4-Day Beijing & Great Wall of China Tour - China

When you arrive in Beijing, you’ll greeted at the airport and transferred to your hotel. You’ll stay in a modern courtyard hotel down a traditional hutong alleyway in a historic Chinese suburb. These tiny streets are lined with lanterns and packed with character, so you can unpack and soak up the atmosphere around the hotel.

Today, you’ll set off with a private guide to explore Beijing. First, you’ll visit the Lama Temple of Tibetan Lama Buddhism, a sacred space filled with curling incense smoke and the scent of sandalwood. After this, you’ll head for the Temple of Heavenly Peace, set within a city park packed with pine trees before taking a break for lunch near Tian’anmen Square.

After a bite to eat, you’ll visit Tian’anmen itself. With a name meaning Gate of Heavenly Peace, it’s the largest urban square in the world, bordered by parliament buildings and the mausoleum of Mao Zhedong. The last stop is the The Forbidden City, the secluded home of China’s emperors for many centuries. Almost like stepping into a living museum, it’s really quite something to behold.

If you’d like to explore Beijing in the early morning by bicycle instead then you can add this half day trip to your holiday plans.  You’ll start at the Drum and Bell towers and cycle through the Hutong’s narrow lanes and across the city in the designated cycle lanes. You’ll get to see a lot more of the old hutongs this way as well as many of the city’s museums and famous landmarks.

You’ll be collected from your hotel early this morning for your drive to Jinshanling, a quieter part of the Great Wall of China. Here, without the large tourist throngs, you’ll follow the undulating path for about 8km, soaking up the magnificent scenery as you walk. It’s the ultimate China experience and something that is likely to stick with you forever.

If this is a little more than you can handle, you can try our Mutianyu trip instead. On this section of the Great Wall, you can take a cable car up to the very top and scoot down on a toboggan. As well as the Wall, you’ll visit the Olympic Park, known as Bird’s Nest stadium and the Ming Dynasty tombs.

This morning, you’ll check out of the hotel and explore Beijing on your own until your flight or train departs. The Metro system is a great way to zip around the city and there are beautiful hutong neighbourhoods to explore. Alternatively, take a trip to the Emperor’s Summer Palace, set on the banks of a glassy lake with stone bridges and weeping willows.