ChinaTour.comReviews of chinatour.com

Everything went really well on the trip. The use of China Eastern airlines was good, but getting seat assignments was not a very smooth process. In Bangkok in particular the CE agents were not helpful. My only disappointment was that the one included tour of Bangkok was set up for 9:00 a.m. the morning we arrived. We didn't arrive at the hotel until 3:00 a.m., so none of us were ready to be up and ready to go on a tour at 9:00 a.m. I wish that were timed differently. Otherwise, transport to and from the airport was perfect and requests via email for information before the trip was good as well.

It can be organized better. . Some time was wasted.

In all fairness you can’t compare with upscale tour with first class centrally located hotels and knowledgeable tour guides but the price was unbeatable and you’re getting a lot for a little

One of the side tour was to visit the oriental medicine clinic and a foot massage in Beijing. This was terrible. A brief introduction of the oriental medicine, a bunch of so called professors and doctors walked in with massage girls and all they tried were to sell the prescriptions after quick diagnosis with very brief palpating the pulse. Even massage girls were soliciting some powder for the food massage. This clinic is known to be a famous oriental medical clinic with hundreds year of traditions ( Tongin dang?). Another negative part of this trip was quite bad airplane ( Air China) meals of international flight.

The tour guides were rude! Only concerned about selling us optional tours. Also there was NOT enough food for the group meals. 10 people had to share 5 small plates of food. We ended up eating McDonalds more than Chinese food. Very disappointed.

Excellent Service, Great Value Vacations and Friendly Staff, ChinaTour is Highly recommended, A+++

This was a great tour for the money with above average hotels, some 4+ stars, in a packed week itinerary. Loved the historical sites we went to which was a very good sampling of interesting & historic destination sites (The Great Wall, Tiannenman Square, Forbidden City, Lingering Gardens in Beijing and in Shanghai/Suzhou/Hangzhou region such as Grand Canal boat ride, West Lake off the Su Causeway, Green Tea Village, historic Shanghai China Town and the modern skyline architectural wonders of downtown Shanghai). The big plus on our tour were our two tour guides (one for Beijing, one for Shanghai/Suzhou/Hangzhou, both were a cut above with much to provide us by way of history, current affairs and personal insights). This review only gets a 3 stars because honestly, a LOT of the trip was designed to spend money. They set up tours of factories or institutes to sell products - some very high pressure sales, particularly the Chinese Medicine Institute where they sold supplements. While all the factory/institute tours (silk, jade and pearl factories plus the Green Tea Village and the Chinese Medicine Institute) included an educational component for 20-30 mins. on how those products were made, the 45-75 mins. after was ALL about purchasing and spending money at quality places with prices at times higher than what one could find some of those items of like quality in the US. Salesladies were like sticky rice and you never had time to peruse and shop independent of their suggestions or to talk with your family member to decide what really was of interest. The men at the Chinese Medicine Institute were ridiculously high pressure, and with one's feet being washed and given a very good foot massage while they made their individualized pitch to you, you were a captive audience with no easy escape. We honestly didn't know if we'd get out of there unless we gave them a credit card! Scary stuff. Only in a movie have I seen such tactics. IF there had been transparency from the tour operator about exactly what they were planning with these "tours" --excessive consumer spending-- it wouldn't have been so irritating. But by the 3rd day we started to get the picture pretty clearly. All other stops besides the great sights to see involved some 30-55 mins. of shopping as well. Where they didn't give us as much time that we would have loved to find bargains was in Shanghai in the historic China Town. There you could really get some fantastic buys on unique items of good quality, but they scheduled us only 35 mins. before businesses were closing for the day. So, bottomline, the country is definitely a good place to see one of the ancient 7 Wonders of the World and the mix of socialism/capitalism and spirit of communism & history of Chairman Mao blending into an interesting cultural shift of modern-day China. Read the "rules" before you go as unless you get your own cell phone/internet service, using anything in-country like a chip or their internet providers block Gmail and Facebook. So word to the wise, go in with your eyes open if you use InterTrips (ChinaTour.com) out of California, understanding it is as much about helping their economy as it is seeing the sites.

It was fantastic!