Mike & I were really pleased to read about YANA very soon after we arrived in Shanghai last August.

YANA organise exactly the sort of trip we would plan ourselves. The advantage of membership is that you take all the 'leg work' & potential stress out of organising all the details of these trips while we benefit from the opportunity to visit 'out of the way' places in a style which suits our temperament and budget. Traveling in a group requires a certain amount of patience and flexibility. Your calm, helpful manner quickly puts people at ease, confident that they're going to have a good time!

So far we have been to the Hakka Earth Buildings, the Great Wall treking, Orange Picking, Night Walking in Shanghai, and Guangdong and we look forward to doing many more. YANA has also offered us help organising independent excursions with travel and accommodation recommendations.

Whether it's been a day out or a week away we have felt all the places well worth visiting. The change of scenery and atmosphere and pace as well as the company helps to 'recharge' the batteries.

Mike & Lucy Bennett, British

Already the first click on YANA’s website gave me the impression for that what I am looking for in China: Beautiful places out of the big cities and the interesting faces of Chinas people.

Almost from the beginning when I came to Shanghai to settle down for the next 3 years I had the wish to get to know China from a different site. So I decided to travelling by myself, but after some time I realized that a lot of people arrive the same time at the same place like me and there is not left some space for travel adventure I like to make – to discover paths not almost everyone is going and get to know Chinese people in their natural environment.

My first trip with YANA was the “orange picking” day tour on the Changxing Island in the Yangtze delta, after this tour I realized that YANA is giving me the possibility to experience the different way I want to travel in China.

And after my second trip with YANA within the province Yunnan to see different Minority groups and beautiful mountain sceneries I felt very happy when I arrived back home in Shanghai with gorgeous pictures in my head and of course on my picture card. Thank you YANA ?

Silke Niestroj--German

I have been living in Shanghai just over a year now. I like the city life but sometimes, I really feel the need to get away from all the hustling and bustling of Shanghai. Being a Swiss, I do miss the mountains and the lakes in particular.

I did two trips with YANA so far – Camping in Zhejiang province and a trip to Guangdong over Chinese New Year. I certainly want to do more this year. I especially appreciate that YANA organizes trips off the beaten tracks. This gives me the opportunity to see the “other China”, which I don’t find during business trips and at the major tourist sites. The other great thing is that the YANA trips are always lots of fun. On both trips we had a great group, all kind of ages, backgrounds and nationalities. And last but not least, the tour leaders make you feel like traveling with friends.

Stefan Traber, Swiss

Shanghai is great! I love the place, the atmosphere, the buzzing city life and the energy seemingly coming out of every living soul. But let's face it, as much as you like the city, taking a break from it is as vital as enjoying its daily charms, if it's only for seeing blue sky and giving a break to passive-smoking-like Shanghai air quality breathing. So when it comes to making a choice about taking a holiday, while you always wanted to see this or that famous place, you soon find out that 1,000,000 Chinese tourists had the same "original" idea as you... After also having done it once... or twice... I was really in need of an alternative way to travel, far from the crowds, from yellow/red flags groups and if possible avoiding these high class hotels that I associate more to daily charmless business life.

After hearing lots about YANA trips through a YANA-addict friend, and reaching myself the critical stage where I was in vital need for a breath of fresh air (which I somehow do not find in my garden), I made a very quick decision when presented with the opportunity to visit a great place, remote from key tourist hives, making it rough, sleeping with locals in Tibetan houses, re-discovering the delights of living close to nature (...) and the promise of "tasteless or even worse food". How could I resist!? I made the jump and joined a group of 12 people - most of whom I didn't know before, and that became good friends since then - and made my first and a fantastic trip with YANA in Sichuan in May. It felt more like travelling with friends than with a commercial agency, in places I always wanted to go to but didn't dare to go to on my own. I feel I am a demanding traveller, not especially on a comfort level, but more on the authenticity of the experience. This YANA trip met and exceeded my expectations, and will for sure not be the last one.

Tanguy Pellen - French