Goos Mom-

You can read about our trip to the Wall (Mutianyu) in my post "Detailed Beijing Trip Report." We used Kong Lin to drive us to the wall and found him to be excellent - great driver, good company, very reliable and helpful, and decent English.

Linda

Goos Mum,

I also used Konglin is and he really is excellent.

We went to Mutianyu, then lunch and the Lama Temple he even wanted to take us shopping afterwards but my little sister wasn't us to it as she had a sore back.

We also got Kung Fu tickets through him and he picked us up and made sure we were seated before he left the theater and this was a different night to our day tour with him. You really could not get better service. Thismight sound tacky but when you can't speak the language and many instructions are written in Chinese someone like Konglin is a godsend.

He also has a lovely gilfriend Voilet who is also a guide so it's go to contact them as you may get lucky and 1 of them is free for your day out.

Konglin's details are:

konglin316@hotmail.com

Mobile in China: 1314 6901596

>> the guide cost about 300yuan and guide car cost 600yuan to Mutianyu ...

Does it mean 600y for just transporting to the sight (and wait for you to finish your visit to take you back to the hotel) or it is 300+600=900 for a guide driving a car?

yes,when you hire a guide in Beijing,usually start 300yuan a day.hire a car to Great Wall around 600yuan,this price is in combine with some other sights such as Bird`s Nest etc .If you just go to the Wall and back to hotel,should be less.

sorry,for a guide driving a car that means an English speaking driver.it is about 600yuan too.

Personally I don't think you need a guide to enjoy the Great Wall. If you want to read up about it, get a guide book to look up the background as that is all a guide will tell you.

Therefore, you just need a car and driver to take you to the Wall - easy just to hire a taxi for half a day to take you to Mutianyu and then wait for you while you walk along it. Cost should be around the 400-450 Rmb mark for half a day. Use your hotel doorman (not reception!) to negotiate for you if your Chinese skills are poor.

@ drumbrake:

Sure, but isn't it cost- and time-effective to put both the Wall visit together with something else (in the afternoon), rather than to go back to the hotel at first and after that to hire another taxi to drive you somewhere else?

MickeySerbia

Agree - so after the Great Wall you can get the taxi to drop you off at the next place you want to visit - for example the Temple of Heaven. Pay off the driver, see the place, and then get another taxi back to your hotel.

We used a private guide for the three day we had in Beijing in February. The day we went to the Wall at Mutianyu it was 400 yuan for the guide and 700 yuan for the driver. She bought the tickets at the ticket office at the wall and climbed with us telling us some of the interesting history. On the way back she also took us to the Ming Tombs which was very interesting. We also stopped at a place to take photos of the Olympic Stadium and Birds Nest. She also organised tickets for the acrobats which were half price of the box office price.