actually the panda place isn't so remote and it is well on the beaten tourist path. About 10 years ago We hired a taxi from our hotel, he drove and waited for us, and drove us back to the city center. We were concerned on how would find the taxi, we had the taxi number, but the truth is we stood out from the crowd and the taxi driver was on the lookout. I echo the sentiments here on not needing a guide.
We hired a guide for our first trip to China 15 years ago with our teenage children when tourism was still sort of new and they were very poor and their English wasn't great or their knowledge level was low. We have been back a dozen or more times and found navigating on our own to be easy fun and add to the adventure. The only other time we hired a guide was when we had a party of 7 including older parents for 2 days in Nanjing with a full itinerary so it was useful. So basically assess your situation. Big cities, no need, smaller cities, short time frame or large groups maybe. Don't expect creativity or originality from the guide

This sounds like you visited the panda place near Chengdu, not the remote outpost. The latter, which may still be closed in the aftermath of the earthquake, is where I think I would be more comfortable with a hired car/driver and guide.

Thanks for the clarification. I think there were 2 places and we opted for the closer one.

What's USD price now for holding the Panda bear? A couple grand?
Up from about 40 bucks ten years ago.

I think the price likely changes considering the client.

$500 as of few months ago.

Sorry to resurrect this thread, but it seems like the correct place to ask this question:

We're considering a trip, and our only real concern is the language barrier. Neither of us speak or read any Chinese at all. While I plan to learn a few important basic words, I've never been great at picking up new languages.

What we need is something like the university students mentioned earlier - someone cheap, who can just serve as a translator when needed. That sounds like a great idea, but where would you find one of those? We'd obviously prefer to have that arranged in advance, rather than showing up in each city, wandering around asking if people spoke English and were free for the next couple of days.

Starbucks.

What do you consider to be a reasonable price for this service?

Good question. Based on some of the previous posts, I'd think $20-30/day, perhaps plus lunch. Not necessarily looking for a tour guide, just someone who can speak (and perhaps more importantly, read) the language.

That's not a bad idea. I'd really prefer to have someone lined up before we go, but if we can't make that happen (or we have a no-show in one city or something), Starbucks sounds like a great place to find somebody last-minute.

For $100/day, you can have an interpreter and professional tour guide all in one.

Definitely more than we're looking to spend. We usually prefer not to use a (professional) guide, anyway - we've always enjoyed exploring for ourselves much more. One has to do their research beforehand, of course, but that's the travel style that tends to make our trips the best & most memorable.

Just have a look at couchsurfing.

It is not just a "find a host", many times you find some chinese who are interest to meet foreigners to show them around at their city or just to have a talk.

$20-30 would be considered insulting, even for poor students who spend their days at Starbucks. $100 is more realistic.

At the risk of beating a dead horse, most of China is very easy to do on your own. Plus, all of us are standing by to help in a pinch. Just get on wechat, befriend 5 fters, and you can count on timely advice.

This is a timely thread - we're looking to get a private driver to take us around in Chengdu + surroundings, and then another person for Jiuzhaigou and surroundings. We're also Chinese speaking, if that opens up some options.

Does anybody have any recent experience or driver contacts to share? I saw one in a previous thread on FT, but the contact information was a few years old.