The city of London is rife with the red double-decker buses, one of the local cultural tradition of London. No wonder on the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games 2008 in Beijing a London double-decker bus became the main actor accompanied by the famous football David Beckhamon on the stage ushering the coming 2012 Olympic Games to be held in London. Now the red double-decker buses in London have become a national symbol of Britain.
There are two major London city bus tour companies, namely the Big Bus Company and the Original Bus Sightseeing Bus Company.
Slightly different from normal public double decker buses, these tourist oriented tour buses are all open-top double buses running on the fixed itineraries taking you to all of London’s famous landmarks and reveals London’s colourful 2,000-year history.
The bus tours offer a choice of a recorded tour introduction or a live commentary offered by entertaining tour guides on the buses. Your bus tickets are valid for 24 hours. You can hop on and off the buses at the many palces of interest within your ticket availability. The 24-hour tickets do give you plenty of time to discover London’s highlights.
Organized city bus tours are greatly favored by many first time travelers exploring a new city when they travel abroad. In comparison with the counterparts in London, Beijing bus companies or tour companies have been left far behind in offering these kinds of hop-on and hop-off double decker Beijing Bus Tours.
It is good that the Big Bus Company has entered the Shanghai Bus Tour martket, bringing new live blood into the organized city bus tour business. Hopefully in the forseeable future, people will see these lively open-top double buses running all around Beijing, a safe and relaxed way to experience this great city.
