justageek

I'm planning to go to China this summer and was wondering if anyone has recommendations for good companies that do 1-2 day tours. My plan is to do my own transportation between cities, and to largely explore on my own, but I'd like to do at least a couple of tours in the popular places like Beijing, Shanghai, Xian, etc.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

scubadave

We did china last winter , march-april. We did everything on our own. We stayed in Beijing holiday inn temple of heaven. As it says it is near the temple. Its is a 10 minute walk. The rest of the site's in Beijing (forbidden city ,drum and bell tower , confusius temple etc) we did by local bus or taxi. For arranging the trip to the ming tombes and the wall we used the tour compagny of the hotel. Was a seat in tour, good value. They also arranged our train tickets to Xian. in Xian we stayed in the sheraton , they were updating the hotel at the time. At the train station you can take a local bus to the terracota army. In the hotel we booked our plane ticket to Chengdu. We stayed there in the traffic hotel. It is budget but nice located near the center. They have four travel acencies in the hotel. Then we went to Yunnan. We stayed in 4 star to budget accomedation traveled soft and hard sleeper and did some flying. Avarage cost per day per person 20 Euro. Have fun and if you have the time go to Lijang and zhongdian in Yunnan province.

vian

I recently came back from China. I traveled with China Odyssey Tours. I found them on Google, and of all the companies I sent inquiries to, they seemed the most professional, and really seemed to care about professionalism. Their prices were some of the best, and the ones that were cheaper didn’t offer as much, or took weeks to get back to me with questions. They didn’t seem to care too much about my business. I think what I liked the best was the customizability of the tours. They had a lot of package tours, but none fit just what I wanted. My travel consultant was quick, patient, and really seemed to care. I asked a ton of stupid questions, and she always took the time to answer them. She also offered us a lot of tips on preparing for the tour. Things I had never thought of. It was a really reassuring process. The trip itself was unbelievable. China is really an awesome country. The history of China is so huge! It’d take several lifetimes to study it thoroughly. The tour guides were really great. They spoke excellent English, and had everything prepared before hand, so we never had to wait for anything. They always picked us up on time at the airports, and every morning already had our tickets for the different sites. They were really great at customizing things for us. Things we were really interested in, they took their time and didn’t rush us, and other things we didn’t care about, they let us rush through. When we went, it was so hot! One of the best parts of the tour was the private cars. They always had air conditioning, and adjusted it according to our wishes. It was so nice to hop into an air conditioned car after being outside in the 100 degree weather.

Braindrain

For 1-2 day tours, I find it easiest just contacting the hotel directly. They usualy hook up with the biggies (eg. CITS) so I don't really worry about it. The difference in price might be $1-2 USD.