True to their TripAdvisor rating, Beijing Tour Guide was a worthwhile choice! Our driver was waiting at the airport for us and brought us where we needed to go. Since my husband and I were just going to be shopping and having some dinner, we just had a driver for the main portion of it. The cost for the two of us was 1000 CNY total (approximately $157.10 USD in Aug. 2015, not including tip).
In depth detail below:
I spoke with Kong Lin via e-mail and he was very prompt and attentive in his replies. When I gave him the exact locations I wanted to go (including the Panjiayuan Market), he was able to tell me which places were doable and also informed us that the Panjiayuan Market was closed on weekdays.
I said that if he had any recommendations as to where to go besides our dinner and shopping plans, we would welcome any suggestions of places in the area, and he said we could speak more about it when I arrived! And also that since we were only going shopping and to dinner, we would probably only need a driver instead of a "guide" guide.
I misunderstood how much the tour actually was, so I ended up paying the whole amount in full (instead of just the deposit) and I was over by quite a bit, but Kong Lin immediately refunded me the extra amount, giving me the choice of having a refund of everything except the deposit, or just the amount by which I overpaid. I said that just the extra amount was fine, since I have a lot of faith in PayPal.
He asked for our flight number and arrival time, as well as my full name so that the driver would be able to hold a sign up for us as we exited Arrivals. And when we did arrive (a bit late, but not too late since we were luckily able to go through the 72-hour Permit line instead of the normal line for foreigners), we met up with Eric, who was our driver for the majority of the afternoon. Since Kong Lin was tied up working the IAAF World Championships, he wouldn't be able to meet us until later when he picked us up for dinner.
So I told Eric it was completely fine, and could we stop by the hotel first instead of at the end of the tour? He was very quick to acquiesce and brought us straight to the hotel so we could drop off our bags first. After that, I said maybe we could go to one of the shopping places listed in my original request, but Eric surprised us by saying first we would go to *something that sounded like a museum." Not too keen to go to a museum, my husband and I were like, "eh," but I did tell Kong Lin that we were up to any suggestions, so off we went!
By the time we arrived, we realized it was a silk museum, which obviously is not okay. But as we were already inside, I hoped by "museum," we would just be able to learn a bit more about how silk was made/is made via some displays, paintings, sample fabrics, etc. But.... No. It was the bad kind of museum. Thank God we didn't see any live silk worms being cooked, but we did get to see how their carcasses were turned into silk via live demonstrations.
And as my stomach was churning, the lady who was showing us around began the tourist-trap part of the demonstration, encouraging us to look around and let her know if we wanted to purchase any of their products or souvenirs. We politely informed her that we weren't interested, and she told us how to show ourselves out.
Photo Source: TripAdvisor
I know it wasn't the driver's fault since he didn't know, but since one of our desired locations was the Vegan Hut in Beijing, I would have hoped that the tour company's suggestions wouldn't be such a place as a silk trap.
So then Eric dropped us off at Vegan Hut, which was just a lovely experience and made us feel 100% better. Kong Lin came inside to pick us up when we were done, and was such a friendly guy that we completely forgot about the silk museum business and were excited to go to our last place before heading back to the hotel.
Unfortunately, instead of Yandai Xiejie Street, we were brought to another shopping location, which wasn't terrible, but less aesthetically what we were looking for. Basically, it was a tall building with tons of shops inside, and I suppose it did the trick, but because of the high price tags, even knowing we could haggle, my husband and I hesitated to buy anything.
So, we went to 1/3 of the places I wanted to go to initially, 1/3 was so-so, and 1/3 was really sad. Because we felt completely taken care of and safe while we were being shuttled around, I would still give them 4/5 stars, but next time I will probably ask one of my Beijinger relatives to show us around so we won't have to go anywhere we don't want to (although fighting over any bill will be on a whole different level).
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