Hot Air Balloon safety...

The hot air balloon trip over Yangshuo was going to be one of my highlights of a forthcoming china trip.

However, in doing some research on hotels, the li river retreat has this to say:

';We have stopped booking hot air balloon rides at the Retreat for safety reasons. There have been some bad near misses recently and the company operating these hot air balloons are not upgrading their equipment. This means that we cannot trust them to take care of your welfare';

li-river-retreat.com/鈥alloon

Can anyone help shed any light on this, or ease my concerns over safety?

Many Thanks

Hot Air Balloon safety...

Here is a bit more information from yangers.

yangers.com/Yangshuo_Hot_Air_Ballooning.php

';Warning: The balloon rides have had several accidents of late with pilot flames going out and balloons landing at a faster rate than would be recommended.';

Yangers.com and the Li River used to be (and maybe still are) run by the same guy, Alf.

A friend of mine went on a balloon ride at Chinese New Year this year and she enjoyed it a lot. I guess it is a thing you have to decide for yourself. I think that the Li River doesn%26#39;t want to organise a balloon trip for you, incase there are problems later.

Hot Air Balloon safety...

I should add that if there is one person you can trust in Yangshuo it is Alf, so maybe balloon rides should be put on hold for a while.

Thanks drumbrake, hopefully the situation will improve by October when I hope to visit.

I found this little You Tube clip a while ago - Ballooning in Yangshuo. Funny

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V01gnjGrglk

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