Great Wall of China at Badaling and Ming Tombs Day Tour from Beijing

This tour started badly when the vehicle would not start outside hotel. However a new vehicle was dispatched very quickly and off we went, just the 2 of us, on our personal tour. It was excellent and the guide included a visit to a tea ceremony which we hadn't expected. Would recommend.

What a great tour guide! One of the new seven wonders of the world - this is a must-do!

This was the best! The Great Wall is amazing. It made our trip - we got some great photos.

I thoroughly enjoyed my climb up the Badaling section of the Great Wall. My knees felt like jelly afterwards however, I would not trade this experience for anything. The Ming Tombs was also another dream come true. Go on this tour especially if you are an English speaking tourist.

I was traveling alone and having the tour bus pick me up and drop me off at my hotel was a big plus. It is actually cheaper than trying to do the same trip on my own with taxi's, etc. Great value and the tour guide was excellent.

What a place, it's a must! Words can not describe this world wonder, it was just great! Just would like to say a special thanks to our guide and the team - it was well organised and executed.

Our day tour with Viator to the Great Wall of China and the Ming Tombs was excellent. Well worth doing and something we would totally recommend. Our guide was probably the best guide we had in the whole time we travelled the Far East. He was so knowledgeable, great fun, and made the day a unique experience.
As the weather was cold when we where in Beijing, we had to wrap up very warm to climb the wall, but our guide encouraged us to go the distance and it was all great fun. We shopped afterward for souvenirs where they drive you crazy to buy their wares, and had coffee in a lovely coffeehouse where we all met up after the climb. We were encouraged to have a photograph done with all our fellow tour companions and guide, before we climbed the wall, with the wall behind us. It was a great picture and great value for money (it was presented in a book with the picture put in on the front page, with information and pictures all about the Great Wall). Our tour guide filled out our name and the date of the tour on the inside cover in Chinese. It was a wonderful souvenir and our family loved reading all about the wall and seeing the picture.
All in all this is a great tour by Viator, who proved to be the best tour company we dealt with. We shall most certainly be booking further tours with Viator on our trips around the world and can only hope they are all as helpful and informative as this one was.

Our tour guide was awesome! He added so much to the trip and explained everything in great detail. We will refer Viator to others.

This was a really nice trip. Our tour guide Alice was phenomenal! She spoke really good English and knew a lot about the history of the Ming Tombs and the Great Wall of China. The lunch was really good as well. I will definitely use this service again!

I thought this tour was excellent.

It was the Great Wall of China. What more can I say? It was an excellent experience.

What a great experience. The guidebooks said this was not a good spot to see the wall, but I completely disagree. If you don't have much time in China, this was a wonderful experience. Highly recommended.

I thought this tour was excellent.

The tour picked us up at our hotel exactly on time. We thought we would be on a bus full of people, but we were in a van and it was just the two of us, the driver and the guide. He offered to take us to a different part of the wall because the Badaling section is the busiest. He took us to the "quieter" Juyong Pass, but there was still a ton of people there. It took 1.5 hours to get from our hotel near the Forbidden City to the Wall. The guide told us a bit about the wall and took some photos of us before letting us go off on our own for 1.5 hours. From there we drove to the Ming Tombs. We were brought to the largest of the tombs and spent about an hour there. Afterwards, we were taken to the Jade Market. We were shown how the jade is mined and sculpted and then we were led into a giant store. Showing us how it was made was a great way to get us to buy something. At the Jade Factory, we had our lunch: a pre-set Chinese meal. After the Jade Factory, we were taken to Dr. Tea where we we took part in a "tea ceremony" and were shown how to properly drink tea. Again, we were introduced to how tea is made and the different kinds with the intent to sell us tea (which we bought). At that point, we returned to the hotel. The tour was from 7:30 am to about 1:30 pm and we were thoroughly tired by the end. The guide didn't do a lot of talking (he was sick), but he was very nice and informative. It was nice to have our own guide so we could go at our own pace. You spend a lot of time driving on this tour (you drive past the Olympic Park). It was worth it though.

Good way to see the main attractions of Beijing. Negative: some visits are not listed in the itinerary and are oriented to make the tourist buy souvenirs.