A truly wonderful experience - The tour to Badaling started at a meeting point right by a subway exit. It was really easy to find the tour guide. Then, we hopped on the bus and travelled to Badaling. While we were on our way, the tour guide was explaining to us what the plan was and she was giving us suggestions for things to do there. My tour guide for this tour was Samantha. She’s very friendly and knowledgeable. At The Great Wall, the views were astonishing. I highly recommend everyone that comes to Beijing to take this tour to The Great Wall.

Unbelievable!!!! Wow!!! - Beautiful, stunning, how did they build all these back in ht e14th - 15th century? Amazing. I just loved it and if you can, slide down on tobogan on the way back. Great fun!!! :)

Nicely organized tour - First of all I was nicely surprised that a day before I was contacted by the organizers and advised the precise time of pick-up from my hotel. Our guide Aaron arrived just in time.We picked 3 more people and started our trip. I suppose that a lot depends exactly on the guide and traffic situation. In our case the guide was speaking very good English, so no communication problems appeared. First we went to the Ming Tomb, then to Jade factory, where we had lunch. The factory is by the way an interesting place. Visiting some such shopping stops is always an integral part of each tour, so take it or leave it. After the lunch we moved to the Wall. Also just to avoid any misunderstanding: you HAVE TO PAY for the cable car. It is optional in the sense that you can spend 40min by climbing and see nothing or just to pay 140 ¥ and enjoy the wall for 1.5h. As it was deadly cold and windy at the wall this time was more than enough. Otherwise we would fall totally frozen. After visiting the wall we were brought to the tea ceremony and were given 6 different teas to taste. Again, yes, it is marketing but the teas nevertheless are amazingly tasty. Nobody will pressure you to buy anything so just relax and enjoy some hot tea after a walk. May be the only drawback I personally see in my tour (again I mean just my experience and not the overall feature) is that due to traffic we were asked whether it is ok if we were dropped off at the center and taken to the hotel by taxi. And yehhh..we had to pay additional 30¥ for the taxi. So, always be prepared for some extra charges. But the excursion was very good!!

Fun!! - It is a must see. It requires walking and to be able to climb stairs. It is wonderful as the weather is also cooler this time of year. The Ming Tombs were also pretty awesome.

It was pretty good overall. They... - <p>It was pretty good overall. They were on time to pick us up at the time that was mentioned. The schedule was followed accordingly and the information provided by our tour guide was interesting and insightful.</p> <p>The only bad thing was that we spent way too much time at the Jade factory, which is pretty much a store that has jade products. I would've much rather spent that time at the Great Wall.</p>

A long day due to pick ups miles apart! - The length of the day was 3 hours beyond the advertised period - 7.20am to 9.30pm! The traffic in Beijing was extreme heavy but the arrangement made by the company to make pick-ups miles apart (only 5 people on the tour) added hours to the journey. The guide was informative at both the Ming Tombs and the Great Wall of China and we enjoyed both visits. Unfortunately, the guide offered very little other information. In order to access the Great Wall we paid an additional fee for the chair lift and toboggan ride. The time period offered by the tour company, at the Great Wall, was not adequate to walk up to the wall on foot. The chair lift was the only method of fitting the visit into the excursion period at the Great Wall - thus the expenditure for the chair lift is the only method of spending time on the wall. We had two extra stops on our excursion - one to a Tea House and one to a Jade shop - we were informed that the Chinese government require all tours to include stops at designated places that showcase Chinese culture.

Terrible trip. - This is the worst trip I have ever been on. The tour operator told us to be at the pick point at 7am and then turned up at 8pm. The coach was old and the seats were worn and lacked any support. The windows of the coach were filthy and we could not see out of them. The Great Wall was was over crowded and extremely unsafe and unpleasant to be involved with. I would not recommend this trip or provider to my worst enemy.

Scam and no help to find - Awful. Nothing like the description said when I ordered. I did not get hotel pick up? I did not get to see the Ming tomb and I did not the the Chinese lunch and tea house or jade experience. I did not even get a guide! They talked Chinese for almost an hour and then said that it was not necessary for us to know. This was just a confusing and bad bus ride! And I was not the only one there with the same experience. This was to me a scam and I am so disappointed. I tried calling the hotline (ended up costing me my whole subscription and they just said they couldn’t do anything! What kind of service is that!). And I can’t find what to do online. I am so sad and disappointed. Also if you are deciding which part to take just know that this is very crowded. It might be easier to walk, but I think I would have preferred the other part more.

Driver was rude and the tour guide... - <p>Driver was rude and the tour guide was not qualified, neither of them took much interest in the tour. Badaling was changed to Mutianyu without prior consultation with us. Hours were wasted in Jade and Tea shops. When we said that we did not want to send time in shops, the tour guide said that we had to go because we booked a shopping trip. I have deliberately chosen this trip to avoid shopping! Such a shame that our visit to the Ming Tomb and Great Wall could have been so much better if we had a decent tour guide.</p>

If you actually want a tour, don't... - <p>If you actually want a tour, don't book this one! The Great Wall is amazing, and seeing it is a wonderful experience. But this is not a tour. This is more of transportation to the Ming Tombs and the Great Wall with lunch, and unnecessary tourist trap stops. Our tour guide Summer wasn't knowledgeable about any of these historic destinations. She was difficult to understand, did not explain anything of significance about the Ming Tombs, and did not accompany the group to the Great Wall. The itinerary changed last minute, and included stops to a very expensive jade shop and a tea house, which was not listed in the description of the tour. We did not actually visit the Badaling area of the Great Wall, but the Mutianyu section instead. Then Summer had the audacity to try and rush everyone once we arrived at the Great Wall! She was not very professional or courteous, and she seemed more interested in shuffling us to the tourist trap stops then providing us with an actual tour of the two places we paid to see. We were traveling with children, and had to stop at the bathroom before boarding the van to return. The driver actually yelled at us in Chinese, and Summer was noticeably rude because we got back to the van a little late. Fortunately the experience of seeing these wonderful places for first time was awesome, and the other couples on the tour were quite pleasant. So we were able to move on past the foolishness of this sham of a tour. However I do not recommend this for anyone who truly wants to learn about the Great Wall and Ming Tombs while visiting them.</p>