My family & I will travel to Beijing August 2007. We would like to experience "real" China, not just the "American tourist" version. A friend suggested a private tour guide to take us around the city. Any thoughts, suggestions & names/contact info would be greatly appreciated!

Hi

My wife and I did Beijing on our own a couple of years back. Here is the trip report with pictures that I have posted on my homepage http://gardkarlsen.com/china_beijing.htm . Maybe you can find some useful info there.

Regards
Gard
http://gardkarlsen.com - trip reports and pictures

Jane Yeo is a name that comes up often here in discussions about private guides in Beijing. I have not used her but am thinking about doing so when I visit China in early April.

www.janeyeotours.com

tourday: have you taken a trip with Kung? Is there a website?

I visited Beijing twice in 2000 for vacation and never used a private tour guide. Read my guide and maybe you'll find some tips. http://www.medary.com/external/beijingtips.pdf. Enjoy your trip - I LOVE Beijing!!

I might offer a different view - what do you mean the "real China"? Even if you hire a guide there will be places in China that you will want to see that all tourists visit American or otherwise.
You can certainly visit parts of China without a guide and simply do what the Chinese do and catch buses, trains etc like they do.That is part of the "real China".

Are you spending all your time in Beijing?

Thanks to all who replied - I have looked @ the info. Will post questions as i digest it. Does anyone have further info on Kung?

LadyVol, this is great. Do you have anything like this on other cities in China? What about Japan? Very detail oriented, prices, all great. Thanks!

topping with thanks

With regard to spending time in Beijing, you are OK to do it on your own -- I mean without any significant tour guides etc. Most of the major tourist attractions in Beijing are well documented in guidebooks and on-line material. With regard to visiting the so-called off the beaten track places, you can prepare by reading many expats blogs and message boards. Living in Beijing you learn to appreciate several publications (now you can get them on-line from the States as well) like www.thatsbj.com (That's Beijing) or http://www.cityweekend.com.cn/(CityWeekend). You can also check my blog http://travel.chinafinds.com and send us a note (we can give you more tips if you would like)

Great idea to check the expat sites; thanks for the links.