Mini Group: 2-Day Beijing Highlights and Great Wall Tour

Itinerary

Day 1: Visit Tian'anmen Square, Forbidden City and Mutianyu Great Wall

Stop At: Tiananmen Square (Tiananmen Guangchang), West Changan Street, Dongcheng District, Beijing 100006 China
Tian'anmen Square is the largest city square in the centre of Beijing, named after the Tiananmen (literally, Gate of Heavenly Peace) which sits to its north, separating it from the Forbidden City. It has great cultural significance as it was the site of several key events in Chinese history. As the world's largest city square and enduring symbol of China's national pride, it is surrounded by many imposing buildings including the Heavenly Gate (entry to the Forbidden City), Museums, government buildings and Chairman Mao's Mausoleum.
Duration: 30 minutes

Stop At: Forbidden City-The Palace Museum, No.4 Jingshanqian Street, Dongcheng District, Beijing 100009 China
The Forbidden City, in the very heart of Beijing, was home to 24 emperors during the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911) dynasties. It is the largest and best preserved ancient imperial architectural complex in the world, featuring a great square, halls and gates, in contrast to intricate halls, gardens, courtyards and living quarters. The exhibitions, both permanent and temporary, are important treasures of ancient China. You will be walking for about 1.5-2 hours (2 kilometers). The walks in the Forbidden City are graded moderate.
Duration: 2 hours

Stop At: Mutianyu Great Wall, Mutianyu Road, Huairou District, Beijing China
The Mutianyu section of the Great Wall is ranked top among all parts of the Great Wall on TripAdvisor for its picturesque scenery, the most child-friendly section and beautifully-restored architecture. It is about 1.5 hours driving from downtown Beijing.

In order to save your time, we suggest you to choose round-way cable car or round-way chairlift and toboggan ascend to and descend from the Great Wall, instead of spending about 40 minutes climbing lots of boring steps. Cable car station is at Tower 14. Chairlift & toboggan station is at Tower 6. We have included the costs of round-way cable car or round-way chairlift (or toboggan) ascend to and descend from the Great Wall. If you want to take one way cable car up and one way chairlift or toboggan down, you need to pay the price difference CNY100 per person at your own expense.

At the Wall you’ll have free time to enjoy the beautiful scenery and your guide will show you the background information of the Great Wall. The cable car ascends to and descends from the 14th watch tower. We recommend you to hike up the most beautiful part of the Great Wall – between the 14th and 23rd watch towers which were known by hikers as “the Golden Route”. However the chairlift ascends to the 6th watch tower while the toboggan descends from tower 6 too. It might be a challenge to hike from the 6th watch tower to the 23rd watch tower. But you can decide based on your physic condition.

Normally it would take about 2 hours to complete the hike from the 14th watch tower to 23rd watch tower.
Duration: 2 hours

Meals included:
• Lunch
No accommodation included on this day.

Day 2: Visit Jingshan Park, Summer Palace, Temple of Haven and Qianmen Street

Stop At: Jingshan Park (Jingshan Gongyuan), No.44 Jingshanxi Street, Xicheng District, Beijing 100009 China
You will change another angle to have a panoramic view of the Forbidden City at Jingshan Park which is located behind the Forbidden City. Standing on the 479-meter high hill you’ll have the best position to get a panoramic view of this large Palace Museum which you should not miss.
Duration: 40 minutes

Stop At: Summer Palace (Yiheyuan), No.19 Xinjian Gongmen Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100080 China
Summer Palace is the largest imperial royal garden in the world which was built by the Chinese Emperor Qianlong in Qing dynasty as a gift for his mother’s birthday!

You’ll see the wisdoms and treasures of traditional Chinese architecture art while you walking in this garden. It is about 273 hectares in size and is composed of three main scenic areas: the palace area, lake area, and mountain area.

You’ll visit the Summer Palace by taking a dragon boat on the lake which is the best way to visit Summer Palace (the boat trip is not available in winter as the lake would be frozen) and, on the way you will have a chance to view all of the beautiful palaces at the side of the lake.

After the boat trip, you will walk along a long corridor which is regarded as the longest art gallery in the world and has 14,000 Chinese traditional paintings on the beams.
Duration: 2 hours

Stop At: Temple of Heaven, Tiantan Road, Dongcheng District, Beijing 100050 China
This is the place where ancient Chinese emperors used to worship their “Gods”. The Altar, Echo Wall and spectacular Imperial Vault are the highlights.

You’ll find the Hall of Abstinence is a special place that those emperors use this palace for fasting before they held a ceremony to pray for a good harvest and would abstain from meat and wine. Usually, the emperor go to this palace three days in advance with no drinking, no entertainment, no mourning and paying no attention to any sins and crimes being committed which showed his piousness to his god.
Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes

Pass By: Qianmen (Zhengyangmen), North of Qianmen Street, Beijing 100050 China
Dating back to Ming Dynasty, Qianmen Street was the imperial road to the Temple of Heaven. Since the middle of Ming Dynasty, Qianmen Street had become a famous business street until now. Even though it has been recently rebuilt, it is still a good place if you want to check out a few hutongs and some of side streets. The different Hutong street has different features, and the architecture and vibe are very traditional Chinese. With a history of more than 450 years, there dwells around 30 famous shops with over 100 years history such as Beijing Tong Rentang which sells Chinese medicine, Rui Fuxiang which sells silk and Liu Biju which sells pickles etc.

Meals included:
• Lunch
No accommodation included on this day.