2-Day Beijing Boutique Tour: Forbidden City, Great Wall, Summer Palace and Temple of Heaven

7:00 am - 8:00 am, Hotel pick-up. (Day 1)

Your guide will be waiting for you in your hotel lobby in the morning at an appointed time around 7:00 am - 8:00 am, with holding your name sign or Trippest Logo.

8:00 am - 10:30 am, Visit Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden City. (Day 1)

The tour will be began from Tian'anmen Square where the famous Chairman Mao's portrait is hang on the wall of the Gate of Heavenly Peace. It is hardly to say that you have ever been to Beijing if you don't visit the square! Like the Times Square in New York, Red Square in Moscow and St. Peter's Square, Tian'anmen Square is a must-visit place for traveler to Beijing and is the largest public square in the world. Your guide will provide you commentary to the history, architecture, and anecdotes of the square.

NOTE: Tian'anmen Square could be enforced martial law due to government activities temporarily, which we can NOT be informed in advance. The tour guide may adjust the itinerary according to the situation. 

Walk north, and after going through the middle gate of Tian'anmen rostrum, there will be a huge red gate awaiting you. Start to enjoy the highlight of the day — the Forbidden City, the world's largest imperial palace with 9,999½ forbidden imperial chambers, home to 24 emperors in the Ming and Qing dynasties (1420–1911). You'll be marvelled by the gorgeous Chinese ancient style architectures and interesting history and lives of those Chinese emperors.

The Forbidden City

Your tour guide will help you explore 10 carefully-selected places and Hall of Clocks and Watches in the Forbidden City, recommended by our local experts, while other group tours only visit 6 spots briefly.

Jingshan Park

10:30 am - 12:30 pm, Drive to the Great Wall at Mutianyu. (Day 1)

1½ - 2 hours car riding from downtown Beijing to the Great Wall at Mutianyu. There could be other participants join the tour to visit the Great Wall in the afternoon. But the group would be no more than 10 people. 

12:30 pm - 3:30 pm, Visit the Great Wall of China at Mutianyu. (Day 1)

Lunch is not included in this pricing. Most of our customers buy some takeout at the Subway or Burger King and have a picnic on the Great Wall. Feel free to ask your tour guide if you want to do this nice experience. Then you'll hike the Great Wall at Mutianyu. The section is ranked top among all parts of the Great Wall on TripAdvisor for its picturesque scenery, fewer tourists, and beautifully restored architecture.

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 steps. You can decide either single way or round way when you are there. Cable car fee is at your own expense. The tour guide will help you to buy tickets. 

At the Wall, it is free time to walk around after your guide does some introduction. Cable car ascends to and descends from tower 14. Hike "the most beautiful and interesting part of the Great Wall" - between the 14th and 23rd watch towers - acknowledged by hikers as "the golden route". And chairlift ascends to tower 6 and toboggan descends from tower 6 too. It would be a high challenge hiking from tower 6 to tower 23. According to your physical condition, most of our customers who take the chairlift up and down, hike from tower 6 to tower 14 and turn back.

Mutianyu Great Wall

It normally takes about 2 hours to complete the route. Then descend and back to our vehicle.

3:30 pm - 6:00 pm, Transfer Back to Your Hotel in Beijing.

We will transfer you to your hotel at the end of the tour. 

8:0 am - 8:30 am, Hotel pickup. (Day 2)

In the morning your guide will be waiting for you at your hotel lobby (or other appointed address) at around 8:00 am (the exact departure time will be given by your guide on Day 1) and you'll be transferred to the first stop of the day – Summer Palace by our clean and comfortable vehicle.

9:00 am - 11:00 am, Visit Summer Palace. (Day 2)

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 wisdom 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). On the boat, 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.

Summer Palace

11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Visit Dongjiaominxiang. (Day 2)

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.

Qian Men

1:00 pm - 2:00 pm, Lunch Break (not included in the pricing). (Day 2)

Lunch will be served at Da Wan Ju restaurant which serves traditional Beijing local food. Your guide will help you to order the food loved by local people. 

2:30 pm - 4:00 pm, Visit the Temple of Heaven. (Day 2)

After lunch, we will head to the Temple of Heaven. 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.

Temple of Heaven

4:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Transfer Back to Your Hotel. (Day 2)

We will transfer you to your hotel at the end of the tour. If you need to catch a flight or a train after the tour we are more than happy to help you arrange it. Let us know at the time of booking.