Traveler Reviews

• Rebecca_r 23-Jul-2018

  The tour guide was very personable and we always felt safe and had a good time. The problems we had just seemed a bit odd. One - the time we were to meet our guide and the time of the show suddenly changed 24 hours prior to the show - so its lucky that we were flexible enough to still attend. Two - we were asked on our way to the show if we would like to upgrade our tickets for an additional 100 Yuan per person, however, the guide could not tell us where our seats already were, so we felt a bit put on the spot to upgrade without having enough information to make that kind of a decision. Three - and most importantly, we were really looking forward to our Peking Duck Dinner Experience - which was an absolute total bust! We were ushered into the basement of the restaurant and given a table outside the kitchen. We were told we could each have one drink - so three of us ordered beer. When the bottle of beer arrived, the waitress poured the one bottle of beer into three juice glasses - and that was our ONE free drink. We ate at SEVERAL restaurants during our trip to Beijing - and this was by far below the rest. The waitress was rude and dismissive and the food was bland and non-memorable. We had really been looking forward to this evening and it was not the experience that we had hoped for. I would not recommend spending the money.

• Douglas P 09-Feb-2018

  this is a cant miss event, the acrobatic show was better than anything you could see in las vegas, incredibly talented performers who in the peak season do this three times a day! amazing on every level for sure. the peking duck dinner was heavenly, with all the accompaniments to go with it. honestly it would have fed three people easily,no problem. dont miss it!!

• Douglas P 09-Feb-2018

  this is a cant miss event, the acrobatic show was better than anything you could see in las vegas, incredibly talented performers who in the peak season do this three times a day! amazing on every level for sure. the peking duck dinner was heavenly, with all the accompaniments to go with it. honestly it would have fed three people easily,no problem. dont miss it!!

• Iuslywn 19-Jan-2018

  The show itself was great! The venue was ok, but very crowded. Our party of six could not sit together but no couples were separated. The dinner afterward was great! Plenty of food and our guide was fantastic. If you’re visiting this country for the first time you may want to add this to your list

• Latrice_w 19-Jan-2018

  The show itself was great! The venue was ok, but very crowded. Our party of six could not sit together but no couples were separated. The dinner afterward was great! Plenty of food and our guide was fantastic. If you’re visiting this country for the first time you may want to add this to your list

• Javierh_g 04-Oct-2017

  Pecking Duck Banquet was an awful experience, poorly executed by the tour company. The acrobatic show was nice. First we were taken to the show. The show in itself is gorgeous and mesmerizing, although the theater is dirty chairs, floor, entrance, all dirty and poorly maintained. We were asked on-site to pay an extra 20 USD aprox. per person in local currency to upgrade our seats to a better ones, which we declined and still got good sits. Afterwards we were taken to a restaurant that is not a Beijing Duck restaurant we know this because we booked other tours with the same company and had already been taken to this restaurant. They served us regular Chinese food dishes, and brought the Duck afterwards. It was cold, prepared in other site, wrapped in vinyl plastic, not fresh, tasteless, and not good at all. Fortunately we had visited a traditional Beijing Duck restaurant days before this tour and experienced a Beijing Duck meal in its entire splendor. We left the venue completely dissatisfied.

• Julian 03-Oct-2017

  Pecking Duck Banquet was an awful experience, poorly executed by the tour company. The acrobatic show was nice. First we were taken to the show. The show in itself is gorgeous and mesmerizing, although the theater is dirty chairs, floor, entrance, all dirty and poorly maintained. We were asked on-site to pay an extra 20 USD aprox. per person in local currency to upgrade our seats to a better ones, which we declined and still got good sits. Afterwards we were taken to a restaurant that is not a Beijing Duck restaurant we know this because we booked other tours with the same company and had already been taken to this restaurant. They served us regular Chinese food dishes, and brought the Duck afterwards. It was cold, prepared in other site, wrapped in vinyl plastic, not fresh, tasteless, and not good at all. Fortunately we had visited a traditional Beijing Duck restaurant days before this tour and experienced a Beijing Duck meal in its entire splendor. We left the venue completely dissatisfied.

• Carey C 05-Sep-2017

  I want to start by saying that I've had wonderful tours with Viator and our guide and driver on this tour were wonderful. The problem was the show and restaurant were really not. I think the issue was simply that we were the only people on the tour which made the choice of the show and Peking Duck dinner probably difficult to book for the host tour company that Viator uses. The show came first and when we entered we were told that to sit up near the front we would have to pay extra. We did. The show was fine but we were told by the rest of the people in our river cruise group that the show they went to was wonderful. The restaurant selected for the Peking Duck dinner was really sub par and and pretty far out in a suburb. The duck was not crisp and the meal really wasn't good, though the server was very nice and tried hard. I need to add here that we would have happily taken the river cruise optional tours offered but were told that they were sold out which turned out to not be true. But that was why we booked the dinner and show with Viator before leaving for the cruise. We were then comped by our cruise director for the Peking Dinner they offered and it was really so far superior that I was amazed. Perhaps if we hadn't gone on the Peking Duck tour option we wouldn't have known the difference, but I've worked in many and owned a restaurant and I know food and have actually had some pretty good Peking duck in the states so this restaurant on the Viator tour was really lacking without a doubt.

• Carey C 05-Sep-2017

  I want to start by saying that I've had wonderful tours with Viator and our guide and driver on this tour were wonderful. The problem was the show and restaurant were really not. I think the issue was simply that we were the only people on the tour which made the choice of the show and Peking Duck dinner probably difficult to book for the host tour company that Viator uses. The show came first and when we entered we were told that to sit up near the front we would have to pay extra. We did. The show was fine but we were told by the rest of the people in our river cruise group that the show they went to was wonderful. The restaurant selected for the Peking Duck dinner was really sub par and and pretty far out in a suburb. The duck was not crisp and the meal really wasn't good, though the server was very nice and tried hard. I need to add here that we would have happily taken the river cruise optional tours offered but were told that they were sold out which turned out to not be true. But that was why we booked the dinner and show with Viator before leaving for the cruise. We were then comped by our cruise director for the Peking Dinner they offered and it was really so far superior that I was amazed. Perhaps if we hadn't gone on the Peking Duck tour option we wouldn't have known the difference, but I've worked in many and owned a restaurant and I know food and have actually had some pretty good Peking duck in the states so this restaurant on the Viator tour was really lacking without a doubt.

• Patricia C 09-May-2017

  We were the only Caucasians in the room, and felt very uncomfortable. The house was packed with the Chinese. Somehow we thought that there would be more people like us tourist in attendance. The show started with an act in Chinese, which we didn't understand at all, and in fact left to find out why we were not getting the Acrobatic show. They explained it was a beginning act, and that we would eventually see the act we paid to see. When we returned to our seats, they were taken. Fortunately a person behind us Chinese, who could speak no English got the person to move. Also we thought this was an evening event but it was in the afternoon. Again we thought it started with a Peking Duck dinner, but dinner was after the show. We assumed the dinner would be served in the same venue, it was not. We were taken to a restaurant, on the lower level, by ourselves with no one else present, which again made us feel very uncomfortable. The dinner was acceptable, but when we had a Peking Duck dinner later on our trip, this dinner was far less palatable. I would not recommend this event to a Westerner. None of the audience went to this dinner. The show was fine, but everything that led up to it, made us concerned.