MUST DO WHILE ON A LONG LAYOVER IN BEIJING! - I had pre-planned a trip with a 16hr layover through Beijing with an idea to tour around, but not realizing that I could see the Great Wall! A friend of mine recommended that I use Catherine Lu Tours - as she used them for a similar tour experience, and I'm glad that I did! Despite a hiccup on my end with scheduling my tour on the wrong day, the company was able to accommodate my faux pas last minute and get a tour set up the same day that I flew in! Airport pickup is directly available for an additional price (about $30USD) since the airport is far from the City Center with traffic. I was picked up by a great driver who found me looking lost in the airport arrivals area. He had sodas and water available in the back seat for tourists! You are in Beijing, so expect traffic going into the city. I went on a Tuesday, and after picking up my awesome guide, Alice, at a local hotel, we drove over to Tiananmen Square. I was told that it was not busy - and if it wasn't- I definitely didn't want to see it on a crazy weekend day! I was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of people visiting, but felt safe and protected by Alice who guided us away from long queues. For planning, do consider that the Mao Mausoleum and Forbidden City are closed on weekends. Our tour of the Square and Forbidden City took about 2.5 hours. Alice was an absolute wealth of information. She also took photos for me at each site, as I was alone. Following our city tour, we drove out to a village on the way out towards the Great Wall and had a lovely, authentic Chinese lunch at a local restaurant which was delicious! We continued our journey up to the Great Wall, and knowing that the Mutianyu portion is far less crowded than the Batallion portion - I was still shocked that there were so few visitors! It really is spectacular and something that you should give yourself an opportunity to see in your lifetime! Also, at both the Forbidden City and Great Wall, there are opportunities for souvenir shopping abundant. Overall, I highly recommend this tour, and Alice who was informative and wonderful!

Great service - I Really enjoyed my tour of Tianamen Square, The Wall(Mutianyu) and Forbidden City. I was picked up with separate driver from my hotel. Tour guide Linda was extremely helpful and very knowledgeable. Her local knowledge was indispensable and the history and context she provided made for a great experience

6 days in Beijing - We did a two day private tour with Catherine Lu Tours over Chinese New Year. I found the whole experience with them great. From booking the trip through to being dropped off on our last day. We spent the first day at The Temple of Heaven, The Forbidden City and walking around The Hutong area. The second day we did the Great Wall and The Summer Palace. Sophie, our guide, was very knowledgeable and had excellent English. She made our tour very enjoyable and was very patience with us and our young son. It is a really well constructed tour. I’d definitely recommend using Catherine Lu Tours and Sophie again. We realized when departing Beijing that we had left a bag of shopping including gifts in one of the Hutong stores. Sophie was kind enough to go to the shop and arrange shipping back to Hong Kong. Thank you so much Sophie!

Great service and excellent tour! - I booked this tour last minute a couple days before I arrived in Beijing. I was glad I did. Steven picked me up from my hotel with a separate driver and we were able to see the Temple of Heaven (upon my request) in addition to the Forbidden City and Tianamnen Square since it was offseason. It helped that Steven used to be a history teacher so he was very knowledgeable on all the sites. I had a great experience on this once in a lifetime tour and highly recommend Catherine Lu Tours to anyone.

Short but a fantastic visit to Beijing - I and my wife visited Beijing for day on September 27. This was our first visit to China. Peter was our travel guide and conducted the tour very professionally. He is fluent with English. He was ready with an itinerary of what could be done in a day and a good taxi with a good driver. In his itinerary, he had listed out the most important places to visit with some literature and route plan keeping in view the traffic. Based on our discussion with us, he comfortably made changes. Peter had read about India and made us feel comfortable. He had also taken pains to understand our food habits and identified the vegetarian restaurants for us. He also guided us on shopping. On the whole, we enjoyed our visit to Beijing. If we visit Beijing again, we would try to hire him. In short, Peter is an excellent guide.