Tour or ';taxi for the day'; ??

Hello all.

My wife and I are visiting Beijing for 4 nights late on in March and we cant wait.

We are staying a little out of the city at the Shangri La. Just a couple of questions please !

1. We currently have a 2 day tour of the city, Great wall %26amp; Ming tombs along with the Summer Palace, and then have 1 day free to ourselves. Should we look at cancelling the tours ? Maybe in favour of hiring a taxi for the day. We wouldnt want to arrive at the Great wall to be confronted by hundreds of other tourists arriving at the same time - would it be easy to hire a cab for the day, how much should be paid and could it be arranged from the hotel, should we be tipping the driver and roughly what time (to be polite to the driver) should we look at booking the taxi from and to ?

2. Any suggestions at to where to be at what time ? for example is it best to arrive at certain sights in the morning, or at dusk etc etc.

3. Any suggestions for rooms at the Shangri La ? maybe a favourite side of the hotel or any feedback ?

4. I understand that in many restuarants there is a ';locals menu'; or a ';tourist menu'; which is more expensive . We will be armed with our guide books - is the price difference so vast that we should try the locals menu and work with it or just do the easy thing and have the tourist menu ?

5. Any other ideas suggestions and favourite passtimes whilst in Beijing that you have we would love to hear about.

Many Many Thanks

Tour or ';taxi for the day'; ??

1) I don%26#39;t think the Ming Tombs are really recommended, based on the responses of most travellers who%26#39;ve been on those tours. I would choose to cancel the tour. If you need a recommendation for a driver, you can call Mr Song at (+86)13801358901, he was recommended to me by a Beijing expat from another forum with pretty good reviews and reasonable pricing. I in turn have recommended him to other friends and travellers who were quite satisfied with him as well. As a guideline, a round-trip to Mutianyu Great Wall would cost about 400-450 RMB. No need to tip at all, regardless of whichever driver you hire.

2) Tiananmen Square: daybreak for the flag-raising ceremony. Temple of Heaven: early morning to catch (figuratively) the elderlies doing their morning exercise. Panjiayuan market: as early as possible on a weekend morning.