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

In many cases, you may only have a half day in Beijing leaving you two options. The first option is visiting Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. The last option is just visiting the Mutianyu Great Wall. It totally depends on your interest and flight schedule.



Option 1: Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square.

After being picked up from airport, you will first head for the Forbidden City in the city center. As the best preserved imperial complex in China, it served as the central Imperial Palace in the Ming and Qing Dynasties for almost 500 years and was listed as a World UNESCO Site. As a Royal Palace, common subjects were forbidden access unless they were summoned, and so it derived the name Forbidden City. This complex comprises of 980 buildings with about 9999 rooms, which housed thousands of people from the Emperor and his concubines to relatives and servants. Now, it serves as a museum housing all the treasures from the old times left for you to enjoy.




Thereafter we will depart for Tiananmen Square. Located not far from the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square is another historic site worth visiting. As a witness to numerous major political and historical events in Chinese society, Tiananmen Square is also surrounded by many other buildings that bear great importance in Chinese history. On the west of Tiananmen Square stands the Great Hall of the People, the meeting place of the National People's congress of the People's Republic of China. There are also monuments to the People's Heroes and Chairman Mao's Mausoleum to the south.










Option 2: Mutianyu Great Wall

Drive around 1.5 hours to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall and have a quick lunch at the Subway at the foot of the Mutianyu Wall. This is one of the most famous and idyllic sections of the Great Wall. You will have a choice of taking the cable car or chair lift up the breathtaking wall and spend a leisurely 1 to 2 hours walking up and down the various sections exploring the Watch Towers and marveling at the construction and beauty of the renowned and legendary Wall. You then have the option of an exhilarating toboggan ride back down or simply return the way you came with cable car.

After the tour, you will be transferred back to airport.