albertsebastian

Hi all,

We're in early stages of planning for a short trip to Xi'an and Beijing, traveling through Shanghai. Will be using the high-speed trains mostly to those cities, but mostly on our own internally.

At this stage we're thinking of doing Beijing on our own using the subway, or possibly in combination with a local car+driver for some of the outlaying sites.

Can anyone recommend a good reliable agency where I can make enquiries on costs etc? We would probably have this for between 3-5 days depending on our movements, and would probably throw in pick-up and drop-off from/to station as well.

Any information and assistance appreciated.

-albert

kja

Are you fully committed to using the services of an agency to hire a car and driver? Most of us have found it easy to visit these locations without a car and driver. What places do you hope to visit that you think would be better reached with a car and driver?

albertsebastian

Hi,

Not committed to car+driver yet, just exploring options in case we get a bit lazy during our holidays!

Typically we're self-guided walkers, but age catches up eventually

Tiilll

i googled some car renting agencies(these three pages below show the price of a car with a driver).
http://www.tour-beijing.com/car_rental/#.UvtmwPsuAY8
http://www.yongche.com/order/select_...roduct_type=12
http://www.gzuche.com/che/
Hope it will help u.

JPDeM

You can look here for a driver: http://www.thebeijinger.com/classifieds/cars-drivers

temppeternh

And all of those options will see you significantly overcharged. There are no 'reliable' agencies using English-language media to target foreigners. Simply negotiate with a taxi driver.

albertsebastian

Thanks for your replies. I've also been told that a day-to-day booking organized ad hoc through the hotel may also yield fairly low rates for car+driver, from RMB400-700/day depending on where we want to go. Or we could try and book a taxi for a day or so.

I understand that booking anything directly from overseas through agencies or tour agents can be quite expensive, so we'll play it by ear when we're actually there.

temppeternh

> I've also been told that a day-to-day booking organized ad hoc through the hotel may also yield fairly low rates for car+driver, from RMB400-700/day depending on where we want to go.

Then I'm afraid you've been told incorrectly. Inserting a third party such as a hotel into the transaction will only ensure that you pay more than you need to, sometimes a great deal more, and certainly not a 'low rate' by local standards.

kja

@ peter -- any recommendations for good information about, or resources for, traveling in South Korea? Thanks, whether yes or no!

albertsebastian

> Then I'm afraid you've been told incorrectly.

Interesting - this was from someone who lives in Shanghai at the moment!

JPDeM

You will definitely overpay if going through the hotel. It is always better to shop ahead of time. Just get some quotes.

JPDeM

And I doubt that you'll have a car and driver for 400RMB.

temppeternh

@kja Not a clue, I'm sorry.

kja

@peter -- that was my guess, but I figured there would be no harm in checking -- thanks!

temppeternh

> Interesting - this was from someone who lives in Shanghai at the moment!

I'm afraid there are many foreign residents of China entirely clueless about real costs or services for visitors, some of whom even post here. Living in China is not of itself sufficient qualification for accuracy in such matters, and many simply listen to the echo chamber of foreign gossip, which can quickly grow to agree that price X or method y is right, which leads to no one ever trying to get lower than price x or to try method z. Also, working or doing business in China quite reasonably occupies them quite enough without leaving them time to become experts on services mostly used by visitors.

But surely it should be common sense that in any negotiation, inserting a third party will add to costs? Hotels that run transport desks of their own have very fancy ideas of what constitutes a reasonable price for a car for a day, and those that don't simply contract vehicles from outside that you could contract for yourself without adding the hotel's cut. It may be more convenient to let the hotel sort it out, but you'll pay a great deal for that convenience.

dgunbug

We used public transportation for sites within Beijing. The subway system is excellent and easy to manage. There were generally escalators up and down to get to the train and the trains were clean and a fast way to travel in a congested city. We occasionally picked up a taxi and had the hotel find us transportation to the Great Wall, which made life easy. Perhaps it would have been cheaper to hire transportation on our own, and we considered hiring a local taxi driver who we used during the week, but in the end we felt that the hotel could provide us with a reliable source and the price did not seem unreasonable.

temppeternh

> Perhaps it would have been cheaper to hire transportation on our own

There isn't any 'perhaps' here.

> the price did not seem unreasonable

If you compare prices to home there's a lot that seems 'reasonable'. But it's hard to think of any other situation in which you would consider paying anything between 50% more to double or triple local prices to be 'reasonable'. You'd probably use another term.

You may choose the convenience of making an arrangement through the hotel, but you will certainly pay a great deal more than you need to for that convenience.

Everyone wants to reassure themselves after the event that they did not pay too much. (I feel much the same about a shawl for which I paid too much in Morocco last week.) But those who still have the choice to make need to know the facts.