My deceased wife was Chinese, and my children were visiting her family for 2 months in Wuhan last summer. Hired a wonderful 23 year-old philosophy student to show my 12 year-old son around. (Her boyfriend was an American. Wuhan family didn't speak English). She was very generous (for instance, loaned an expensive camera to my son) and very responsible. I paid her $30 a day. Placed an ad on an expat site to find her. She did a great job, and my son learned a lot on the excursions that he took with her.

There is some risk in finding a guide the way I did. However, there is also a big upside because there are a lot of Chinese that want to practice their English and have more exposure to Americans. My children's Chinese family doesn't have any concept of the immense benefit that it is to learn Chinese culture and to explore cities with a Chinese person conversant in English. So, all of my future trips to China will include a guide that I will find in the same manner that I found the first one. Just my experience and thoughts.