Day 1 Arrival in Beijing

Upon your arrival, your private driver will be holding a sign with your name written and ready for you at the exit area. The rest of the day will be on your own hands.

Day 2 Tian'anmen Square, Forbidden City, Yandai Xiejie, Drum Tower

After breakfast, your guide and driver will pick you and take you to Tian’anmen Square first. Also called Gate of Heavenly Peace, Tian’anmen Square is a place where several significant historic events occurred. On the square, you can also see a lot of halls, monuments and museums.

Afterwards, you will head for the Forbidden City. It served as the home for Imperial Families for over 500 years and has survived both natural and man-made disasters. Being the largest and the best preserved palace compound in the world, it has symbolized the Imperial Power, simply because common people are prohibited access. Now, it’s a cultural symbol revealing old stories.

Have lunch at a restaurant nearby the Forbidden city and get ready for the afternoon tour.

Have a leisurely stroll on the Yandai (tobacco pouches) Xiejie. Served as the gateway to Drum Tower outside the Di’an Gate Street, Yandai Xiejie was a place where all kinds of tobacco pouches, antiques, paintings, calligraphy works, local snacks and other services were traded. It’s said that most of the Manchu aristocrats living in northern part of Beijing were obsessed with tobacco in Qing Dynasty and to meet the increasing demand of the pouch, many stores selling pouches emerged in the street. Meanwhile the street itself is narrow and waves forward just like a tobacco stem with a head. Therefore, it’s called Yandai Xiejie. If you like to hunt for food, antiques, cultural stuff, it’s a great place to be wander.

Go further into the Yandai Xiejie, you will see the Drum Tower. Seating against the north and facing the south, Drum Tower is a wooden building with double eaves and three dypasses. It served as the timing telling center and one of the important icons in Beijing.




After the tour, you will be dropped off at the Beijing hotel.






    

Day 3 Mutianyu Great Wall, Changling Mausoleum and Sacred Way

After breakfast, you will be transferred to Mutianyu Great Wall. As it’s about 1.5 hours away from the downtown Beijing, we suggest you start at 7:30 to beat the crowd. It 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.

Have lunch at a local restaurant nearby the Great Wall.

Next, you will leave for Changling Mausoleum and Sacred Way of the Ming Tombs. It’s hard to cover all the mausoleums in Ming Tombs, we have selected some of the highlights for your trip. Changling Mausoleum is the tomb burying Emperor Zhu Di and empress Xu. It's the one of the major mausoleums in the tomb complex and a typical Ming Dynasty tomb. You will also walk down the solemn Sacred Way where you will admire all kinds of stone carved animals that were built to protect the tombs.

At the end of the tour, you will be dropped at the hotel.




    

Day 4 Summer Palace, Bird's Nest and Water Cube, Cooking Class, Acrobatic Show

After breakfast, you will head for the Summer Palace. As the largest imperial garden in China, the Summer Palace was a summer resort for the royal families. There are huge lakes, bridges, corridors, pavilions, and various kinds of flowers and many rooms radiating the natural beauty and the grandeur of imperial gardens. With arched bridges and glittering ripples, pretty promenades and flowers in blossom, decorated corridors and ancient doors, and "breezeways" (a kind of hallway that allows the passage of a breeze between structures), all these present tourists enchanting and ever-changing scenery. Afterwards, we will take some amazing pictures outside the Bird’s Nest and Water Cube.



In the afternoon, you will experience how to make an authentic Beijing meal at a quiet Siheyuan courtyard. Firstly, you will get acquainted with all the seasonings and ingredients. Then, you will set out to make your own dinner with the help of a professional chef. The number of dishes depends on the size of your group. Please advise if you have any preference or allergies.




In the evening, we will take you to enjoy the breathtaking Acrobatic Show. The tickets are pre-booked. Our driver will drop off after the show.






    

Day 5 Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian, Jietai Temple, Marco Polo Bridge

After breakfast, you will set off to Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian. Seated on Longgu Mountain, 48km southwest of Beijing, Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian is an important site of Old Stone Era. In 1929, the first skull of Beijing Man was excavated, shaking the archaeological and anthropological world. In the following decades, other discoveries here were made like the stone products, mammal fossils, firing remains and so much more. Based on these findings, we know that the Peking Man discovered here are the primitive human beings between fossil anthropoid and homo sapiens dating back to 70,000 - 20,000 years ago. It’s a great place to understand the primitive lives.

Then, you will head for the Jietai Temple. Located on Ma’an Mountain, Mentougou District, Jietai Temple was built in 622 and it has the largest ordination platform in China. In Liao Dynasty, many famous monks came here to get ordained, therefore, the temple was named as Jietai Temple. Inside the temple, there are a lot of characteristic buildings like the Shanmen Hall, Hall of Heavenly King, Thousand-Buddha Pavilion, etc., making it a great place to study temple architecture. Besides, the temple is famous for pines and Huodong Pine, Zizai Pine, Jiulong Pine, Baota Pine and Wolong Pine are collectively named as Five Pines of Jietai Temple.

Have lunch at a nice Beijing local restaurant before proceeding your afternoon tour to Marco Polo Bridge. The Marco Polo Bridge was built in 1192 and it was named Guangli Bridge at that time. As the bridge is above the Lugou River, it was also called Lugou Bridge. Later, when Marco Polo came to China, he collected the information of the bridge into his book The Travel of Marco Polo. Many people also refer the bridge as Marco Polo Bridge. The whole bridge extends east-west and there are many stone balustrades and balusters arranged on the bridge. On the baluster tops are various stone lions. In both sides of the bridge, there are ornamental columns established with scriptures. Lastly, Lugou Bridge is also the place where the July 7th Incident happened.




After the tour, you will head back to hotel for rest.






    

Day 6 Temple of Heaven, Capital Museum, Panda House

After breakfast, you will leave for the Temple of Heaven first. Ringed by the lush vegetation, the Temple of Heaven was a sacred place where the ancient emperors prayed for a good harvest and offered sacrifices. The temple itself was built entirely of wood with no nails, which is a unique architectural achievement originating from China. Comprised of two parts, a rectangular foundation and a semi-circular top, the Temple represents the typical  Chinese concept of a circular heaven and rectangular ground. Nowadays, the grounds are a public park where you can see local people doing their morning exercise.

Then, you will move to Capital Museum. It’s located on the eastern side of the Tian'anmen Square with an area of almost 200,000 square meters. As the largest museum in terms of single building area and one of the museums that have the most collections of Chinese treasures, the whole museum has 48 exhibition halls, housing over 1,4 million pieces of relics. It would a great place to understand the past of China.

Have lunch at a restaurant frequented by locals.

In the afternoon, you will head for Panda House and see the cute Giant Pandas. It’s the earliest zoo in China and the one host the most diversified animal species in China. Besides the common animals either domestically or from overseas, importantly, you will see Giant Pandas. It has a special house particularly built for panda breeding program. You will have a chance see those furry bears without going to Chengdu.




Hotel drop off at the tour end.






    

Day 7 Depart Beijing

This day will be free at your own disposal. Our driver will pick you up at the appointed time and take you to the airport or train station.