Private Beijing Tour: Forbidden City, Mutianyu Great Wall, and Dumpling Lunch

Excellent 2-day Service in Beijing

We were on a cruise and only spent 2 days (1 night) in Beijing. The support from transport, restaurant, hotel and especially the visit to the Forbidden City and the Great Wall was very well conducted by Leo's team. We were in 3 couples and were guided by Fernando, speaking Portuguese (self dictated, but with good vocabulary) and knowledge of history and culture. I recommend.

Response from the operator: Thank you Moises We're happy that you've enjoyed your trip with U China Travel in Beijing. The review is the best reward to our team, driver and guide. The photos are great especially the jumping one 😄. Do keep in touch with us and look forward to hosting you again in the future… Thanks Leo

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I was to be in Beijing for just one...

<p>I was to be in Beijing for just one day. I found individual and group tours. Leo Chu From U China Travel Ltd. called to quote the cost of a single person tour. I found it was double of a group tour. After much thought, I decided it was the best way to see and experience the city my own way. A week before I left New York City, I booked the individual tour Leo had quoted me. </p> <p>On June 30/2016, Julian, my tour guide picked me up at the hotel at 8AM. We boarded a comfortable mini bus and headed for Tiananmen Square, our first stop. Unfortunately, it was barred from entry on that day. So, we continued our tour to the Forbidden City where we spent the whole morning. There is so much to see, learn and absorb a morning is just glimpse of the extraordinary beauty, craftsmanship and thought. As always it was crowded but one could find pockets of isolated places and focus on astounding specific details the long stones of bas-relief carved one in front of the Hall of Supreme Harmony the other by the Hall of Preserving Harmony, the long colorful ceramic depicting Nine Dragons in front of the Palace of Tranquil Longevity, the Hall of Supreme Harmonys roof decorated with yellow tiles yellow being the emperors color with ten imperial figures adorning the roof ridge. We stopped at one of the imperial gardens which houses, very old cypress trees. At the gift shop, an artist delicately paints landscapes, flowers, animals, insects or your name, if you wish, inside miniature glass bottles. I bought a few as presents.<br/> Julian kindly reminded the scheduled lunch. He took me to a Michelin star dumpling restaurant. The food was superb. We then proceeded to The Great wall of China. I was driven to the Mutianyu area. Though it was very hot day, Julian and I walked for several hours the southward route from Tower 6, The Grand Zhengguan Terrace to the Big Corner Watch Tower 1, which is the place where East, West and south connect. The name derives from the fact that it looks like a cor</p>

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A FANTASTIC SINGLE DAY IN BEIJING

I was to be in Beijing for just one day. I looked for individual and group tours. Leo Chu From U China Travel Ltd. called to quote the cost of a single person tour. I found it was double the price of of a group tour. After much thought, I decided it was the best way to see and experience the city my own way. A week before I left New York City, I booked the individual tour Leo had quoted me. On June 30/2016, Julian, my tour guide picked me up at the hotel at 8AM. We boarded a comfortable mini bus and headed for Tiananmen Square, our first stop. Unfortunately, it was barred from entry on that day. So, we continued our tour to the Forbidden City where we spent the whole morning. There is so much to see, learn and absorb a morning is just glimpse of the extraordinary beauty, craftsmanship and thought involved in creating such a place. As always it was crowded but one could find pockets of isolated places and focus on astounding specific details; the long stones of bas-relief carved one in front of the Hall of Supreme Harmony the other by the Hall of Preserving Harmony are just astounding! the long colorful ceramic depicting Nine Dragons in front of the Palace of Tranquil Longevity took my breath away, and much admired the Hall of Supreme Harmony’s roof decorated with yellow tiles (yellow being the emperor’s color) with ten imperial figures adorning the roof ridge; each one with a specific meaning. We stopped at one of the imperial gardens which houses, very old cypress trees. At the gift shop, an artist delicately painted landscapes, flowers, animals, insects or your name, if you wish, inside miniature glass bottles. I bought a few as presents. Julian kindly reminded the scheduled lunch. He took me to a Michelin star dumpling restaurant. The food and service was superb, We then proceeded to The Great wall of China. I was driven to the Mutianyu area. Though it was very hot day, Julian and I walked for several hours the southward route from Tower 6, The Grand Zhengguan Terrace to the Big Corner Watch Tower 1, which is the place where East, West and south connect. The name derives from the fact that it looks like a corner from any angle. My day of sightseeing ended with a speedy toboggan descent (even at age 65 one could enjoy this entertainment). At the end of a fabulous day, I was driven to my hotel. Julian gave me a present from Leo; a beautifully packaged scroll with the traditional art of China of paper cutting depicting the twelve signs of the zodiac. A present I will cherish for years to come as a memory of my only day in Beijing and a reminder of a worthwhile investment of a single person tour.

Response from the operator: Hi Ysabella Thanks so much for your review to us and I am so glad that you enjoyed time with our guide Julian and enjoyed the dumpling lunch. Look forward to hosting you for your China Tour next time. Thanks,

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A Great Trip!

My wife and I began planning a trip to China about a year ago. We ultimately chose U China Travel to put our tour together. One of the reasons we did this was because U China Travel does not have scheduled shopping stops for which they receive a commission. Over the period of several months, we worked with Leo to put the tour together. Leo designed our tour based on our interests and physical abilities. He was very responsive and patient with all our questions and concerns. Our tour consisted of three cities: Beijing, Xi'an, and Shanghai. In Shanghai our guide was Lily. She spoke English well and is very knowledgeable of local and Chinese history. At our request we stayed at the Courtyard 7 hotel. While this hotel didn't offer many amenities, it was adequate and gave us a feel for life in the hutong. Our first full day in Beijing was a day on our own. We chose to do this to recover from the long trip the day before. Beginning the second day, Lily met us at the hotel each morning. We visited Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, and the Summer Palace the second day. On the third day, we visited the Great Wall at Mutianyu and a hutong where we took a ride in a rickshaw. The next day we visited the Temple of Heaven and then were of to Xi'an by high speed rail. Lily helped us through the maze of the train station. Without her, I'm not so sure we still wouldn't be there!! Also, Leo met us for drinks and great conversation one evening. He also had a gift for us! In Xi'an, our guide was Cathy. She too spoke English well and was knowledgeable regarding local and Chinese history. In Xi'an we visited the Terracotta Warriors and were able to walk into the pit 1 platform. The platform got us within a few feet of the warriors. We visited the Xi'an city wall and took a tandem bike ride around the wall - a distance of about 9 miles. We also visited the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. The second day we visited the Great Mosque, the Shanxi Historical Museum, and Han Yangling Mausoleum. Then we flew to Shanghai. In Xi'an we stayed at the Westin hotel, a modern, western style hotel. In Shanghai our guide was Kiko. Like Lily and Cathy, she spoke English well and was very knowledgeable of the local and Chinese history. With Kiko we visited Yuhuan Garden, the Jade Buddha Temple, the Jewish District, and the French Concession district. We also saw the Chinese Acrobats show - amazing. The second day we visited Zhujiajiao water town, and the Shanghai World Financial Center, which provided a great view of the city. We stayed at Les Suites Orient, where Leo was able to upgrade our room to a Bund view room. I'd highly recommend a Bund view. Our tour included all breakfasts and lunches. Dinners were typically on our own, except in Shanghai, where Leo made a reservation at M on the Bund, very nice upscale restaurant. In each city, the guides helped us choose food to our liking. The guides were very flexible, which is why I would recommend a private tour. If we didn't care for a site or if we found one interesting, they would modify the schedule to accommodate our interests. Kiko even helped find a laundry service and helped me get some medicine at a pharmacy. Working with Leo was great. He always responded to my questions promptly. He was patient as we made changes to the itinerary. The hotels he arranged for us were first class. All were in active areas of the city so in the evenings we could enjoy the night life around the hotel. Leo did a great job of planning our trip. Leo also arranged all our transportation between cities. We were met at the airport/train station in each city by our guide and driver, and then dropped off at the airport/train station when we left the city. The driver's were polite and well-dressed, although they spoke very little English. Their vehicles were clean, relatively new, and in good shape. One thing that did concern me was wiring payment to Leo. It's just not in my comfort zone to wire money halfway around the world to someone I don't know! I chose to do this because of the fee that PayPal charges for use of their service. But everything went through just fine. I highly recommend U China Travel. Leo's goal is to create the trip of a lifetime for each of his clients, and he succeeded in that for us!

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Don't hesitate; book you'll not regret it

Summary Usually the summary would be last but to save you reading all the way through here it is. If you’re considering a private tour of China then no need to look beyond U-China, service is excellent, pricing reasonable, they’re easy to deal with and customer service is high on the agenda. It was a little concerning sending large sums of money by transfer but no worries. For 6 of us doing a 22 day tour there were few problems and 99% of those were not in the control of U-China. Their pre-service organising the trip is brilliant and the attention to detail continues once your there. In each city you’ll be met by a guide and driver and when it’s time to move on you’re accompanied all the way to security. I’ve seen other tours taking place on previous visits and again this time with guides carrying portable speakers, flags on a pole and shepherding their large flock of tourists, rest assured this is nothing like that. – Don’t hesitate book now. Arranging In Detail I’ll try to put this in chronological order so you can follow our thinking, any mistakes are mine. The trip actually took place October/November 2014, but our planning started some time beforehand. In fact I can see our initial enquiries to several different agents went out in the beginning of January 2014. By April we’d settled on using U-China as our agent in China and purchased our international tickets from Emirates. It does help if you’ve an idea of what you wish to see and do, although they can advise the more information you can give the better and the more the trip can customised to your own desires. We passed an itinerary back and forth a few times with Leo and his team tweaking until it matched what we wanted and what Leo said was possible. There was a slight hitch with the visas, the embassy in London wouldn’t issue a visa because we had Tibet in the itinerary and no permission for Tibet (that is issued in China), Leo was unable to get the permission for Tibet unless we had a valid Chinese visa (catch-22). In the end we had to remove Tibet from the itinerary, get the visa then at the last minute with the paperwork in place the internal permission could be granted. Paying I sent Leo a deposit by using Currency Solutions, there are other services and your bank may also do this. I found my bank charges to be too high, Forex didn’t want to help because I was sending money for other people <shakes head> what do they think happens with a group travelling. The final sum was paid the same way a few weeks before the tour. Each time within 24 hours U-China sent a receipt to confirm they’d received the monies. The Trip On our itinerary Beijing, Xian, Lhasa, Chengdu, JIuzhaigou & Huanglong, Leshan Giant Buddha, Mt. Emei, Guilin, Yangshuo, Lonngji, Shanghai and Suzhou. We flew via Dubai to Beijing where the local guide Lily met us with a driver and took us to the hotel. Our tour effectively starting the following day with Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and Temple of Heaven, we’d chosen to have lunch included but not dinner and apart from when we were on airplanes we’d be taken to local restaurants for lunch. In some cities the guides and drivers would stay with us for lunch in others it is not customary for them to do so (just go with the flow). Generally meals were good, the guides will help with choices but do advise beforehand if there are any dietary issues. We didn’t need this help so much as two of our party speak and read Mandarin and one other has some knowledge of the language. It’s possible to exceed the lunch budget but even if so generally the top up necessary is small, quite often lunch was substantial enough that dinner was not needed. Mutianyu Great Wall, Ming Tomb and Sacred Way note that access to the wall can be by chair lift; one of our party has a fear of heights and did not enjoy that so we came down by cable car. Next day the Summer Palace, a brief look at the birds-nest stadium and then the Confucius Temple, escaping from the stadium just as the police were closing the road for a cycle race otherwise we’d have been stuck. Next we flew to Xian to be met by Cathy on the way to the hotel a stop at Han Yangling Mausoleum where there are many artefacts and pottery burial objects from around 150CE. Next day perhaps the most famous of all the Terracotta Warriors a massively impressive site dating back to 210BCE which even now is only partially excavated there must still be many discoveries to be made and to keep the archaeologists busy. Then into the city to visit the Great Mosque before finishing the day cycling the impressive wall around the city a total of 7Km around. After this the following day a flight to Lhasa where we were met by Cizhen and taken to the hotel to acclimatise, this is necessary as the altitude is nearly 4000m. Next day we visited within walking distance of our hotel Jokhang Temple and then a short drive to Potala Palace. Only I and one other climbed to the top and visited the rooms of the palace, the altitude was causing the others problems. Please do not underestimate how debilitating such high altitude can be and perhaps (especially if you may have health issues) consult a physician before planning this part of the trip. Next day in the morning we returned via Drepung Monastery to the airport for a flight to Chengdu, we tried to also visit Norbulingka but ran out of time. Met at the airport by local guide Kevin, who goes well beyond expected and is an excellent guide. We only stopped overnight in Chengdu; in fact we came to this same hotel three times for short periods because Chengdu is a bit of a hub. Next day set of for the drive to the Panda centre to work as a volunteers, this was excellent and I wish we’d allowed some more time for this but we had to limit this to ½ day as we were enroute to Mt Emei and the only access is via a public bus and then a cable car that stops running around 17:00. This is a fair bit of walking to get to between the bus stop and the cable car; next day is a very early start to watch the sunrise too. Next day after seeing sunrise we took the cable car and bus back to meet our van and then stopped in Lashan to see the Buddha and visit a local market, some really lovely fruit before getting back to Chengdu ready to fly the next day to Jiuzhaigou. In Jiuzhaigou met by Rocky another excellent guide and the most dilapidated of the various vans provided for us on our tour an old Transit that had seen better days and unfortunately had been used by smokers. A long drive to the hotel before going into the national park the next day and travelling around on the buses provided by the park, Rocky got us to the park by hiring a couple of taxis to save the queues walking. Jiuzhaigou is stunning scenery, mountains, forests and waterfalls like Lhasa it is Tibetan culture and also high, there weren’t the same issues with altitude here, either it’s not quite so high or as Rocky said to us the trees put enough extra oxygen out. We visited two parks one the day we arrived the next the day we left in the morning both stunning. Then back to Chengdu on the late flight, which was even later because of flight delays due to fog at Chengdu. In Chengdu overnight stop before we had a day to explore the city we’d lost the ever helpful Kevin as he’d been requested for another party and Coral took us around the city she did a great job and we had the famous hotpot for lunch. After the city tour we went back to the airport for the late flight to Guilin where we were met by Helen. In Guilin for just an overnight stop a minor incident at the Guilin Bravo Hotel where one of our party had their AC catch on fire in the room followed by all the electrics failing! Next day collected by our guide Helen (who’s no mean singer with an excellent voice, see if she’ll sing for you) to travel to the River Li for the boat trip to Yangshuo, wonderful scenery, about a three/four hour cruise and the van met us to take us to Yangshuo Mountain Retreat which has stunning views and is a great place to relax. Whilst here we visited the cormorant fisheries, (this is for tourists now) the reed flute cave and Impression Liu Sanjie a open air operatic performance with many of the artists being local villagers all on a massive open air stage. After Yangshuo we travelled to the terraced rice fields in Longji where over many years the hills have be sculpted to grow not only rice but other food crops form there back to Guilin for the flight to Shanghai. In Shanghai for our last 4 days we visited several gardens, the bund, cruised on the river went to Tongli before departing. Hotels The majority of the hotels were good, the one in Lhasa Thangka Hotel was dire, the location was good but pretty much everything else was poor. The one on Mt Emei Golden Summit Hotel was a lower standard than the cities but the best one there by far, a family from Germany on the same bus as us had booked into the other hotel and couldn’t stay it was so bad they came to Golden Summit Hotel so ended up paying for a room not used at the other. A lot of the hotels (big modern ones) have disabled individual control of the AC and seem to think that 26C is an appropriate temperature for a bedroom. The Yangshuo Mountain Retreat has wonderful views and is worth a visit for the location alone. Thoughts If I were to be doing the trip again with the benefit of hindsight I’d perhaps choose to see the Beijing sites without a guide and spend a little longer there, I think we may have crammed a little too much into our timescale. It helps that I’ve been to Beijing 3 times previously for work and visited most of the places we went to on previous occasions. I’d also spend longer at the Panda centre we cut our visit short because we had to catch the last bus to Mt Emei. I’d perhaps also skip Lhasa; the altitude was a chore for several of the group. Shanghai was a little disappointing, just another city; however, I think this was also a combination of us being tired at the end of the trip, the weather being rainy and miserable after pretty good weather all the way through up to this point. Things to take / Note Outside of hotels the chances are any toilets will have no paper and will be squat types and sometimes nowhere to wash hands. To avoid issues take paper tissue with you, antiseptic wipes and/or spray and know how to use a squat. Never miss an opportunity to wash your hands with soap and water. A lot of Chinese people smoke, it’s difficult to avoid in public and sometimes in restaurants. The tourist attractions can get very busy; there are a lot of local people who wish to visit too.

Response from the operator: Hi Liz, Ian and Sean Thanks so much for the review and the photos, we really appreciate it. So sorry about the vehicle in Jiuzhaigou, where is much less developed than other regions in China and the condition of vehicle is NO comparison with other cities we provided. We will never let any one smoke in the car and will double check the vehicle before our guests use. For the hotel in Lhasa, it is NOT the hotel we recommended but be honestly 99% hotels in Lhasa got complained except St. Regis and Shangri-La there. Please understand that Lhasa is even much more remote region than Jiuzhaigou. We will definitely pay more attention at these two places in the future. For the Chengdu, the programs are bit more and you time is less. The arrangement is the most efficient way to cover all you to see. I didn't expect you will stay Panda volunteer for long time neither. Thanks again for traveling with us and using our services. Look forward to hosting you again in the future. Cheers, Leo

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