CL

We are planning a three week trip to HK/China for a party of four. Since we had made that trip many years ago, we would like to be more independent this time. Instead of booking a packaged tour, we would like to have an agent arrange the air and hotel, and local private tour guides at each city (Beijing, Shanghai, Xian, Quilin). Our major concern is the quality of the tour guides. We would like to have this booked prior to departing from the US. <BR> <BR>We have gotten a quote from CITS, but we notice that there are also non-state run tour companies operating within China. and wonder what they are like. Are they reliable, (much) cheaper, worth the trouble? One such company recommened to us is Shanghai Jinjiang Tours, part of the Jinjiang Group: <BR> <BR>http://www.jjtravel.com/default.htm <BR> <BR>Surprisingly we could not find many Internet listings for HK tour companies. The couple that we contacted for quotes never bothered to return emails. <BR> <BR>If you have experiences with booking with HK/China agents, please share them with us. US agents are fine, but they probably won't beat CITS' quote. Thanks. <BR>

Francis

Hi CL, <BR> <BR>Tell me how long and when you will be in Hong Kong. It will not be difficult to book hotels at good price here. <BR>If you have been here before, don't think you need a tour guide. Hong Kong is compact and the public transportation is very convenient. If you want to be more luxuary, booking a private car with a driver should also be pretty easy.

Kay

JoAnna Cameron of Cameron Tours in the Washington DC metro area makes such arrangements and knows some of the individual tour guides there. On our most recent trip we asked our guide what gives with the industry and state-run vs. independent companies and he told us that many of the tour companies in China are still indirectly run by CITS--they have a company name but their bookings come through CITS, they report to CITS, they are required to sometimes talk to tourists or take them certain places (our informal talk came when visiting a religious site and the guide happened to bring up falun gong and how dangerous their teachings were to avoid medical care) and the tour guides get paid even when there is no work. <BR> <BR>In HK we used the HK tourist authority, but that was a small group tour. They used to have tours to visit a typical apartment, etc. <BR> <BR>

CL

Francis, <BR>Your are right, we don't need any guides in HK. But we do in China. <BR> <BR>Kay, <BR>Thanks for the pointer, and clarification about the "private" companies in China. Perhaps we won't do better than the CITS quote.

clarence

my name is clarence guo,a taxi driver and tour guide in <BR>xi'an----the home town of terra-cotta figures,i often take <BR>travellers to terra-cotta museum,banpo site,and cave dwelling village where you'll visit some family still live in the cave houses which built hundreds of years ago,meet local farmers and kids there.pls check http://cnn.com/ASIANOW/time/travel/2000/0131/index.html. the story about my tour. <BR>pls visit my web site http://www.taxitour.com. <BR>if you need help (hotel,airport transfer,tour) in xi'an beijing guilin,pls feel free to send me a mail.

Sarah

I highly recommend taking Clarence's tour. I did when I was in Xian and he's wonderful.