Travel Beijing, See It On Your Terms

Since starting our website, we have been pleased and surprised to see that our travelers are finding us from all corners of the globe. Although we have been in travel business for many years, we did not know what to expect when we decided to build and publish a website. It has turned out to be a wonderful decision, and a learning experience for us also. Travel should be about real exposure to the culture and thoughts of others. It should not be about just checking off your list the sights seen. You will soon forget the statistics and facts from guide books, but you will always remember the feelings you will get from taking the time to enjoy the places you have been. That is the advantage of a private tour, customized to what you want to do. It is also the advantage of independent travel.

We believe in serendipity. It is really some of travel's most memorable moments. We would like to provide you with the opportunity to experience serendipity.

We have been building some new web pages for walking tours, and soon will be adding more. The hutongs and the Great Wall are two of the best places in or near Beijing to take a walking tour. If that isn't your style, but you still want to experience Beijing more at your own pace, consider customizing your tour. Whether you call it custom travel or tailor-made tour in your part of the world, it is a great way to explore Beijing your way. A lot of people think if they see a city using a private tour, it will be expensive. That is far from the truth.

One of our services that has been under-utilized has been our cell-mobile phone rental with support service. This is a great option for those travelers who want to be totally independent and see Beijing on their own. It is also great for those travelers who do want to take some tours, but also want some free time to explore some other places they have heard about. This takes the uncertainty out of exploring. Call us whenever you need some help getting around the city. We can help you organize your day, tell taxi drivers where to go, suggest restaurants in the area you find yourself in; and if you think you are lost, we can help you get back to where you want to be. Besides that, you can call your home country at an extremely reasonable rate.

We are glad that we have joined the travel industry on the Internet. The people we are meeting have broadened our world also. Serendipity goes both ways.

Beijing-Tibet Tour, Visit the Roof of the World

We have sent some of our travelers to Tibet after their Beijing tour, or as part of their China tour. However, we have not as yet put it on our website.
We are now working on adding several different tours. Beijing is the main entrance and exit for many of the travelers who visit China every year. Because we have seen more of our clients who visit Beijing wanting to visit Tibet, we are adding several combination Beijing-Tibet tours. We are going to combine our Classic 3 Day Beijing Tour, our Classic Beijing 2 Day Tour, or our 1 Day Beijing Tour with three different choices of Tibet tours. Since more and more travelers to China are considering visiting the major cities, like Beijing, as independent travelers, we are also recommending our cell-mobile phone service. It provides human travel support service. Just rent a cell phone from us, and call us for help with any questions you might have while in Beijing. Then we will send you to Tibet and help you plan your Tibet tour. We have been told that Beijing and Tibet are the two favorite places that our clients have visited. More about Tibet in a later blog post.

Travel to Beijing For Spring Festival

Spring Festival is the perfect time to see Beijing at its best. Not only that, you can see Beijing when it is the least crowded. Many of the workers who live in Beijing have gone home to visit their families, roads are not crowded and the city is full of life. Fireworks boom, temple fairs can be found all over the city, great food is everywhere, and all the traditional sights visitors wish to see are open. Now is the time to experience Beijing like a local, and not a tourist.

Starting well before the actual first day of Spring Festival, the city starts to add more and more lanterns and traditional decorations. Fireworks begin to be heard each night. A not to be missed, and actually an impossible to be missed event are the fireworks. They are at their noisiest and best Spring Festival Eve. The best display is exactly at midnight. Spring Festival lasts for 15 days. If you should miss the first day, you will have plenty of other opportunities to see and hear them. Day 5 of Spring Festival, and Lantern Festival on Day 15 are great also.

Chengde, Imperial Summer Retreat of the Emperors

We have been finding that more and more of our travelers have been to China and Beijing before. Some travelers also have a specific interest in the Manchu Emperors of the Qing Dynasty. For both groups Chengde is an ideal city to visit. Only a few hours by train or car, Chengde is an easy side-trip from Beijing.


It had been a few years since I had been there. A group visiting from the Philippines had shown interest in going, so I accompanied them. I was interesting in seeing if Chengde should be considered as a tour offering for other travelers. After viewing it through the eyes of the group, I would say definitely that Chengde is well worth a visit.

Chengde is an UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Manchu Emperors, beginning with Emperor Kangxi came here to escape the summer heat of Beijing. Set in a mountain valley. Chengde is still a great place to enjoy the mountains and the countryside, while visiting a wonderful historical site.

The imperial retreat of the emperors, Bishu Shanzhuang, is set in a beautiful pine woods. Twice the size of the Summer Palace in Beijing, the simple elegance of the architecture, the quiet walking paths, tree-shaded lakes, and gorgeous gardens will definitely make Bishu Shanzhuang a place to remember. The emperors originally used the grounds for hunting, so do not be surprised when you turn a corner and see a deer looking at you.

Besides the Bishu Shanzhuang, the Emperors built several outstanding temples. Eight of them remain. We visited four of them. Putuozongcheng Zhi Miao is the largest, and often called the Little Potala Palace because of its resemblance to the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet. We also visited Puning Si, the highlight of which is an absolutely magnificent, 75 foot tall, statue of Guanyin.

We have just added two more web pages to our website. Both are about Chengde. We decided to add a five day tour that includes three days in Beijing and two days in Chengde, but for those people only interested in Chengde, we can easily offer them a two or three day trip to Chengde. It is also possible to visit Chengde in one long day, but we believe that travelers would really prefer to experience all that Chengde has to offer with a longer tour.

We have also added an additional information page with more photographs. My tour group's suggestion to visit Chengde has proved to be an excellent one. I loved their enthusiasm for what we saw, and I must say, I felt the same way they did. I do hope other travelers will take the opportunity to see a place near Beijing, but off-the beaten path.

Beijing Journey Tours and Wangfujing Street

We have been adding more pages, with pictures, to our website. We would like to show our travelers some of the places they can visit, and give them a short introduction to the place. Beijing has so much to offer. It is not only an old, historical city, but it is also vibrant, modern city.

Wangfujing is the premier shopping street in Beijing. Because it is so close the many of the major historical sites, it is an ideal place for travelers to visit if they are interested in doing some shopping, eating or people-watching. New malls stand next to century-old, traditional shops and restaurants. It is a great place to visit during the day, but we would definitely recommend a visit here at night. The historical sites are closed, but Beijing life for the locals, as well as the tourists, is in high-gear on Wangfujing Street. Come and enjoy!

Beijing Journey Tours and Our Thoughts About Specialization, Value, and Cost

As we increase our knowledge about Internet marketing of our business, we have come across a multitude of information on how to get higher Google rankings. We now have a fair understanding of how to be seen when a potential client does a search.

However, a few other terms have shown up in our readings. We have come across a number of articles talking about making sure your travel company specializes in a particular type of travel. We do believe that we already meet that goal, as we specialize in tailor-made tours for corporations and independent travelers. Another two terms that were used were value and cost. These two terms are what are really giving us some thought in the current market. We truly believe we are giving our travelers a good value. We want to show them the best of Beijing. We want them to also experience Beijing, not just view it from a tour bus window. We have all heard of the tours that give you a photo opportunity in front of the Eiffel Tower, but you never get a chance to reach the top and view the entire city of Paris. We understand the first tour costs less, but we wonder about its value. In the current market, we wonder what future travelers are honestly looking for. We have found in the past that value is what has brought clients to us. Now we hear more and more tour companies saying that the bottom-line cost is driving more people. We find that sad and hope that is not really the case. Travel should be more than just saying you saw a place. It should leave you with memories that excite you. Your pictures should tell stories that you will never forget, and bring a smile to your face when you look at them. Here is hoping for better economic times, and the hope that people will not put off the adventures that travel can bring to them right now!

Beijing Journey and Cell Phone Rental, Support Services

Our most under-utilized service is our cell phone rental. This surprises us as so many more independent travelers are coming to Beijing. Our American friend really was the idea for the service being offered. She was working here temporarily, but wanted to be able to get around the city, see the sights, and meet friends on her own. Since her Chinese is limited to the bare-essentials, this desire became a problem. She, many times, had to stop people on the street to ask them if they would let her use their phone. Obviously that led to the telling of some very good stories. She found all the people she asked to be quite polite, and also, a bit amused by this. Since we were the people she was calling for help, we know this to be true.

We finally suggested she buy a cell phone. We still receive her phone calls, but now we recognize the number calling us! Which then gave us the idea of offering this service to other travelers who like independence. We know that travelers want to be able to use a taxi, find a good restaurant, call home, set-up the order of their day, meet a friend, and ask any number of other questions. We know they feel more comfortable being adventurous if they have a friend to call for help. It allows a traveler to be spontaneous, walk a different way if they suddenly decide to. We believe in serendipity, and we hope that our travelers do also.

We hope that more people in the future will see the value of renting a cell phone. We have found that most people visiting here think that they have to pay the extremely high prices that international companies charge their customers when they want to use their phone outside their home countries. We feel our support service and our rental cost is quite a good value. We haven't as yet offered this service to our corporate, MICE clients, but see that it could also be of value to them.