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

We had the privilege of touring with Elena in March of 2011. I cannot imagine a more intelligent, kind, thoughtful, and well prepared tour guide who shows a deep love of the area, it’s natural beauty, and it’s people. Her English language skills are excellent. She was very patient with my questions and suggestions while planning our trip. She also presented suggestions and constructive criticism as we planned. Our driver was excellent, with a comfortable and roomy car, and a pleasant personality. Although it was not included in our negotiations, we invited Elena and our driver to join us for meals. This was wonderful, in that we were able to get to know them better and experience the unbelievable food of Yunnan in small restaurants that most non-Chinese speakers would not be able to enjoy. Our visit included Lijiang, Tiger Leaping Gorge (quick view), Shibaoshan, Shuanglang, and Dali, but this list does not adequately show the many sights that Elena was able to pack into our too-short stay. Elena was extremely knowledgeable on not only these sights, but even on the more minor stops on our trip. She entertained our questions with unending patience. Her narratives were highly content laden and entertaining. She introduced us to the many minority groups living in the area, and explained their way of life. She showed us her beautiful country with love and unrelenting energy. Elena was just wonderful as a friend and a tour guide. She practically became a member of the family! I sincerely hope our paths cross again in the future.

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jms

July 14, 2011

My family had a great time in Lijiang last month, June 2011, with Elena as our guide. She also recommended a very good driver - safe, careful and patient - who had a relatively new and well-maintained passenger van. Elena was quick to size up and understand our travel preferences from the type of activities/places that would interest us to the food. She was able to engage our 14 & 15 year-old sons, 10 year-old daughter, and their grandparents in their 70s, speaking in both English and Mandarin (grandparents are more comfortable with Mandarin). She was knowledgeable and shared with us the history and culture of Lijiang. We all "clicked" with her very well and enjoyed our meals at the local Muslim beef shops with her and the driver. She was always very thoughtful, considerate, caring and humble. When we were at the Tiger Leaping Gorge, she was constantly at my mother-in-law's side making sure she was alright while climbing up those 500-odd steps, and regularly asking if my in-laws were tired or needed a rest. She checked with us on the highest altitude we had been prior to going to the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain cableway and highlighted to us the possible altitude sickness. With Elena, we definitely enjoyed and saw much more of the old towns of Dayan and Shuhe, as well as the bustle of the local markets. Elena brought the kids & grandparents to the village and Lashi Lake while we played golf. The kids did some back-to-nature activities - they ploughed the ground with a changkul, planted seeds, fed chickens, rode on water buffaloes and horses, went on a wooden boat (and got to steer it too) and bought freshly grilled fish from another boat, ate sweet and juicy wild berries plucked from the shrubs and climbed trees! They certainly had a wonderful day! Thanks Elena, for making this a very memorable and enjoyable trip - "Da-di-da-di-da" Lijiang!

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Mellisalim

July 12, 2011

Highly recommended. We contacted Elena to be our guide in Lijiang. Although she was booked for part of the time she gave us excellent advice about customizing our itinerary in Lijiang....Read more

Highly recommended. We contacted Elena to be our guide in Lijiang. Although she was booked for part of the time she gave us excellent advice about customizing our itinerary in Lijiang. She tries to find ways to avoid the throngs of tourists that descend on Lijiang during the summer.She also took us on a one day trip that included a fun nature hike for the kids, a visit to Yuhe village ( Joseph Rock house), and a memorable horseback riding/boating adventure at Lashi Lake (my personal favorite). My seven year old and his 11 year old Chinese cousin had a great time. She also booked us an excellent driver and all the necessary tickets for our visit to Jade Dragon Snow Mountain.

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sflarry

July 11, 2011

Elena is the BEST tourguide we ever had and made our trip to Yunnan unforgetable. We had already e-mail contact before our trip and together we made a 5-day relaxing tourschedule from Lijiang-Shaxi-Dali. Elena always responded very prompt and clear. The guesthouses she recommended were great and we all loved mr Hui, our modest and kind driver. Elena let us experience Yunnan through her eyes. Her love and respect for the country, nature and people is amazing. Our 2 Chinese daughters (8 & 6 years old) were fond of her because she took plenty of time to answer all their questions and made our hikes (sometimes off the beaten track, which was great) very interesting for them by telling stories about nature and animals. Elena gave us also new food experiences, we never new Azalea’s tasted that nice. We recommend Elena to everyone. Her English is excellent so is her knowledge about Yunnan, she is cheerful, modest, patient, kind and honest. We hope to meet her again, maybe in Shangri-la when the girls are a bit older. We said goodbye with tears in our eyes ….

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Sandy K

May 23, 2011

We just returned from a holiday in Lijiang and Shangri-la with Elena as our guide. She is an excellent guide - she obviously loves Yunnan and introduced us to small villages and areas that were off the beaten tourist track. Our almost 6 year old son loved her, and she scheduled each day just right, filling it with lots of interesting things, yet giving us enough time to rest at the end of the day. Elena was also very thoughtful with her itinerary planning, and did her best to make sure our requests were accommodated. For example, we mentioned that our son loves strawberries, and when she spotted a grove of strawberry plants, she made a stop to show him strawberries growing. We also expressed an interest in trying local food, preferably vegetarian, and she brought us to a number of local restaurants that we would never have tried on our own. It was a pleasure to spend 3 days with Elena. She was cheerful, patient and kind and left us with wonderful memories of our first visit to China, and a desire to return again soon. Next time, Dali, Elena! Love, the Lee family (including Mr Why) Read less

fable

March 22, 2011

We had a very enjoyable and relaxing tour organized and led by Elena in Yunnan. Our contact with Elena began well before the trip via e-mail where we established the type and character of the trip. Elena was there to greet us at the airport on our arrival and looked after all our requests from purchasing all airline tickets, entrance to sites, and all our requests for unusual items as well. Her english , her knowledge of the plants, and local food and geography is excellent. She is proficient in the names of all local wildlife and her willingness to accomodate our requests was great!!

This was our second trip to China and I wouldn't hesitate to highly recommend Elena as your choice for a tour guide.

Thank you Elena for a fantastic vacation and good luck in all your future plans.

Mona and Gidon Yahalom