Hi, I understand that it's common to hire a driver in Beijing for a trip to the Great Wall, etc. Could I get a sense for how much this would be?

I've booked a room at Peninsula Palace through asiarooms.com and am awaiting confirmation.

I assume I can hire a driver through the hotel when I get there?

I'm expecting to do the day trip on Dec. 20.

Thanks.

P.S. Has anyone used the Rolls Royce service for the airport provided by the hotel? How much is that? (I can call the hotel and find out.)

By the way, in case anyone is curious with price comparisons for the room:

asiarooms.com was the cheapest. asiatravel.com quoted $163 (but no breakfast). The Peninsula's website quoted $170+ + taxes.

They've not confirmed with me yet so I hope the rate is good.

Thanks.

The Peninsula charges outrageous rates for a driver to the Great Wall. If I remember correctly it was $250 per person or something of that order when we were there in September. We hired our own English speaking guide for $125 total. Try Jerry at
[email protected]
Jerry picked us up at the airport for $25, which is expensive compared to a taxi. Breakfast at the Peninsula is pricey, but great. See if you can get it in your room rate.

To put all this in context,

- Even US$125 (1000 yuan) for two would return a very fat profit margin for the operator. It's a month's pay for many Chinese workers - most don't do that well. As the Americans like to say, "do the math".

- We paid US$20 each for a day tour to the Ming Tombs and the Great Wall, including lunch. Tourists staying at western-style hotels paid about double that.

- I can't imagine anyone paying US$250 pp, but I suppose some must. As my grandmother used to say, "a fool and his money are soon parted". (Oh, and don't forget to tip )

Was the $20 for a group tour, Neil?

I must say that I'm pretty underprepared for this trip. Probably much cheaper options than the Peninsula, but since I only have two nights and the rate looks to be $160 with breakfast, why not?

I'm still curious about the Rolls Royce service for the airport -- if nothing else, just to try sitting in Rolls Royce once. But I'm waiting for my room with the hotel to be confirmed by the asiarooms.com.

Yes, it was a group tour, 111op, but we figured that on balance we probably wouldn't have done much better with a private guide. Our 160 yuan was a bargain because our hotel was mainly patronised by locals and so we got the Chinese price - the foreigners' price was 300. The downside was that we had to endure the obligatory "shopping opportunities", but from what I hear it's pretty hard to talk private guides out of taking you to overpriced shops that pay them a commission on sales.

Don't mind my grumping about hotel prices - it's just that now and again I can't help reflecting on the gap between a room rate and the receptionist's pay.

There are certainly cheaper options than the Peninsula, but they'd be a different style of hotel and maybe not what you're looking for. Bon voyage!

Actually my usual Paris hotel is Tiquetonne (which charges 50 euros a night). So cheap and comfortable is fine. I usually try to spend about $125-$150 on hotels when I travel with my mom.

Cheap is always good, but I just didn't have the energy to research my hotels for my Asia trip this time. I figured it'll just be five nights. Maybe ok to splurge (or that's how I'm rationalizing it).

I remember reading some webpage about how well the Peninsula is doing. I believe the hotel or its parent company trades on the HK exchange (?). The revenues from the Beijing branch undoubtedly contribute to this.

The Peninsula is owned by the Hong Kong & Shanghai Hotels, Limited, a publicly traded company listed in the HK Stock Exchange.

It's one of the oldest companies in HK, and its major shareholders are the Kadoorie family, Jews who came from modern-day Iraq in 1842.

Besides the Peninsula hotels, some of its more prominent properties in Hong Kong include the Peak Tram and the Repulse Bay residental/dining complex.

Interesting. Didn't know that they own more than hotels.

ttt

I'm leaving tomorrow, and I don't have time to set anything up by e-mail. Are there good, reliable drivers whom I can call and arrange in Beijing?

I'll be at Peninsula Palace, but obviously I don't want them to rip me off in terms of driver arrangements if they're overpriced.

Can the tourist office in Beijing help?

Thanks again.

Here's Jerry's cell number:

(8610)or(00)13901040638

Have a great trip!

Thanks Marija. I'll take the number with me.

I was in Beijing 3 days ago and our tour guide ÀÚ Îâ <[email protected]> arranged for a driver and car at 400Yuan per day.

ttt one last time. Leaving later in the evening.

Thanks.

The only place you need a tour or driver for in Beijing is the Great Wall. You can easily and cheaply take taxis to the Summer Palace and anywhere else you'll want to go.

Neil - can u share any info about the tour? i will be heading BJ for x'mas, and would like to join tour instead of renting a taxi..

dhui - it was the Golden Tour Company. We booked at our hotel, the Ping An Fu, paying 160 yuan pp. The tour bus picked up from several other hotels including the Swissotel and a couple more central near Wangfujing Ave. A German couple staying at one of those places told us they'd paid Y300 pp.

Anyway --- the only downside to our tour, which I'm guessing applies to all such tours, was the compulsory shopping stops. First, the jade/cloisonne factory, surrounded by literally dozens of tour buses. They had lots of nice stuff to gawk at, but I'm sure you'd pay much less elsewhere. Secondly, a kind of supermarket featuring Beijing-Duck-to- Go. Third, a Chinese "traditional medicine centre" where you'll be treated to a lot of baloney by some pretty good snake-oil salesmen dressed in white coats, and asked to pay an outlandish price for a vial of pills. Resist the temptation!

Lunch was reasonable, though, and overall it was a pretty painless way to see the Ming Tombs and the Wall (at Badaling). The tourists were a mixed Chinese/foreign group with bilingual commentary. Im pretty sure this made it impractical for the tour leader to ask for tips, as the Chinese tourists would have laughed off such a request.

The same company also offered tours to the Summer Palace at about twice the price of our tour, but as Marija says, you don't need a tour for that. Our cab to the SP was 60 yuan (US$7 or so). On the return trip, though, make sure you walk out to the cab rank in the street and get a licenced cab - ignore the touts outside the gate offering a "metered taxi" - they're illegal cabs with fast meters.

Another idea - my son stayed at a hostel in Beijing which offered a good range of reasonably-priced tours, and there's nothing to stop anyone walking in and booking through them.

For the record the Ping An Fu Hotel is fine as long as you don't get a downstairs room with a window facing a concrete wall - we asked for a room change, no problem. As I booked ahead during a busy period I was in no position to bargain, so we paid rack rate of I think Y560 (say US$70). It's at 100 Dong Si Shi Tiao, a few blocks from the subway station of the same name - not absolutely centre-of-town but only a US$2.50-3.00 cab ride away.

I used a driver for the entire day...to the great wall, around Beijing, lunch at a fabulous dumpling shop, and he arranged a Hutong tour with a gentleman who spoke English. I considered the price a BARGAIN as he spoke English and told fabulous stories. Were they all true?? I don't know --but there was not a dull momment. His name is [email protected]. His email site is www.BeijingTaxi.com. You can get his fax number from his email site.

MaryJbrett - as a matter of interest, what did you pay?

thx Neil_OZ for the info! We booked a tour guide from hotel eventually, as we were running out of the for info search. That costed us 370Yuan each, including coach-ride / english-speaking tour guide / lunch / addmission tix..everything is fine. And we were only dropped off @ a jade factory for 20-30 mins...sort of OK..
but the ming tombs we went were not the one w/ underground chambers - i remember the one I went 7-8 yrs ago was w/ the underground chambers...not sure if that was closed or what..