Sophia

After we arrived in Beijing, I started looking around for tips on how to get to the Great Wall. I went to the www.tripadvisor.com forums and found that some tour guides came highly recommended. Sophia (above right) was available, so we retained her for two days, one for the Forbidden City and Temple of Heaven and one for the Great Wall. She has lived up to the recommendations I read. We're going to use her again on our last full day.

It's really nice to visit places and have an English-speaking guide be able to explain things and answer questions. Sophia also helps you bargain with the vendors, order food at restaurants, and facilitate all other interactions. Having your own private guide also means you get to set the schedule. This is helpful for us because we like to start later and see *less* things than what is on a scheduled group tour.

A bonus is that her husband turns out to be a very good Chinese artist. She took us to his gallery, and we bought lots of paintings, some for ourselves and others as gifts.