We enjoyed this excellent tour. The guide Frank had very good knowledge of the sites and spoke good English. There was only one other person on the tour and there was also a second tour guide in training. We all got along very well and became friends during the day. Frank was especially patient with my 2 year old boy and my son was very attached to Frank. It was a fantastic help to us to have Frank assist with our child and make the day easy for us. (Everywhere in China can be hard with small children, because of the difficultly in navigating steps with strollers. Very few places have ramps.) The day includes stops at a Jade market followed by Chang Ling tomb (not Dingling?), nice lunch near the wall and the fantastic afternoon at the Mutianyu Great Wall. The view of the Olympic Stadiums was just from the bus on the way home...
We booked two trips and both were excellent, mainly due to the wonderful tourguide Jenny! She is a very patient and knowledgable and adorable professional, who has made both days memorable experiences...
Had a great time with our tour guide Candy. She was very knowledgable and had a very good understanding of English. The tour started early at the hotel pick-up but soon we were at the Great Wall, having lunch at a jade factory, off to the Ming Tombs, seeing the Olympic Stadium and finishing at a silk gallary. It was a long day for us all, but it was so tremendously worthwhile and really good value for money. The tour was recommended by associates in Beijing, and they were not wrong; I would happily recommend this tour to any visitor to Beijing...
Normally we are not tour people. The thought of milling around with 50 - 100 people all wearing the same colored hats is not appealing to us. We were wondering the best way to get to the Great Wall and the best place to access it when we can across this tour. We loved the itinerary. It was a small intimate group (6 of us). Tony our guide and Mr. Wong our driver were both tremendous. We started our at the Jade factory which was amazing. Seeing the Jade carving process was very interesting. Next we stopped off at the Ming Tombs and got a history lesson, as well as why you don't go forward through the arches and you never look back coming out of them. To find out why? Book this tour . . . it is worth every RMB or USD that you spend on it and more. We left the Ming Tombs and had a wonderful authentic Chinese lunch, where even our vegetarians were eating the chicken dishes. The food was wonderful and the family style dining experience was tremendous. We left there for an adventure on the Great Wall. We took the hike up to the cable car or tram and then enjoyed the GREAT WALL for several hours. We took the tabogons down from the top of the Great Wall, which was great fun. It was a small extra charge for the tram and tabogon but definitely worth it on both counts. After we left the Great Wall we had a scenic drive through the countryside, through the Olympic Villiage and to a silk factory. The silk factory was fantastic. We got to see the process, learn about the history of silk making and got some spectacular buys on silk. I highly recommend the silk comforters and pillows. A tremendous buy and fantastic quality. Overall the tour was incredible. We were told by our hotel that the itinerary was too busy and too many things to see. After taking this tour, I would emphatically say that the tour was GREAT and the hotel was wrong. We really enjoyed this tour, and especially our tour guide Tony, and our driver, Mr. Wong. I would highly recommend it. Lastly, and incredible value for the money. The final thing I would say is, do not go to Beijing without visiting 798 Art District. It was the only other thing we did which was as good as our Mutianyu tour...
WE BOOKED THE TOUR ONE WEEK BEFORE. THE DAY BEFORE (UNTIL 8 PM) I HAVEN'T RECEIVED THE CALL TO CONFIRM IT, SO I DECIDED TO CALL (TO THE TELEPHONE NUMBER THEY PROVIDED), I LEFT A MESSAGE AND OUR TOUR GUIDE CONTACT US 10 MINUTES AFTER. AS SCHEDULED, ANDY PICKED US UP FROM OUR HOTEL AND WE STARTED THE TOUR. THE SERVICE WAS EXCELLENT AND OUR TOUR GUIDE KNEW A LOT ABOUT CHINESE CULTURE. WE HAD A WONDERFUL TIME IN BEIJING, I REALLY RECOMMEND THE TOUR. THANKS!..
I booked this tour on the internet before I went to Beijing. As promised, I was contacted by our guide, Lilly, at my hotel the night before to confirm the booking and again the following morning to confirm the pick up point. Lilly and our driver picked everyone up from their hotels in a comfortable min bus, we went to the Ming Tombs in the morning, and were given a very detailed background and history by Lilly whilst there, we then drove to Mutianyu. We had lunch in a lovely restaurant before we went to the Great Wall, everyone on the tour (about 12 people) were very impressed with the quality of food and thought it exceeded expectation. We were all very happy with the choice of Mutianyu to view the Great Wall, it's not overrun with hordes of tourists and the scenery surrounding is beautiful. We were given plenty of time to explore here,about 2 hours, before returning to our hotels via the Olympic Stadiums and a silk factory. (There is no pressure to purchase anything at the factories.) Lilly suggested some great other options for Beijing and dropped me at Wangfujing that evening so I could have dinner there. She was a great source of local knowledge and had a good level of English. I would definitely recommend this tour to any of my family or friends visiting Beijing...
Mutianyu Great Wall tour We went to this place and i booked it a day prior my tour...nice tour guide speak english well the great tour we had and less expensive...goin there to the place we've got was amazing, i like coming back here perhaphs on the spring or autumn...this is highly recommended site that you can trust..
Mutianyu Great Wall tour We went on this tour to the Great Wall on September 19th. We chose the Mutianyu tour because I wanted to get out of Beijing city for a bit and visit a less touristy section of the wall. It was great to see blue sky and the wall was just amazing. The tour guide was brilliant, very knowledgeable and told some great stories that really added to the journey. The Ming tomb at Dingling was interesting, though the tombs are heavily reinforced and modified for safety/mass tourism, so it is not as original & the caskets are stored in the museum. Gives you a good experience of the extravagance with the shear size of the tombs. We were a bit delayed getting out of Beijing, the pick up's from hotels really slowed us down, but was all interesting. We jumped off at the Silk factory and got the subway back as it would have been a real late day otherwise...
Mutianyu Great Wall tour
We went on this tour to the Mutianyu Great Wall and Ming Tombs on Wenedsday, September 16th. We ware lucky to see The Wall without too much tourists and sometimes we were alone on the wall part. 2 hours we had for the wall was little bit short. It was necessary to take cable car to the top, otherwise we would just clime up and have no time for the Great Wall. So, be ready to pay addtional 50 RMB for the cable car to the top and back.
The stop at Jade Carvig Factory was interesting. On the other hand, the silk museum is just about shopping. The local guide in the silk museum - Mary did not show anything from the museum, just very quick about the production and only tried to sell. We could use the time better in Ming Tombs or on the Great wall.
Ming Tomb was interesting and we had enough time to see all important. We visit only one from 3 accessible tombs, but the most attractive one with the underground palace.
The lunch provided was nothing special - mainly vegetables, only little meat, no fish. Taste was OK. Drinks were not included and expensive.
Our tour guide Cristin, had very good English. Do not worry that you may not understand.
See more pictures from our stay at: http://public.fotki.com/bt2/travel/chinadovolen2009/
Luka-
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Mutianyu Great Wall tour We went on this tour to the Great Wall on April 18th, the last day of our time in China. We chose the Mutianyu tour because we wanted to see something of the Chinese countryside and visit the wall without too many people. We weren't disappointed. It was a delight to see the local agriculture, especially the many orchards which reminded us of where we live in England. But then the scenery changed and we reached the dramatic hills across which marched the Great Wall. It was magnificent, an experience we will never forget, even though - not expecting the switch-back effect - we did not walk very far. Near the car/coach park there were a lot of traders - if only we had had more money left! On the way back into the centre of Beijing we drove past the Olymic Village and it was good to see for ourselves what will, no doubt, become very familiar images. As the tour was longer than the one we had booked last year, we were not able to do the evening tour we had booked, and were very pleased with how efficiently China Tour refunded us the money. We would certainly recommend this company...
Our guide, Edward, was great. Well versed in history and very accommodating. I recommend this trip...
Quite interesting trip. We enjoyed it. Maybe next time we will use the same company for another places in China...
We traveled to China with my husband and two teenagers, and were very pleased with that one day tour, very packed with interesting places to visit and enjoy. The tour guide was really knowledgeable about the History of his country. It was a small van who picked us up from our hotel at 7am, we were 7 people total on this tour, which was perfect. We started off with the visit of a Jade factory ; then head off to Mutianyu Great Wall, where we had 2 hours of free time, enough to enjoy the view, walk on a good portion, and take plenty of pictures. After going down with the toboggan (a must do, so fun) we all had lunch together (included and delicious). Followed by an exciting Tea ceremony, and then visited the Ming Tomb. We had a blast, we were so satisfied by the whole experience...
Our guide was ok. The tour included the transportation from and to hotel. The lunch was mediocre, the drink included was only hot water,- not tea or something else, the Ming Tomb it was fine but if I will have the possibility to choose again I will not visit again. I did not like that we spend a lot of time of Jade Carving Factory. The Tea ceremony was nice. I recommend this tour without lunch and Ming Tomb...
Our guide,Leon, was nice. However, it would have been nicer if he could have explained to us the city along the way to and from the great wall since we barely knew about Beijing..
All the trip durinhlg the day was really interesting and exciting. The guide man was so kind. Lunch more than enough and the places so beautiful. It was more than I was expecting..
Trip was not as expected. We were supposed to go to Mu Tian Yu but was taken to Juyonguan instead. Also original guide assigned did not turn up and the replacement guide was not very good. She just explain a brief summary of each place we went n just left us to walk on our own. Also she was very persistent that we go for the acrobatic show even though it was not part of the tour and she kept insisting that we go, and we had to pay additional RMB580 which was not in our budget :(..
