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

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

1. Tiananmen Square
   30m
   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.
2. The Palace Museum
   2h · Admission ticket included
   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.
3. Mutianyu Great Wall
   2h · Admission ticket included
   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 ascend to and descend from the Great Wall. Cable car is not included.
   
   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.

Day 2: Visit Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven and Dongjiaominxiang Hutong

1. Summer Palace
   2h · Admission ticket included
   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.
2. Temple of Heaven
   1h 30m · Admission ticket included
   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.
3. 1h
   As the longest hutong in Beijing, Dongjiaominxiang Alley was designated as an embassy zone, also called "Beijing Legation Quarter", it was known as "a kingdom inside a kingdom", housing the embassies of France, Japan, the United States, Germany, Russia, Belgium, Holland, Italy and Austria. Many foreign banks, hospitals and post offices also operated here, which explains the various Western-style structures scattered on both sides of the alley. Some of the century-old buildings have been preserved and re-purposed, such as the former Italian Embassy, which now houses the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries.

Pickup details

1. Hotel pickup and drop-off services are available within the 4th Ring Zone of Beijing City. Please enter the name and address of your hotel/airbnb/accommodation information in the blank of pickup location at the time of booking.

2. You can go to one of meeting hotels: Regent Beijing, Gehua New Century Hotel. Transportation is at your own expense. Exact meeting time will be reconfirmed one day earlier.

• Infants are required to sit on an adult’s lap
• Suitable for all physical fitness levels
• Passport information is required for entrance tickets booking, please forward each individual traveler's full name and passport number at the time of booking.
• Hotel pickup and drop-off services are available within the 4th Ring Zone of Beijing City.
• Please wear comfortable walking shoes.
• You will receive details about tour guide and exact pickup time in your voucher the day before. And the tour guide will also call you via hotel or leave a message for you about pickup time the night before tour.
• Round-way cable car or toboggan are not included. You can pay yourself at the entrance of the Great Wall.
• This tour is daily available. But we may change day 2 to day 1 accordingly when the Forbidden City is closed on Mondays.