Two of our kids recently returned from Beijing and recommend English-speaking guide to get there. They connected with local friends, but felt that if on their own, it would have been difficult - and they're very adventurous! We are not 'tour' people and totally not interested in shopping excursions, often promoted by operators. If anyone has suggestions on easy way to get there and most informative experience, it would be much appreciated!

Hire a taxi.

What Kathie said, plus take a good guide book.

For prep, try reading the many Trip Reports posted here by people who have traveled successfully independently in China. Some, like me, solo. (And no, we don't speak Mandarin.)

I hired a driver for the trip to the Jinshanling section of the Great Wall and he was fantastic. I paid 700 CNY for the day. He picked me up at my hotel, ran into a couple medical shops to find me a roll of gauze for a messed up foot/ankle and then we talked the entire drive to and from the Wall.

There are tons of driver recommendations on TripAdvisor. The driver I used was Joe Qiao (email is [email protected] and his website is www.joe-service.com) and I would highly recommend him to anyone. He had just got a new car when I was there and had to change up the days he can drive people but since I really wanted to go on a certain day, he borrowed a friends car to allow me to go on the day I wanted.


There are other ways to get to the Wall. If you want to hire a taxi for the day, your hotel can likely help you arrange that and agree on a price for the day. There is also a "school bus" trip that goes to one or two sections of the Wall on a set schedule for a lower price. I wanted to set my own schedule though so the private driver worked best for me and was worth every bit.

When I went to China I could only say hello and thank you, yet I got around perfectly fine and had an amazing time. You'll be fine!

Luvs2Travel,
My husband is still finishing his first trip to China and has had a very successful experience in his touring on evenings and weekends with coworkers. The Fodor's website--both the forums and the destinations sections--were a key part. We read a lot of old posts as well as asking questions here.

He used Konglin, mentioned in this link, to take him and his coworkers to the Great Wall and were very happy with this choice. My husband used a guide through the hotel to go to Suzhou and another water town. This was still a great experience, but did cost more since the hotel got a cut...still probably not as much as a full-on bus tour!

At the beginning, a Chinese coworker showed them how to use the subway in Shanghai, and they went on to use the subway and taxi many times on their own. The hotel card, or the instructions in Chinese characters were the crucial advice, he tells me over and over. They have since taken the subway in Beijing successfully with no help or instruction. Good luck!

http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...g-shanghai.cfm