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

Sadly we have nothing good to say about our day with Henry, in fact we believe China Tour's should not use this guide ever again. 1) Henry forced us to go to a different part of the Wall from the part we had booked. He forced his opinion onto us of why we should change despite me saying no we want to stck with what we booked for 2 reasons: _ We had been to the further away area when we lived in China 19 yrs ago so were keen to visit a different part. _ We come from a very small island ( Norfolk Island - 3 miles x 5 miles) and therefore our 10 yr old son is not used to long drives. As it happened we had to pull off the road because my son was feeling very car sick. Although we didn't actually agree he continued to take us to the more distant spot and once there charged us a further 200 yuan! I now wonder if you received this money - I doubt it. 2) Nest we were coerced into taking the Gondola despite telling him we wanted to walk/climb. We are a fit family and had intended to walk. In the end it enabled us to walk further on the Wall however once again we felt forced into something other than what we had planned. 3) During the drive to the Wall Henry made a phone call and then told us the Acrobatic show was booked out so we couldn't do it. ( We were supposed to be doing the show and then the Peking Duck Dinner. He told us he'd made alternative arrangements for us to have dinner first and then attend a different show - A kung Fu show. This show was very good however we know believe he made these changes so that he could leave us and go home early. 4) He then told us that it would be best for us to take the subway home from the show (on our own at night with a 10 yr old in a city where we can't speak the language and don't know our way around) because he said it would be faster due to heavy traffic. We refused this idea. He said it would take 45 mins to drive however in fact it took 15 mins. 5) We believe we were taken to an inferior restaurant for our Peking Duck dinner. We had done this tour with you 19 years before and although we don't remember the actual restaurant we do remember the level of service and food as being very good. Unfortunately we didn't think to get a business card from this inferior restaurant but we do not think it is the famous Quanjude as advertised by China.net. We believe he has a deal with a cheaper restaurant and some-how pockets the difference! 6) I did book the slightly cheaper tour that takes you to 1 place to shop. We were happy with this as we wanted to buy a couple of souvenirs, however he took us to 3 places even though we told him we wouldn't be buying anything more - and then he had the audacity to seem annoyed that we didn't purchase. All in all we believe that Henry is a con-man and should be dismissed from his job with you. With hind-sight we believe the whole story about the acrobatic show being booked out was made up by him so that he could change things around so that he could have his free dinner and then go home early. When we refused to take the subway after the show he had the driver wait for us and he went home. The Kung Fu show was a fantastic show but that is not the point. We had done the acrobatic show years earlier and had wanted our boy to experience it too. Of course he loved the Kung Fu show, as did we, but our whole day was changed to suit Henry rather than sticking to what we had booked and to suit us. Also when he offered these changes and we didn't want to go along with them he was very argumentative and forceful and really just refused to listen to us. I think the only reason we didn't end up taking the subway home is because I threatened to call you. By this time we were sick of the way he treated us. Our whole day was one of disappointment and bad feelings because of his actions. The rest of our time in China was amazing but sadly we do not have fond memories of Beijing due to Henry's actions and also that of a Taxi driver that ripped us off.