Beijing Tour Guide Recommendation?

First, thanks to all of you for all the posts on this board. It has helped us so much to research and make our decision to try our first Seabourn cruise.

We will be in Beijing for 5 nights and would like to know if anyone has any current recommendations for a private tour driver and guide while in Beijing. Several that we researched require payment in advance. We are concerned about doing that since weather or jet lag may play a factor in our plans.

We are all packed and ready to go.

is there a good reference site for tour guides in general?-- this would be helpful if allowed. Thanks

I arrived last week in Beijing, stayed there for a couple of days and traveled through China. I will be back in Beijing today for 5 more days. I booked all my airport transportation with private car, driver and guides through Beijing Xinhua Tours. My contact is Tina@etours.cn

Drivers and guides have been on time and had signs with our name on it. (we arrived at midnight from Chicago and the driver was waiting for us with a smile on his face!!)

I found this contact through tripadvisor. Also, their prices are good! Hope this helps.

Go to TripAdvisor and do a search for Beijing private guide. You will find dozens of posts. Read carefully. There are several who are recommended by more than one person.

I am currently research for the post cruise part of our trip to China, and have several well recommended guides in mind.

Do you actually want a tour guide, or just a driver to get you around the city? If you haven't already done so, you should consider if you really need a tour guide for places like the Forbidden City. You can spend hours there walking on your own with a tour book/map and learn more than you probably ever wanted to know about all the major buildings and history. The buildings are well marked, and there are signs in English. As I recall, there are also tape player tour headsets that you can rent. I think the same is true for the Temple of Heaven and the Summer Palace. I personally did not want someone blabbing away for hours on end as I was walking around these sights.

We stayed 3 nights pre-cruise in Beijing and used Catherine Lu as our tour guide. We didn't have to pay Catherine up front; in fact, we paid her the last day of our tour. She was great to work with; answering all my emails within a day; in fact, some within a few hours. Knowing that this would probably be our one and only visit to China, we wanted to see as many historical sights as possible. Catherine is very knowledgeable of Chinese history; so much in fact, that I believe I know more about China's history than the United States history! After picking our family up at the airport, we spent the afternoon at Tiannanmen Square and the Forbidden City, then attended a Chinese acrobat performance. She even made reservations that evening for Peking duck at Da Dong's. The next day we toured the Temple of Heaven, took a pedicab tour of the hutongs, and then toured the Summer Palace. Our final day was spent at the Great Wall at Mutianyu and the Ming Tombs. She even arranged for transportation to the cruise ship terminal in Tianjin the following day! She can be reached at catherine_1130@hotmail.com.

there are many tour guides by recommended on Tripadvisor forum, you can search it

Lily

Whatever you do, do not pay upfront unless you are going with a tour company (which most experts in China do not recommend).

Earlier this year we had 3 days in Beijing, booked a recommended guide and she was fine on the first day. The second day she didn't turn up at the hotel, only to have arranged a replacement guide for us. This was a man, who had his mate driving and his sister learning the ropes. The car was a beat up full of impregnated smoke.

A pretty unpleasant day was made worse by the guide wanting to take us places we had been the day before and to places we didn't want to go where he got a commission.

He did tell us that if the guides don't check in at a given number of these commission houses they lose their government accreditation. Don't know how true this is, but needless to say we did our own thing on day 3 and they didn't get the tip they sought.

You would do us all a favour by posting the name of this guide.

I agree that would be very helpful to those of us who are going to Beijing and have already booked a guide or are thinking of booking one to know who this particular guide is.

I just returned home from Beijing and I used Qing as a guide and her husband was the driver. They both did an excellent job. I found Qing's name recommended repeatedly on a few forums. She was excellent and her husband was a very safe driver.

Konglin's email address is konglin316 at hotmail com

I have been corresponding with him.

I'm bumping this topic because I'm currently looking for a tour guide for Beijing. Please let me know if you can recommend anyone else or also recommend one of the guides already mentioned. Thanks in advance!

I have been in touch with and booked a tour with BEIJINGTOURSGUIDE. this will involve a pickup at tianjin port, driving to beijing, visit tiananmen sq, forbidden city, summer palace and an overnite at a hotel, 2nd day after a visit to the mutianyu great wall and the sacred way a transfer back to the port. my contact there is danielyan@beijingtoursguide.com. I found him to be very responsive and i think quite reasonable ; the company required 50% deposit (paypal) ......this is for our trip in march.

We've just finished three days in Beijing and we used Victor (chinapeace88@sina.com) based upon several recommendations we found here and on TripAdvisor. He picked us up at 7:30 am when our cruise docked at Tianjin so we could proceed directly to the Great Wall and make more efficient use of our limited time. During our three days with him, he paid all of the admissions up front, all toll charges and parking fees, etc. and we only paid him at the end. His fees are about $100 per day in the Beijing region.

Victor's English is quite good and he is knowlegeable about the sites you visit giving you the context while you visit by yourselves. However, for those expecting a private guide, you would need to make other arrangements.

He made excellent restaurant recommendations e.g. the Da Dong Peking Duck Restaurant, that were superb and unmatched by others we tried.

Victor is quite prompt about replying to emails and very flexible about customizing an itinerary. Tell him that Lynne & Keith recommended him to you.

A comment about Victor and another guide I recommend highly.

Last year, before our cruise, we exchanged some exploratory emails with Victor about using his services. Shazaam is right about Victor's excellent English, but I want to clarify the comment about his not being able to guide you inside important sites. Victor is not a licensed tour guide; he has no guide badge that will allow him to enter places like the Forbidden City for free. However, if you're willing to pay his admission to any site, he can accompany you inside and tell you what you're seeing.

In spite of our positive impression of Victor, we ultimately chose to use Justin's services. Justin is a senior licensed tour guide who does the guiding for visitors touring Beijing with Abercrombie and Kent as well as doing free lance work. Justin's English is good enough that he was hired by a corporation that holds an annual conference in California for the purpose of helping small businesses in China make connections in the US. Justin served as one of the translators and facilitators. (In fact, we both arrived at the airport in Beijing within hours of one another after our trans-Pacific flights.)

If Justin recommends taking you to the Guanfu Museum, follow his advice. This private museum -- the first private museum in China -- has a wonderful collection of furniture, jade, bronzes, and ceramics. Another atypcal activity: Justin took us to the tea wholesale market and we had a tea tasting experience. (Incidentally, this was our second visit to Beijing so we were able to go beyond the must-do list of first-time visitors. I think we spend a total of three 3 1/2 days in Beijing prior to embarking on Nautica.)

Here's Justin's email address: justinwang82@gmail.com

Justin made arrangments for Mikki, his Shanghai-based colleague to take us touring when we docked in that city.

We were scheduled on an Asian Diamond Princess Cruise in April 2011 and wanted to spend several days touring Beijing prior to boarding the cruise ship. After much research we decided on Alvin (alvinbenton@hotmail.com). Alvin was amazing starting with his communication via email to his site tours and drop off at the ship. We could not have asked for a better experience. Alvin knows Beijing like no other. We saw Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace and walked the Great Wall at Mutianyu, as well as a wonderful tour of the Olympic Stadium and the city itself. After our Great Wall walk he took us to a local dumpling restaurant where we spent $11 US for a lunch that easily would have fed four and one that still has our mouths watering! We choose not to do evenings with Alvin as we needed rest, but he offered all types of evening experiences as well. He is so full of interesting information that you will feel fully educated on China after your days with him.

Being a solo traveler has its own set of challenges, so when I disembarked the Diamond Princess on May 6, 2011, I decided to remain in Beijing, China for 4 days. After reading the rave reviews for Catherine on so many different levels, I decided to use her services. Obviously she must be a superior guide, as she was already quite busy with bookings. She responds quickly and efficiently. She was able to recommend another certified guide, Tracy, for the first day who was great. We toured the Forbidden City with zest and fervor. Tracy did a fabulous job, was very knowledgeable, and made the afternoon fun. I had a terrific day. The following day, Catherine was available and took me to the Great Wall and Summer Palace. She is a true delight. She arranged everything, was extremely knowledgeable, flexible, "protective" of me(being a single woman alone in Beijing--which I just loved!), and made the day great.

The next day, I decided to fly to Xian for the day (I must have been crazy). Catherine once again took over and recommended a highly capable guide, Jeff, who met me at the airport, took me around Xian city in the morning to the Drum and Bell Towers, chose a great place for lunch, and guided me throughout the Terra Cotta Warrior Museum, park, and grounds. He was an excellent guide sharing much information about Xian and the Terra Cotta Warriors. He also took "very" good care of me, and I so enjoyed the day with him. He then took me back to the airport for my flight back to Beijing to fly in the morning home to Las Vegas, Nevada. What was so touching was his parting words, "Please email me when you return home, so I do not worry". I do not know many guides that would take such a personal, caring, and compassionate attitude with a total stranger. I kept my word and emailed Catherine and Jeff letting them know I am home safe and sound.

If you are going to Beijing and need a guide, I would HIGHLY recommend Catherine and her recommendations (Tracy and Jeff in Xian). Catherine made my days in Beijing wonderful, stress free, and exhilarating. She is very responsive to your needs and will create an itinerary based upon your travel requirements and wants~~whatever they may be, and let me reassure you~~whether a group or a solo traveler---YOU WILL BE IN THE MOST PROFESSIONAL AND CAPABLE HANDS. I am so thrilled to have met Catherine, Tracy, and Jeff. They truly made my visit to Beijing and Xian a memorable one.

oops--I was so happy with catherine's services in Beijing that I forgot to include her email address!!!

catherine_1130@hotmail.com

Have a great time in Beijing, use her services--you will not be disappinted!

We just returned from our Diamond Princess cruise which ended in Beijing May 6, 2011. We booked a private guide and driver through Tour-Beijing.com and cannot say enough about how pleased we were with everything they arranged. Our package included transfer from the ship, hotel, most meals, and 4 days of sightseeing with Alan, our guide, and Mr Che, our driver. Linda He at Tour-Beijing was our contact and worked with us to make sure this tour included everything we wanted.

Alan speaks beautiful English and as a history major, he know SO much about the city and it's history, as well as being well-read about current events and world history. Our driver amazed us daily with his ability to navigate the unbelieveable Beijing traffic.

We did have to pay a deposit ahead of time, with final payment day of arrival. Communication was open and current all through our planning and even on day of arrival, we emailed to confirm our afternoon guide and had a response within minutes.

We were very pleased!!!!

We were met at the ship in Tianjin by Bevis ,transfered to the very fast train for the quick quick trip to Beijing then picked up by his experienced van driver for very detailed touring.

Just preplan with Bevis with what you would like to do and he will do his best to accommodate.

Bevis is a young 30s articulate Beijing Tour guide with experience in the Rail System and the Cruise Industry.

ymbevis@msn.com

He also obtained us the best Sleeper Berths/Tickets on the Smooth /FastOvernight Train

Beijing to Hong Kong.

He gave us very personal attention during our stay and even got us in front of the long departure lines when we departed Beijing by train.

If you wish just to be involved for one day from the Port to Beijing touring with the initial fast train return i would suggest to organize a small group to make it all worthwhile to keep your costs down.

The guide services offered by Bevis are very very good and his costings affordable.

ymbevis@msn.com

My partner and I spent several days in Beijing last month (May 2011) prior to a Viking River Cruise, and for two of those days we hired a private guide, Sunflower Lee. (I'd found a recommendation for her on Trip Advisor.) We highly recommend Lee. She is aptly nicknamed "Sunflower" for her wondefully cheerful disposition. She took great care of us, was extremely flexible, and even insisted on coming back to our hotel a couple of hours after our day with her was done to escort us to where we were having dinner (in the hutongs) because the directions were a bit complicated. She did not have to do that. And she took us on a wonderful walking tour of the hutongs along the way.

We had set up our itinerary with Lee by email in advance, and adjusted it once we were in Beijing and figured out what was realistic for us (e.g, given the jet lag). On one of the two days, we went to the Great Wall at Mutianyu; Lee procured a driver and car for this purpose. Lee is also an excellent photographer and often suggested that she take my camera so she could take pics of my partner and me; this is one of the only trips where we've come home with pictures of the two of us (and that we actually like!).

Spending two days with Sunflower Lee was like spending time with a friend, not someone we were paying. We would not hesitate to hire her again if we were to return to China.

Here's her contact info:

sunflower9811@hotmailDOTcom (obviously, replace the spam-limiting "DOT" with a period)

Hi, drhugs,

we are visiting Beijing for a few days pre cruise later in the year, I'm told that it is quite a distance to the cruise port and can be expensive, can you give me an idea of what this journey will cost.

I have the folks listed here but would certainly like any others that you have experience with. We want to do Beijing and Xi'An then we will fly to Bangkok and have four days there.

Guides for Beijing, Xi'an, and Bangkok would be appreciated with stories of the marvels you have seen. We are planning for Oct. 2012 (Oct. 15 -Nov. 11)