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

Contact Me

Reviews of Elena Luo

My wife and I are from the US and looked for a guide to make sure we got the most out of our trip to Yunnan Province. What a fortunate day it was when we found Elena's information online and she happened to be available! Not only does she know the region like the back of her hand, but the car and (very calm and talented) driver she arranged worked out very well, even continuing to carry us about even after our time with Elena, to a VIP tour of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. Elena was just as good as the very excellent guide we hired in Siem Reap to see Angkor Wat - knowledgeable, tolerant of my constant questions, and going above and beyond the call of duty. She arranged pickups, drop-offs, tours, lodging, meals -- even medicine for my wife's cold. The restaurants she picked were the most enjoyable meals we had in the region, and the lodgings among the most memorable. She made sure we participated in the process, so we learned how and what to order at restaurants anywhere in China. All in all, a great experience and we recommend Elena without hesitation. Read less

acadams

April 25, 2017

I hired Elena as a guide for a trip to Lijiang, travelling as a group of 3 with my mother and girlfriend....Read more

I hired Elena as a guide for a trip to Lijiang, travelling as a group of 3 with my mother and girlfriend. I initially contacted her via WeChat, and within a few hours, she sent me a detailed itinerary for our trip via email, including a very transparent list of all costs (including herself, driver, each park entry, etc). I was in touch with her for the next few days prior to arriving in China, and her communication was extremely clear and she was exceptionally responsive. On top of this, her English is 100% fluent, something which can be rare in China. Having been to Lijiang before, I can say that the itinerary that she produced was superior to what I had previously seen, including less traveled scenic spots, and less overly touristy activities. During the trip, i'd highlight the following points: 1 - she was always on time and professional. 2 - she was kind and considerate - I happened to mention one food that I liked, and she went and bought it for us when she had a spare minute. 3 - she took excellent care of my Mum - my mother experienced some pain in her feet, and Elena gave her own shoes to her to make her more comfortable, and said she could keep them - she did not ask for any compensation for this. 4 - she took us to excellent local restaurants and was always considerate of costs, as if she was spending the money herself. On multiple occasions she would flag to us if she felt something might be expensive. Overall i'd give her 10/10 and strongly recommend anyone else to use her. Read less

razg101

February 20, 2017

Elena was our guide for a tour through Yunnan – Dali, Shaxi, Lijiang and Shangri-La. Despite our large group of 19 people aged from 12 to 72, Elena was attentive to all and always took varying needs into account. She is smart, cheerful and very knowledgeable about the area and the various groups of native people who live there. Elena worked closely with me via email to organise the details of the tour. She was able to offer valuable suggestions but did not react negatively if I did not accept all of them. Those that I did go with certainly enhanced our trip and improved my original itinerary. The accommodation that Elena organised for us was very comfortable and the meals in the various restaurants were superb. She was able to deal with any on the run requests to deviate from the organised program with calm and humour and organised alternate activities for the oldies who couldn’t cope with some of the sights as well as the younger ones. When one of our group became very ill and needed to fly home early, Elena went above and beyond, organising flights and transfers and even put the flights on her own credit card because ours were not acceptable to the airlines at the time. Elena gave us very good advice about how to manage the altitude on the way to and in Shangri-La and people only had minor issues that did not hinder them in any way. I’m sure that tackling the altitude gradually from Dali to Shangri-La was of great assistance in this regard. We all love China and are already planning to return. For most of us, it was our second visit within 18 months. We look forward to engaging Elena again on our next visit. Have no misgivings about booking her for your tour. You will not regret it. Thank you, Elena, for a job very well done and I hope your business is continuing to grow!! Cheers, Lynne Read less

lynnemon

January 22, 2017

My wife and I just returned from a trip to Lijiang and Shangrila, Oct 2016. We contacted Elena before our trip enquiring about her guide service....Read more

My wife and I just returned from a trip to Lijiang and Shangrila, Oct 2016. We contacted Elena before our trip enquiring about her guide service. Unfortunately, she was fully booked during that time but offered to arranged one of her drivers (Mr. Wang) to take us on our tour. Elena suggested a tour itinerary and helped customize it to our liking. Elena was very kind and accommodating and very willing to make changes based on our tour preferences. She then ensured that Mr. Wang was fully updated and made herself available to us at any time during our tour. The tour and all arrangements went very smoothly with the highlights being Tiger Leaping Gorge hike, Spruce Meadow, Black Dragon Pool and a lesser travelled Naxi village. Mr. Wang is a very calm and accommodating person. He was very flexible with changes and adjustments that we made on the way, even recommending some alternatives that made our tour even better. He is an excellent driver, very knowledgeable, answering all of our many questions. He was a delight to travel with. We had the pleasure of meeting Elena during our tour with Mr. Wang and we would highly recommend Elena and Mr. Wang to anyone that is planning a tour of Yunnan. Read less

danno

November 1, 2016

My wife and I spent 12 days in China mid-late March 2016, a few days in Beijing, then 7 days touring with Elena in Yunnan province, then a few days in Chengdu. Overall, we had a great time! China has really geared up for tourists, and we were very pleasantly surprised at the quality of the tourist facilities (particularly the toilets, which I had feared would not be up to western standards) and the welcoming attitude of virtually all the Chinese people we met.

We used private guides throughout - the 'big city' guides were all very 'street-wise' and quite business-like, but Elena is entirely different, she is a country girl at heart, and enjoys the simple things in life.

Travelling with Elena was a real pleasure in so many ways, and our visit to Yunnan Province ranks with our best travel experiences anywhere in the World. It might be easier if I just give you some 'bullet point' type comments about Elena:

- very knowledgeable, helpful, flexible, enthusiastic
- excellent English
- laughs a lot, fun to be with
- considerate to your needs and preferences; she will take you where you want to go (not the other way around)
- very easy to get on with
- politee, respectful
- completely honest

Elena took us to places off-the-beaten track, and we had experiences and encounters with Chinese people that very few tourists would normally have. As we wanted to eat local food, everyday Elena would take us for lunch to a local restaurant and we had delicious food. By 'restaurant' I mean a very small roadside-type eating place, where you select what you want to eat from a cabinet and it's cooked in front of you. We would always have lunch together with Elena and her driver, who didn't speak any English at all. His Chinese name translated as 'king' so we called him Mr King. He was absolutely brilliant. Like Elena in many ways, kind and considerate, as well as being an extremely good and safe driver. Never once did I fear an accident, and he never once exceeded the speed limit.

I could go on, but you probably are getting my drift by now! We had a great time with Elena, and I can't imagine there being a better guide to Yunnan than her. So, I have absolutely no hesitation in recommending her to you.

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James from England

June 15, 2016

My wife, son, and I were very fortunate to find Elena available to guide us for 6 days from Dali, through Shaxi, Lijiang, and into Shangri-La in April, 2016....Read more

My wife, son, and I were very fortunate to find Elena available to guide us for 6 days from Dali, through Shaxi, Lijiang, and into Shangri-La in April, 2016. She brought the towns alive with her knowledge of the sites, and stories of the ethnic peoples, their customs, and delicious foods. The restaurants she took us to were wonderful. She is fun to be with because of her kind soul, calming nature, humor, and she also has a good singing voice. Very attentive to our needs at our pace. We did do a lot and Elena was with us for long hours each day. It was a delight to go to places off the beaten path, visiting with local families in their homes. All were very welcoming. Even the "Tourist" sights that we visited were enhanced with her guidance. We have no hesitation in highly recommending Elena to guide your trip, for a truly memorable adventure.

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roger2016

May 3, 2016