Review of 1 Day Tour: Great Wall, Summer Palace by Laurens

After reading some very good reviews I was very excited to try this tour myself. My guide, Davis, called me and was very nicely on time (8:00) so that was a good start. His English vocabulary was okay to good, but due to the heavy accent he spoke with he was rather difficult to understand. We first went to the summer Palace instead of the great wall, where we walked around for about half an hour. He told me a few things here and there, but all in all it was not much useful information and his main concern seemed to be luring me in one of the silk or pearl shops, in which I had no interest. Also, it was way too fast for me. The description says 1-2 hours, but we had maybe 30 minutes. I was a little disappointed about this but since my trip was mainly for the wall anyway, I didn't give it much notice at first. We were off to the wall but due to rush hour (which seems permanent in Beijing around this time), he decided to go to the Juyong Pass instead of the Baladin section of the wall. While this might not be much of a problem, it is rather annoying that he just made this decision without informing me. "-Private tours allow you to tailor-make your own tour itinerary. A designated car and a private tour guide will be at your service." is what the website writes, but I had more the idea that I was at his service. During the ride there he told me a little bit about the history of the wall, but apart from that was rather silent. Once at the wall he didn't come with me because he had a foot injury (blister) and hence could not walk there. I took my time and enjoyed the tough climb, though really missed a guide telling me about the history of the place. The whole reason I booked this tour and did not just take a bus there and walk myself is because I wanted a companion to talk with and hear some information. Next on we were going for lunch at the Jade factory. Again you're pushed to buy and look, but that's okay. The lunch was fine, nothing too fancy, but again I was left alone by my guide. I'm glad I had my book with me, otherwise the lunch was pretty boring. In the shop I confronted my guide with the fact that I was displeased with the amount of time spent at the summer palace, because it was now 13:30 and we did everything on the schedule, which I hardly call a "Day Tour". He made some vague replies and bad excuses, but nothing useful came out of it. He had invited me for some tea and naively I thought he would join me for a drink, but it was just another sales trick. It's fine if you like tea and are interested in this, but it is not something I care for, nor signed up for. The description mentions the visiting of one shop (this was the Jade where I had lunch), but my guide certainly did his best to get me to all four of them. On our way to the tea house he stopped at the Olympic stadium to make up for the time at the summer palace. Though attentive, this was Again without consulting me and to me it is just a big boring building. Nice that he wants to make a picture of me there, but that was not what I signed up nor paid for. I prematurely ended the tea session because I had no interest in this either so I arrived at my hotel around 15:30. My point of this all is that I think your guide can really break or make your day. I would highly advise to make a strong request when booking to have a guide that can walk with you and is talkative, because I had hoped for that and got the opposite. Also a word of warning about the period you go: it was extremely humid today (19th of July) and I hardly had any view. For me this made the 'great' wall rather small as you couldn't see much of it. I was really hoping to have those spectacular views with kilometers of wall stretching out in front of you in a mountaneous area, but instead I saw just fog and a bit green/gray forest mountains. Nothing the tour can do about, but it is something to take into account when planning the trip. Besides from that, I've still climbed the a part of the Great wall and apparently am a man now, and it was quite the experience. The 'tour' and 'guide' parts were just disappointing.