jennytong Like 0

We stayed in Hangzhou for less than a day on September 11, coming by bus from Tunxi in the morning, and leaving with a late evening flight to Guilin. Since we didn’t have a hotel there and we had our luggage with us all day, we decided it would be best to hire a guide with a car to store the luggage and show us around. We found Jenny on Synotrip and hired her to be our guide for the day. This was a great success - Jenny was terrific and made our day in Hangzhou an incredibly enjoyable one!

Jenny waited for us at the bus station, showed us to her car which fit all of our luggage, and off we went to tour Hangzhou. We went to the Lingyin Temple with the Buddhist rock carvings first, which was beautiful and very interesting. We had a very good lunch nearby, recommended by Jenny. We then continued to Longjing tea plantations and visited the Tea Museum there, which also offered free tea tasting of few different kinds of local tea. Later we visited the Liuhe Pagoda and the park around, and spent much of the afternoon around the scenic West Lake. At the end of the day we had a short stroll on Heifeng Old Street for some souvenir shopping, and then Jenny drove us to the airport for our flight. By the time we said goodbye we felt we made a new friend in China.

Jenny was a great young lady, very nice, friendly, and intelligent, and very knowledgeable. She shared a lot of information with us about all that we saw, the history, culture, and more. In the many conversations we had with Jenny throughout the day we learnt a lot not only about Hangzhou (which we loved – it’s a wonderful city), but also about life in Hangzhou and in China in general, which was a great added value to us and extremely interesting.

We highly recommend Jenny as a guide!

Rivi & Ben Ben-Yehuda,
St. Louis, MO. USA.

We spent a day in Hangzhou on 29 May with Jenny and had a great time.

Jenny met  us at the Hangzhou Station exit with an unmissable sign, and our adventure started from here.

Caught a taxi to Hu Xueyuan's Former Residence and spent over an hour hour wandering around one of the most stunning private residences of last century (built in 1872) that you will find in China.  Jenny's informative commentary gave us a wonderful insight into customs of the period.  More importantly, Jenny kept us from wandering in circles, as the residence is massive and spectacular. If you visit Hangzhou and don't see this place you will be missing something very special in your China travels.

A quick walk from the Residence to the Drum Tower, and then along to the Old Town's main street.  Jenny took us into a noodle restaurant that was pretty much for locals, and knocked out a very cheap and tasty meal for less than we paid for coffees later on.  Shopping opportunities abound in the Old Town, and we made several purchases before visiting the famous Hu Qing Yu Tang Museum of Traditional Chinese Medicines.  Another quick taxi ride, this time to the West Lake which was flooded with tourists walking across the bund. Jenny got us tickets for one of the cheaper and more leisurely lake cruises, which was a relaxing way to soak up all around.  Lots to see in the lake area, and our schedule was never going to do it justice because we were on a mission to purchase a pure silk quilt  this time in China; so off we went again by taxi - now to the National Silk Museum of China.  This is a free museum and we had much of it to ourselves.  That said, the quality of the exhibits was superb and we enjoyed our time looking and learning before making that sought after quilt purchase, which was about US$100 cheaper than we could get it in Australia.

Next was a 2rmb bus ride into the city's lakeside area where we perused  a high-end shopping precinct and took coffee at Starbucks (only because they had free wi-fi), as the world passed by.  Another stroll through shopping malls and the lakeside restaurant area before catching another bus, then a meal at the railway station to end our day.

Jenny made the whole experience simple and seamless.  Never a worry for us as Jenny had our day under control, and was flexible enough to change things around a bit as occasionally we spent more time somewhere than planned.  Jenny's English was excellent and we communicated perfectly throughout the day. 

Jenny told us that some travellers want to have a private car available for their Hangzhou tours.  We spent nearly 10 hours with Jenny - it was a very long day for us all but went to soon - and probably 30 minutes of that was in taxis or buses, costing us about US$10 in total for the day.  Jenny gave us a real taste of what it's like to travel within Hangzhou like the locals would, and these experiences were quite memorable.  We cannot praise her more for making this a special day.

I traveled to China for 2 weeks with my 12-year old son.  Jenny was waiting for us at the train station in Hangzhou and provided tour guide services for our 1-day stay in Hangzhou. She was absolutely great.  I had prepared my tour and she helped review the sites I wanted to visit in advance and provided good insight.  She took us all over by different means of transportation.  She was knowledgeable and fun to be with.  She was great with my son and attentive to us when we were tired and needed a break.  For lunch she suggested a very nice restaurant.  At night, she took us to the West Lake show and bought tickets for us, waited until we exited and took us back to the train station.

It was wonderful to spend the day with her.  She is an outstanding professional, speaks English fluently and connected with us at a very personal level, making our experience even more enjoyable.  If I ever make it to Hagzhou, Jenny would be the first one I would call in preparation for my visit!

Thank you Jenny for an unforgettable day.

I highly recommend Jenny Tong as a guide, and have already recommended her to my friends here in Canada. I booked her to take me on a personal tour of the Lingyin and Jingci Buddhist temples and the Xiling calligraphy society. I'm so glad I did. At the temples, she was able not only to give me historical information and explain various figures to me, but also to give me a sense of how Buddhism is practiced today in the Hangzhou area. I will always remember our visit to Jingci Temple, where she found the few remaining columns from the temple wrecked during the Cultural Revolution. 

I have sometimes have trouble with climbing or standing for long periods—she was very careful with me throughout, and this enabled me to have a terrific day. She is an exceptionally kind person, very knowledgeable, and able to give you a sense of things are seen from Hangzhou itself—all in all, a wonderful companion. She seems very flexible—able to accommodate different needs and to change plans on the fly.

I could not have enjoyed the experience more, and would recommend her to anyone. I have nothing but wonderful memories of the day I spent with her.

-Andy Patton, Toronto, Canada

Xiao Tong, thank you so much for the wonderful help and guidance you showed to my mother, father, aunt and me and my husband. They had such a wonderful time in Hangzhou and they are still talking about how caring and helpful you were!

Because my parents are elderly and they had specific cultural locations they wanted to visit in Hangzhou, I was worried I would not be able to find a group tour to suit their needs. Jenny's tour of Hangzhou turned out to be the ideal choice. Jenny secured the van to drive us around for 2-1/2 days, she accompanied us from the morning to the evening, and she suggested a suitable itinerary and provided a lot of explanation and advice that we would never have gotten from a guide book. She even assisted my father up steep temple steps, or advised alternate routes when they were tired. My parents and aunt were able to take their time, walk slowly and spend extra time at special places of interest while skipping other sites.

All in all, we had a great experience and would definitely visit Hangzhou again. Thank you to Jenny Tong for being so thorough and accommodating to our needs!

I recommend her highly!

-Anna Lee

Jenny is very good, responsible and sociable person. When we arrived in Shanghai, my flight was late by 2 hours, but Jenny all the time waiting for us. At the meeting she was very polite, asked whether we are hungry, or we do not want breakfast, because it takes 3 hours to get  Hanhzhou by bus. When we arrived in Hanhzhou, we had to solve some cases. She do her best to help us. So for two days we have solved all our cases in Hangzhou with her help. She is realy the best. I have only pleasant memories of my trip.Thank you very much Jenny.