--Met our tour guide from airport or train station and transferred to hotel by English speaking tour guide and private vehicle. Our tour guide will help you to check in hotel. Please inform us when the tour reservation made if you need us to reserve hotel room in Beijing.

--Rest of the day is your free time.

--If time permits, you may walk around your hotel area and find a nice cafe to enjoy your first night in Beijing.

--Tour guide of Chinatravelcompass.com will pick you up from hotel at 08:30 am.

--Drive to visit Tiananmen Square -the biggest city cnetral square of the world.

--Then we will visit the Forbidden City -also known as Palace Museum, whose location is at the center of Beijing. It was the imperial palace during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Rectangular in shape, Forbidden City is the world's largest palace complex. Take sightsee in this attractions for 1.5 to 2 hours along the central axis from south to north.

--Have lunch in a nice local restaurant and have a short rest.

--Then we will proceed to Beijing Hutong -ancient city alley in Beijing. Many of them were built during the Yuan (1206-1341), Ming (1368-1628) and Qing (1644-1908) dynasties surrounding the Forbidden City.

--Take rickshaw to visit Hutong including local family, Drum Tower, Houhai Lake and Bar Street.

--Move on to Temple of Heaven. Built in 1420, Temple of Heaven is situated south of Beijing city. It is the best preserved and largest sacrificial building complex in the world.

--After the sightseeing, we will visit a silk factory with a history of over one hundred years. The main items include Chinese silk, satin, cashmere, Chinese traditional clothes and silk clothing. Many famous people had visited this place, such as Finnish President, former British Prime Minister Magnet Thatcher, former US Secretary of State Madeline Albright and world-famous singer Lucia no Pavarotti... So it is worth to have a stop here to buy something as souvenir.

--Transfer to your hotel after the tour.

--English speaking tour guide and private vehicle will pick you up from hotel lobby at 08:30 am. 

--Drive 1.5 hours to Ming Tombs.On the way to the tombs, you will stop at the Birds' Nest and Water Cube and take photos from outside. There are two stops at the Ming Tombs. The first is the Changling tomb, the second is the Sacred Way.

--Located 60 Kilometers north of Beijing, Ming Tombs consist of mausoleums of 13 Ming emperors. Changling is the most famous one.The emperor was the founder of the Forbidden City and Temple of Heaven. Visit Changling for 1 hour. The Sacred Way used to be the entrance to the tombs area. There are altogether 18 pairs different stone sculptures along the whole way.

--Drive to restaurant. On the way there, we will visit a large scale jade ware processing factory. There are workshops for demonstration of Jade carving. Five interpreting rooms for us to know the processes of Chinese jade carving and Chinese jade culture. You may also take photo in the huge Jade exhibition hall and buy some jade carving souvenir as you like.

--Have a lunch in a nice restaurant.

--Drive 30 minutes to the famous Mutianyu Great Wall . Situated in Huairou County, 72 km northeast of Beijing, Mutianyu Great Wall has been preserved intact. Vegetation and fruit trees are abundant. The scenic beauty in spring and autumn is excellent. And the Mutianyu Section is not so crowded as Badaling section. Take sightseeing on Mutianyu section Great Wall for 2 hours. Cable car is arranged to get on the wall directly.

--Take sightseeing on the wall for 2 hours.

--Transfer you back to your hotel.

--Pick you up from hotel at 08:30 am by tour guide and private vehicle.

--Drive to Beijing Zoo to see Giant Panda.

--Then we will visit Lama Temple -a renowned Lama Temple of the Yellow Hat Sect of Lamaism, is the only downtown Buddhism temple in Beijing. Lama Templeis a former imperial palace in Qing dynasty.

--After lunch, proceed to visit Summer Palace -20 kilometers northwest of downtown Beijing. Summer Palace is the largest imperial garden of Ming and Qing dynasty. The whole Summer Palace covers an area of over 290 hectares including more than 3,000 buildings, such as halls, pavilions, towers, etc.

--Visit a Chinese fresh water pearl shop near Summer Palaceto do some shopping. It a nice place to buy a necklace or bracelet. It is very good gift from China.

--Taste the delicious Beijing Roast Duck for in a very famous local restaurant. Eating Peking duck is seen to be one of the two things you are absolutely supposed to do while in Beijing.

--Drive to Liyuan Theatre to watch the Peking Opera. Peking Opera is considered to be the national opera of China. The accompanying music, singing and costumes are full of Chinese cultural facts. It presents an encyclopedia of Chinese culture as well as unfolding stories, beautiful paintings, exquisite costumes and graceful gestures.

--Transfer to your hotel after the tour.

--Pick you up from hotel at 08:30 am.

--Visit Beijing Planning Exhibition Hall -this huge hall will show you not only the 3000 years history of Beijing and each different district, but also the future planning of this city including some models of Olympic Games.

--Drive to the future location of Olympic Village to have glance of the building project. Tour guide will do some introduction of the blueprint.

--Afternoon is free for you to explore the city on your own or do some final shopping.

---Our well-trained English-speaking tour guide will pick you up from the hotel at 8:30 in the morning.

---Drive to Zhoukoudian(Peking man site)-the Chinese apeman, also known as Peking Man, lived some 690,000 years ago, in mid-period of Pleistovene epoch. The first complete skull of Peking Man was discovered in December 1929.

---Have lunch at a nice local restaurant.

---Drive to the Lugou(Marco polo) bridge after touring around the Zhoukoudian(Peking man site). The great Italian traveler saw it towards the end of the year 1276 during his tours in China under the Yuan Dynasty. Lunch will be arranged at the local restaurant. Stone flower cave visit in the afternoon. It’s one of the biggest caves in China, and contains a superb collection of beautiful sights.

---Drive back to the hotel around 5:30 in the afternoon.

--Hotel pick up at 9 AM -- The famous Tanzhe and Jietai temples are located about 40kms from the city center.

-- Visit Tanzhe Temple. Tanzhe Temple's history spans 1,700 years and it is the largest complex of old temples in the Beijing suburban area. It is said that Tanzhe Temple was built even before Beijing City was founded. Originally, there were 999 and a half rooms in the Temple. Even now, after all these years, there are still 943 rooms, with 638 rooms remaining from the early years. The Forbidden City was designed and built following the style of Tanzhe Temple but on a larger scale with 9,999 and a half rooms.

--At lunch time, you may want to try the vegetarian food in the temple, a healthy alternative to the greasy food found elsewhere.

-Visit Jietai si in the afternoon. If you have any time left, you can continue your journey southeast to Shifo village, which is famous for the Buddha Stone Inscriptions and is also the only site containing stone inscriptions in the Beijing area. From Jietai Temple, we suggest you take a taxi for the 4-km ride to the village. There are 18 niches of Buddha statues on the north cliff and a grotto in the south end of the village. The statues are believed to have been created during the Ming Dynasty

--Transfer back to the hotel after the whole day tour

--Hotel pickup and then visit the 798 Art Village. It was formerly a large state-owned factories including Factory 798, which originally produced electronics and was built by the Russians in early 1959 as part of a war-reparations deal with Germany. Beginning in 2002, artists and cultural organizations began to divide, rent out, and re-make the factory spaces, gradually developing them into galleries, art centers, artists' studios, design companies, restaurants, and bars. It became a "Soho-esque" area of international character, replete with "loft living," attracting attention from all around.

--Then transfer to airport or train station for your next stop.

--Air-conditioned private car or van,
--Admission fee,
--English-speaking tour guide,
--Typical Chinese lunch,
--Hotel pickup and drop-off,
--Fuel, highway tax and parking cost.

Tips to the guide or driver
Personal expenses

1. The above tour is tailored for you exclusively. You will use private vehicle, driver and English-speaking tour guide.
2. Lunch is not refundable if you do not need it.
3. The sunshine is very strong in summer. Sunglass is helpful.
4. We will arrange a boat cruise on Kunming lake in Summer Palace from May to October. You will see a different summer palace on the boat.
5. A visit to Chinese silk shop and Jade processing factories are included. Please let us know if you are not interested in these. We will cancel the shop according to your request; but no refund will be made.
6. You will walk a long distance with our tour guide. Soft and comfortable shoes are helpful.
7. Chinatravelcompass.com lists the exact cost of each person from 1 to 10 persons. This will help you to lower cost if you have more people.
8. If you want to skip any of the scenic spots as listed in the detail itinerary, the price will be deducted accordingly.