Tel. +44 (0)1273 600030 (UK)
Community
We hire local guides and drivers in each destination we travel to, and more importantly, we hire park rangers in Qinling Panda Nature Reserve to guide our trekking in the mountains, and we pay panda experts in Chengdu Panda Breeding Center for them to give our clients a talk. Although China is developing very fast, the funds allocated to nature conservation is never enough to raise the living standards of the park rangers or scientists. By paying for their service, we will help to make sure they are more content with their work.
In the nature reserve, most of the food supplies came from the local village at the foot of the mountain, which will help the local farmers, as well as the farmer-run restaurants to make more money by not leaving their hometown. We require all food supplied is green, without using fertilizer or pesticides.
Along the trip, we arrange visits to shops which sell local handicrafts: In Hanzhong, we visit a traditional paper making workshop, in Xi’an, a shadow puppet manufacturing studios, and in Chengdu, an opera prop store. In other tourist areas, we give clients suggestion booklets with local product introductions to encourage them to spend money wisely.
In Xi’an or in the nature reserve, we will have plenty of opportunities to visit a local family and understand their local customs or tradition. We encourage our clients to bring some meaningful gifts to thank the hosts, like books and stationeries.
Our tour managers will give detailed briefings to our clients, as well as our local staff on our policy of respecting the local culture, the different practices in each destination, so that clients will be able to adjust their behaviour accordingly.
Environment
Each departure will be limited to less than 10 people, as more than 10 people, we will generate too much impact on the lives of the wild panda and other wild animals in the nature reserve.
We will prepare reusable fork or chopsticks instead of using throwaway chopsticks. Our tour manager will bring along trash bags to make sure no littering on the journey.
We invite every traveller who books a holiday via us to send in a review. Because we don't run the holidays they're completely independent and unedited... remember to read between the lines though, as two people on the same holiday can have different views!
