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

colinleekl

February 26, 2015

Accommodating, intelligent, knowledgeable, refined and beautiful inside and out is the way I would describe Elena. Her tours are tailor made to fit your every need....Read more

Accommodating, intelligent, knowledgeable, refined and beautiful inside and out is the way I would describe Elena. Her tours are tailor made to fit your every need. I was impressed with her spiritual seeking as both a human being as well as a guide. I was interested in exploring the most remote temples and that experience she fullfilled. I don't believe anyone but Elena could have orchestrated a more rewarding experience for me. Her very presence at the different temples and monasteries caused the caretakers to invite us to dine with them in the most extraordinary settings of the ancient ruins of these centuries old structures. Elena is very humble and her statement about herself on this website reflects this virtue. She is gifted as a tour guide. She is ambitious yet seeks to live modestly. Her drivers were kind and careful and helpful. I cannot imagine having made my way through her land without having secured her as my guide. There are no words that even begin to reflect the true concern she has for her travelers, their safety and the certainty of having fun exploring whatever her clients desire. May you have her guide you on a mountain top or in the midst of the biggest cities; you will be lead on a comfortable journey that will embed in your memory like the sparkle of a diamond.

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vennorman

October 28, 2014

I'm living in Thailand and want to travel in different way than other Thai peoples. Then I started looking for local tour guide in China, I deal with local guide 2-3 guys before made final choosing. Elena had shown a lot good attributes that we are looking for from tour guide eg. good responsive, good itinerary provided, trustworthy. During the trip, she took us to a good restaurant, good hotel in reasonable price. She took care my mom, my nephew, actually everyone in the group. So she's a good guide for family, everyone in our group had impressed her a lots. So I will introduce her to my friend who want to go to Yunnan, sure. Amnuaychoke Read less

amnuaychoke

December 31, 2011

I live in Beijing and i was looking for a short break and decided to visit Yunnan, after asking a good Beijing friend for an introduction to a good tour guide in the Lijiang area she recommended me to Ms. Elena Luo, i contacted her and she was available, i booked the flight and the hotel by myself, she toke care of a Jeep with driver, i told her that i did not want to see the touristic highlights but the countryside and the real life of the local people, the 3 of us have been touring around on September 3,4 and 5 and they have given me a great time, one night we stayed in a local hostel in Shaxi town, i loved it! we were lucky to have good weather almost all the time, enjoyed excellent local food and i made beautiful pictures. There is so much more to see in Yunnan, therefore i am planning to go there again next year summer and for sure i will ask Elena to be our guide again, actually i feel like we became very good friends in just a few days, she is so open and willing to tell about the peoples life and their difficulties and their happiness. I can highly recommend her as your future guide!

Arie Boeve, Beijing.

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Ali

November 20, 2011

The knowledgeable guide...Read more

The knowledgeable guide
We hired Elena Luo for a week tripping around North West Yunnan. Elena was a truly great guide and is gold. As well as seeing the usual popular spots, but with local knowledge that was fascinating, Elena also showed us many out of the way places which are not in the guide books and became the highlight of our trip. Elena's knowledge, passion and love for her country is something that was an experience in itself. She also made many arrangements on are way around and these were without fail an enjoyable experience. When considering traveling in Yunnan, hire Elena and this will truly add to your experience.

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pallotola

September 27, 2011

5-star for Elena!!!

5-star for Elena!!!

We feel very fortunate to have Elena help us with our journey from Lijiang to Dali in early July. We communicated with Elena by email from the U.S., she always responded promptly. She arranged for a comfortable bus for our group of 9 people, the driver was very skilled in navigating through the various terrain and traffic issues. We had a wonderful time visiting Shibaoshan (loved the monkeys), a pleasant stay at Teacher Wu’s guesthouse (highly recommend, his website is Teahorse.net) outside of Shaxi, and a fun visit to Dali’s Old Town. Elena is one of the best guides we had during our 2-week trip to China. We wish we were able to have her the whole time. Her English is excellent, she has an amazing knowledge of the Yunnan province, but most of all – she is a lovely person. You should definitely have Elena guide you if you visit Lijiang, you will have a great time!!!

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Blueivy

July 19, 2011