I have some colleagues from China travelling around some major U.S. cities next month, including Washington, DC. They are a group of about 16. Can anyone suggest a way to get them a good Mandarin-speaking tour guide at a good price? Thanks.

I am going to move this over to the Washington, D.C. Forum. I hope that you will find some good suggestions ..
Good luck..
Obscure2k
TravelBuzz Moderator

My suggestion would be first to have one of your colleagues inquire before they left to see if they Chinese embassy on Conn Ave can hook them up. Or you may inquire at:
2300 CONNECTICUT AVENUE, N.W.,
WASHINGTON D.C. 20008, U.S.A.
Tel: 202-328-2500

For general tours of DC(monuments, Capital, etc) the popular Tourmobile is English only. You may want inquire here about private tours since I don't think you're going to get much luck on a walk-up basis:

http://www.washingtondctourguides.com/guides/index.html

The Smithsonian has foreign language tours for certain museums and I would highly recommend either one of these as they focus on art from the Far East:

http://www.si.edu/events/tours/fga.htm

http://www.si.edu/events/tours/sga.htm

The Smithsonian Art Museums are really a hidden treasure. They provide a nice break from the Mall's tourist atmosphere in any language!

Edit:Oh...and found this with a google search:

http://chinese-school.netfirms.com/C...ington-DC.html

Thanks, Speeder. Yeah, I also thought of calling the embassy. When it comes to visas and such, they're not the most helpful outfit, but maybe this is different. Otherwise, I'll surf the web some more and try to tap some Chinese organizations in DC for suggestions.

I think I need to find both a minibus and a Mandarin guide for them. It seems unlikely I can get it from the same source, but you never know!

BTW, if anyone has suggestions for how to move a group of 16 people around Washington economically (even without speaking Mandarin), please let me know!

So the website's kind of ghetto - but in a previous life, I used to have to make a lot of group transportation arrangements. Talk to Neill at Blue Ridge Charters - http://www.blueridgecharters.com/ - I used him quite a bit & his guys always were on time & were good drivers.

Also, with DC transportation options, just tell them that another company (and you can pretty much pick any one you want) was willing to do a 10% kickback to you as the organizer (most are) and ask if you can get them to match it or discount the total cost. Most are willing to work with you.

Thanks. I will call them. That looks like the type of outfit I need.

I have a friend who's reading FT w/ me right now & she has a good friend in the DC area that could translate. PM me if you want contact info. Cheers.