Need some Advice..
Visiting China for the first time in April (Hong Kong 5 nights - Beijing 4 nights - Shanghai 3 nights)
With regards to BEIJING specifically..
I want to see all the important sights over 4-5 days:
TIAN%26#39;NAMEN SQUARE
FORBIDDEN CITY
TEMPLE OF HEAVEN
SUMMER PALACE
OLYMPIC STADIUM (BIRDS NEST)%26amp; SWIMMING CENTRE
GREAT WALL OF CHINA (BADALING)
MING TOMBS
HUTONGS
BEIJING ZOO
LAMA TEMPLE
SILK ST / XIUSHU, YAXIU %26amp; PANJIAYUAN MARKETS
NIGHT FOOD MARKET
ACROBAT SHOW
As well as a few bars/clubs, and many excellent dining options ranging from street food vendors to upscale restaurants and everything else in between!
HOWEVER.. I do not speak, read or write Mandarin.. Would it be rather challanging to do all of this on my own?
I have done a lot of reading and research and it seems as though one can easily visit all of these places independantly and inexpensively by taking taxi%26#39;s busses, the metro or just walking around the city...
I am aware that most taxi drivers and bus drivers may not speak any English, but your hotel concierge can write down all of the names and addresses of the places you want to go in Mandarin, so that shouldn%26#39;t be a problem for me. Also most taxi journeys around the city cost no more than 5 or 10 US Dollars at most (with the exception of the Great Wall) and generally you don%26#39;t have to tip.
With that said are taxi%26#39;s safe? Are there many scams? overcharging? Driving a much longer route to get to a short distance? etc??
Since I only have 4 1/2 days to really see and do all of this, the sightseeing tours do look a bit tempting.
THE ADVANTAGES:
Most sightseeing tour companies will offer full day tours that will take in most of the sights that I want to see..
You have an English speaking guide that will give you some (hopefully) interseting commentary, insight and history as to what you are actually seeing..
Your transportation is provided, your time is managed and your day is structured so you won%26#39;t waste time getting lost trying to find all of these places on your own..
THE DISADVANTAGES
This is what I absolutely HATE about these sightseeing excursions and tour companies!! You always inevitably end up in some sort of overpriced JEWELERY factory or CRAFT MARKET which of course you know the tour operator is getting a hefty commission from.. (I have horror stories of Carpet salesmen in Morocco!!) This is a complete waste of my precious and limited time! As I want to see the important sights and not get stuck in some overpriced market for an hour or so when I could be spending more time in a temple or at a museum!
And of course with most organized tours, you never seem to have enough time in one particular place.. If you see something interesting or want to go off the beaten path, it is not as though you can stray to far from your tour group, or else you will be stranded on your own.
So I am weighing out the options here and may comprimise between the two.
I want to see as much as I can in a short time but I don%26#39;t want to be trapped in tourist hell either..
I want the freedom to see and do what I want and when I%26#39;d like but I don%26#39;t want to pay an arm and a leg wasting money either..
Most importantly I want to be able communicate in English or creatively in Chinese (with cards and pictures, sign language and attempt learning a bit of Mandarin) in order to accomplish all I want to see and do and be able to get around the city without being scammed, ripped off or being put in any akward or unsafe situations.
So I think I will spend 2 or 3 days on my own and maybe one or two days with a guide or sightseeing tour.
With that said.. Can anyone recommend a good tour company offering day tours in Beijing?
I would prefer to keep it under USD $50 per day if at all possible..
So far I have found on the internet a company called China E Tours http://beijing.etours.cn/
Their tours seem to be rather affordable and they were mentioned in the Time Out Beijing guide..
Does anyone have any experience with this tour company?
Does anyone know if their tours stop at all of those tourist trap jewellery factories and overpriced markets?
Or Can anyone recommend a good tour company?
I am thinking a private tour guide may be an even better idea..
This way I can customize and create my own itinerary and have a friendly and knowledgable English speaking guide to help me navigate through and learn more about this amazing city..
But then again finding a friendly, knowledgable and reliable guide in Beijing (for less than USD $50 per day) may be a bit of a challenge!
I am getting the impression from reading some of the posts on this website that private tour guides in Beijing are a waste of money, and many of them are not really that good..
Can anyone recommend a private tour guide in Beijing that you had an excellent experience with?
Again preferably one under USD $50 per day...
Any help/ advice will be greatly appreciated!
Many Thanks and sorry for the rather long post!!
First time in Beijing - tours vs. independant sightseeing
Buy a guidebook. Use the subway and taxis. DIY. Don%26#39;t go Badaling Great Wall. Go to another part - for example Mutianyu.
Thousands of people with no Chinese skills are able to see Beijing without a tour guide /tour every year, so why can%26#39;t you?
First time in Beijing - tours vs. independant sightseeing
Positive in your favor - you have done lots of research.
Yes, you can really do all the things you want to see in the time you have.
We don%26#39;t speak Chinese and get about quite well as do other people who choose to do it alone.
Sorry I can%26#39;t recommend a guide only because we have never felt the need to use one in Beijing. But i understand what you are saying %26amp; yes if you find a good one you may get to see %26amp; hear about things you may miss out on.
Probably do a search on this forum and send some emails and see who suits you most.
Mave fun,
Annie
P.s: I can really see that you have researched %26amp; looked into your questions. JPDeM posted a great website for Beijing the other day that would be handy for you. If i find it again I will post it for you.
This is it: http://www.mobilenative.com/
And thankyou again JPDeM for this site.
Wow, what a long post.
To give a short and sweet answer: Do your own research and you should be able to DIY. No need for the tour company.
The ';do it yourself'; option is the most flexible one. There is a lot of info in books and forums. Totally feasible.
The opposite is using tour companies. Fixed programs and fixed schedules.
Independent guides can be a good extension to the first option. But is is more expensive then the other two. You can use a guide for one day where you do a program outside Beijing: Great wall, ming Tombs sacret way. I would recommend the Mutianyu GW instead of Badaling.
Hi NYCworldTravelBoy,
When my husband and I went to Beijing we spent a lot of time contemplating what you are posting about. We did end up doing a lot of the Beijing sights on our own and had absolutely no problem doing that. At most places you can rent an audio guide for around 20 RMB, which know where you are within the gounds and gives you all the information that you would receive from a real guide. Plus there are people selling maps of the places before you go in that can help too. We used to the subway for almost everything and never had a problem on it. It is so much easier to use than the NYC subway system.
We did end up signing up for a few organized tours, one was with Greyline, and one was through a hostel to take us to the Great Wall. The Greyline tour was very inexpensive but it did take us to 2! places that were not on the list of sights. One was a tea house and the other was a silk factory. Which all that it was was a scam to get you to buy their goods. The really good thing about going on the tour though was that we did so much in one day. If we had tried it on our own we would have lingered way too long and not seen half of what we saw. With the tour we were brought to the zoo, the summer palace, the lama temple, and someplace else that I%26#39;m completely drawing a blank on. If we had done that on our own we would have spent a whole day wandering the grounds of the summer palace. I still can%26#39;t make up my mind how I feel about Greyline, since we did get to see so much, but they still tried to pressure us into buying things at the places we went to. The tour to the wall with the hostel was just that, a ride to the wall and back and it included lunch.
Behind the Great Wall, the temple of heaven park was my next favorite thing to see. You got to see real people doing real things, not just the history. It was really cool there. Some of the other sights kind of blurred together for me. But I hope that helped. Sorry this is so long.
