Dear Karen,
I very much enjoyed Zhangjiajie. I had seen pictures of this National Park 3-4 years ago when visiting a fair for tourism in Zurich and the CNTO (Chinese National Tourist Office) had a booth with brochures on different places to visit. I was very impressed by the beauty of Western Hunan province and Zhangjiajie and the park itself was quite spectacular. The only thing that probably wasn't perfect was the weather as it's the rainy season, but we were lucky to have 3 days that were dry but somewhat cloudy.

I guess living in China, I also appreciate the chance to experience the local culture. My son and I walked through the city and only saw 2 Western visitors the whole time we were there. I guess the only outside folks that have discovered Zhangjiajie are the Koreans as there were many signs in Chinese and Korean. The tough part is that English is not very widely spoken. I'm trying to improve my Chinese and enjoyed the chance to try my limited ability in the restaurants -- very nice experience for us! I would really recommend this place if someone likes nature and the chance to experience local culture. It was absolutely great!

I also want to compliment you on the guide, Leon. While I realize that he was from the local agency, he had a very high level of English ability and knew Zhangjiajie very well.

The Lantian Hotel and the Wuling Yuan Hotel were very acceptable, clean and good service. The Lantian did have people who spoke English at the front desk and restaurant which was a plus while the Wuling Yuan didn't really have English speaking folks.

I do hope that more Western people will find out about Zhangjiajie, on the other hand, I enjoyed it just because it was more local in flavor and not so many Western tourists!

Thanks again for everything. I'll be back in touch with you a little later on -- Guilin is still on my list and we will probably be trying to visit after the summer. It would be great to meet you once and say hello.

Kind Regards,
Butch

• Client's Information: Charles Allen, Switzerland
• Tour Starting Dates: June 12, 2007
• Tour Itinerary: 6 Days Shanghai,Zhangjiajie Tour
• Talk to this client

Save this Page to: