I did a half-day private tour of the Great Wall and have the highest praise for both ChinaTour.Net and my guide, Cherry. I\'m told my private tour was unique, so you may be interested in the details: I arrived in Beijing on a layover and had only the morning to spend there, with an international flight out at 2:00pm. I contacted four online tour agencies and explained what I wanted, and two of them told me that it wasn\'t possible: not enough time. ChinaTour.Net, however, seemed entirely confident that it wouldn\'t be a problem. They were right, it was not a problem at all. Email communication with ChinaTour.Net was excellent, and everything was arranged well ahead of time. I received a mobile phone call from Cherry the day before I was due to arrive in Beijing, and again at the hotel when I checked in (in addition to a written confirmation). At 5:30am, I met Cherry and an anonymous driver in the lobby of my hotel, and we took off in a plain but well-appointed sedan to the JuYongGuan section of the Great Wall. Cherry pointed out a number of Beijing landmarks as we drove along, with excellent English . . . and by 7:00am, I was standing on the Wall. Terrific! The crowds were already substantial. I spend 2 hours walking up and down, which took me to the very top of that section (Beacon 13) where I enjoyed a flawless view on a flawless sunny day, and virtually no other tourists. Sidebar: I\'ve read online about how sections of the Wall are so terribly crowded, and how visitors should try to visit the sections further away from the city in order to avoid the crowds. My belief is that is not true: the first section of the JuYongGuan Wall, between the entry gate and the first Beacon (#9, I believe), was crazy crowded (and steep). Waiting in line, pushing through people . . . not fun. But like everywhere else, tourists on the Wall are lazy and out-of-shape (lot of cigarette smokers in China!). If you push through the crowds to the upper Beacons, the crowds thin DRAMATICALLY. By Beacon 11, there are no crowds and in fact no tourists at all, really - very rare for anybody to walk up that far. Do it. Totally worth it. By 9:30am we left the Wall. I was totally satisfied with the length and quality of my visit, and would not have chosen to spend much more time there than I did . . . but all I was looking for was some sense of the experience. I achieved that easily in 2 hours of uninterrupted walking and sight-seeing there. Next we drove to a close-local \"Jade museum\" which was really a very large Jade retail store, where I was given almost 40 minutes to walk around and observe . . . this was a little cheesy since it was clearly an attempt to get me to buy jade . . . but as it happened, I needed a gift for my wife and it was easy (and cool) to find a Pandora charm there. Here, again, Cherry proved herself to be a more than capable tour guide. Even though it was only 10:30am, she arranged for us to have a very nice lunch (probably the best Chinese food I\'d enjoyed all week) in the massive, formal dining room upstairs even though it was 90 minutes before the restaurant was supposed to open. Since I\'d been up since 5:00am, I was ready for lunch! Cherry was polished, professional, and accomplished throughout. After lunch we drove directly to the airport for my drop-off (second side-bar: I left all my luggage, including my laptop and passport, in the driver\'s car. When I was standing on the very top of Beacon 13 on the top of the mountain, I did pause to reflect on how isolated and unsupported I was, with all my docs and life in some car, but of course I needn\'t have worried: these guys are truly professionals). I arrived at the airport by 12:30pm, in loads of time to check in, clear security and make my flight, even with horrific Saturday afternoon traffic in the city. All in all, an astonishing deal and value for money at 960 RMB (including the airport drop-off). My highest compliments to Cherry, who distinguished herself as an excellent tour guide: I won\'t hesitate to book my next Beijing holiday/sight-seeing tour with ChinaTour.Net, and I\'ll be asking specifically for Cherry. Thanks!..
Our tour guide Frank was very nice and did an good job leading our group. The lunch meal was excellent and plentiful. The bus was clean and comfortable...
We enjoyed the tours in China. We decided at the last minute as we found the rates were reasonable. They picked us up from the hotel and the tour was made informative and enjoyable by the attitude of our tour guide Jenny. She showed us all the places of intetrest and did have good knowledge in the history, and was conversant with English language. We were provided with a very good lunch.We can recommend your organisation for this type of tours. We also wish to thank Jenny. Gowrie & Jayanthi Sydney, Australia..
Impressive... that's what I have to say. The guide took us to the heart of the Great Wall. Good explanations and always smiling and enjoy the trip with the group. I also have to say that the group where I was in, was fantastic.. what a team :P..
Thanks guys You ran a very well managed tour to the Long Wall Our guide Emmett was friendly and knowledgable and helped us understand the history and cultural significance of the various stops we made I can only recommend you to others..
The trip was very nice. we really enjoyed the great wall. BUT the trip to the ming tombs was very short and only to one tomb that wasn\'t very interesting. all in all it was an ok trip because the price was very cheap...
Positives: Great price, great tour guide (Will), nice people on the tour, nice bus, and a great Chinese lunch as well. I would like to see a tour of just the Great Wall be offered. I didn\'t really care to see the Ming Tombs. Also, it took about 13 hours overall with traffic, so it was quite a long day. Overall, it was a fun day. I thought our tour guide was pretty good, and he spoke English very well which was nice. We were able to take the cable car on the Great Wall which was really cool!..
The day tour was great. Tour guide was very knowledgable & informative. She is very helpful also. Offered to translate in Chinese words for the tourists. Recommended tour...
The tour was good. We went to Ming Tombs then to jade and cloisonne museum. Lunch was great; After that going to Great Wall in Badaling; there was bad traffic and long queue as it was on Saturday. We paid extra 80 Yuan/person for the cable car...
We had a great tour and a great day. Only one other person joined our group. We had Jenny as our tour guide. She is great!! She speaks very good English and tries very hard to keep everyone happy. SHE DOES A FANTASTIC JOB. Thank you JENNY for a great day...
We went to the Great wall(Badaling) and the Ming tombs in a small group (7) with Jenny as guide. The tour was well planned and as a whole it was a great experience. The pickup at the hotles and the transportation worked perfectly, and Jenny and the driver (didn\'t get his name) were both very nice people. The wall is obviously impressive, and the Ming tomb(s) was interesting. These parts of the tour were complete successes. We did not know in advance that there were two stops at \"shops\" (later i found it was mentioned on the web page). The first one was at the run-ze jade garden, where a pleasant and well prepared guide introduced us to jade and the handicraft. There was no pressure to buy things, but we actually ended up spending quite a lot of money there. Then we had dinner at the jade factory. The dinner was good, and well suited to our western tastes. The second \"shop\" was the dongwu silk factory. This was much more sales oriented, and after a short and interesting explanation about silk and silk worms, we were supposed to buy something. We were more tired now, and we were not too convinced about the price/quality relation at the factory, so we did not buy much...
We had a nice trip to Badaling Great Wall with ChinaTour.Net. The guide was excellent. Unfortunately it was very crowded and long wait for the cable car. But we have ourselves to blame. It was April 4, a chines holiday. The food was great and we are overall very pleased. We are also happy that the guide recommended Chinese acrobatics theater after the tour. It was fantastic. Benny with friends from Sweden...
Very nice tour. Well organized. Friendly guide. Good lunch. Al together good value for money and a perfect way to visit these great attractions...
It was an interesting idea to book the day tour to this giant wall. The most interesting part of this adventure was that we had a very talented guide called Jimmy. Hi Jimmy! He has a mastery of his art. His has great communicative skills, he\'s patient and above all soft spoken. Jimmy you are a great guy. I couldn\'t imagine you dedicating so much of your time after the tour just to see that I was comfortable, safe and happy. Jimmy was constantly with me through my struggle to buy a train ticket to another city. I don\'t think I can thank you enough. Your English is good. If you are thinking of making this trip and you need a good guide, don\'t hesitate to ask for Jimmy. Please, Chinatour.net kindly inform us about extra expenditures. Thanks..
A nice day tour though quite demanding to climb the great wall . The lunch and visit to Jade and Tea shops were excellent. Visit to Ming tombs was also happy and historical...
The good part of the tour was visiting the Great Wall and the Ming Tombs because thats what I wanted to see and it was really impressing. The price of the bus tour was really cheap and I understand that the local people live from the tourists that buy souvenirs. Nevertheless, I\'m really happy that I got to see the great wall and everything with the tour worked out. I got picked up at my hotel and they brought me back to the hotel, our tour leader was nice and spoke english very well. I will never forget the experience of climbing the great wall!..
Booked only a day in advance and were surprised to have a small group to join. That was efficient. The actual visit to the Great Wall and Tombs was great. Tour Guide was terrific as was lunch...
We liked this tour. We are satisfied with our tour guide. You can see our holiday pictures on; http://www.ismailtezcan.com/cn12b.html..
We booked a private tour of the Great Walland the Ming Tombs. Our tour guide David wanted to pick us up at 7:30. We wanted to be picked up at 9 AM. We needed to be quite forceful in order to have him pick us up at the time we had previously requested. David spoke good English and knew his Ming Dynasty history and the Great Wall...
Excellent! Everything was organized very good. Pick-up in hotel, transportation, Great wall, Ming Tombs, Jad factory. Our tourguide Will was very good. His english was perfect, information that he provided was very interesting. Highly recommended for anyone who is travelling to China. G&G..
i have been fortunate to use ChinaTours.net to arrange most of my trips wehilst in China in October. The one that is most memorable is the trip that we took to the great wall and the silk shop (cost me a fortune once the wife found it) and the summer palace. I cannot speak more highly of our tour guide and driver (whose name escapes me ) but our tour guide Lily was exceptional. She was well conversed in the history of China and related to all of our party very well. She organised everything including lunch and look after one mother in law (MIL) who had hurt her back. The driver obliged by taking the MIL to have her back treated and got back to us in time. Lily organised for us to go to a Kung Fu show and it was very well presented. Lily stayed with us virtually all day with no thought of being late home. i believe she had a long distance to travel to get home and then pick someone else up very early the next morning. To Lily, our driver and ChinaTour.Net thanks for a very well represented and professional outlook toward people who come to your country to discover its hidden secrets and beauty. Ps The trip to the great wall etc was also exceptional and well commented upon by Lily. Thanks guys Wayne LePage Australia..
I thought that the tour was nice. Our tour guide Angea was very knowledgeable and explained a lot of the history to our group. It was nice being in a small group of 6 eveen though I was on the general coach tour and not a private one. The great wall was amazing as well. The complaint that I have is that in the description of the tour I didn\'t remember it saying anything about touring two shops. We went to the silk museum and the tea house last and our entire tour group was already exhausted from walking around all day. We wanted to leave the silk market but we had to stay \"so that everyone could shop\" although no one wanted to shop any more. The same thing went for the tea house- we watched a presentation. Overall I think I would have been more satisfied if the tour had been cut off the two shops. I could have skipped the silk market and the tea house. Good price for what was included, but leave out the last two events... or make it clear in the description that bus tour HAVE to go to two shops...
It was really not that great to be honest. I felt like the tour was centered around trying to get you to shop and buy things rather than exploring around the Great Wall and the Ming Tombs. We got picked up at 7AM ... and had to spend 2 hours picking up other people from other hotels. The group was nice and small and the guide Andrea spoke english pretty well. Our first stop was the Ming Tombs, which I found a bit disappointing cause well ... we didn\'t see them. We saw a bunch of things that were supposedly in the tombs or things from that time ... but we didn\'t actually get to go inside the tombs. The lunch was very westernized ... I was living in China for 2 months already and was pretty aware of traditional chinese food ... and what they served us were things like Kung Pao Chicken. It was pretty ordinary. Next up was the Great Wall. We were given 1 hour and 50 minutes to \"explore\" the wall. Which meant, 10 minutes to catch the cable car up, 1.5 hour to walk around and another 10 minutes to ride the cable car back down. (Oh and cable car tickets were not included). The Badaling great wall that they take you too is VERY crowded (but then again we did go on a Sunday). It was very steep as well so wearing correct shoes is highly recommended. The shops they took us to ... were the Jade Shop and The Silk Store. All of which took around 40 minutes each. In the end, some of us purchased the Kung Fu show in the evening, I must say that, the highlight of the day was going to the Kung Fu show!..
