Hi Guys,
Looking to do a tour for two Beijing-Xian-Shanghai around October/November 2013, and would like to know if anyone has used the following tours providers Chinahighlight.com, Chinatours.com, Travelchinaguide.com and chinaodysseytours.com. They are from overseas, probably china.
I would really appreciate just to hear your experience, the good and bad, and what to beware of. Thanks.
Thanks Jerri, the tour providers I mentioned above, all of them include local flights among the three cities, accommodations for 8/9 days, breakfast and lunch but only few dinners. They have group tours or private tours varied from US$1000 to US$1800 depending on 3-stars to 5-stars hotel.
How much did it cost you with Terry Wang and how many days.
If you like planning your own itinerary then you can book all the flights, accom, and the tour guides yourself, but it might be too much effort anyway. The tour packages are just so much easier.
Terry charged RMB1050 for me and my husband, this includes a driver to pick us up from the hotel, drive us to the MuTianYu side of the Great Wall and also the Ming Tombs in the arvo, and then drive us back to the hotel, and we gave about 100 RMB tip at the end. This is a pretty standard rate for all the private tour guides in Beijing. But all the entrance fees are not included, they're not cheap either, I think they'll be around another 100 or so RMB each. All the other sites in Beijing you probably won't need a tour guide to take you anyway as they're all close to public transport.
Trust me, after having the free lunches, you'll want choose your own dinner venues. Don't forget to go to DaDong for Peking duck if you can, definitely one of the highlights of our Beijing trip. You'll need to book a table otherwise be prepared to wait for 2 hours. You can book on the first day you arrive in Beijing for your last night there.
I think there was some Scoopon deals lately for a China tour. Have you looked into that? But then again, a total of US$1800 for three cities isn't bad at all!
We were in China for three weeks in October, four of those days were spent in Beijing. We splurged a bit when we went to Beijing though, I booked first class tickets with China Eastern which was about AUD170 one way including taxes, but it was still heavily discounted so I thought why not. In Beijing, we stayed at the Novotel Peace in one of the Premier floor rooms, it was around AUD170 per night which was a bargain considering all other hotels were charging AUD300. The Premier service has happy hour between 6pm to 8pm every night with unlimited drinks and canapes.
In Shanghai, we stayed at a cheap hotel near my grandparents, it was only AUD30 a night. The room has no windows and it smelt a bit, we had to leave the exhaust fan on in the bathroom all the time, but other than that, the floor was quite clean and the shower was relatively clean too. Personally, I don't think you need a tour guide in Shanghai, it's just mainly for shopping and most sights you can get to by public transport anyway.
Xian you'll probably need to engage another tour guide, but I haven't actually been there yet but the sights might not be as accessible so traveling with a tour guide will smooth out all the extra time and argument spent looking at the maps. :)
China Odyssey Tours are really good. I've used them a couple of times, always got good guides. I booked flights and hotels myself. Better prices shopping around, using points on hotels, flights, etc. But the tour side is really good. I always asked them for a package (everything) figuring they'd try and make up cash on all options. Then I come back, say I will only need tours. And then negotiate down the price. lol
The need for a guide really depends on your own personal preference to be local and cope with any language barriers you may have. Really, the important thing is to have access to a car and driver. As traffic in China can be awful and fighting for a taxi in peak hour, or just being able to sleep after a really long day exploring sites whilst on the way back to your hotel is worth it.
Oh, keep in mind October 1 is the start of Golden Week, big national holiday period. Worst time to go anywhere that is even vaguely touristy. Goes for up to 10 days, depending on when the 1st October hits (daywise). So try and avoid it if you can.
Hi Bargainr,
Thanks, By booking flights and hotels yourself how much would be saving, could you please give me an example on your last trip. So for only tours, is this a private one hence you get a driver and a guide (if u wish) and how much for this case.
We are still thinking for a group tours or private tours and if the driver is knowledgeable, then I think guide might not be required.
Which city did you go?
I'm normally not a big fan of tours but did go to China last year with family who wanted a tour.
Make sure any tour you book is super clear about the "museums/factories" and shopping.
Many "museums/factories" are a fake front for a shop, terrible places… I ended visiting 3 Silk factories, 2 Jade museums, 2 tea plantations, 2 pearl farms ,1 tea pot factory and others I can't even remember… spent at least 1hour @ each!
If your on a tight budget some of the "$99" (~$240 after you add all the fees) Beijing/Shanghai tours might still be around… 5-6 nights (from memory), 4-5 Star hotels (really nice!), decent food, all transport and transfers… but you have to put up with all the shopping… my tours were Chinese speaking but I'm sure I saw an English one?
I mixed it up… went on a "$99" tour in Shanghai and DIY-ed in Beijing… Xian I went on a similar tour (~$390?) but the guide wasn't pushy about shopping and we were in a small group.
http://www.gwtours.com.au/ - booked thru this agency… (http://www.extragreen.com.au/7dayhuatung.htm had similar itinerary)
Hi Hal,
Did you used gwtours or extragreen. I notice gwtours on there webpage 'Beijing-Xian-Guilin-Yangshuo-Shanghai' seems nice, how was the hotels,. Is it the $99 trip, they enforce shopping requirement part of the trip. Do you need to buy anything.
Interested to here the Xian tour why more expensive and how many days. Any shopping trip again for this one.
Booked thru gwtours… though their website doesn't seem to have the info
You have to put up with ~2hours of shopping per day, you aren't forced to buy anything but doesn't mean they aren't pushy (as Eivad mentions, though from my experience not so severe)
Hotels were really nice! We stayed @ the Grand Mercure, Hilton, and a few other 5 star but Chinese run hotel (buffet breakfast was really nice at the first 2!)
Xian is less popular, smaller groups… I assume that's why it's more expensive… same deal with shopping
The gf and I went on one of those $99 for 2 tours ($50 each), 7 days 6 nights, all expenses included, and each night you stay in a 5-star hotel. There's one available in Shanghai (and surrounding cities) and one in Beijing (and surrounding cities), though the Beijing one was $390 for 2.
Agree with HAL - in these tours they literally take you to overpriced shops the whole time. Nevertheless, if time is what you have and money is not - it's a great way to score a cheap 6 nights at 5-star hotels with all meals and travel included.
Though last I heard you had to be Chinese to register for one of these tours (correct me if I'm wrong).
EDIT: They don't enforce shopping, the gf and I didn't shop at all, we just sat down and played cards with some mates whilst the rest of them shopped.
I have to warn you however that shop attendants in China are ridiculously aggressive and persuasive, bordering on assault. They literally don't take 'No' for an answer unless you yell at them, spit at them, or push them physically away. That being said, it helped being there and pretending not to understand the language.
Despite all the shopping tours and pesky sales people… I thought it was great bang for your buck…
The hotels and their breakfast made it worth while
Though after one week my patience and sanity was quite thin, hence very glad I did Beijing myself
hmmm interesting info to go to China, I needed
Group buy companies in Singapore often have China tours with the shopping for under a hundred bucks. You need to specify English and pay a bit extra. If you skip the shopping places, you have to pay a surcharge of several hundred dollars for not following the itinerary.
Are you talking about Chan Brothers? I have bad experience with them, arrogant, not responding to our emails, and not interested in our (Oz) business I think.
On the other hand, Malaysians are better. Very responsive.
Hi,
My bf and I used Chine Odyssey Aug last year, was very happy with the service. We had a tour guide and driver the whole time. Very knowledgeable and we had full control of the itinerary.
There were many emails on our behalf because we weren't sure what we wanted to do, but they always accommodated.
Cost about $700pp. Including 1 flight Shanghai to Xi'an, and Z20 overnight train Xi'an to Beijing (deluxe). Hotel Breakfast and buffet lunch at nice restaurant. (Dinner they would ask what we wanted and take us there, we paid separately to the tour)
Hi Misty,
Thanks, I would like to know more with Odyssey….
so AUS$700 pp for the three cities for private tours?
Was the price included 1 flight, 1 train trip and hotel for how many nights?
I guess you would get different guides for different cities? How much tips did you give?
Thanks for the information so far - very informative.
I have flights booked in and out of Hong Kong in early November for 15 days and plan to use the services of a company like Odyssey Tours to visit the highlights of China.
I have a draft trip outline from Odyssey which I notice includes a number of jade etc factories :-)
It also included 6 internal flights which I'm not keen on - would rather substitute some flights with rail. Anyone done this? Comments please ….
Hi Ozmoto,
Have you got your china visa, I heard it could be pain in the B… as Embassy requires all your itenary, accomomdation and flight…so on.
Yeah its a pain to fill it out, but I believe they don't really check…
I had an travel agent do it for me (since it was only $10 more), they filled in only the start details of our trip and left the rest out…
I had more fun going there just before the Olympics in 08', they decided to cancel the conference for over 500 ppl 3 months out and then reinstate it just a few weeks before the date.
Hi, I have not heard of any of the companies you mentioned, sorry! but reading others replies here are very useful info for me, as I'd like to go to China for the 3rd time later.
first time I went to china with CTS China Travel Service (beijing, hangzhou, suzhou, wuzhen, shanghai) , and 2nd time, with Travel Indochina (beijing, xian, yangtze river cruise, zhujiajaio, shanghai). Both were great.
CTS had a larger group (45?) with about half "caucasian" and half "aussie chinese" and the national guide was from China, fluent English speaking. plus local Eng speaking guides at each city. hotels were 4-5 star, buffet breakfast daily. airport trasnfers both ways, visa, domestic flights plus international flight from Australia (Sydney for me) included. very happy with the trip overall. yes, there were shopping included at least once usually twice a day. yes, pearl, jade, cloisonné, embroidery, silk duvet, tea, you name it. but it was ok, not pushy at all. usually start with a demo which is quite interesting. then its photo taking time for me. or postcard writing/ guidebook reading/ chatting with tour guide practising my mandarin.. whatever i like.often they have nice table & chair and free tea. i never bought anything and never felt pressured. the sales assistants all left me alone cos i don't look like i am gonna buy anything. others in the group loved their shopping so its fine, they've been trained to tell who is a real customer! it was probably 1-2 hrs each shop.
best thing about those shops are really nice clean toilets! which you won't get out on the street or in a public attraction such as the palaces..
2nd time in china went with Travel Indo china, very similar, but a smaller group, think they had 16max from memory, and all "non asian". and a "western" national guide, i.e. an Aussie. the rest are very similar, probably a little less shopping.. maybe once a day and only an hour or so. and had more free time. international flight not included in price but they can arrange for you if required.
both trips were fantastic, I would go with either of them again.
Hi, have you booked the tour to take you around all of the three cities you mentioned? If you're after convenience, then it's probably better to go with the same tour provider and they'll take you to all of the cities with flights, accommodation and daily activities all covered. Personally, I haven't traveled with any of the above providers so I can't talk about them specifically.
But I did go to Beijing in October 2012, and I engaged a private tour guide called Terry Wang. He's on Trip Advisor and you can easily find him on the net. The cost was very steep even in Australian standards, and especially after you compare the rates with all these other group tours which only cost about $30 per person. He was great though, well worth the price. The group tours will spend hours taking you to all these shopping sites, and they will come up with many tricks under their sleeves to catch you off-guard and buy things you don't really need. I grew up in Shanghai and my parents spent the first 30 years of their lives in Shanghai but when we went to Beijing together about 4 years ago, we ended up getting tricked by these people and spent about RMB2K to buy a fake jade bangle. So no matter what you end up doing, don't buy anything expensive from these stores, souvenirs which will only cost 10 or 20 dollars are OK but nothing more expensive!
Other than the shopping trips, most tour providers are still quite reasonable. They all speak acceptable English, quite helpful, and by the way, you'll love the food in China. :) Feel free to message me and ask about anything else.