Q & A Preparing for a tour

We used to include all meals for our clients traveling in China. But from the previous customer's responses, we find that most of our clients prefer to leave the dinners open on their own so that they can enjoy some time themselves after a day's tour with our guide and driver. They can choose either to go to a local restaurant for a little adventure or to have a simple dinner in the hotel where they stay. They may also prefer to choose a unique restaurant which appeals to their own unique interests. We have previous clients saying that they missed western food after 10 days' lunches and dinners all in Chinese style and at last they decided to skip the Chinese dinner in local restaurant and choose to have a western dinner in hotel.

If you decide to have local meals on your own in local restaurant in different cities, please do ask our guides' recommendations.

For some "off-the-beaten-road" destinations, we will take the liberty to include dinners in those places where we think it is better to get meals pre-arranged, because our clients may find it very difficult to communicate with the locals or hard to find a restaurant.

No. we do not operate Seat-in-Coach Tours directly. We act as a booking agent for specialized SIC operators.

The Things Should Know about Seat-in-Coach (SIC) Tours

1. We do not operate Seat-in-Coach Tours. We act as a booking agent for specialized SIC operators.

2. We use these operators in good faith based on our experience and feedback on their service however we cannot guarantee the level of service or the attitude of the staff.

3. You should expect to be taken to at least 2 shops or factories and the guide may "encourage" you to buy.

4. Guides will not provide personalized attention to individual customers as they will on a private tour.

5. SIC Group Tour Pick up service: The coaches pick up customers at the appointed boarding hotel at the appointed time. You are advised to go to one of the boarding destinations if you are not check in those appointed hotels. Please reconfirm the boarding place and the time with the loal agent or your travel advisor.
Notification:
The guide will contact guests the evening before the tour to confirm pick-up time. If guests are not in their room, the guide will leave a message. Please give us a reply if you receive the message.

6. Traveling Time: Half day tours usually start at 8:30 am or 1.30pm and last for about 4 hours, and a one day tour lasts about 8 hours from 8:30 to 4:30pm. The whole time includes the transfer service. Guest should be ready at the appointed time.

7. Shopping: Two shops are usually included in each one day tour. The guide will inform guests before the tour starts.

8. Other information:
The operators usually try to have ten travelers in an air-conditioned coach. It is usual to have 6 to 16 people in a coach.

To show you how easy it is to book your Beijing trip with us through the Internet, please read the following steps. Keep in mind that your input (steps 2, 3, 5 and7) is essential in achieving a travel plan that best suits your wishes.

Step 1: Select a Tour: Brower our tours pages to select the tours that most suit you. After selecting the tour of your choice, please click the " Inquiry/Customize this Tour " red button in the middle of the web page to get to the booking page. If you have any questions about this tour just click the" Ask a Question " red button ask your questions there. Our online travel advisors will answer your questions within one working day

Step 2: Learn about our policies: We assume that you carefully read our web pages with information about your rights and our policies: Terms and ConditionsPayment and Cancellation Policy.

Step 3: Provide us with details of your travel plans: Please fill in the information on the booking page. Some questions are voluntarily, but keep in mind that our travel advisors need as much information as possible to create the perfect vacation for you.

Step 4:  Submit Your Booking: After filling all the necessary information, please click the " Submit Your Information。

We may send you again a message with specific questions if the information that you provided in your booking request and in your sent e-mail is not clear to us. Your answers will enable us to prepare a proposal offering you the best deals.

Note: You have become China Highlights Community member, through booking tour with us. An email with your login ID and password will be sent to you then.

Step 5: Design an itinerary for you and prepare a quote: With your answers to our questions we will design a plan for your tour including details of hotels, sightseeing trips and flight schedules. We may not, at this stage, be able to provide the domestic flight numbers in the itinerary but will indicate these by 'late pm flight to Beijing' or 'am flight'.

Step 6: Amend the proposed itinerary: Carefully check our proposal and feel free to amend the itinerary by changing cities, travel sites, hotels or flights. You may ask as many questions as you like when tailoring your tour.

Step 7: Revise itinerary and send a new quote: We will answer all your questions. With your additional requests and amendments we will revise the original itinerary and send it to you with a new quotation. Steps 5 and 6 may be repeated until you are completely satisfied with the final tour plan.

Step 8: Accept our proposal and complete the payment procedures: When you have finished 'Perfecting your tour', received our final proposal and decide to accept our offer, there are only two things left to do:

- Send us an e-mail stating your acceptance of our offer

- Complete the payment procedures as you can find in our e-mail send to you.

Note: It is highly recommended that your tour reservation with Yangtze River Cruise be made 40 days prior to the actual traveling date while others can be made 30 days prior to the actual traveling date.

Step 9: Secure and confirm your booking: Upon receiving your deposit, we will immediately start making the reservations through CITS Guilin. All of the flights, hotels and other items in the itinerary were available at the time we made the proposal. However, we are not able to guarantee their availability until we have secured the bookings after receiving your deposit. The earlier that you confirm our proposal, the more likely we can adhere to the proposed itinerary. If we are not able to book part of the flights or hotels as proposed, we will suggest alternative options and ask for your approval before securing the booking.

Step 10: Confirm your booking and charge your credit card: The process of confirming your tour will take 1-10 days depending on how early we receive your acceptance of our offer and the uniqueness of your tour (It may take longer if the Yangtze River cruise is included). If required for your visa application we will e-mail or fax you a 'Reservation Confirmation' on our company stationery.

Special note for ' Visa or Master Card by fax': Only after confirming the bookings will we charge your credit card (Deposit or full payment).

Step 11: Send you a confirmation letter: After the tour reservations are confirmed and payment is received we will send you a letter with the confirmation code and, when applicable, tour vouchers.

Late reservations can not be guaranteed for the hotel rooms and tour prices, especially tours during the high season. We usually suggest our clients make reservations at least two months before the departure date. If you come to China in September or October, we recommend you make the reservations three months prior to your departure date.

However, we ARE capable to take late reservations and we will try all means to help you with your succeeding travel arrangement. It is usually no problem for us to make a tour more than 15 days prior to the departure date. We encourage you to call us directly by telephone if your reservation is very late.

Please check out our terms and conditions to learn about our policy for late bookings.

There are two codes used in the process of your tour booking. One is the tracking code, the other is confirmation code. Tracking code is used before confirming the booking. When the guest confirms all the tour with payment, a confirmation code will be provided and also be informed to each local office or hotel. We just add more numbers in front of the tracking code.

Your confirmation code: A-0718RichardUs2-5028

A for Angela, your tour operator, 0718 for your enter date, Us for USA, your country of residency. 2 for 2 pax, 5028 for your tracking code. When you phone China Highlights - our office, just reach Angela, your tour operator. Or provide your tracking code (when Angela is absent), her partner will find your file quickly by searching your tracking code in the computer. And she/he will take care of your case.

Once we have received the 'Payment Guarantee' Fax from you, we will process your booking order immediately and send you confirmation letter when everything is confirmed as what we proposed. The process of confirming your tour will take 1 to 10 days depending on how early and how unique your tour is. All of the proposed hotels, flights were available at the time when we were proposing for you, but we are not able to guarantee the availability of the same proposals since booking status are changing fast.

If we are not able to book what we have proposed for you, we will give you other options and ask for your approval before securing the booking. If you need the confirmation letter to apply for Visa, please let us know, we will send you our 'Invitation Letter' for Visa Application with 'Confirmation' for you, but this will not be the real confirmation of your tour.

China International Travel Service Limited (CITS) was founded in Beijing 1954 as state owned enterprise. It is China's largest and most influential travel related group and the only tourist enterprise on the list of the country's top 500 enterprises. CITS has 14 foreign subsidiary companies around the world and total assets of 5 billion yuan. CITS has over 20 regional branches around China, and CITS (Guilin) is one of these. CITS (Guilin) was founded in 1959, and was the first branch of CITS outside of Beijing. Some years ago, as a result of the economic reform strategy of the central government, all regional branches were privatized and established as private companies.

CITS Guilin is now an independent company and operates its own multi-language websites with the main website being China Highlihghts which services the English market. 

1. If you suffer any loss because we fail to deliver the services, or to meet the service quality standards
outlined in the contract.

2. If you suffer any loss because the service quality standard in our contract does not meet the standards set by government.

3. If you lose your deposit because we go out of business after your bookings are confirmed.

4. If the National Tourism Bureau decides you should be refunded.

1. If weather conditions, force majeure or other elements beyond our control prevent us from delivering the agreed services.

2. If you do not take reasonable steps to protect your belongings, and personal security.

3. If you do not make reasonable efforts to meet the schedule.

4. If you willingly become involved in any illegal, violent or dangerous activities.

5. If you dot not make a claim within 90 days.

6. If the dispute has been submitted to the court.

7. If personal injury or property loss is suffered though the fault of the traveler.

Methods of Payment
We are now able to offer 3 methods of Payment:
1. Visa or Master Card secure online payment via PayPal.
2. Visa or Master Card by fax
3. Wire transfer.
Cash payment, travelers' check and company check is applicable upon special request, but personal checks cannot be accepted.

1.Visa or Master Card secure online payment via PayPal.When you receive our proposal with quotation, in the email body, you will see a 'PAY NOW' symbol, just click the Visa/Master Card PAY NOW symbol on the email payment request and you will be taken to the secure PAYPAL web site to make payment. If you are a PAYPAL member simply follow the usual system. If you are not a member it's easy to join and it's free!

Or if you can pay us online to our paypal account directly at pays@chinahighlights.com after logging in your account at www.paypal.com

Note: When either PayPal or China Highlights has reason to believe that the payment you made is fraudulent, we reserve the right to hold your bookings and require another method of payment.

2. Visa or Master Card by fax. When you receive our proposal with quotation, we will attach a 'Credit Card Authorization Form' with the Email for you to fill. Please open the attached file and fill out the required form, then fax it to us at 86-773-2885309 , with a copy of your credit card. If you prefer, you can scan the completed documents and email them to us. Click to see a sample of this form.
Credit Card Authorization Form in HTML format
Credit Card Authorization Form in word format

Note: This is only a guarantee of your payment; we will not charge your card until we have confirmed all the bookings.

3. Wire transfer.If you are booking your tour 30 days before your departure date, you may choose to make the payment by wire transfer. If you make payment from outside of China, please choose our US$ bank account, if you make payment from Hong Kong in HK$, please choose HK$ account, RMB account for payment made in RMB within mainland China.

When we have the tour we finalized together successfully booked, our billing department will submit'Payment Guarantee' with your credit card to Bank of China, Guilin, who will mail (snail mail) the 'Payment Guarantee' fax to the Bank of China, Hong Kong. The Bank of China Hong Kong, who is entitled to contact your bank, will 'snail mail' the fax to your bank. Upon receiving the request from Bank of China, Hong Kong, your bank then will let the charge go through from your credit card after finishing all the necessary legal processes. The whole process may take 2 to 3 weeks, so, it will take the same amount of time before you can see the charge from your credit card.

If you see that there is no bill to your Credit Card that does not mean that there is something wrong with the confirmation of your reservation.

When we have the tour we finalized together successfully booked, our billing department will submit'Payment Guarantee' with your credit card to Bank of China, Guilin, who will mail (snail mail) the 'Payment Guarantee' fax to the Bank of China, Hong Kong. The Bank of China Hong Kong, who is entitled to contact your bank, will 'snail mail' the fax to your bank. Upon receiving the request from Bank of China, Hong Kong, your bank then will let the charge go through from your credit card after finishing all the necessary legal processes. The whole process may take 2 to 3 weeks, so, it will take the same amount of time before you can see the charge from your credit card.

If you see that there is no bill to your Credit Card that does not mean that there is something wrong with the confirmation of your reservation.

Actually we understand your worries to book a tour online. Any worries are reasonable. We will inform you once we receive you payment by email or fax. Also we will fax you the receipt of your payment. But we know that is not enough.

In China every travel agent is imposed to deposit a certain amount of money to a guarantee fund at the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA). We deposited RMB1,600,000.00 (about USD200,000) at the account of the China National Tourism Administration as our quality guarantee fund in case of guest complaints. So we have to serve our guests as your itinerary states. Otherwise our fund would be deducted and refunded to you if the complaint meets any breaches of items of the tourist law. Please keep the receipt your bank gives you if you wire transfer a deposit.

China Highlights currently converts Chinese currency to US Dollars for our quotations, but must charge your credit card in CNY. (See our Terms and Conditions for the current China Highlights exchange rate.) Banks and credit card companies must then buy Chinese currency at their local rate to make the payment. The rate may be more or less than our rate. Banks and credit card companies may also make a service charge for the transaction. For these reasons what appears on your bank statement may be more (or even less) than what you were expecting. Click here for an illustration.

Note: Before you pay, please check our exchange rate against your bank’s exchange rate and your bank’s transaction fee policy.

In order to make the refund to your account(via wire transfer), we need you to confirm or let us know the following info:

Requirement from our clients: Your requests of asking us to refund. The stub of your wire transfer .

Requirement from us: The English version day by day itinerary. It will cost one day if your account is in Hong Kong, if in USA and have the agent, it will be 3 days, no agent, it will be 7 days.

Yes, you will need to use the bank details below for a bank transfer.

Name: BANK OF COMMUNICATIONS, GUILIN BRANCH

Add: 28 NANHUAN ROAD, GUILIN, GUANGXI, CHINA

Acct#: 4530 08010 01014 1027317 

Swift Code: COMMCNSHGLN

Company: Guilin China International Travel Service LTD

Company Add: 11 BINJIANG Road, Guilin, China 541002

All currencies, except JPY, USD, EUR, and HKD, can be processed using the above bank details. There is a different account for the following four currencies: JPY, USD, EUR, and HKD. Alternatively you could pay using PayPal. Click here to see our payment guide to PayPal.

Yes, we may refund to you credit card. In order to make the refund to your credit card, we need you to confirm or let us know the following info:

1) Credit card type;

2) Credit card number;

3) Issuing Bank of the Credit card;

4) The address of the above bank;

5) Credit card holder's full name, nationality, birth date;

6) The Billing address.

When you choose our package tours with guide service included, your local guide will meet you at the airport, the railway station, the port or at the hotel. If the guide is At the airport, port or train station, the guide will hold a greeting sign with the name of one of your group member’s name on it (usually it is the name of the person who contacted with us and organized the tour). The guide will stand in the place where she/he can be easily located and seen as you come through the arrival gate. In some cases that the guide will need to meet you at the hotel at which you are staying. The guide will call you the night before to set a meeting time and place to wait for you in the lobby.

Sometimes our guide use China Highlights Meeting Sign and Your Name Sign or only use Your Name Sign

Why our guides sometimes use "China Highlights Meeting Sign and Your Name Sign" to meet you, sometimes only use your "Name sign"?

Unlike the big whole sellers who select and promote only few popular places like Beijing, Xi'an, Shanghai, Yangtze and Guilin, China Highlights provides customized travel services to every corner of China according to our client's very unique interests. China is such a big country that there are so many places that have never received any foreign tourists before, we may have not prepare our China Highlights meeting sign on some of the off-the-beaten-roads. In this case, our guide will write your name on a piece of paper to meet you (That is the Name Sign). While in popular places, our guide will use China Highlights Meeting Sign and your name sign to meet you at your arrival place.

One of Our Tour Guides"I would like to say thank you very much for the marvelous service and comfort provided by CITS Guilin and in particular I would like to congratulate our tour guide, Zhang Gao-yong on his highly informative and friendly presentation. His anecdotes and warm sense of humor greatly enhanced my appreciation of Guilin and Yangshuo. "

--Chris de Fries from Highgate WA, Australia

Zhang Gao-yong, English name John, has been a tour guide for more than 15 years. After getting his university education in Guilin, he went to Australia from 1990-1991 for further English language and tourism study. Knowledgeable and experienced, he has a good sense of humor. He loves his job and is always recommended by his tour group members.

1.Recommended guide by A & K tour and Butterfield & Robinson tour, world famous sport tour company, for both local and national guides

2.Top guide for biking and hiking in CITS of Guilin

Upon your arrival: Our guides will surely be waiting for you at the airport upon your arrival. However, if for some extraneous reason you cannot find our tour guide upon arriving at the airport, then please call our toll free number for help. It would be wise to keep a contact list with our office number on it in an accessible place in the unlikely event that you have a problem.

At scenic areas: Some of the popular tourist spots in China can be crowded during the peak seasons and China's public holidays. Some guests may lose their guide in a crowd. When you find the guide is not with you and can not find he or she in the immediate area, please follow the following steps:

 1. First of all, Don't Panic'. Relax and breathe. Realize that your guide is not far away and he or she is actively looking for you. You will be found soon.

2. Secondly, stay where you are and let the guide find you. Do not move far away. This will ensure that you are found in a timely manner.

3. Lastly, if there seems to be a problem with your guide finding you, find the nearest phone and call our free toll number and your travel advisor will help you to find the guide.

Guides speaking major European languages are available in the major tourist cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Xian and Guilin. Other language guides may be available but they need to be booked a head of time.

In smaller cities we cannot guarantee a full range of services but we are happy to make a request for you.

In most circumstances, China Highlights uses 5 star hotels for Superior Class, 4 star hotels for Deluxe Class, 3 star hotels for Tourist Class.

In some remote areas or small towns it is impossible to provide the standards of the larger cities. China Highlights will provide the best accommodation available and your travel advisor will explain the situation in detail. The cost of the hotel will be reflected in the price.

To get a quick idea of the hotel standard, please read on.

Tourist Class, 3 Star Hotel

A 3 star hotel will provide AC room, 24 hours hot water shower, clean bed, desk, drawers and closet, carpet or wood floor, telephones in every room with international direct dial(IDD), mini-bar and refrigerator, color television sets, in-house movies, music, writing materials, western and Chinese dinning rooms with English-speaking attendants, coffee shop, banquet hall or function room, buffet breakfast and bar service foreign exchange, safe deposit boxes, store, camera film developing, fax and telex service, luggage storage, 24-hour laundry and dry-cleaning, wake-up calls, shoe polishing, and taxis, accept major credit cards and medical services

In remote areas or small villages which have no star hotels, the guests house or family Inn will always be equipped with clean bed, AC room, private bathroom with hot water shower. Limited English may be available at the reception desk but it is unlikely that any other employees will speak any English.

Deluxe Class, 4 star hotel

Based on the equipments of 3 star hotels, 4 star hotels should have luxurious and spacious sound-proof rooms, low-noise toilets, and hair dryers. They should have guests and service elevators, background music, health club, swimming pool, sauna, business center, greenhouse, 24-hour doorman, babysitting services, 24-hour room service available. A guest reception and assistant manager should be available in the lobby 24 hours a day. Laundry should be returned by next day. The restaurants in four-star hotels should provide two kinds of Chinese food. Bar service should be available to one am. There should be a 24-hur coffee shop and a breakfast and dinner buffet. A clinic should be on-site. A business center with photocopying, typing and translation services should be available. (However there are some exceptions in Shanghai and Hong Kong since they have limited space they can not provide swimming pools). English should be available at the reception desk and other employees may speak limited English.

Superior Class, 5 star hotel

Five-Star hotels are usually palatial with huge lobbies, their standards not quite matching the best of Paris or New Year, but very close. Service should be better than the four-star hotels described above. There are many hotels of five-star international standard, just as good as hotels in Washington or Ottawa except for the standard of English. Some hotels have their own fleets of Mercedes limousines of Toyota vans that make regular runs to the airport or city center. At least two hotels have Rolls Royce. Many have executive floors with concierges, free continental breakfasts, and fast check-in. Many have magnificent ball rooms and lobbies and cater to foreign business people on expense accounts. They have the best western food and probably the best Chinese food in town, and the most luxurious breakfast buffets. Some leave chocolates on your pillow, or a rubber ducky on your bathtub, nice litter touches that bring a smile.

The Chinese hotel star are determined by China National Tourism Bureau with a very strict standard. However, please keep in mind that, China Highlights Travel do not choose hotels for our clients only based on hotel stars which was given by China National Tourism Bureau, we choose hotels for our clients based on many other factors as well, for example, feed back from our clients, location of the hotels, management of the hotels, market preference of the hotels (for example, some hotels are very experienced in serving Chinese clients but not Western Guests) and so on. English will be available at the reception desk and other employees should be able to speak English.

Yes, unfortunately, hotels in Beijing do not operate the air-conditioning in spring and autumn. There are two reasons for this:

1. The government requires that all businesses conserve energy and will take action against organizations that do not comply.

2. They believe that the temperatures in spring and autumn are generally acceptable and therefore do not believe that air-conditioning is required.

China Highlights has no control over this situation.

• Price
  We offer great prices because we get great deals form the Hotels. We are a travel agency with a substantial presence throughout China. We have built up good over many years with hotels in all of the major cities in China. They value our business and therefore provide great service as well as process to our customers.
• Service
  All enquires and bookings at China Highlights are handled by real people, on the ground in China. We have negotiated all of our deals in person so we have a personal relationship with each hotel we promote. Price and ratings are not always a reliable guide to quality in China. We only offer hotels that provide quality product that is value for money. Do you need any other travel services? As a full service travel agency we can take care of your every need from airport pickups, flight tickets, tours and guides.
• Reliability
  Finding a travel agent that you can trust is not always easy. We have been in business since early 1998, and we are a subsidiary of CITS Guilin, who has been in existence since 1959. We are big enough to meet all your needs and small enough to care. We offer value for money to our clients and responsibility to our suppliers. We are also registered members of major travel industry associations such as USTOA, PATA, IATA, CATS. Read more about our company here.

We realize that circumstance change and therefore we have developed a cancellation which we believe is very fare. Check it our here

If this page still can not solve all you questions, please contact us
by Phone ( 86-773-288-9066/9718)
or email us at: service@chinahighlights.com