Beijing Essence and In-depth Forbidden City Tour

With thousands of years of history, Beijing is one of the Four Ancient Capitals of the Middle Kingdom.

It is also a city of contrasts, where the medieval hutong lanes nestle under the towering skyscrapers of the modern urban center; where the bustling, vibrant roads clash with the serene calm of the Houhai Lakes. Walk into Beijing to explore its hidden story of it.

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Highlights

Skip the line Forbidden City discovery: we don’t give you textbook recitals or routine guide presentations; we would like to illustrate to you through fascinating stories with original iPad pictures and videos by walking through an unspoiled part of Forbidden City.
Experience local life in Hutong: meet local people by visiting a friendly Hutong family for a real insight into the local life and learn the traditional art of facial makeup for the Peking Opera.
Have something fun at Great Wall: cable car up and toboggan down in Mutianyu Great Wall and it is both suitable for adults and children.

Tour Itinerary

DAY 1 Beijing Arrival

Crowne Plaza Beijing Chaoyang U-Town (TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence, 5-star) / Sunworld Hotel Beijing (in the center of Beijing, 4-star) / Dongfang Hotel Beijing (3-star)
None

Upon arrival in Beijing, your Beijing tour guide will escort you to the hotel. The rest of the day is free on your own.

Free time ideas

For your adventure, you can take a visit to the Ancient Observatory, just 2-stop away by Bus NO.29 from your hotel. If you are traveling with kids, Beijing Amusement Park is a good choice (2 stops by Bus NO.829 )

DAY 2 Tiananmen Square, Jingshan Park (Coal Hill), Hutong Tour, Learn to apply Facial Makeup for the Beijing Opera, Discover the Forbidden City

Breakfast and lunch

Meet your guide at the hotel lobby before a visit to the largest public square that is Tian'anmen Square.

After that, we will enter the Forbidden City to reveal its historical charm. Your tour guide will help you explore 6 carefully-selected places in the Forbidden City, to discover the deep secrets of the emperors and concubines of the Ming and Qing dynasties, while other group tours only visit 6-8 places. You will be walking for about 2 hours (2 kilometers).

We will climb up to Jingshan Park to get spectacular views of the Forbidden City and Beijing.

Have lunch in a Chinese restaurant.

In the afternoon, you can hop on a rickshaw to ride through the narrow alleys as well as visit a local family then walk on the Silver Ingot Bridge (Yinding Bridge) and find out about the different thresholds of the courtyards.

Learning to apply Facial Makeup for the Beijing opera will let you get to know more about old Beijing.

Free time ideas

For dinner options, we would like to recommend Black Sesame Kitchen inside Heizhima Hutong near the Temple of Heaven, which is ranked NO.1 on TripAdvisor forums.

At night, you may want to attend a Kungfu Show, a highly-ranked activity on TripAdvisor.

Facial Makeup for the Beijing opera — Apply Facial Makeup for Beijing Opera

DAY 3 Temple of Heaven, Great Wall at Mutianyu with Return Cable Car

Breakfast and lunch

Start your morning visiting the Temple of Heaven which is a complex of Taoist buildings where emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties visited for annual ceremonies of praying for good harvests.

Drive about two hours to the Mutianyu Great Wall from Beijing city center. You can take a chairlift or cable car up and walk along the wall, through the watchtowers and enjoy superb views as it snakes across the hills and mountains. return by toboggan down to the bottom, such a thrilling, safe, and fun experience.

Free Time Ideas

Near the National Olympic Stadiums, there is a multimedia digital show called Old Beijing Gets Moving for history buffs and folk art fans. The large scroll of 228 meters rolls out the last day of Beijing back to the 1930s.
Ranked NO.5 on TripAdvisor, Chaoyang Theatre Acrobatics Show nearby is also an option for the night, especially for young kids.

DAY 4 Summer Palace with boat ride, Beijing Departure

Breakfast

Today you will visit the Summer Palace which is emperor garden. Have a relaxing walk and takes a ferry boat on the Kunming lake that backed to the imperial era. Have simple but nice Chinese lunch.

Good time flies fast. Today your Beijing tour guide will see you off at the airport. Thanks for taking this China tour with China Travel. We hope to see you again soon!