Daytrips:

Every hotel can arrange trips to nearby or regional tourist spots. You’ll have a Great Wall trip, Forbidden City trip, Hutong (the old part of Beijing with lots of alleyways) trips, boat trips, Summer Palace trips, other city trips, Yellow River trips, tea, theatre and more tea trips, ‘get a boat with an old man’ trips, and so on. Normally, a special desk near the Hotel reception will collect your cash and tell you to meet there the next morning at a certain time. They will often speak limited English. The cost of daytrips can vary greatly (this sometimes includes lunch and entrance fees). Coaches usually collect tourists from several hotels so don’t be surprised if you’re not the only one. Often the tours stop off at unannounced (but scheduled) jade factories which have extensive jade displays or medical centres that perform ad hoc diagnoses by quirky so-called physicians who somehow always find something wrong that, surprise surprise, they have a remedy for - some peculiar medicinal plant extract that can only be found atthatcentre. Although they can be interesting, most travellers get highly irritated by these time wasting visits when they could, in fact, spend longer viewing the Terracotta Army or scaling a section of the Great Wall, for example. The prices at these places are usually high and not worth paying for even though they’ll flatter you and give you apparently hefty ‘discounts’. They will often claim to be the only ‘official’ operation for the entire region. These are actually annoying detours that earn the tour company extra money – of course, for every bus they stop at a centre it means potential customers. You may enjoy these stops, and I do not doubt their authenticity in what they sell (much), but often tourists would prefer more time at the famous sights thatreallymakeChinafamous and a truly inspiring place to visit. What isveryimportant is to be on time. The Chinese are highly punctual and the coach will leave without you so never stray far away! Usually, you’ll arrive back at your hotel around 6-7pm.