Private Guides for Beijing, Xian, Guilin and Shanghai

We will be travelling to China mid October 2006. As we have never been to China before, we decided to take a tour but after reading discussions in these forums we feel we should rethink and perhaps do this trip independently usng drivers and private guides.

There are a number of queries we have and we are hoping that some of you out there will be able to give us some clues.

If you have used guides and drivers before successfully, could you please give us their names and contacts? Should we book the guides before we leave home or is it best to book through the hotels or outside in the street? Do you know the hours the guides work, that is, 8.00 am - 6.00 pm??? Do you feel we would be taking on too much if we had our hotels and internal flights booked before we left and had to organise the guides for all these cities?

Our other alternative was to book everything direct through CITS in Beijing. Has anyone had any experience with this group?

We look forward to hearing your comments and any help you may be able to give us. Thanks in advance to any who can help!!!

.....Geonoel

Private Guides for Beijing, Xian, Guilin and Shanghai

It depends on your comfort level. The places you are going are all major tourist cities, so it is not essential to have a guide with you at all times.

If you are okay with taking the subway and taxis, using maps, and purchasing your own entrance tickets, you can do some days on your own and also look into the tours offered by hotels.

If you are prone to worry and have not done much independent travel, you might prefer to have a car meet you at the airport, have guides plan your itinerary for you each day and handle all of the logistics. This will cost a bit more and be less flexible, but might be what you want.

You could arrange everything through hotels including airport pick-ups, but if you want a fully escorted trip, you can contact CITS or CTS. Beijing CITS will arrange for local CITS guides at each destination. The quality of guides varies, but it is possible to arrange a good trip if you are very clear about what you want and are willing to pay a fee for guide services so they don%26#39;t have to make their money from kickbacks.

A reputable tour company is not necessarily a bad idea, as they should manage the CITS guides and offer some sort of money-back guarantee.

Private Guides for Beijing, Xian, Guilin and Shanghai

Travelevret,

Thanks so much for your invaluable information. We are still pondering over whether to go it alone or with a tour company.

We have travelled elsewhere in the world independently previously but felt China may be a little different.

Should you have anything else to advise us, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again for your kind help.....geonoel

Since you are used to travelling independently, I would recommend doing that in China as well.

There are good guides in China, but I%26#39;ve gotten into too many bad situations and had too many that really didn%26#39;t have any information beyond a memorized script.

Taxi driver%26#39;s rarely speak English, so you need to have the names of places in Chinese. Your hotel will help with that, but make sure to have the name of the hotel in Chinese when you arrive so you can get there from the airport.

In Beijing, I recommend purchasing some of the tape tours at places like the Forbidden City. They are quite good and you can go at your own pace.

When you arrive, look into City Weekend and That%26#39;s magazines in Beijing and Shanghai. There are sometimes hiking trips, lectures, and concerts that are better than what you are likely to find on tour groups.

I like the weekly classical Chinese music concerts in the teahouse at the Sanwei bookstore in Beijing.

I think you can arrange better day-trips for less money from the international hostels than from the hotels. You don%26#39;t need to stay there, and they will probably even arrange to pick you up from your own hotel.

Dear Travellevret

Thanks again for your information. We will be coming into Beijing from London after spending eight weeks in Europe. We will then have about 16 days in China and will leave for home from Shanghai.

These flights have already been booked but, as yet, we have not booked anything else because of our indecision.

We would like to experience not only all the tourist hightlights whilst we are in China, but also the things tourists may not always get to do. Thanks for your information about the classical music at the Green Tea House. If you have any further ideas that could help us that are not necessarily in the guide books we would be most appreciative. We must say we have taken on board what you have told us thus far and we thank you eversomuch. We very much would like to experience the real China and not only all the ';touristy';

stuff.

Dear Bundbnb

Thanks also for your information. Should you think of other special things to do in Shanghai, we would be most appreciative. We would like to step off the beaten track as well in Shanghai. That is, we wish to see all the tourist spots but would like a taste of the things that usually aren%26#39;t experienced by tourists.

Thanks to all for your help.

.......Geonoel

The teahouse with classical music performances is in the Sanwei Bookstore. Green Teahouse is a fusion restaurant which is expensive, but rather unique.

It%26#39;s hard to know what to recommend, there are many options that will appeal to different interests. The big tourist sites are very worth visiting, but otherwise I like:

-Drinking tea by the lake in the Purple Bamboo Park (the best teahouse is on the southern shore of the lake).

-The ancient observatory and the murals in the nearby subway station.

-Walking around Sichahai lakes and visiting the drum and bell towers, the Madame Song house, the hutongs and watching people around the lake.

-Visiting a park--any park--in the early morning when people are doing tai chi, disco dancing, etc. Evenings work, too, if you can%26#39;t get up early.

-Visiting a museum with lots of propaganda--the Communist Party History Museum on the east side of Tiananmen or the Military Museum.

-I like Zhoukoudian and the paleontology museum because I am interested in those things. Most people wouldn%26#39;t.

-I%26#39;d like to visit the Qing tombs (instead of the more popular, but unintersting Ming tombs)

-The hike from Simatai Great Wall to Jinshanling

Pick-up That%26#39;s Beijing Magazine and look especially for hikes sponsored by Beijing Hikers and activities sponsored by the Chinese Culture Club. They do great events for the expat crowd.

In Shanghai, I really enjoyed a visit to the old Jewish Ghetto and the synagogue. An architectural tour would be great, but I don%26#39;t know how to find a good one.