A Fantastic Trip in China

Dear Sophie,

It's so nice to see your picture!! You're so cute!!!

We had a fantastic trip! Everything went very smoothly, as planned. I think we saw a lot, in a short period of time.

I would like to make some suggestions. As you know each person is different, it would be very nice to ask your clients beforehand what they prefer.

Regarding food and restaurants, I always like to get an experience of the true culture of a place. Therefore, I prefer eating in Chinese restaurants that the Chinese people eat in, not just for tourists. We were very happy that Fiona took us in ChongQing to a restaurant where we had Hot Pot(huoguo). From then on, it was our favorite. In Yichang (I think), we asked our guide to write on a piece of paper in Chinese, a message for the restaurant, telling them what we wanted to order (Hot Pot and what we wanted to put inside). We took this message with us to restaurants and were able to eat with Chinese people who live in the town. We loved this experience! Also, the food was much better tasting than in some of the tourist restaurants.

It was my birthday when we went to The Great Wall. That was a very special day. If I could do it over, I would want to spend most of the day at The Great Wall. I would want the driver to take us to one spot where we would start to climb, and then I would want to be picked up in a completely different spot, thereby seeing much more of the wall and the countryside. I would bring a picnic lunch, and walk until we were too tired to continue!

I want to say that we LOVED most of our guides. We LOVE Jane! She is wonderful!!! We only had a few hours with Fiona, but we loved her, too! We also Love Ailene!!! She's great! And we LOVED Charlie!!! He was fantastic!!! Peter and Joe and David were very nice. We didn't have enough time with Joe to get to know him, although he seemed very smart and nice. I just wish he had warned us about the museum shop!!

Peter was nice and did a good job. His english is quite good. David, I think, is very nice and interesting, but his command of the english language needs to improve. All of the guides did their best for us, and we really appreciate that!! The drivers were also very good!

All in all, it was a great trip and we're very happy.

I must go to work now, but later today or tomorrow I'll will find some photos to send to you!

Thanks again, Sophie.

Best wishes,
Julie
Jul. 24, 2007