A wonderful week of vacation

Name: Mrs. INGRID IVETTE POZOS URDAPILLETA

Nationality: Mexico

Date: Nov 02, 2010

OP: Sally

Dear Sally,
 
Sorry for the late reply, but of course after a wonderful week of vacation, the work is accumulated and need to be done. And I take very seriously this kind of feedback and I like take enough time to prepare it.
 
I would like to thank all the team for their effort to make our stay unforgettable. Your mail below says that there is a little questionnaire, but no attachment was include. It does not matter because in each destiny, I filled out a questionnaire that the tour guide gave us. Nevertheless, I would like to give you some feedback on each place we visited:
 
Beijing - Vivian is a wonderful person, very friendly and she knows very good the history about the city. She also recommended some activities for the night and they were all amazing, as well as the shopping places. She also stayed with us until the last minute when we boarded the train. The driver was also very nice and drive safe. But, he looked like disappointed when we gave him the tip by the end on the tour. The hotel was very nice and typical, but they did not prepared anything for our weeding night more than a cake. Honestly, I was expecting some kind of decoration, but after all, I understand it is a small hotel (but expensive any way!). I can not say there was only a best thing in the tour. All the places were great! The Great Wall, the Forbidden City, the Ming Tomb (but we did not made the walk by the Sacred Road, because it was little cold and Vivian said it was nothing interesting to see there), and the Hutong tour was just great!!! The only disappointed place, to be honest, was the Panda House. As big fan of pandas, I was expecting to see a lot of them... but there were not that much as I thought L
 
Xian - Cris was also very nice. She knows even better the history of the city and all the places. She also took us to a very nice shopping places and also suggested some after tour activities. She also helped us to get the original ticket entrances (I like to keep them as souvenir) and figured out another way to prove the agency the expense so she can be reimbursed. That talks about the experience she has as tourist guide. The driver was also very good driving and very friendly. The only thing that make us feel uncomfortable was in the Terracotta warriors factory. The lady that gave us the explanation was very angry because we did not buy anything. When we said thanks for the explanation, she said "do not thank and buy". I thought it was a joke. But after some time looking into the merchandise, she was insisting on buy something. I was decided to have a nice trip no matter what! But that is not the attitude I expect from a sales person from an important place such as the Terracotta warriors factory. The hotel facility was good since it is a brand new hotel. But the quality of the service and the food were so bad. Specially the food, since there were non western food at all (even coffee and bread with butter, or enough fruit). Regarding the places, well, of cause the Terracotta warriors were the best! But the Provincial museum and the bicycle ride in the Ancient City Wall were terrific!!!
 
Shanghai - Jimmy was a nice guy. He was very quiet and silent, buy he also know very good the city history (well, he just missed about the history of one building not included in the itinerary, but it was not an issue). Although there was a terrible weather (is was raining on Saturday) he still accomplished the itinerary until we said: no more because of the heavy rain. He did not gave us any shopping recommendation (he thought we have shopped enough in Beijing and Xian), but it is never enough for shopping, right? J And he also not suggested any places for the night after the tour.But we were kind of tired by that time, so we did not insist in doing extra activities. I need to say that the Shanghai Mandarin Hotel was terrible. The service was very poor, the room was just "good", and the breakfast... oh my God! We need to have it stand up because there were not enough seats. And I needed to fight for a piece of bread because there was excess of people and lack of food. I understand that the Expo Shanghai may have all the city busy and the hotel occupancy to the top, but it is not excuse to have a poor service. I know it is during the EXPO 2010, it would be very crowded. However, it is little over my imagination. Honestly, I would not come back or recommend that hotel. And of course we have plans to go back to Shanghai since we missed the Saturday itinerary. For the Oriental Pearl TV tower, the waiting line was two hours!!! And under the rain... I do not think so. Instead, we went to the Jin Mao Tower. We skipped the Museum since the line was also big, and the Bund and French Concession area we did a sightseeing only by car. But the Yu Garden and market were amazing!
 
After all, it was a very good tour. We enjoyed it a lot and we have very good memories of it.
 
Thanks again to all the team.
 
My best regards,
Ingrid