China Odyssey Tours Reviews 

We have recently returned from a tour of China, organised by Odyssey Tours. The whole experience was excellent. Our tour manager Tom Zhou was exceptional, and included in the tour all of the major sites that we wanted to see, and other interesting locations that he recommended. Any minor alterations or suggestions were dealt with quickly and he replied to our emails promptly.
Sunny Sun in Beijing, Susan in Xi an and Henry Li in Guilin were excellent guides, knowledgeable and always very helpful.
We would recommend Odyssey Tours for their efficiency and skill for a trouble free tour at a reasonable cost.
Our family are arranging a visit to China and Tom Zhou of Odyssey Tours is currently organising a tour of Beijing on our recommendation.

We are scheduled to visit China in a couple of months. But working with Andy, our tour consultant from China Odyssey tours has been an absolute pleasure. His customer service was excellent, he was always very responsive and worked with us very patiently to design the perfect tour for us in China. Andy's attention to details was spot-on which highly impressed us and helped us decide and finalize the tour with Odyssey within a couple of weeks. We are looking forward to our tour now and we are confident that its going to be awesome as Andy is taking care of all our tour details and logistics.

Tom Zhou is my travel consultant, he did a good job, responded my email right away. I wish my travel on October 12, 2017 will be good and they will have tour leaders as good as Tom Zhou.

My experience with China Odyssey Tours was flawless! From the beginning, Susan was super professional. She provided us with a tour package that fits our budget and expectations. She was always available to answer questions and give us tips to our future trip. We are super excited and can't wait to go to China. We recommend her services to everyone!

To sum it up, we had a great time on our China Tour. I have nothing but praise to your fluently English speaking, friendly, helpful and very knowledgeable tour guides especially John Zhao and Portia Huang whom we spent the most time. Every one of them were at the exit corridor to meet us, were very prompt dropping and picking us up at our hotel and night show venues, even helped us check in at our hotels and airports and didn’t leave the airport until we got thru passport control. All our hotels especially in Guilin and Yangshao where we had a fantastic view, were nice, clean and comfortable. Having a van and a driver was very convenient and comfortable going to and from the airport and everywhere we went. We had hundreds of photos which they all willingly took with my camera. Those priceless photos will go into our photo book I will make. The entire trip went without a hitch and on schedule including our domestic flights. We had a minor incident at the passport control at Guilin airport wherein the passport control officer who didn’t speak English had a question on our ticket which Amber, who was still at the airport at the time, straightened it out right away. I thought we would be with a group but because it was just the two of us, it turned out to be a personalized tour which was another factor we had a great time.

In Xian, our first stop, seeing the terra cotta armored warriors close and personal was incredible, unbelievable and overwhelming. We learned a lot about its history from John Zhao. We even met the person who made that amazing discovery and have him autographed his book we bought. We also bought a small figurine of an armored warrior made of terra cotta from the actual site. My wife bought some beautiful jade jewelry at the Jade factory and some scarf at the silk factory where we saw how silk is produced and had a demonstration of silk weaving process. I bought a silk tie with several pandas printed on it. On our way to the Great Mosque, walking thru Muslim street made me hungry with the mouth-watering street food on both sides of the street. The Tang Dynasty cultural show was colorful and entertaining. Ringing the bell tower took a strong push on the heavy wooden rod. On the way to the airport, we stopped by the Hanyang Tomb where there is a glass walkway over the burial pits and is quite dark and quiet which gave it an eerie atmosphere. And not to be missed, John took us one lunch time to a neighborhood restaurant where we had very delicious dumpling and best Chinese hamburger.

In Guilin, if not for the rain that kept us inside the boat most of the 4 hour ride, the Li River cruise would have been picture perfect with its many towering peaks, winding river and verdant landscape. We had a good lunch on the boat. From Yangshao where the cruise ended, we had a long walk along a street lined with all kinds of shops to our hotel. The night impression show in Yangshao was spectacularly awesome and a must see with its over 600 performers and the Li River as the stage setting and the towering peaks beyond as background. It rained throughout the show and was cold but we had comfortable seats with a heater and a canopy over us. After the show, we had spicy soup noodle for dinner.

In Chongqing, after Ludy picked us up at the airport, she took us in a restaurant on a hill overlooking a section of Chiongqing skyline where we had the best hot pot. After that hearty and spicy lunch we proceeded to the city zoo where for the first time we saw from just a few feet away those adorable and world famous pandas. They were so cute, my wife bought a stuffed panda doll. And a short drive away, we were at Renmin Square with the Great Hall on one side and the modern Three Gorges museum on the opposite side. It reminded us of Tianamen Square in Beijing. We skipped the cable car ride because the waiting line was too long and instead we spent more time at Xiahao Old Street. From there, Ludy dropped us off at the embarkation port for our Yangtze River cruise.

On our Yangtze River cruise where we met some nice and friendly people, the cruise ship was not as fancy, big and nice as the cruise ships we’ve sailed but our cabin was as good and comfortable with a balcony where we had a good view of the scenery along the way. The food and entertainment on the ship were okay. The free shore excursion to the Shibaozhi Pagoda with its bridge that sways and wobbles as you walk on it was fun and the climb to the top of the temple with its very steep and narrow stairs was challenging. The other free excursion was a leisurely ride on a pagoda style boat along the Goddess Stream which is hidden in a deep valley. At the end of the Yangtze River cruise in Yichang, seeing the largest in the world and the engineering wonder Three Gorges Dam just from a distance and for just a short time was a bit disappointing. I wished, for people to really feel how big it is and understand how it works, a tour of the dam and its power plant (like at the Hoover Dam in Nevada, USA) would suffice; a technical museum, a walkway over the dam and an observation deck alongside the locks should have been included in its construction. It would have been an exciting finale if our cruise ship with its passengers went thru the locks.

In Shanghai we were very fascinated and impressed to see the many different shape, size and beautifully designed buildings especially the Shanghai Tower which is the 2nd tallest building in the world. Riding an elevator to the top 86th floor of the Jin Mao building gave us a panoramic view of Shanghai which I think has more buildings than New York City or in other big cities we’ve been. Walking on the wide and clean Bund promenade with the old but well preserved buildings on one side and a river on the other was a pleasure. We also had a nice walk through the French Quarter. Although crowded, we enjoyed our visit to the Yuyuan Market with its Chinese architecture style buildings and adjacent beautiful Yu garden. The trip to Zhujiajiao Water Town which was not on our itinerary was worth the drive. Riding a small gondola on its winding canal, passing under several stone bridges and walking its narrow alleys with a variety of old houses, shops and stores reminded us of Venice. There was also an old and beautiful garden we walked through. Portia took us one lunch time to a crowded hole-on-the-wall restaurant where we had very delicious Chinese dim sum or snack. The Shanghai museum gave us a brief history of some Chinese ancient artifacts and treasures. After that acrobatic show that evening which was entertaining but was more of a variety show, we drove to Pudong Airport and Portia managed to bypass the long line to check us in because we were running late for our flight home. We made our flight alright and now we are back home reminiscing the great time we had in China.

Overall, this trip was worth the money and time we spent, an unforgettable experience and one of our best trips which we will cherish for the rest of our lives.

We’d like to take this opportunity to thank you, John Zhao, Gwen Lv, Ludy Li, Amber Tan, Portia Huang for making this trip a great success. We will be more than happy and willing to recommend and advertise you to our friends. Excellent job Tom!

We have finalized pur next month tour with Sophie without any hassles. She has prepared everything as per our request and needs. As of now we are ready to fly next month with my wife n kids to China Tour. So excited.

We are just setting off on our trip to China. Out tour adviser, Shelley, has been working closely with us over the last four or five months. She listened to our requirements and produced an itinerary. As we researched and refined our interests, Shelley was happy to provide alternative itineraries. The communications by e-mail and occasionally by phone were always polite. Information requested was always delivered when it was promised.

We are just about to leave for our trip but I wanted to give a quick review on our tour consultant Ms Shelly Qin.
Shelly has been absolutely great and so helpful over the past few months, arranging our tour, answering all of our questions regarding the trip and preparations we need to do in the UK first.
We cannot wait to start our tour and will provide another review when we return

We have been planning our China holiday with Tom Zhou and have been extremely pleased with his professionalism in assisting us with ideas as well as the tour itinerary...his communication with us has been outstanding and we are looking forward to our trip later in the year

Tom has been most helpful both times we have had contacted him for holiday plans. We have been impressed by his work ethic and detailed plans for Sri Lanka. We look forward to our holiday

We have been working with Tom Zhou for several weeks and he has been great!

After communicating our needs and interests he came up with the perfect tour for my husband , sister and brother-in-law. He has been so receptive to all our needs-including our different arrival dates!

this has been a very good experince and we are really looking forward to our trip.

I have been working with Maggie Yang at Odyssey Tours for the past few weeks to nail down the details of our upcoming private tour of China. She has provided an excellent level of service - always responding promptly and making several excellent suggestions to fully tailor our trip to meet our requirements and budget. Hopefully the actual tour will provide similar levels of service.

For the last few weeks, I have had the pleasure of working with Tom Zhou in organizing a trip to explore beautiful China. Tom has been very prompt in responding to emails and questions and has been very patient when it comes to designing the perfect tour. I would recommend this company and certainly Tom when it comes to preparing for this trip of a lifetime. I can hardly wait to begin this adventure!

K. Sudsbury

We have been planning and organizing our 15 day trip to China since last summer and have been extremely pleased with the timely and efficient responses to requests and questions. Sophie Lu is our travel consultant with a China Odyssey and has been excellent, we will be leaving next month and look forward to a great trip.

From the first time we dealt with this company, and in particular Sophie Lu, we have had exceptional service whether in China or in other parts of Southeast Asia. If its value for money that underscores the reason you choose one tour company or another, this is the company to choose. I distinctly remember taking an elderly gentleman in our group who, after 10 days of a 21 day tour, told me that he thought he better go home now because he had had more than his money's worth. It was his joke, but it summed up how we all felt. We have used this tour company four times and always, repeat always, recommend it to our friends if they are travelling to China or other parts of Southeast Asia. Everyone loves Sophie Lu!

I worked with this company over several months to plan a private tour. Tom Zhou, the agent I worked with, was extremely helpful and the pricing they gave me for a tour of the largest cities was quite reasonable. Unfortunately I got sick the day before I was to leave and had to cancel. Tom was incredibly sympathetic and got back to me right away regarding crediting my account. Since my daughter is living in China right now I will definitely be planning a trip again and I'm so happy to know that this company is honest and extremely helpful.