qpr

I don´t have any experience with tour guides as I never use them but maybe this page can help you a little?

http://www.synotrip.com/tour-guides/chengdu

bobert24

Thanks. I was just going on some reports earlier in the thread. Definitely good to know that number is too low - the last thing I want to do is show up and start being a stupid American, insulting people with super low offers.

I'll look into doing it on our own. I'm really just concerned about the signage - most countries we've been to generally use some form of a Latin alphabet and/or have some common roots with English, so even if we don't speak the language, we can usually learn to recognize what various signs, words on menus, etc. mean very quickly. With no common starting point, I guess I'm just paranoid that we'll never really understand what's what. Ah well, that's for me to figure out. Thanks for your help.

jiejie

Nowadays, $20-30 per day is too low, and yes, would be insulting. However, maybe you can balance off places where you really don't need any guide or translator and can do things yourself for free on some days, then allot more to places where a guide/translator could really be of use on other days. Some places in China are definitely easier to deal with independently than others, for the non-Chinese speaker/reader. So specific recommendations for where to prioritize and allot X amount of guide money will depend on your ultimate China itinerary. If you come up with a rough plan for that, we can further advise.

JohnnyColombia

I'd like to chip in to this thread too. First time to China proper. I am doing Beijing TWOV and I arrive at 6.20am. Given I probably cannot check in until mid afternoon, seems like a nice opportunity to see the great wall. So pick up at the airport, take me to the great wall, leave my luggage in the car, go afterwards to my hotel

Seems to cost about $140 to $160, there are lots of companies that offer such a service, can anyone recommend one of them?

JPDM

$160 is definitely expensive. Check the ads here: http://www.thebeijinger.com/classifieds/cars-drivers
Personally I have used this guy a few times: http://www.best-our.com/

JohnnyColombia

Thanks very much for the links, I will contact some of the providers

Cheers

kxl19

This looks interesting - I've never heard of this site before. Will try it out and report back. The prices here are better than what I've seen by some of the other driver/guides that were posted here, quoting around $140-150 per day.

mordy2000

We recently returned from a trip to China and used Catherine Lu tours (Cynthia was our tour guide). We used them for 2 days and I can't recommend it highly enough.

I wrote up a trip report about our experience.

Mordy

alanwar

Has anyone booked a private tour on the site mentioned: http://www.synotrip.com/tour-guides/chengdu ?

I've been quoted 2400RMB for this itinerary including guide and private car:

Day 1: Panda Breeding center, Baoguang Temple and Sanxingdui or Jinsha
Day 2: Dujiangyan irrigation system and Mt. Qingcheng

The price seems ok but I am a little worried about getting scammed especially if asked to pay in advance via PayPal or something. Is that a normal request ? Also are there any red flags or other things I should be aware of ? I've also read in the forum that tipping is not done in China - does this also include this tour guide ?

Thank you,
Alan

747FC

I never paid in advance for my tour guides in China.

JohnnyColombia

My Beijing guy came good, I'd definitely recommend him. He charged 600RMB for airport pick up, took me to the great wall, i paid my own entrance, he got in for free, then he took me to my hotel in Beijing. Was worth every penny and the ride out to the wall was nice and scenic. if anyone wants his details then I will go dig them out.

Regarding prepayment (I did not have to in China) but as of about 18 months ago, PayPal expressly covers travel services including guides and day trips. It is literally risk free. Don't pay more than 45 days in advance or the PayPal dispute timescale will close out.

I work in travel and it makes perfect sense to demand that day trips are prepaid. Lots of reasons, it causes a huge amount of admin if you don't know until the last minute if someone is actually going to commit or not. You are going to have no shows and if you have a guide booked out on a day rate, you cancel last minute and you do your relationship with them no favours.

I'd have no doubts about prepayment with PayPal for day trips.

747FC

If the cost was 600 for just airport pickup, that is highway robbery. It cost me about 330 for transport into my Beijing hotel....

JohnnyColombia

Well why did you truncate the remainder of my comment? He did not just take me to the hotel, I had him for about 6 hours total and he took me out to Mutianyu, accompanied me about 3 hours up there and then took me to my hotel.

jiejie

Please. This pricing is not OK for someone providing independent services on synotrip--this is more of a commercial company/business traveler/expense account level of pricing. While I can understand that you may not wish to deal with this by public transport (you can reference my how-to on this thread) at least consider a midrange alternative that requires only slightly more effort on your part but saves a pile of cash.

Consider this: you don't need a guide for any of these sights. Everything is either self-evident (pandas, Qingchengshan), captioned well in English (Sanxingdui, Dujiangyan), or info available on the internet that you can print out in advance or access via mobile/3G in real-time (Baoguang, all else). There is little value-added that a guide traipsing around with you can do. What is useful on Day 1 is a private car with a driver. The driver need not speak English as long as the plan is communicated to him ahead of time and an English speaker is available by phone, just in case. I cannot imagine that a full day's service for a car/driver would be more than about RMB 800-900, as the furthest point (Sanxingdui in Guanghan city) is only about 30 minutes from the pandas. And Baoguang is between Guanghan and central Chengdu.

Day 2 needs even less handholding, as one can take the high speed train to Dujiangyan then to Qingchengshan then back to Chengdu. Or taxi between Dujiangyan and Qingchengshan. Essentially, you'd be paying for a private car/driver to sit around and wait for you most of the day, and travel between these two places and Chengdu will eat up more time if you go by road. I'm not sure what a guide would do, as Dujiangyan, a UNESCO site, is captioned in English, and Qingchengshan is a natural site with various pagodas and stuff, with whatever information or map needed available via google. You're probably talking a total per person transport cost out of Chengdu of about RMB 50.

Even for a foreigner with zero Mandarin and unfamiliar with China, these daytrips are not much of a challenge, but it's your money. As for payment, it would be acceptable to send a deposit using Paypal or bank wire (don't use Western Union) for a portion (IMO 25%) to show good faith, but never over half of the entire amount. Before you commit to what you already found, try the internet for some other Chengdu tour agencies and car services (not business executive-oriented ones though) and perhaps your hotel, for a car/driver only. See if you get any better pricing and can pay any deposits by credit card, so there is some protection in case the service doesn't come through.

Loren Pechtel

Second this. I have yet to encounter any substantial tourist site in China that I would have the slightest qualm about tackling with nothing more than a dictionary in case of emergency. I'm actually more likely to be directing my wife than she is to be directing me despite her native level fluency in Chinese.

Now, if we get off the tourist track that's another matter. Tourist sites of local interest aren't always well marked and if we go entirely off the tourist track, forget about it. (For example, a non-fancy non-tourist restaurant, or a non-tourist internet cafe. Those I take her along once to see what the procedures are and then handle alone--sometimes to the consternation of a clerk dreading the language barrier. The only time I failed was a new clerk who hadn't been properly trained and couldn't make the system work when I presented a passport rather than a local ID.)