Hi,Carol
I had a very interesting time in China. Prior to the tour with China Highlights I made a tour with China Comfort Travel Group Co., Ltd and visited under others the park Yu Yuan in Shanghai. The guide showed us round but did not explain us the characteristics of a Chinese garden with its rocks and the water which should be a symbols for Yang and Yin. Also the typical Chinese house form was not explained to us with the individual houses regrouped in a court yard. I read on these topics somewhat later in a guide of China (Dumont). On the tour of the dam of the 3 Gorges we were explained that the dam is 185m high; I think I found out that this figure indicates the top of the dam crown above sea level however says nothing of its real height I think it is 120m. Also various figures on statistics seemed to me wrong. It seems to me that the guides should go deeper into history and understand more on Chinese culture. An other thing was surprising to me as for the meals. In Switzerland and even more in France a dinner is a long process taking several hours. However on the boat a normal dinner took about 45 to 60 minutes. I had to hurry up. But probably most of your guests come from the United States and have a different culture. I was some 25 years earlier in China, but the quality of a special dinner was meanwhile reduced. At the time the dinner was more structured and we had beer, wine and Moa Tai offered at the same time. Also the Peking Opera goes more in the direction of artistic performances then to present traditional music. I admit these are very general remarks, which are not even in the context of the tour which you arranged, but may be they are helpful for you.

• Client's Information: Otto, 瑞士
• Tour Starting Dates: July 17, 2008
• Tour Itinerary: 7 Days Shanghai, Yichang, Yangtze, Chongqing, Guilin, Beijing Tour

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