You'd better to book a tour in advance. Few taxi drivers could understand English and would like to drive to Beijing.

Thank you Mr Hank. I would like to book a tour in advance but don't know where to go to book it. I would like a pick up at Tianjin Harbour for four people, then taken to the Great Wall and brought back to a Tianjin Hotel. Do you know who could book this for me?

I was in Tianjin a couple years ago on business and over the weekend went to Beijing one day and the Great Wall the next. One of the people from the company I was visiting took me to Beijing on Saturday and showed me around the Forbidden City. The concierge at the hotel in Tianjin (the Sheraton) set me up with a girl who took me up to the see the Great Wall on Sunday for a very reasonable price. We took the train from Tianjin to Beijing and then hired a taxi to take up to Badaling.

If you are planning to stay in Tianjin to do some sightseeing and don't have a trip set up to go to Beijing and the Great Wall, you might talk to the people at the hotel and see if they can recommend someone to be your host on a trip up there. It was a lot of fun and well worth doing.

When I was in China the air pollution was very noticeable. I didn't find a whole lot to see in Tianjin but Beijing was quite good and the Great Wall is well worth seeing.

The Chinese people were very nice.

Enjoy your trip!