Beijing Full-day Tour: Forbidden City, Temple Of Heaven And Summer Palace

Naturally I was nervous about using a guide service that I had never used before. But I found Trippest (aka China Highlights) ideal for adding onto our self-booked holiday in China. Their guided tours (we also did a day trip to Jinshanling Great Wall, and the Terracotta Warriors in Xi’an) are half the price of booking through a luxury hotel concierge, and make it super-easy and efficient to visit multiple sites in one day. It’s also interesting to meet and talk to a local English-speaking Chinese person. The company was also good at dealing with an error I made with ID details during booking. I would definitely recommend them, though I would equally say that it’s not as hard as you might imagine to visit Chinese sites on your own (equipped with Alipay/WeChat/Google app for translation, a guide book, and using Didi, the Chinese Uber). But if you want to make your life easy, go with these guys without hesitation.

Our tour guide, David was very nice and knowledgable. He made our trip very interesting. Viator kept us informed before our arrival and the convenience of just showing your passport to enter was great. Forbidden City bucket list check off..

The guide (Thomas) was very knowledgeable and keen on answering my questions. The tour was very well organize, I could see all the main highlights of Beijing, and the guide recommended a very good local restaurant, also suggesting the most typical dishes. Highly recommended!

The tour was excellent. My tour guide Amber did an outstanding job. Everything was very well planned. I can highly recommend both the tour and the organizer.

Nice guide and tour, Mei was our guide, decent english, even helped with other reservations. In general a nice a lovely guide and tour! Glad we booked this and her.

Overall this tour was awesome! We enjoyed visiting all the different historical sites but could of done without all the stops at the pearl warehouse, the jade warehouse the herbal medicine place oh wait... the foot massage part of that was awesome! Yes there is a lot of walking but I think manageable because you also get time to sit and rest here and there. I think the only issue we had was because our Hotel was outside the three ring pick up we had to meet our tour in town at another hotel That part was ok. the part that was annoying was our tour guide was suppose to call our hotel and let us know where to meet her and when we finally got to our hotel at 10pm we still hadn't received any info on where to meet and our tour was the next day! So after trying to communicate with hotel staff (which was a major fail) I had to make a phone call to the tour company which cost me $10! We finally was able to connect with our tour guide after a few lousy phone connections and finally got a email with instruction to the meeting place. That was after midnight and we had to be up by 5am to meet up with our group and we already hadn't slept for 24hrs! So needless to say we didn't get much sleep! only think i'd recommend is getting your meet up point if possible before getting to china!

I want to give a shoutout to Sally for such an amazing trip! She was an EXCELLENT tour guide that was highly informative and pleasant to be around for the entire excursion. She also gave us amazing recommendations on restaurants to check out and additional sites we should visit. I highly recommend her and the tour as well!

This was actually one of the least enjoyable days of our tour. I wanted to go here as this tour included Tiannamin Square. This was such of a historical place, how could you miss it. It was very crowded and a long day with tons of walking (be prepared)! I found this to be quite boring if it wasn’t for the historical significance. With all this said, I am very glad I went on this tour, however I probably would not do it again. All the different areas, just seem to be repetitive. And I fell it’s the type of thing you have to see, Np but do not need to see again.

I have traveled extensively and have never had a better tour guide. Cactus met us on time. She was knowledgeable and pleasant. She went out of her way to explain and show us the sites. Lunch was delicious and plentiful. She knew all the best places for photos. But the best thing about her was her ability to make you feel at home. I can’t say enough about Cactus. She was excellent. If you are ever in China she’s the one to request.

Thank you Sally for being such a wonderful tour guide! She and our driver Mr. Xu took great care of my friend and I during the tour. Sally shared knowledge about not only the sites we saw, but also about Chinese culture. She also knew great spots for photos. It was lots of fun being able to converse with her in both Mandarin and English. We were able to stop at a tea shop to take part in a tea ceremony also along the tour, which was a great experience. I would recommend this tour!

An early start to beat the queues. Tina our tour guide was very knowledgeable and pointed out all the key sites and even advised the females in the group where to find the European style toilets. A long day but well worth gettingup early in the morning.

Excellent. Toan was ery informative and organised. He also got on knew eveyones names that were on the bus. Would highly recommend.

We had a amazing and a very friendly guide, Jennifer. She was knowledgeable on the history and took us to an excellent resaurant on the way to the Great wall.

Trip would have been more enjoyable on a cooler day. Our guide's English was not great and he was difficult to understand at places with a lot of noise. Lunch was mediocre. Foot massage at the Chinese Medicine school was a welcome break. The stop at the pearl store was boring. Appreciated the hotel pick up and drop off. Still happy we went.

Good tour guide. Good English. Knowledge of sites was very complete. She was very informative and helpful.

Tom was a great guide, very informative and helpful. Would definitely recommend to first time visitors.

It is an efficient way of seeing three important places in Beijing. It would be very difficult to organise tickets and visit these three places by ourselves, so the trip is quite good. The forbidden city is just series of buildings that we cannot enter (dressing room, dining room etc) we get to see from outside. The same goes to the temple of Heaven. Summer palace - no palace there, it is just the gardens and the lake as well as a temple, which would require additional ticket and more time, so people don't usually go. There are a couple of stops - one at a Chinese medicine place and the other is the pearl shop. No obligation to buy, but it wastes time hence the other visits are a bit rushed to complete the itinerary. Tina was our guide, she was friendly and explained things well. She did her best. Hotel pick up and drop off were useful. The options for vegetarian lunch were poor.

The tour itself was great: good mix of locations, nice timeline, great guide, only had like 10 people. But we spent a bunch of time at a "pearl factory" and "Chinese Medicine university" both of which were just blatant tourist traps that had busloads like us arriving every half hour, purely for the purpose of pushing overpriced product. We ended up not having enough time to actually see things at the Summer Palace.

This was a great adventure. A lot seen and done. The stops at the Chinese health office and pearl shop were interesting and not a hard-sell presentation. Lunch was delicious and we were able to explore some of the areas on our own. The only negative was that we would have wanted more time in the Forbidden City and at the Summer Palace. Both places were limited to one hour, but that was because of all the other places to visit and travel time. If we return I would do a more private tour with time spent at the two locations. Forbidden City and Summer Palace.

Knowing what I do now, I probably wouldn't have booked this tour for our trip to Beijing. It wasn't a bad tour by any means, but there are a few things to consider: 1. The Temple of Heaven and Summer Palace are more like parks than historical sites. You don't really need a tour to visit and enjoy them, and unfortunately I felt the schedule of our tour left us wanting more time at the Summer Palace, which is a huge lake area that you could spend a full afternoon at. We only had about an hour. 2. We also could have spent more time at the Forbidden City. While we saw a good bit, it felt rushed, and we didn't get much time on our own (though we did get some here and there). We especially would have enjoyed more time to explore the garden. 3. Included in the tour are a stop at a Chinese Medicine Factory and a Pearl Shop. These are purely tourist traps trying to hard sell you on things and were completely unnecessary, but I could see some people enjoying them. The only bad experience was having to spend 45 minutes at the Pearl Shop. Even though no one in our tour group was interested in buying anything, we couldn't leave early. 4. It was nice getting picked up and dropped off at our hotel by the bus, but with the Beijing traffic, we spent over 2 hours on the return trip getting back, as we were the last ones to get dropped off. It would have been more efficient to just take the subway system (which is excellent). Overall the tour guide was knowledgeable and friendly. The lunch was excellent, and we did get to see a lot. That being said, if we did it all over again, I would just get a longer tour for the Forbidden City and venture out on our own to the Summer Palace and Temple of Heaven.

Highly recommend this tour company-Colin was great tour guide...knowledgeable,witty and accommodating!Comfortable transportation and excellent food..must do for anybody with a day trip agenda!

Jerry is very informative and informs in an entertaining way. Also went above and beyond when taking care of a personal problem I had at the end of our tour. More than a tour guide I count as a friend.

Lily did a great job with this tour. They were on time for picking us up. Lily was very informative on all the areas we visited. She spoke very good English and was friendly. I would recommend this tour.

Did the one day tour. This is a steal of a deal. Pick up, tours, entrance fees, lunch, drop off, for about $50 USD...no brainer. Guide very professional, helpful, courteous. Outstanding. Kept our group of 13 moving along, especially at the Forbidden City, where it was suddenly closed and all were whisked out. There was some meetings going on or something...but we did get through the complex and took some pics thanks to her. The tour stops at a medicinal therapy business. You have the opportunity to get a foot massage and a health check. Both voluntary, but the health check folks were buying remedies, cash and credit cards flying. I was taken aback by this a bit and felt betrayed. I didnt realize in my naivete that this would happen. But, the foot massage was extremely inexpensive and really long, and I did after all my hesitation and irritation, enjoy it and bought a jar of the skin creme, for 300 yuan, about $50 usd, so these things here are EXPENSIVE. Next was the disaster lunch. A restaurant near the medicinal place. Complete, unabashed tourist place. I did expect a little better. But for the price, you get what you pay for. Nothing special, it did the job. I would rather have paid a little more and got better lunch. The pearl place was another shopping stop. You get a lesson on pearls and then a big shop with lots of pearl jewelry. Probably overpriced especially when all of a sudden as you're looking, the bracelets are buy 2 get one free etc... It then rained hard with stiff cold wind so the trip to the summer Palace was shortened as requested by our group. We did short stay there as it was miserable weather. So folks check the weather before you go and dress accordingly. But ponchos and hats were available for sale there. Overall a good day.

Timing couldn't have been better. Booked the trip last minute, Trippest accommodated me with a small group on a mini tour to visit the best attractions in Beijing. "SMILE" the tour guide was amazing, Highly recommended! Her knowledge made the experience even better. We did a lot in one day, started at the Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City and finished at the Great Wall. SMILE was an amazing tour guide proving excellent historical prospective with a personal touch. Great to do this trip with a small group. If you take this tour, ask for SMILE.

Susie did a great tour for 6 people. We visited the Temple of Heaven and Summer Palace. Also the park in front of the Forbidden City. The bus is very convenient. Also, we stopped for lunch in a great place she knew. Totally recommended!!

My family and I spent several days in Beijing and had a great time! We visited Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, the Temple of Heaven and the Great Wall (Mutianyu) with a private guide. Highly recommend visiting the Mutianyu section of the wall - it was almost empty when we arrived (around 9:30) and the views were amazing. Our tour guide, Cactus, was great in all regards. She was knowledge, spoke English very well and was very accommodating.

Our whirlwind three-day tour in Beijing took us to Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden City, The Temple of Heaven, The Summer Palace and the Great Wall. Our guide, Olivia, was simply outstanding. She was so knowledgeable about every site we visited and shared a wealth of information during our time together. Her command of the English language was excellent and that made it very easy to communicate with her. Her friendly and bubbly personality was priceless. She didn’t stop smiling from the moment she picked us up from the airport to when she dropped us off at the train station. Speaking of the train station, Olivia actually waited in the station with us and then walked us onto the train to make sure we were in the right car. She was just a delight to be with and we wanted to take her with us when we continued our tour through China. Olivia was very attentive to our needs. After she helped us check in at our hotel she handed us her business card with her contact information so we would be able to reach her should we need anything. She frequently asked us if we wanted a family picture and probably took as many pictures as I did. By the way, she is awesome at taking pictures too! Olivia was also very helpful when it came to meals. At lunch, she asked what types of food we liked and then walked us through the menus helping us make appropriate choices. I also have to give a shout out to Lilian from China Highlights who put our trip together for us. We were in China for a total of 12 days and Lilian made sure our trip went smoothly. From my first inquiry to after we had booked our trip, Lilian answered all of my questions thoroughly and in a timely manner. She called while we were on our tour to check in and make sure that our trip was going well. In addition, she emailed me after the trip to get any additional feedback we might have to share. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend China Highlights for anyone considering a trip to China and a private tour was definitely the way to go. You can see so much more when you have a private guide who knows each destination. This takes the worry out of travel, buying tickets for the attractions as well as navigating the busy roads. They do it all!

We booked a 1 1/2 day private guided tour as the last part of a full 2 week China Vacation. On day one, we visited Tienanmen Square, The Forbidden City and Temple of Heaven, with a Peking Roast Duck lunch, which was delicious! The 2nd day, we visited the Hutong District and the Summer Palace, followed by lunch, after which our driver and William took us to the airport for our departure back to the U.S. William met us at our hotel both days right as scheduled, and was so very informative. Admittedly, we were not experts on Chinese history and culture, but William taught us so much! He is truly a wealth of information, not only about the sites and history surrounding them, but also other random facts and information about China and it's people and culture. He also knows a good deal about the United States, so provided much comparison and points for us to think about. Upon returning to the U.S. (and recovering from bad jet lag), we rented and watched The Last Emperor, which we fully understood and found fascinating, after learning about the history of Pu Yi from William. Though we did go through some of the sites quite quickly, William was sure to pause several times to be sure we had enough time, and gave us free time opportunity to go back through some of the site if desired. We absolutely loved our tour, and would highly recommend William as a tour guide. Be sure and request him! In terms of arranging the tour, Beverly Jiang was top notch. I received an email response to my online inquiry within 24 hours, and she built an itinerary based on our wishes. In fact, we requested a change to the itinerary for the 2nd day of our tour while we were already in China, with just a few days notice, and she was very responsive and accommodating. I would book a tour through China Highlights again in a heartbeat!

All I can say is WOW. The tour was great, well put together and Olivia was nothing short of amazing (my wife wanted to take her home with us). Her bubbly personality, friendliness, kindness, helpfulness, and superior service is beyond anything we expected. Olivia displayed a professional understanding and comprehension of the area and sites with a great personality and sense of humor. She went the extra mile to ensure all our needs were met. Olivia is commended for her professionalism. I would highly recommender Olivia to anyone wanting a tour of Beijing. Also want to give kudos to our driver who drove sensibly in chaotic traffic and made us feel like we were royalty.

We spent 3 days with Olivia, visiting Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace, Great Wall and other attractions. We couldn't be happier! The sites are amazing! Olivia is knowledgeable, experienced, and speaks great English. She made our trip truly unforgettable. Thank you, Olivia and China Highlights.

My husband Norman and I (Mary Beth) toured Beijing with the China Highlights tour guide Sunny and she was outstanding! Her knowledge of Chinese history and her command of the English language was wonderful. She was always on time and stayed well beyond our expectations with us. At one point, I clumsily tripped while taking pictures and she went out of her way to purchase bandaids to assist me with my mild injury. I wanted to hug her she was so kind and attentive aiming to please us which she most certainly did! We loved her suggestions for meals and entertainment. She looked after us at the Great Wall and at each point of interest in and near Beijing. Please give Sunny a pay raise and offer her our very best as she worked very very hard to make our trip to Beijing spectacular and it indeed was. On our last day we visited the Hutung area of Beijing where we all cooked wontons together. Splendid in every way. Then she settled us onto the train and made sure we were comfortable heading to our next stop in Xi"an. Thank You Sunny for everything! You are the very best EVER!!!

We had a lovely day. Our guide was very knowledgeable and gave us information at every point, giving us a few minutes in each location to explore things for ourselves and take photographs. Lunch was delicious. We were told "it doesn't look like much from the outside, but the food is delicious" and our guide was exactly right. It felt like a really authentic meal. My partner was sick part way through the day had to leave the tour early. The guide was extremely helpful in making sure that he got back to the hotel safely. He asked a personal friend to take him home, did not change anything for the ride, and made sure he phoned him to confirm he was back safely. Great service!

Helen Jaio shared stories with us that made the sites we visited feel vibrant and exciting! We also did the Great Wall another day AND enjoyed the Kung Fu show which was AMAZING!!!

My wife, brother-in-law and I had a memorable first time trip to China with a customized 5 day tour of Beijing. What made the trip special for us was our tour guide, Cactus, a personable and energetic young woman armed with a degree in Chinese history. In addition to her narrations of the history and characters of the sights, Cactus helped us seamlessly revise the itinerary a few times to see other sights given the travel time and routes for various sights. My wife, who loves taking photos on trips, really liked how Cactus took photos of us with our smart phones, as well as suggesting the best spots and avoiding the waste of time spots. The next time we come back to China and this part of the world, we will be contacting China Highlights again.

We had a great time on three days of Beijing tours. Our tour guide William spoke excellent English and explained all of the sites well. We spent one day to visit the Great Wall at Simatai. Transportation between sites was quick and efficient, with very little waiting in lines.

We are so glad that we chose China Highlights. Their service was excellent from start to finish. Booking agent Lillian suggested a wonderful little hotel in a hutong, the Double Happiness Hotel. She informed the hotel that one of my daughters, coming by overnight train, would arrive very early. The hotel gave her a complimentary breakfast and had her room ready soon after. My other daughter and I each arrived separately and didn’t know that our terminals were several kilometers apart. Our tour guide Cactus picked her up, then me. She also helped us get SIM cards for our iPhones in short order before reuniting all three of us. I knew we were in good hands at this point. We had two full days with Cactus and our excellent driver Mr. Dong. Cactus proved to be an excellent guide. She had studied history at university and had impressive knowledge about the sites we visited, among them the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven and the Summer Palace. Cactus planned our time well, suggesting, for example, that we start a half hour early one day to avoid crowds at the Great Wall. We did not experience any crowds, but on our way down we saw long lines of people waiting to enter and were glad we had entered earlier. Cactus helped us get tickets to see an acrobat show, and Mr. Dong waited and drove us back to the hotel afterwards. One thing I recommend if you have a small group is a private tour. It was a bit of a luxury for us, but very worth it, especially if you don’t have a lot of time and want to see as much as possible. You can also change your plans on the fly. Cactus took us to a different restaurant than on our itinerary because we wanted Peking Duck. It was delicious! All in all, it was a wonderful trip. Thank you, Cactus and China Highlights, for showing us Beijing!

We spent 2 full days in Beijing. Day 1 was Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, lunch, Hutong tour and Summer Palace. Mark was our guide. He was knowledgeable, helpful, and fun. We saw a lot but didn't feel rushed. Day 2 was the Mutianyu Great Wall. We took the cable car and walked a lot. After lunch we went to The Temple of Heaven. Everything these 2 days were on my bucket list, and I was not disappointed. I very much appreciate all of the planning by Vivi at China Highlights. Mark was an excellent guide making sure we saw everything we expected, and taking care of hotel and airline check-ins. This was especially important as I was leaving Beijing on my own.

<p>Tour guide's English was ok and quite understandable. He's also helpful and friendly. The website did not mention extra cost in the dragon boat ride into the summer palace.</p>

I took two seperate day tours in Beijing with China Highlights. On both days my guide was Susie. The night before the tour, I received a message at my hotel about the pickup time the next morning for my tour with the phone number of the guide. On the first day, I was part of a small group (5 people including myself). There was a driver in a minivan (water supplied for everyone) and our great guide Susie. Pickup was done from a few hotels and we headed off. We explored Tienanmen square and the Forbidden city in the morning. Susie mentioned some interesting facts, we took pictures, she gave us flexibility in what we want to explore inside the sites. I encourage everyone to openly ask questions about China from the guides. It seems people outside of China have a different view on 20th century Chinese history. We took off to the Great Wall at Mutianyu section. The ride was good, the weather not soo much. We stopped for a quick lunch. The place was not a big deal, but the food was delicious. We had some hot tea and then headed to the Wall. We took the skilifts to the top and I had a chance to chat with Susie, which was great. We walked around the wall. I prefer to explore these places on my own and this tour allowed me to get away from the group for a short time and wander around. Perks of a small group tour. We took the bob sleigh down from the wall, which was super fun. All ages from our group took this way of speeding down and all enjoyed it. On the van ride back to the city we all fell asleep. I decided not to go back to my hotel but to get off the van somewhere else. The driver and Susie made it happen and gave me some valuable advice and reccommendations for restaurants to try the Peking duck. SECOND DAY TOUR This was also a small group tour, but since only I signed up, I was the only guest. We had a private car with driver (and water) and Susie was my guide again. The plans were fixed, but timing was flexible during the tour. I enjoyed that a lot. I was not charged any extra for being the only guest and the tour was neither cancelled. I got a private tour for the price of a small group tour. We visited a local park in Beijing that I loved. I saw what locals do in the mornings. The weather was nice, no smog and plenty of sunshine. We visited the Olympic Park, the Summer Palace, the Temple of Heaven and also had lunch. Because I was by myself, I ate lunch solo. These were all included in the price. At the end of the day when the tour was done and the car left, Susie offerd to me to help me navigate in the Beijing metro. She even purchased my ticket. I wanted to experience more of the city and headed to the Hutongs and took a rickshaw tour. That was not part of the itineary, but as I learned China Highlights offers those tours as well. This way or the other, I think I explored as much of Beijing as I could in 2 full days thanks to China Highlights and Susie, my local guide. PROs: - the best source for information prior to my tour about China was found on the China Highlights website - This made me trust them as the experts of the field - small group tours give you some freedom - the tour was not cancelled when I was the only guest for the tour and prices were not raised - tour included car, driver, guide, water, entrance fees and lunch - no shops and other bussinesses were visited on these tours - price was reasonable and payment was easy prior to arrival via PayPal

Our China Highlights Tour of Beijing was wonderful!  It was great to have a smiling face and a bottle of water greet us at the airport.  From the very first moment, Susie provided excellent service and exceeded our expectations. On the first full day, we went to Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and the old city.  For lunch, we were treated to a huge and delicious meal at a local restaurant.  That afternoon, we enjoyed coffee at a traditional Chinese inn and a relaxing rickshaw ride through the Hutong. The next day, we visited the Great Wall and were amazed by the ancient technology that made this structure a reality.  On our return to the city, we stopped for some local shopping and souvenir hunting. Along the way, we stopped to see the 2012 Olympic venues. On our final day in Beijing, we had enough free time in the morning to visit the Temple of Heaven.  Susie hosted us for a Chinese Hot Pot lunch.  It was delicious and, yes, hot!  In the afternoon, we visited the Emperor’s Summer Palace, a beautiful place that was serene and peaceful despite the large holiday crowds. Through it all, Susie was a wealth of knowledge about her city and country, a terrific communicator to our group, and the central person who helped make our Beijing stay a cherished memory.  

Our family spent 3 days touring Beijing with Louise, since we have arranged the hotel independently, Louise met us on our first day with China Highlights in our hotel lobby way ahead of schedule, not forgetting she contacted us via phone on the night before to introduce herself and to inform us that she will be at the lobby by 9am. On day 1, she met up with us at the lobby and did a quick briefing and escorted us to a minivan which was our designated transport for the next 3 days, with driver Mr. Zhang, who was quiet but knows a lot of tricks to beat the busy traffic in BJ. Then our adventure began with this excellent tour guide. Louise is a petite young lady who is in her mid 20's with more than 5 years of experience as a tour guide, with wide exposure handling inbound and also outbound tours. Her wealth in experience in dealing with customers of all ages and cultures is evident based on the way she communicates with each and everyone of us. She speaks very clearly and always with a smile. Her knowledge on all the sites almost sounds like the same version on wikipedia or any lonely planet guide book, all memorized and fluently presented to us at each of the tourist attractions. Besides explaining all the facts and history to us, she also amuses us with her humour and it corresponds with the itinerary and the culture, she has a high ability of engaging us in conversations and makes the whole tour experience friendly and enjoyable. She is also sensitive to our culture and also makes a point to understand our culture and get to know us personally. We visited all of the must-see highlights of Beijing - Forbidden City, Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven, Hutong, Great Wall. She was always friendly and was able to be professional at the same time. Louise worked to make our days just what we were looking for - she always ensured that we had the best times of day visiting all the places with minimum crowd and chose restaurants with many choices and helped navigate our food preferences. After 3 full days of touring with Louise, we felt very accomplished and she left a positive lasting experience of Beijing to us. We would not have been able to understand or see Beijing without having Louise with us, she began as our tour guide and became our close friend by the end of day 3. Louise Liu is highly recommended and there should not be any second thoughts of your decision.

We has an absolutely wonderful time in Beijing with Angela - she was a brilliant guide. Her English is fantastic and she told us so much interesting information and was able to answer all of our questions. We stayed at the Dongfang hotel which had a lot of interesting features from 1918 and was full of history. Each day Angela treated us to an excellent adventure - from the Great Wall of China, to Tienanmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, the Temple of Heaven, an acrobatic show, the Olympic stadiums, the Lama temple, Confucius temple, a hutong tour on a rickshaw and an invite into a local woman's hutong where we met her pet crickets. She also made sure that we ate at tasty restaurants and we thoroughly enjoyed all of the Chinese food (especially the dumplings) we got to sample. We had an outstanding trip and I am so glad to have shared it with Angela - it was like having another friend to enjoy the holiday with.

<p>the guide tour operator was 1 hour late. although he is a nice person, his English was poor, therefore very difficult to understand him. <br/> tried to contact viator for confirmation the day before our trip but without success. <br/> awful experience. I would strongly recommend you do not use viator, they are very unprofessional. it is just waste of money.</p>

<p>This was by far the best tour I have ever been on and that says a lot because I have traveled on 5 continents.<br/> The guide Roy was unbelievable. We were 8 people that really got along from 4 different countries. He was so accommodating that he managed to work in an extra stop at the Olympic Stadium which was missed on the tour from hell that it was supposed to be on so I was really happy. Everything was to perfection. If I went back to Beijing I would request this tour company to take a tour with. So professional and I can't say enough good things about them.</p>

I chose the two day tour of Beijing with China Highlights. The first day I was picked up from my hotel near the Olympic village in the north of Beijing at 7 am and driven to the Regency Hotel. I was asked to sit in the lobby until my tour guide, Dillon, came to pick me up. Thirty minutes later I met Dillon and another traveler. We got into the van and drove to pick up a third traveler, and finally a 4th traveller. This entire process took approximately 2 1/2 hours. Finally, we were off to visit the Summer Palace which was next to my hotel in the north of the city. I would have preferred to not have been driven all over Beijing collecting travelers and be the last scheduled pickup since the Summer Palace is very near to the location of my hotel. The day's tour was presented on the China Highlights website as: "This day you'll deeply explore Beijing by visiting the famous imperial garden - Summer Palace and walk the most beautiful part of the palace - the West Dyke. After having a Beijing local style lunch, you'll visit the Temple of Heaven where the emperors used to pray for rain and good harvest. Later you'll have a bird-view of Beijing city and the Forbidden City by visiting the Jingshan Park." This is not what happened. We visited the Summer Palace (which was amazing and beautiful), then we went to Jinghsan Park (obviously there was no sunset since it was the middle of the day), then lunch, followed by the Temple of Heaven. Our tour was supposed to go until 6:00 pm but our tour guide told us that he had a meeting that he had to go to and he was dropped off at 4:00 pm. effectively ending the day. The other people in the tour were also disappointed that we were not able to enjoy the sunset view from Jingshan Park that was advertised and that the tour ended 2 hours earlier than expected. The following day I was picked up from my hotel by my tour guide, Mark, in the tour van. Once again, we spent a great deal of time in traffic picking up one other tourist and then we were taken to the Forbidden City. We had a lovely tour and Mark was full of interesting historical details and information about the Emperors and life in the Forbidden City. We had a quick lunch and then picked up two more tourists before going to the Great Wall at Mutianyu. This visit went well and everyone enjoyed themselves. We were on the wall almost until dark and caught the very last cable car before they closed for the night. It was almost a perfect day. The only bad thing that happened was when they dropped off the first person she had some type of unpleasantness between her, the driver and the tour guide. We were in the van and didn't hear the altercation but the girl went into the hotel for a few minutes, then came back out. She was very annoyed and opened the van door to tell us that apparently there was an expectation to not only tip the tour guide, but also the driver half as much as the tour guide. I had no problem with either of these expectations and was already planning on tipping both as they had been wonderful. What I didn't enjoy was when the tour guide opened the subject to conversation and complained about the cost of living and his meager salary and how most tourists are cheap and don't tip. This was an unpleasant way to end what had been a wonderful day. I felt sorry for him and left good tips for both the tour guide and the driver.

I was staying in Shanghai for Business for a couple of weeks, and my wife and I decided to take a side-trip to Beijing to see the sights. I researched a number of different tour groups, and decided upon China Highlights as they had excellent reviews, offered a full itinerary, and promised no shopping. I was very happy that they lived up to expectations on all fronts! William, our tour guide contacted me the evening before the tour was due to start. I was out at the time, so he left a message and called back again later in the evening when I had got back to my hotel. He was waiting for us at 8am in the hotel lobby as arranged. We were in a group with a family of 4 - with my wife and I we made 6 in the group. Day 1 of the tour was: Tienanmen Sq, Forbidden City and the Great Wall. We only had about 15 mins in the square, so I was glad to have had the opportunity the day before to explore a bit on my own. We spent probably 90 mins walking through the Forbidden City. William (our guide) was extremely knowledgeable and able to answer all questions (as well as speaking excellent English so we were able to have interesting conversations about Chinese history as well as culture in modern day China). After the Forbidden city there was a 90 min drive out to the Great Wall, and a stop for lunch. The food was obviously catered to tourists, but was still very tasty nonetheless. After lunch it was onto the wall itself. William arranged for all the entry tickets and the cable car tickets to get us up onto the wall. We were given 2 hours on our own to explore the wall which flew by so quickly. A combination of good planning from the tour and a bit of luck meant that as we arrived on the wall big groups were leaving, so it never felt overly crowded - in fact at times there was no one else around us on the wall, really an amazing experience. The 2 hours flew by so quickly and we got the cable car back down to meet William where we'd arranged. A 90 min drive back to Beijing and we were dropped off at our hotel. Day 2 of the tour was pouring with rain, but still didn't stop us as we visited Jingshang Park, the Summer Palace and Temple of Heaven as well as stopping for lunch along the way. Although the weather was rotten it did not spoil the day, with umbrellas and rain ponchos I don't feel we missed anything on the day. It was another fantastic day with interesting commentary on the history of the temples and palaces we were visiting. I'd highly recommend China Highlights 2-day Beijing tour, and also recommend William as the tour guide. He was an excellent guide and looked after us very well.

No pudimos hacer forbidden city debido a que todas las entradas estaban vendidas. La guia, Helen, me llevó a otros lugares para compensar y para mi estuvo perfecto. Recomiendo a la guia Helen sin dudarlo. Muy activa, preocupada por conseguir llegar en tiempo a los sitios y con un ingles perfecto. Explica las cosas de maravilla y sinceramente estoy deseando volver para poder realizar alguna de las otras visitas que ofrece.

Compré el tour en el entendido de que pasarían a mi hotel a recogerme y me regresarían ahí. Posteriormente me informaron que no estaba en el perímetro contemplado para ello y me dejaron un mensaje en hotel que me presentara en determinado lugar, acudí y esperé mas de una hora y nunca pasaron por mi. No tomé la excursión.