Review of 1 Day Tour: Mutianyu Great Wall and Ming Tomb by Rebekah

I can't say that I reccomend the tour guide service. We paid extra for a private tour and less shopping so we could have more time sightseeing, that did not happen. We also missed out on a lot that was advertised. Our guide was late, which we completely get as Beijing is very busy in the morning. Our guide was very knowledgable about China's history and we appreciated that, but that is a out it.we stopped at a jade store first, it was neat to see everything, but there was some high-pressure buying involved. We then went to ming tomb, we only saw the tomb and did not go to the underground palace. We had a chinese lunch, which our guide ordered for us. The lunch was pretty good, but beware if you order any type of drink. We got a coke with our lunch which was 15 cny (each) typically we had been paying 5-7cny. Our guide bought our entrance ticket and the extra tickets we purchased for the lift. They gave us some information about the wall, then had us go up by ourselves and meet and a designated spot within 2 hours. We had hoped a guide would come with us to explain things and help take pictures of us at certain points, based on other reviews, but that did not happen. After the wall, we went to a tea ceremony, which was not on our itinerary as we paid extra to not attend this. The tea ceremony is fine with two people and not as long, but again, we felt a lot of pressure to buy. We did not get to tour the birds nest Olympic stadium or even drive by it, which was a big disappointment. When we return to Beijing next summer, we will likely not purchase a tour and do things ourselves.