[Peapea]

I have a friend visiting from England who would like to go to Beijing and the Great Wall. She'll be travelling alone though and I wonder if anyone can recommend anywhere to book a trip/tour.

She's in her 20s so would be good if there were some other young(ish!) people likely to be there!!

Thanks for any advice.

[DavidHK]

Dragonair do package tours to Beijing. I booked through Farrington amex http://www.amextravel.com.hk/ (Kelly Chan sorted out trip out) who seemed to be pretty good. (Our company uses them for flights etc and I have booked a couple of other trips with them)



To give you an idea of cost I have booked a trip for a friend who is visiting. It has cost HK$ 4100 for flights, 2 nights accommodation at the Marco Polo Hotel (4 star) and airport transfer by private car. This is quite expensive as it is mid week and for one person, that said it is decent flights, a decent hotel and a low risk transfer - you get what you pay for. If you feel flush with money then go for the grand hyatt hotel just for the stupidly big staircase to the lobby.



In terms of the trip to the Wall, you can book a day trip with private car and an english speaking translator for around £60 (probably less if you try) with Cosmo Travel, who are the people who do the airport transfers for Dragonair. Again this is big money especially in China but my experience of the tour buses is that they take you a number of tiresome tourist places that they get kickbacks from before they take you to the wall. Therefore you only get to see one section of the wall and not for very long. Again you get what you pay for.



The Marco Polo (and I guess all the hotels) do trips to the wall - I have no idea if they are better or worse that the tour buses from the bus station. The other option is via public bus I think the 912 (certainly nine hundred and something - check your lonely planet guide out) goes to wall.



As for the social side, I went to Sanlitan (I don’t think that is spelt correctly) which was good fun (lots of expats of all nationalities) and then World of Suzy Wongs which is decent bar with good music but limited dancing space.



I will rely on someone with more experience to make comment on lone female travellers in China.



Hope this helps

[DavidHK]

Just to add one thing, she will need a visa. This can be got in the UK (if you want to know how, I will get details and PM them to you) or you can get it here. I got the travel agent to sort it out - they sent a courier to collect the passport sorted out the visa and sent the passport back in 3 days. I dare say there are faster and cheaper ways to do this but I was pushed for time and a bit lazy.

I quess the point is - if she is going to be going to Beijing soon after arriving in HK then getting a visa in the uk might be better.

[berryplucker]

DanvidHK's advice is pretty much spot on IMO.

By the way, note this thread: Increase in China Visa prices for UK Passport Holders on recent increases in the cost of Chinese visas for UK passport holders.

[nivantj]

Its worth having a look at China Tranvel's package, if you are looking for not a very high price one. They have almost daily tour to Beijing and hotel, flight everything same as David explained plus food included at good rest and diff varieties as well. And Visa should also not be a problem, they can arrange within a day or two. Just make sure to arrange Eng guide as most of their tours are with Chinese guide.