China Testimonials

We would love to hear about your Yangtze River Cruise experience. If you have a moment and would like to fill out a review, please send us an email at value@valueworldcruises.com.

Dear Jim & Samo,

I’m writing in regards to A.C.T.’s recent China tour. Your national guide Sheila exemplifies excellence in her abilities as a guide! She goes beyond the call of duty for her clientele. As you know this was a large group of one hundred and five people. No easy feat. I was witness to what takes place behind the scenes. Sheila always showed up with a smile on her face regardless of lack of sleep or the stresses that come with so much responsibility.

As I am relatively new to this profession, I learned a lot from Sheila’s leadership. Your company has a gem in Sheila. It was my great pleasure to work with her and I look forward to working with Sheila again in the future.

Best Regards,

Linda
Received: April 7, 2017

We are back and we thoroughly enjoyed our trip – it was perfectly organized and all the guides were wonderful. Please keep us in mind if you are organizing future trips to South-East Asian countries or other areas on ‘that side of the world’. Thank you again for putting together such a great trip !!”

June Oliver
Cruse: CHINA 3 GORGES
Cruise Date: June 15, 2016
Received: July 6, 2016

Hello Samo, The China FAM trip was wonderful. We had a great time and almost everything was perfect. We had a really nice group of people. There were no complainers or trouble makers and everyone got along nicely. Our International Tour Guide, Han, was very, very good. He was professional, caring and never missed a beat. His attention to detail was outstanding and he took great care of the group. Of course his English and his knowledge were wonderful as well. The other city tour guides were also very good and informative. Ironically enough, we found the language barrier to be more of a problem on this trip than it was 10 years ago when we took your FAM trip back then. Having Han and, especially Stephen in Beijing, help us with the language barrier was definitely essential.

Read More...

As you probably know, we started out the trip with problems within the LAX airport. That was the day the shooting of a TSA agent in another terminal happened. The entire airport was in lock down. Our noon time flight, finally left at 9:00 pm. Once we arrived in Shanghai, Han was still there to meet us, even though he had been meeting people coming in on other flights all day long. By the time, we got to the hotel it was 4:30am and we had to get up to start our tour at 6:30am. We were definitely tired but rallied and thoroughly enjoyed our tour of the city. The hotel in Shanghai was lovely and we would absolutely rate it as a 5 star. The evening Chinese Acrobat performance was fabulous and unquestionably amazing. That’s definitely a keeper.The following day flying from Shanghai to Wuhan and then taking the bus for 5 hrs., was very long. By the time, we arrived at the ship, everyone was exhausted. The ship is beautiful. The cabins were nice and the beds were comfortable. The common areas were also very nice. The staff were friendly, willing and anxious to help and please, but the language issue was a REAL problem. If you needed to call the reception, the staff just couldn’t communicate very well. On the first day the air conditioning was perfect, but then the weather outside became a little cooler and they decided to turn off the AC. Trying to get them to understand and put it back on was not easy. Also, the language barrier was very difficult in the main lounge. They couldn’t understand what you were asking for and didn’t understand how to make the drinks. Having the group dine in the upstairs portion of the dining room, was a real plus. Our sweet little waitresses were a real treat. Asking them to keep up on our requests was not easy for them. The food on the ship was okay but the consensus was that they needed to upgrade the quality. After the first day, Han went around to each table and offered a $50.00 per person all you can drink wine, beer and champagne package during lunch and dinner. It was well worth it, but we felt if they had charged a little more per person and made it available for everywhere on the ship, it would have been even better. The entire cruise itinerary was perfect, especially the excursion to the Sampans through the Shennong Stream. It was a totally different experience than the last time now that the river has been flooded. We used the theater on the ship for the seminar, which was excellent and well attended by all. Even the people we did not book attended. Your power point presentation worked out very well.Leaving the ship in Chongqing was not easy, quite a long walk up stairs and up a long hill. The zoo with the Pandas was great. We finally arrived at the Plaza Hotel in Beijing. The lobby was lovely, but it was all downhill from there. That hotel was a 3+ at best. I would not recommend using that hotel again. The rooms were dated and ours was not very nice. Mold all around the bathtub, bathtub drain didn’t work, hair drying fell apart. It was not very pleasant. Also, communicating with the reception, dining room etc. was almost impossible. Without Han or Stephen, we would have had a very difficult time. As an example, another couple dining with us ordered a bottle of wine. After opening it, it was definitely a bad bottle. It was absolutely impossible to get them to understand the situation. They would not bring another bottle, they simply thought the couple didn’t like the taste of Chinese wine. So not the case, the staff finally called Han and woke him up. The couple never did get a bottle of wine and the staff wanted them to pay for the bad bottle. We all wanted American food, by this point, I will address that in a minute. Han and Stephen asked the reception and concierge where we could go out for American/Western food. NO ONE knew or had any idea. Come to find out, they actually served that cuisine in the dining room of the hotel. But unfortunately, we ate there and they were out of almost everything on the menu. If you had a drink in the lounge/bar you could not sign it to your room. You had to pay each time. If they had taken a credit card upon arrival, it probably would have eliminated that really irritating situation.

Going back to American/Western food, there definitely should be some incorporated into the tour. Eating Chinese food every lunch and dinner for the entire trip was too much. We understand this is how they eat and this is their culture, but Americans want some variation. The Peking Duck restaurant in Beijing was excellent.

Overall, it was an excellent trip and we thank you. We hope you like our review. Also, we thoroughly enjoyed meeting and traveling with Misha and Mirjana. They were such a nice couple and fun to travel with. We hope to travel with them again someday.

Thank you.”

Pam & Bob
Received: November 26, 2013

Hi Corinna, Just wanted to let you know we had a wonderful tour of China. Everything on the trip was wonderful, the Guides and drivers were excellent.
The shows were also very good, especially the Fabulous Chinese Acrobats. Our Tour Guide for Beijing was excellent her name was Cindy Xu, and another
Guide was really good was on our tour of Guilin, her name is Eva Fung. These two guides were very good and if you can let there tour company know
how pleased we were, that would be appreciated. We are extremely happy with your service as well as Value World Tours.
Hope we can be a Value World Customer soon.
Thanks you.”

Marilyn Miller
Cruse: China Grand
Cruise Date: September 17, 2013
Received: 10/08/2013

Corinna,We wanted you to know how successful our trip was and how much we appreciated the special meals, the new cruise ship which incidentally was 90% filled with Chinese taking their families on vacation and arrangements for travel with our grandson.On every flight and train experience there was a guide with our sign awaiting us even in Pudong Shanghai where the airport is enormous.We particularly appreciated riding the bullet train in premium seating as we hit 299 km/hr going to Suzhou and enjoyed a very quiet, comfortable air-conditioned ride.We hope to travel with you again.”

E. Butler
Cruse: China Grand
Cruise Date: July 9 – July 25, 2013
Received: 7/29/2013

Diana,

Hope all is good with you. I wanted to thank you for all your help with our FAM tour to China in March. It was a really wonderful trip and our injuries were close to healed by the time we got to Beijing. My ankle was doing well by then and Roger was able to do most things on the trip except to climb the Great Wall but since he had been to there before he thought it was best not to take a chance on falling since we hit a snowy day. Sheila said she had never seen the wall “white” before and we had to laugh since we hit a huge snow storm on our firt trip to Beijing 11 years ago. Wouldn’t you know the day before and the day after were good.
The tour was really lovely……the Hilton in Beijing was a beautiful hotel as was our cabin on the Century Star. Sheila was an excellent guide. Her English was good and so were her pronunciations which often is a problem with guides from other Countries. We had 4 beautfiul sunny days on the Yangtze which made up for the snow in Beijing. The Chinese acrobats put on a really good show in Shanghai and the daily tours had a nice variety of sights to see.
We will recommend Value World to our Friends and Clients.
Thanks again.
Sincerely,

Susan”

S. Randall
Received: 05/04/2010

Hi Berengere,

China was a fabulous experience for our group–we enjoyed it very much, Having been there about 29 years ago it was unbelievable to see the fantastic world cities that had evolved and the overall development that have taken place. The tour was very well planned and managed–Sheila our tour guide was exceptional- she was very professional, very knowledgeable, efficient, caring ,firm when necessary, catered to our every need with a smile. She is a wonderful resource/asset to your Company. She should be rewarded for her dedication and for her performance above the call to duty.The hotels selected were lovely, the river cruise well executed, the staff courteous and pleasant, the tours well planned and informative–giving a well rounded feel of China in a few days.(…)All in all it was an unforgettable experience and I will be happy to recommend to my clients. (…)we will be pleased to use your services again.Thank you for your kind attention to details and for your efficient service.

Kind Regards,”

D. Chatoor
Received : 03/13/2010

Wow! We felt we had ‘a tour of a lifetime’ because we were the only 2 people on the “Best of China” tour. What a wonderful experience. Thank you for nor cancelling it. Loved the cruise part of the tour. Food and staff were outstanding. The pacing and flexibility on sightseeing features was excellent. The dream like New Ballet Circus performance in Guilin was remarkable.”

N. Willett
Received: 04/01/2009

Overall we found the “Best of China” tour well organized. The local guides were both knowledgeable and helpful, and the itinerary very interesting. We enjoyed our first “taste of the orient” and would certainly recommend this tour to our friends.”

S. Hum-Hartley
Received: 10/08/2008

It was a wonderful trip.”

D. Rotz
Received: 09/17/2007

We very much enjoyed the trip and attribute its success to our guide. She was excellent!”

J. and J. Fogelberg
Received: 09/20/2007

One of the best travel experiences I have had in 28 years as an agent. Don’t know how you do it.”

M. Laflin
Received: 05/23/2007

Sheila is the best tour guide I have ever travelled with, she completely made the trip a true success.”

L. Huggard
Received: 11/07/2007

Tour hosts had excellent local knowledge.”

R. Frolich
Received : 06/02/2008