Whenever I hear of someone headed to Beijing, I make sure they know about Leo and his amazing tour. We hired Leo for a personalized tour for our family of 8, with 2 parents and 6 children. We had 2 college age kids, two in high school and a 12 year old and a 8 year old. Leo connected with all of our kids and our youngest two felt especially connected to Leo and still talk about him years later.
Daki picked us up from the airport in the afternoon and took us to our hotel and helped us get situated (the front desk didn't speak any English). That evening, Daki walked us around downtown, showing us how to navigate the city and taking us to an open air food market where they were selling all sorts of exotic cooked delicacies such as fried scorpion. She also took us to an outdoor square where they were doing ballroom dancing and my kids all joined in.
The next day we were picked up and shuttled in a comfortable van to the Great Wall of China and Leo was our guide for the day. Leo is engaging, charming and had a great sense of humor and quickly won over our kids. If you like having a great storyteller, Leo is the guide for you. He was able to take the complex Chinese history and make it interesting for all of us. Leo was so kind to think of our kids and brought 2 kites that our kids could fly on the top of the Great Wall. What a memory!
We rode down the toboggan down and then stopped at lunch where Leo helped us navigate the menu. We quickly became obsessed with the green beans and we ordered them at nearly every meal there after. They made our tongues slightly numb and the flavor was fantastic.
We had planned on going to the Olympic Park, but Leo accommodated my 8 year old daughter's dream to see some Pandas in China and we made a detour to the Beijing Zoo. We only had time to race to the Panda exhibit, but my daughter was in heaven. We then walked through the Summer Palace and then had Beijing Duck for dinner! Yummy.
The next day, Leo had arranged at our request a private Tai Chi lesson in a public park. It was a wonderful experience and the teacher was very patient with us. We enjoyed seeing the elderly Chinese working out on some public work-out equipment. We then went to a Baiyunguan taoism temple, did a Qianmen street walk, visited Tiananmen square and the The Forbidden City, and did a Hutong walking tour where we visited a man who did fighting crickets. We finished the day by visiting the Lama temple and the Hongqiao market.
Leo was attentive, charming, flexible and an excellent photographer. If we every make it back to beautiful Beijing, we will certainly hire him again. We give him our highest recommendation!