"Hire Alvin - the best tour guide in Beijing!!!!" Beijing Transportation Tip by lindyz

I had been told that the best way to see the Great Wall of China was by way of a personal guide, and Alvin had come highly recommended by many fellow VTers and so this was our preferred way to do this. By using a guide, you can tailor make your day or days, including only the places YOU want to visit. If you go on a group tour, not only do you get to spend less time at the places you want to, you also go to several places you dont want to, usually shops where you are expected to buy something.

After several emails with Alvin, our day had been settled upon, at a very reasonable price. Alvin is your car driver as well as your tour guide, so this brings his price down, as you are not also paying for the services of a driver.

For me, the Great Wall the highlight of the whole trip. I had wanted to visit and walk the Great Wall for many years and, finally, the time had come. After much research mainly on vt, we decided that Mutianyu was the best place to go and that Alvin was the best guide to take us there!! Alvin was recomended by many VTers, he was discovered by Homer and Eddie many years ago, and highly praised word of mouth on VT has gained him many followers. I have also recommended Alvin to many of my VT and facebook friends, who have booked him and been 100% satisfied with his services. It does seem that word of mouth is the best form of advertising!!!!!

Our day included pick-up at our Hotel at 8am, 2hr drive to Mutianyu, cable car up to the top, walking the wall for several hours (3hrs in total spent at the Wall), then lunch in a local Dumpling Restaurant, we then drove back to Beijing and spent one hour at the Lama Temple. We then went back to our room for a shower and reflection time! Then, pick-up by Alvin once again and off to our Acrobatic Show, pick-up after that at 8.30pm, dinner at the Loft Restaurant and back to our rooms by about 10pm. It was indeed a very busy and tiring day, but one I will remember for the rest of my life.

Along the way, Alvin will pay all fees payable, such as tollway fees (if you elect to go via the tollway to save time), entrance fees and then he will tally up the total for you to pay at the end of the day. I found this to be easier for us and he was 100% honest with his tally!!! Alvin also very very kindly purchased our overnight train tickets to Xian for us, as I had been told that this could be a difficult process for foreigners to do. He did not charge us a cent to do this, even though we offered to pay him. Your Hotel will more than likely do this for you if needed, but they will charge you for their services. Alvin also purchased our Acrobatics Show tickets at a heavily reduced price, about half price I think of the people that were sitting right next to us, so they were not too happy about that, but we were!!!!!

If you would like more details about our day with Alvin, including phone number, email address and costings, please email me :)

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