Hi All: First, thanks to everyone that was so helpful prior to my departure for China. I wanted to say the Roast Duck restaurant recommendation in Beijing was right on. Did not realize we needed a reservation so waited half an hour, but worth is. Cost is higher but still quite cheap. We hired a local driver, two partners, Wang Ping and Fan Ping (86+13341006148). Very reasonable at $84 per full day of wherever we wanted to go. However I did book a few things with www.etoursbeijing.cn and they were fabulous, especially the Kungfu show. We thought it would be a demonstration, but it was more like a ballet with precision performances. We got to go to a local village, met with children at a school, listened to a concert by a local girl, cooked and had dinner with a local family and went to the community center for evening exercises. This is a very new offering and we feel we got a real bargain. So...just wanted to say thanks to everyone and offer the info in case anyone else needs. Flyertalk rocks.