Been reading comments on many travels and are leaving for Beijing/Xi'an in 1 wk. w/Friendly Planet/Smart Tours. All tours in /Beijing are optional and am wondering re the optional tour fees; i.e., day tour of Tiananmen Sq., Palace Museum, Summer Palace, w/lunch included for $55; full day of Wall @$55;Chinese Opera and Peking Duck $38. Plus it is suggested tip be $2/day for guide and $1/day for driver plus $5 for China tour guide. Does this all seem reasonable to you that have been there?

Yes, this sounds very resonable to me. You may want to include the Temple of Heaven and Confusious Shrine and a visit to Silk Alley. <BR> We went as a family to China and hired a private guide for twenty-five dollars a day. He was great and we were able to get around so much faster and saw so much more. He even took us to a place along the Great Wall that had no tourists at all. It was a wonderful feeling to be the only five people on the wall and see no one else for miles and miles. Myszka

Sounds like hiring a driver/car is much better rate than the tour set up by our tour company and maybe seeing more. Thanks for input.

Another question - where did you hire your driver?

On our trip in May / June, we had a driver and local guide at each city that we went to. I tipped the guide $5 US ( 40 Yuan) per day, and the driver $2 US (16 Yuan)per day. That isn't really very much compared to other prices, but it's a bit to them. Oh yeah, skip the Ming Tombs, nothing really there.

Just returned from 3 week tour with Grand Circle. Prices sound ok. I would skip Chinese opera and duck. See if they have an acrobatic show as an option

Rita<BR> those prices that you mentioned are too high;I went to beijing on my own,and did the tours by taking a taxi, for about $2.00 and then paid the entrance fee about $5-10 dollars for each. Except great wall which I paid $30. on a tour.carry a hotel map which has pictures on it of the places, and a card with your hotel address on it to show to the taxi driver. good luck

I have found that there is hardly any optional tour that is not overpriced. However, it does save you the trouble of having to make arrangements, no matter how easy, and you get door to door service.