted to let you know how happy we are with our tour so far. We are very pleasantly surprised by the high standard of the guides Michael in Shanghai, Fiona in Chongging and now Joy in Chengdu. We hope such a high standard can continue.

A very happy customer nearly halfway through the trip!

Regards,
Leanne
(November 17th, 2010)

dd

Dear Karen,

I am writing to say a big thank-you to you personally for organizing our recent tour to your beautiful country. It was certainly the best holiday we have ever had.

The organisation was perfect. Our tour guides were friendly, helpful and attentive at all times to our questions and requests. Your company can be well proud of Emily in Beijing, Ivan in Xian, David in Guilin and Avril in Shanghai. we didn't want to leave them when it was time to move on!!

We hope to return to China in the future and would not hesitate to use your company again and will pass on to our friends our highest recommendation for China Odyssey Tours.

THANK -YOU again.

All our best wishes to you and the Chinese people,

David and Christine West
(November 12th, 2010)

dd

Karen,

The Tashilumpo Monastery in Gyantse, Tibet
The majestic Tashilumpo Monastery
in Gyantse, Tibet

We had a wonderful time on our tour of China. Everything you arranged for us was of the highest quality and we truly appreciate your efforts. Please send along our best wishes and kindest regards to all of your co-workers who helped make this such a memorable trip for us.

We have passed along your website to at least two of our friends. I suspect they will be booking their own tours with China Odyssey Tours in the next year.

Take care and thanks again for all of your expert help and advice.

I hope you like the photo's I have picked.

Regards,

Deborah McCaig
(November 2nd, 2010)

dd

Karen,

Thank you for writing.

We will always remember our visit to China and all the truly wonderful people we met there. You arranged the perfect first trip to your country for us. We saw a little of the countryside and some of your most amazing cities, a little of what China is becoming and a lot of your history. It couldn't have been better. We haven't stopped talking about it since we returned.

Peggy, Chris and Stephen were all very good guides, but I think what we enjoyed most was getting to know them as people. It's easy to see pictures of China on the internet or read about it in books but what made our trip so special was the understanding we gained of the Chinese people and your way of life through your guides and others we met there.

We are enjoying the thoughtful gifts you gave us and thank you for those as well.

We will definitely think of you and China Odyssey whenever we or our friends have another opportunity to travel to China.

Best wishes!

Ellen Foster
(November 1st, 2010)

dd

Dear Karen,

I would like to take this opportunity to thank for your great efforts in organizing our latest trip to China.

Everything was great and exceeded our expectations. Once again, thanks to you and to your talented team in making our trip one of unforgettable trips ever. And as you say, we were not alone on China.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Thanks & Regards,

Ahmad Ali Al Dashti
(October 30th, 2010)

dd

Dear Karen,

Hope all’s well with you. To let you know we have had a wonderful trip and an unforgetful happy experience.

The itinerary you set for us was excellent. The guides,drivers,meals were superb. Sorry we missed seeing you.

Thank you for all your help and we wish you all the best.

Sincerely,

Lorraine Kayum
(October 30th, 2010)

dd

Dear Karen,

We are back from china. I would like to thank you for the wonderful trip you organized for my mother and me.

It was fantastic and the service from your guides and drivers were excellent especially Tina and Mr chung in Beijing their service was over and above.

I would recommend you and your company to family and friends.

Thanks again for you good service.

Agnes Thompson and my mum
(September 3rd, 2010)

dd

Hi Karen,

Nanjing Road, China No. 1 shopping street
Nanjing Road, China No. 1 shopping street

I wanted to send you a note to thank you so much for all of the work you put into planning our trip. We returned to America from China this past week and are still so excited about everything that we saw and everything that we did.

The sites were beautiful, the guides were knowledgeable, the itinerary was comprehensive, the culture was remarkable, the food was delicious…I can go on and on.

We had the trip of a lifetime and we truly appreciate your flexibility and support. Please take care and best of luck in the future!

Regards,

Sarah Clabby
(May 31st, 2010)

dd

Dear Karen,

The sensational Impression Liu Sanjiu Night Show
The sensational Impression
Liu Sanjie Night Show

I thank you very much for your service regarding my wife Maria Sabin. I kindly ask you to receive my regrets for my missing trust in your company.

More, I am interested to propose you a future business cooperation if you are interested regarding Romanian and other European tourists to China by your company. A joint venture or an agency agreement should be interesting for us. I think China as the actual main important economic power and a lot of people should have the curiosity to see a part of great China. Either for future business either for pleasure.

You were very kind and very correct, even I was not so polite sometime with my doubts... There is only some differences between your guides. Absolutely special is the Guilin guide , according to my wife. But they were all very nice.

Best regards,

Radu
(May 11th, 2010)

dd

Dear Karen,

Shanghai Expo Opening Ceremony Fireworks Show
Shanghai Expo Opening Ceremony
Fireworks Show

Although I was unable to join our friend for the trip in China, I was able to have half a day in Shanghai. So I saw the preparations for the Shanghai Expo.

I must say how impressed I was with your service in Shanghai. We were met at the airport on time and deposited at the hotel. The coach that took us to the airport clean and comfortable.

I would also like to say thank you for the credit that you gave us for not being able to enjoy the first week of our holiday. It was very kind of you to do so. I am going to keep your name on my data base for future visits to China. I hope it will be sometime soon.

So thank you once again and many warm wishes.

Sudha Mehta
(May 11th, 2010)

dd

Karen,

Landscape of Li River on RMB 20 Note
Landscape of Li River on the RMB 20 Note

We have recovered from our jet lag and have the house and yard back in good shape and have no reason to withhold a big thank you for holding my hand during the trip arranging ordeal, and for thinking of us when we were on our trip.

We were quite surprised and appreciative to receive some travel gifts from you and very disappointed that were not able to meet you. The trip was better than we had hoped.

Thanks again for everything.

Stanford, Neri and Erik Brown
(May 6th, 2010)

dd

Dear Karen,

I would like to thank you for arranging our tour and the excellent guides and drivers who accompanied us.

The visit was a wonderful experience of a life time.

I have written to two of our guides, Susan and Tracey whose particular company we enjoyed and gave us such an enjoyable visit of interest and concern for our welfare. I would be very grateful if you could forward my letters as I like want them to know how grateful we were to them and how well they represented your tour company.

Thank you again for such good arrangement, meals, hotels, and flights.

Best wishes for the future!

Kind regards,
Delia and Howard Williams
(April 29th, 2010)

dd

Dear Karen,

Yunnan Ethnic People
Kunming Ethnic People, Yunnan

We have had a wonderful 'China experience' and Thanks to you and to China Odyssey Tours. Everything worked wonderfully. All your guides were excellent, friendly and very interesting and informative. The cars were spotless and the drivers were very experienced and careful. All in all, it was wonderful and we will not hesitate to recommend your Company to any of our friends.

There was one thing not satisfying during the trip. The hotel we stayed in Kunming is not so good. Aside from that we had a super holiday.

Hopefully in 2012, we will be able to avail of your services once more!! We have taken many photos and a lot of video so will be able to relive our holiday again and again. We also got some very nice silk souvenirs, together with some paintings and rubbings from the Steeles Museum.

Again Karen many thanks for all your help, suggestions and organization over the past few months.

With best wishes,
Nuala
(April 14th, 2010)

dd

Hi Karen,

Well, the time in China went so quickly. We returned home, taking so many nice photos as well as some enjoyable experiences along with us. You will get the picutures as always that we will send you later. Thank you for your assistance & thank you to the people (tour guides) who showed us the different cities & sites & also the drivers.

If I had to complain about anything, it would have to be the beds, not so soft as ours. I have filled out the individual city evaluations for your staff and maybe it is helpful to you. Some of the sights we saw were fantastic. For instance, the old part of Shanghai was far more interesting & would have loved to spend more time there. The trip by rail was not an experience as airways and I have flown with them many years ago and not much has changed.

My wife is in second thoughts of returning. I’m hoping to persuade her to try a trip down the Yangtze river & see more sights of China. 13 days was not really enough for enjoy the whole China, but enough for testing the water towns to get the feel to return someday. If that eventuates, I hope your firm will still be around to contact.

Thank you once again for a rememberable holiday!

Regards,
Malvin & Kim Whyte
(March 13th, 2010)

dd

Hi Karen,

This is a grate news, only God can pay you for this, and if I can, I will do it too. You can't imagine how happy you make me feel to know that my sisters were picked up on time and that now they are safetly on their way back home, thanks to you and your people from China Odyssey. I'm for ever grateful and you can use this E-mail us as a recomendation for future customers.

Thanks God for China Odyssey and their emplowees, it is the best way to know China. I can send some of our pics too, if you want them.

Thank you for sending me this confirmation.

You are the Best!!

Regards,
Javier Gil
(December 28th, 2009)

dd

Hi Karen,

Great Wall Hiking
Hiking on the Great Wall

Thanks to you and Odyssey we had a great holliday in China ! Thanks very much for your perfect organisation.

Enclosed you find the evaluation form and some photos.

Best guides were in Beijing (!!!) and Xian, but the others were also OK !!!

Regards, Arthur
(September 17th, 2009)

dd

Dear Karen,

On behalf of all of us who traveled to Beijing this past weekend I just wanted to thank you for helping us coordinate this event and for the great experience. We all thought that Leo did an excellent job as our tour guide and we would definitely recommend him again to any our of friends who would travel to Beijing.

Again, thank you for all your efforts that aided to our wonderful experience.

Regards,
Vishnu Thyagarajan
(September 9th, 2009)

dd

Karen

We are back home after our wonderful trip to China. Thank you for all the arrangements you made to give us such a special vacation. We really appreciate how you thought of everything.

It was a pleasure to meet you in person when we were in Guilin. Thank you for the gifts. The "love ball", mask and postcards are all wonderful souvenirs of our trip. It was kind of you to give us presents.

Our family will remember our trip fondly, and we will be happy to recommend your firm to our friends and families.

The Cook Family
Kate, Tom, Genny and Sam
(August 22nd, 2009)

dd

Hi Karen

we are back from China. It is a very tiring trip but we enjoyed it a lot.

Your guides are very helpful and their English is wonderful. I particularly want to mention Iris Zhang (Beijing). She really is outstanding. She made our Beijing trip very memorable.

Thanks again for everything.

Sheila
(August 14th, 2009)

dd

Dear Karen,

Thank you for arranging such a wonderful tour for my family. We had a great time throughout the tour visiting the various places in China.

A couple things we liked about this particular tour were that all the tour guides spoke English as well as Mandarin, the buses that took us from place to place were air conditioned, and the hotel in Xian was superb. The hotel had great service and the breakfast was fantastic. The place where we had the most fun was Xian because the tour was interesting and the tour guide was flexible and easy to talk to since it was a private tour with just my family ...

we had a wonderful time in China. We will definetly recommend your travel agency to our family and friends. Thank you so much for your help in setting up this tour for us in such a short period of time.

Ping Luo
(July 29th, 2009)

dd

Dear Karen,

China Odyssey Tours is very reliable. We had a great time in Yunnan with your tour guides ( Liz. in Kunming, Linda in Lijiang) who speaks very good English. The food served was good ( after we told the guides to tell the chef not to put vinegar! ) and the weather was kind to us. We enjoyed watching two shows---- Dynamic Yunnan and Impressions Lijiang. We find the people in China very friendly which made us feel so welcomed.
We may plan for another holiday to China next year, and we will definitely choose you, Karen, as our COT travel consultant.

THANK YOU for a very enjoyable tour in China.

Take care and do keep in touch.

Regards,
Francis and Anne Lim
(June 5th, 2009)

dd

Hello Karen.

We were very happy with all the arrangments in each town. We ended up cancelling the lunches, to make it possible to have a more flexible schedule (eat later) and if possible also eat in a bit cheaper restaurants with the tour guides - something we enjoyed more than eating pre-arranged lunches on set times. Thanks to Karen it was easy to change this and we got our money refunded! Even got to met you, Karen in the office which was great :) Also the change to leave Guilin one day earlier went extremly fast and easy and made us very happy.

We were very happy with China Odyssey Tours. Mostly the prompt replies and flexibility were great for travellers like us. When there were small problems or change requests from our side, Karen took care of them immediately. Tour guides were very nice and professional (except one in Shanghai, which we changed).

We would have liked lists of places to shop or a small list of various restaurants for the places we went to. Also, if the tour guides could provide a small map of the city, that could help (although most hotels could provide this map).

I can assure you that apart from the many clothes, scarves and chopsticks we brought a load of unforgettable memories home - thanks to you :)

Kind regards,
Kerstin
(June 2nd, 2009)

dd

Dear Karen,

Thanks for helping to organise the trip to Hangzhou. You have been a great help and have been very patient with my inquiries regarding several tour packages I was interested in before deciding on Hangzhou.

The pickup transfer to the train station in Shanghai was smooth sailing. Tony, our tour guide in Hangzhou is great. He speaks good English and was very helpful and informative. The itinerary and places of interests covered was sufficient within the time frame provided. The Lakeview Hotel that we stayed at was also satisfactory and conveniently located near the lake and shopping areas. The only disappointment was the food that was provided with the tour package. As breakfast is provided by the hotel, I was expecting that at least either lunch or dinner we will have the opportunity of trying out some famous authentic Hangzhou cuisine such as Beggar's Chicken, Dongpo Rou, Westlake Sweet & Sour Fish, Madame Song's Fish Soup. Unfortunately, we did not have the chance to try out any as we did not have the time on our own. Perhaps, in future you can arrange for this to be included into one of the meals or as an option in the tour packages to Hangzhou. There are so many delicious food in Hangzhou, it's a pity not to have the chance to try them at all.

Thanks once again for your help. I will consider using China Odyssey as one of the travel option for future travel to China.

Regards,
Sharon Ying
(April 25th, 2009)

dd

Hi karen,

I got back yesterday evening from china and i wanted to tell what a fine time i had. you had everything planned perfectly. the guides were very nice people as well. if i meet anyone interested in visiting china i will direct them to you without hesitation.

thanks for everything,
steven conrath
(April 17th, 2009)

dd

Hi Karen

We were really very pleased with the way in which you had arranged our itinerary in China. The guides were first class. They were friendly, and helpful and considerate and in particular their English was so good that one would easily believe that it was their native tongue.

Always they were waiting for us when we arrived at the ship or airport terminals and they checked us in for the subsequent flights. Equally we were very happy with our drivers.

Overall we could not offer any advice as to how the tour could have been improved further as we found no cause for any criticism.

We hope to return to see some more of China in the furure and if so, we would certainly arrange the visit with your company again. Equally we shall recommend you to any of our friends who intend to head your way.

With regard to providing our email to other clients I am happy to agree to providing my email address to no more than three clients but I would like you to let me know to whom you give my address so that I know that you have referred them. Otherwise I tend to delete emails from those whom I do not know without opening the email.

If there are any other aspects that you want to ask me about do not hesitate to email me.

Kevin Kennedy
(April 17th, 2009)

dd

Dear Karen,

Thank you so much for all your help. We thoroughly enjoyed our whole Chinese holiday and are already declaring it one of the best ever. Everything ran like clockwork and we had a brilliant time. Already other people are asking us how we arranged everything and have expressed interest in visiting China themselves, so of course we have recommended your company extremely highly.

I enclose the photos that I took when we had the good fortune to visit you in Guilin. Henry was a terrific guide, as was Lisa when we got to Xi’an. Thank you also for the presents you gave us. I took them to school this week to show my class! Please tell Henry that they said “Good Morning” to the whole school in assembly, in Chinese, and are thrilled that they know how to answer the register in a new language!

Thank you again for helping to make our holiday a real adventure.

Our very best wishes from,
Juliet, Mike and Natalie Smith
(November 8th, 2008)

dd

Hello Karen,


Joel and Ruth visit to a family house,
in Yangshuo Guilin

We had a great trip. I would definitely recommend COT. Having a personal guide and driver is the best way to travel.

Karen was very responsive. She responded to my emails (many of them) very fast and answered all of my questions.

The arrangements were excellent. I think the choices of cities chosen were just what we wanted to see and the sites were very interesting and worth seeing. I chose some cities to visit but Karen select Kunming (The Stone Forest was worth seeing), Dali (Loved our visit to Lake Erhai and the climb to see the temple), Lijing (Loved the visit to the Baisha Township and the Museum of the Naxi Dongba Cultuer in the Black Dragon Pool Park as well as the Wang Fu Hotel), and last of all our visit to Zhongidian (The trip to Bita Lake was very scenic and we did not have to ride a horse to get to get up the mountain ,and the Songtsam Hotel was great and would recommend this one over the new one that is being built).

We especially like the Impressions Show in Yangshuo and the performance at the National Center for Performing Arts in Beijing. Note that we had to pay a small fee to take the cable car up to the Great Wall in Mutianyu.

We appreciated the service of COT. The best way to see China is with a private guide and driver. You don’t have to stay at 5* hotels so cost is comparable to a group tour and you don’t need to have big meals for dinner since the lunches were quite filling.

COT is very well organized and the staff is well trained. The COT web site with the references from people who used their service convinced me that COT was the organization we wanted.

Regards,
Joel Winett
(October 6th, 2008)