2 Days Beijing Stopover Tour: Great Wall+Forbidden City

Attractions: Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Jingshan Park, Summer Palace

In the morning, your guide and driver will pick you up from your Beijing downtown hotel and start the tour with Tiananmen Square, the heart and symbol of Beijing and the largest city square in the world. The spacious square has been used for many public celebrations, ceremonies, and demonstrations for over a hundred years. Next we will pay a visit to Forbidden City, one of the largest and most completely preserved palace complex built of wood. It functioned as the imperial palace in the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1368-1912). 24 emperors of the two dynasties once lived here. Then make a stop at Jingshan Park, opposite a street from the Forbidden City. In ancient time, Jingshan Park and its ancillary buildings not only served as a royal garden for visitors, but also had multiple functions such as learning shooting, offering sacrifices to ancestors, official learning, opera and regional activities, etc.

After a Chinese style lunch, we will head to Summer Palace. It is located at the west skirt of Beijing and covers an area of 290 hectares. During the Qianlong Era of the Qing Dynasty, the Summer Palace was built by imitating the layout of the West Lake in Hangzhou. Now it is the largest and most completely preserved imperial garden in China.

At the end of the tour, your guide and driver will escort you back to your hotel.

Attractions: Temple of Heaven, Mutianyu Great Wall,Bird’s Nest, Water Cube

After your breakfast, your guide and driver will meet you at your hotel lobby. We will begin today’s sightseeing with Temple of Heaven. Located at southern part of Beijing, it served as a complex of sacrificial building where emperors of Ming and Qing Dynasties prayed for peace and harvest.

Next we will have a lunch and then drive about 1.5 hours to Mutianyu Great Wall. We will enjoy the urban and suburban scenery of Beijing city on the way. Mutianyu Great Wall is the most scenic part of Chinese Great Wall. It was built in the early Ming Dynasty at 1368 and stretches for 5400 meters. 90 percent of the Mutianyu is covered by vegetation. So in each season this part of the Great Wall will treat visitors with its unique scenery. If hiking is too much for you, cable car is available and optional.

After saying goodbye to the Great Wall, we will return to Beijing City and stop by Bird’s Nest and Water Cube in which the 2008 Olympics was held. We will admire the buildings from outside and take some pictures. The tour will conclude with drop-off at your hotel.