mikelat

I had a reference from another FT'er but the person never responded to me. I'm going to be in Beijing in mid-March and also in April. Would like to find a recommendation for a drive to take me (yes, just one person) to Mutinanyu great wall and wait for 3 hours or so for me to walk & take pictures, and then take me back to JW Marriott. Can anyone suggest someone for this?

Thanks in advance!

moondog

Dig up Raymond's info in the big thread. The driver probably won't speak English, but he does.

Nikon Shooter

dashan dong <[email protected]> is the guy.

trueblu

To be honest, english speaking is not really required. You can get your hotel staff to communicate the general gist/ make the booking (from a variety of drivers on the relevant thread) and the driver will wait for you to finish your hike and take you back. The only thing is to negotiate and agree the price.

tb

moondog

Yeah, people who speak English generally don't drive taxis because they can get far better jobs.

JPDM

I use a guy named Mark whenever I have friends coming to town. His english is ok and his price decent (I think 500 or 600RMB).
http://www.best-our.com/

mikelat

Sadly, Ray/Raymond is the person who never responded to me even after 3 weeks and 2 follow-up emails.

I'm ok with non-english speaking driver as long as the expectations are clear and no surprises.

moondog

He works 80 hours/week, and I don't see him much anymore because I'm usually in Shanghai. But, I will reach out to him again on behalf of you and one other person that has a similar need. Otherwise, just book one of the other drivers in the big thread.

dc2005b

I am not sure if OP has already finished trip but I just returned from a great visit to China (was also at JW Beijing). I ended up hiring a guide/driver for a day to visit both Summer Palace and Mutianyu section of the wall. Simon Xiao ( www.simon-service.com ) has a nice clean car and speaks English well, would fully recommend him for the trip you are looking to take.

pushmyredbutton

Just hosted my family in Beijing and brought them up to Mutianyu for a day trip.

One could always ask your hotel to negotiate with a taxi for a day rate. They'll most likely be more than happy to oblige. 500RMB is more than fair and should include all tolls and parking.

With my limited Chinese I was able to accomplish this no sweat, but having your hotel help might be a better option.

There's really no need for an English driver, once you get there, just make note of where you're parked, and follow everyone else. Take your drivers mobile number too just in case I suppose, but he'll be waiting, since he wants to get paid at the end of the trip.

desi

Based on various recommendations, I reached out to few taxi drivers including Simon.

While many responded, Simon seemed to give best vibes and hence went with him

He was golden in terms of service, reliability and more importanty sincerity.

His price was fair and did not have to haggle. He responded to emails within few hours.

Due to the rains, trip to the Wall was postponed by a day but he still came to hotel just to make sure that there was no misunderstanding.

He always arrived on time. Was very courteous and speaks decent English.
He carried water bottles for his pax but more importantly carries a spare phone which is very useful in contacting him from the Wall or after completeing the hike.

He is a safe driver and his car is clean. He did not ask for payment until trip was over.

His main job is with a hotel and hence his command of English and professional attitude. Most English speaking taxi drivers in Beijing dont remain so because either they leverage their English skills into better paying jobs or become "owner" of taxi rental business farming business to other non-english speaking drivers. Fortunately for Simon's clients his other job has kept him happy with private car+driver hire gig on side.

For trip to Wall, he
- suggsted early departure (which is key to beating traffic both on the roads and on the wall),
- using gandola (rather than chair lift/tobagan combon) (excellent advice as area left of gandola is much better to hike/walk),
- helped with buying tickets,
- came up to wall to give instructions and take some pictures,
- gave a spare mobile with his number programmed

- all in all, made trip hassle-free.

I strongly recommend him. (Feel free to use my reference - mention Kenny)

Simon Xiao can be reached through web site
( www.simon-service.com )

-kenny

trueblu

Simon sounds very good -- but what 'fair' price did he charge, for the interest of the thread?

tb

desi

to be honest, I simply not sure what I ended up paying him in the end.

had him booked for 8 hours for Wall and Summer Palace (quick stop only - so included bringing back to hotel)

I ended up using him only for Mutianyu Wall trip only (less than 6 hours total)

Paid him either 550 RMB or 600 RMB (one of the two)
Basically, just paid him whatever he suggested as I was pretty happy with such stress-free trip (had heard too many ugly stories about tours with mandatory shopping stops and cheating taxi drivers)

Wall trip was the nice part of short Beijing stay.
The rest of BJ, I was not that impressed.
Particularly disgusted by what was going on in the evening/night at JW on executive floor (supposedly same floor where US secretary of state stays).But then others on FT hinted that it is not that unusual practice by some western vistors. oh well, i will remmeber the good part - nice hassle free wall trip and nice 2-3 hours on crowd-free wall (again Simon's suggestion to ignore chair-lift and instead take gondola and go LEFT was a useful one)

wombattoo

I've recently got in contact with Simon (after reading the suggestions here) and was quoted 900RMB for a trip to Jinshanling Great Wall. This seems quite steep compared to other prices floating around, does this section cost more to get to? My hotel won't quote for a taxi to this section of the wall as they say it is dangerous...

moondog

Can you honestly blame those guys for being attracted to hot girls?