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Elena Luo avatar
$200 Per Day
$20 Per Hour
Your Local Expert on the Off-Beaten Trail & Leisure Tour in Yunnan

Elena Luo

1470 points
Member for 14 years 10 months
39 reviews
Gender:
Female
English:
Fluent
Transportation:
Private bus, Public transportation, Bicycle
Services:
Tour guide, Interpreter, Business assistant, Car rental, Airport/train station pickup, Ticket booking, Hotel reservations

About Me

 

Hello, Dear Travellers!

Welcome to my beautiful homeland, Yunnan!

This is Elena from Yunnan. I have been a profeesional private guide throughout Yunnan since 2009. I offer tailored tours to Kunming, Dali, Lijiang and Shangrila, as well as to Dongchuan Red Land, Yuanyang Rice-Terrace Fields. My focus is to take people to places where it's authentic to absorb the traditional local culture, enjoy beautiful scenery, try wonderful local food, and intereact with beautiful people along the way. Every day is such excitement!

I grew up in some deep mountains in Yunnan. My mother was planting rice when i was on the way. She couldn't wait to go home but gave birth under a big rock, by the patty fields. My childhood was lots of fun in the wild mountains. But every time when I looked up and saw the white clouds above the blue mountains, there is an urge from inside, the longing for going beyond, and see the unknown world.
So i studied very hard in school, and finally became the first university student throughout my little town. And i was feeling so much gratitude towards my humble parents, who supported me all the way through, which was unbelievable for a country family at that time.

After getting an English-Teaching degree from Yunnan Normal University, amazingly, I was sent to Thailand and started teaching Mandarin there. From 2012-14, I was spending lots of time in the tropical bushes, meditating with monks and fellows from different parts of the world. Beside Thailand I also traveled a bit to some other interesting countries in southeast Asia, such as Srilanka, Myanmar, etc..

While being a guide, living in the most beautiful Northwest Yunnan, i have been learning also as a person who stands on my own feet, facing mental/physical issues from different aspects of life, and went through difficlut times searching for the way out of my isolated world where i was so afriad to face the world outside, until i finally met my teacher, who is so kind and wise, and willing to live with us, and help us seeing, facing and solving our own issues. We live together as a community around my teacher now in Dali, me, my teacher's family, and my teacher's other students and their children. We focus ourselves in building a cultural/art community, which shows the Middle Way of being, that was described by Confucious around 500 B.C., and practiced by generations.. So as we are learning, we share such possible ways of living with people who come across. We offer Caligraphy lessons, which was an meditative art for ancient Chinese scholars; We offer accupuncture treatment, to help people who have muscle pains, headache, and who have difficulty to sleep; Moreover, we read the ancient saintly people's scripture everyday, and we share books of ancient version; we have cultural space and bookstores where you can soak yourselves in, and start a conversation which might light up each other's eyes..

Meanwhile, am still continuing with the YunnanToursByLocal, arranging tours for clients from different backgrounds with different needs, sending people excellent and suitable guides and drivers with different transportation, and get busy on the road from time to time..

We Look forward to seeing you here!

With a smile,
Elena

Reviews of Elena Luo

I really don't have enough words to thank Elena and Jack, our driver on the Yunnan route, both for their kindness, professionalism and responsibility....Read more
I really don't have enough words to thank Elena and Jack, our driver on the Yunnan route, both for their kindness, professionalism and responsibility. I had a long correspondence with Elena to organize the 14 days trip through Yunnan and she always answered immediately solving all the doubts I had and advising me the best. Jack was not only our driver, but also a perfect guide who allowed us to know more deeply the culture and history of China. My friends and I feel very fortunate to have contacted Elena's agency and to have had Jack as our xofer, guide and friend. Discovering the well-preserved corners of Yunnan is a real privilege. Thanks, Elena! Thanks, Jack! Margarida Read less
September 8, 2019
My first contact with Elena was to ask her to organize a 15-days tour across Yunnan for a group of eight. I asked her for a driver and accommodation and I gave her a very plain itinerary and a budget....Read more
My first contact with Elena was to ask her to organize a 15-days tour across Yunnan for a group of eight. I asked her for a driver and accommodation and I gave her a very plain itinerary and a budget. From the first moment, she answered to all my doubts and comments giving me quick and detailed answers. She changed our itinerary when necessary, improving it and including very interesting places and adapting it to our initial plan. All the accommodation she booked for us was perfect, adjusted to our budget, always in the center, and close to everything. Elena bought also our train tickets and delivered them to our hotel and she hired two vans with drivers for us. Both drivers were very helpful, reliable, experienced and professional. Our trip was a memorable and great experience thanks to her. Thank you very much!! Read less
5
July 31, 2019
Elena was amazing! I went on a private tour with her and she was extremely knowledgeable, organized and fun to be around! I had an amazing 3 day tour with her and I would highly recommend her!
5
July 26, 2019
I contacted Elena for a 7 day trip in Yunnan with my elderly dad....Read more
I contacted Elena for a 7 day trip in Yunnan with my elderly dad. Since it was our first visit, we were flexible on the places to visit and left all the planning to Elena. From the first contact, Elena has always been quick to response and answer all queries. She was very clear in all the breakdown of prices and her transparency made me decide to trust her and went ahead to confirm her services. She found a very experienced driver Mr Wong to take care of us during the trip. Elena had rich experience working with South East Asian clients, hence was familiar with our habits and preferences. Throughout the trip, she was very attentive to what we need, asked my father constantly if it was too much walking, adjusted the itinerary whenever necessary according to weather conditions, according to the crowd during the day to ensure we had a smooth trip with minimum waiting and queueing time. She was also very good in explaining about the history of the places we visited, if there were questions she could not address she would not hestitate to ask other locals to satisfy our curiosity. Elena provided a very thorough service and made our vacation a very memorable one. Mr Wong was also very knowledgeable in many of the topics and discussions during the trip making them very good companions. I will definitely recommend Elena and Mr Wong to anyone interested to have a memorable vacation in Yunnan! Read less
5
January 23, 2019
My name is Rafael and I have travelled through Yunnan with the help of Elena. I want to thanks her for the marvelous trip. I will neve forget it. Special mention for Wumu area....Read more
My name is Rafael and I have travelled through Yunnan with the help of Elena. I want to thanks her for the marvelous trip. I will neve forget it. Special mention for Wumu area. Without her I would not have discovered this beautiful land. I highly recomend her as a guide in Yunnan province and wishing to meet her again in a next trip. Read less
5
December 17, 2018
Myself and a friend travelled with Elena to the Yuanyang rice terraces in April 2018. What a spectacular trip and Elena was a big part of that!...Read more
Myself and a friend travelled with Elena to the Yuanyang rice terraces in April 2018. What a spectacular trip and Elena was a big part of that! She was always on time and once she realized that we were willing to try almost anything as far as food was concerned, she took us to local but safe restaurants with delicious food, at very reasonable prices. My travel partner was a vegan, but Elena had no trouble accommodating us. Elena was flexible and checked in with us regularly to ensure we were seeing what we wanted to see. It was easy to arrange things with her and she arranged for the driver - he was also great - conscientious, prompt, and steady. I would not hesitate to travel with Elena again. Read less
5
July 3, 2018

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