Two Australian ladies had a wonderful time in Zhangjiajie and beyond in August, 2013

Dear Peicy,

Not a problem about the hotel, thank you for the updated itinerary! And thank you so much for the Chinese phrases to help get the train tickets!

Yes we made it home safely yesterday! We had such a wonderful time!! China is truly such an amazing and beautiful country - and there is so much to see!

I have rarely seen just beautiful and spectacular country-side and mountains - truly breathtaking!  I feel so lucky to have experienced the cable car and walk along the mountains - not many people in the world would get to see these things! Although it was raining on the first day and very foggy, we climbed the 999 steps to the 'heavens gate', which was quite scary and so steep - I am very proud of my Mum! Finally the fogg cleared and we had an amazing view from the top of the mountains - just beautiful. Then on day 3, walking along the 'Avatar' mountain peak formations was just so incredible, I think we took about 1000 photos between us!

The buildings and the old people at Fenghuang were really beautiful to see, I thought it was such a lovely town, and I can imagine it would have been so peaceful and beautiful many years ago before the toursim became so prominant. Although we understand that the people must try to take advantage of tourism to make money and so the town has changed to be mostly selling tourist products, and then at night time we couldn't believe it when suddenly it became a massive karaoke party and all the building's were lit up as Bars and Clubs! It was so strange to see the transformation. I can see how it has become so touristy and oriented to young tourists and just making money. It must be so sad to see your traditional cultures disappearing like that - and I felt bad for the traditional Miao people that their town has become a big party for tourists at night time, even though it looked beautiful with all the lights, it was so loud and crazy! I found it very interesting to see, nonetheless
 
Dehang was truly lovely to see a smaller town in such a beautiful location. My mum really enjoyed that, and she loved seeing the traditional houses there.

Mrs Pan was absolutely lovely, and extremely patient with us taking SOOO many photos! She was always very organised and never made us feel rushed, and allowed us lots of time to take photos and explore. We also enjoyed just talking to her about life in China and what it's like to live in China today, she is very clever and wise for someone so young, and it was very interesting to learn the differences to Australia, especially differences in cultural and family pressures. We did not interact much with the drivers as they did not speak English.

The only thing I would suggest for improvement would be to suggest the tour guides provide even more information of the history (cultural and geological/natural), where possible, on the places we visited and the areas we drove through, to learn as much as possible about them.

Overall, we had a wonderful time, and thank you to you and Pan Hong for making it so organised and such an incredible experience

I will send you some pictures when I put them on my computer :)

Take care

Dr Alice Hayward