I had a really memorable day at the Great Wall and at the Ming Tombs. My tour guide was exceptional. keeping me informed and entertained all day. I even learned 5 new Chinese words and 10 written Chinese script words by the end of the day. Thanks to China Tour for making it such a worthwhile experience!..
We loved the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall, but our tour guide made our day very unenjoyable. She was like a tape recorder that only spoke when a button was pressed, and only spoke pre-recorded, memorized pieces of information. Any question from us totally threw her off and "conversation" was not part of the package. I would not define her English speaking skills as "fluent." Even though we told her where we wanted to go on the wall, and where we planned to hike (to the most scenic section), she purchased our lift tickets that took us to a different location, which made it impossible for us to go where we wanted, given our 2-hour time allotment. I was very frustrated when I realized what she had done. Once up in the lift, I was able to see more of the wall and saw the other lift that we were supposed to be on in order to drop us off in the section we wanted to see! She didn't even go with us to the wall to explain anything about it. Ours was a private tour, just my husband and me, which typically means you do not have to adhere to a rigid schedule, but can be flexible. Any time we wanted to spend less time in one place and more time in another, it totally freaked her out. For example, when we finished seeing the wall, we were to meet her at a "Farmer's House" aka restaurant for the lunch that was included in our tour price. We were too hot to eat so we wanted only something cool to drink. We didn't want our money back, just a drink in lieu of a meal. You would have thought we had asked for a miracle to be performed. We like to buy coffee table books about the places we go to. After reading through our books, we found that many of the answers she gave us to questions we asked were bogus. We didn't enjoy the Ming Tombs at all because she didn't tell us anything and we didn't know what we were looking at. She walked about 50 feet in front of us at all times, so asking questions was not even an option there. We traveled in China for 5-weeks and this day was our absolute worst, not because of the sites or the tour company, solely because of our guide being so impersonal, non-informative, uninterested in her guests, and at times rude. When booking, be very specific when requesting a guide who "speaks" your language. Make sure they also "understand" and can "converse" in your language. It will be a much more enjoyable experience...
with great impression of china's history and respect. we have read about china"s past present and future. we will like to visit the great wall of china, the forbidden city etc...
We recently visited Beijing and used ChinaTour.net for three separate day tours. Day 1 we visited Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven and the Summer Palace . Laura was our personal tour guide and despite the rushed atmosphere caused to having to see so many sites in one day, she was very informative, exceptionally helpful, and a delight to be with all day. I highly recommend personal tour guides. The next day we visited the Lama Temple, the Panda Zoo and the Hutong. This was a small group tour and turned out to be a lot of fun. The Hutongs we visited were being renovated so there was a lot of construction debris. I think its great that these areas have been declared protected and are being redone. Lunch was great, in one of the Hutong houses. The Lama Temple was gorgeous and the pandas were sleepy and cute. The tour guide was incredible and I am sorry I forgot her name. I would like to give her personal credit for making this day a great memory. Our last tour was also a personal tour. We went to the Great Wall and the Ming Tombs. We chose the Badaling site since it has the cable cars to take you to the top. I was a little disappointed in that we went to the Great Wall at the last or our tour. The sun was in our faces so any pictures I took turned out rather poor. It would have been better to go to the Wall first but it was incredible to see! During all three trips, side excursions to silk factory stores, cloissone factory stores and other preferred shops took up some of our day but there were no hard sells. Probably what was the most fun was going to the Silk Factory and Pearl Market store. This is 5 stories of shopping heaven. Resist the temptation of buying at the stores visited on the tours if you can. You can find everything you want here if you are willing to bargain. My advice? Start really really low. If we return to China, we will definately use this service again...
We had a very charged day full of surprises. We went to Ming tombs, and then our tour guide took us to a jade factory, and then because we spent lot of time in the tombs, our tour guide Cynthia suggested no to go to Mutanyu Great wall, which was very far from where we were. She took us to another part of the great wall, it was fantastic too. After that she also took us to a tea house ceremony. After that we went to the duck restaurant, we enjoyed it very much. Thank you!..
A very enjoyable day - Tour Guide Jenny very friendly and informative. Nice clean, comfortable car. Excellent lunch stop. Suggest cutback on diversions like tea house visits and focus on important elements of itinerary such as more time at Ming Tombs and Great Wall. All in all a very good experience and would recommend to anyone...
It was a wonderful day! The driver and the guide were very great. They did a real great job. Both visits were perfect. The view of the Great Wall on Victoria's Peek was absolutly amazing. If we decide to return in Beijing one day we will take your tour again and we recomand your tour to anyone who want to go there...
Nos lo pasamos muy bien, nuestra guia May era muy maja y se han portado tanto el chofer como ella muy bien con nosotros. Merece la pena. Calidad-precio. Gracias..
I had a good time on our tour to MutianYu Great Wall and to the Ming Tomb. The sights were great. The tour guide was very knowledgeable about the interesting facts of the tour. I used Hotel Guide China Tour Service to also book my Hotel in Xian and airport pick up in Being. I'm was very happy with this service. Sincerely, Donna King..
i Travel to china once a month and i had used your agency before, you always have been great, but this part of the wall was even better than the badaling site, i will recommended, is great less people and more beautiful, it was great, there were no words to describe it, and the guide was great too, thank you. P.S. great lunch...
The trip was terrific, and Laura was a perfect tour guide. However, I did not realize that I had to pay cash for the tour. I assumed you had charged my credit card online. This led to an embarrassing search for money to pay the tour guide, involving wandering around looking for working ATM machines. You MUST inform people in the confirmation email that they will have to pay cash. TG..
