Itinerary

1. Beijing

   Visit:

   • Tiananmen Square, which is a large city square in the centre of Beijing, China, is named after the Tiananmen Gate (Gate of Heavenly Peace) located to its North, separating it from the Forbidden City. It has great cultural significance as it was the site of several important events in Chinese history.

   • The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. It is located in the centre of Beijing, China, and now houses the Palace Museum. For almost 500 years, it served as the home of emperors and their households, as well as the ceremonial and political centre of the Chinese government.

   • Jingshan Park, a green space in the heart of Beijing and home to one of the city’s few hills, was made from the earth dug out to make the Forbidden City’s moat. Covering about 57 acres (230,000 square meters), Jingshan Park once served as an imperial garden during the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties. It is a great place to have a bird view of the Forbidden City if the weather is clean.

   • Old Beijing Hutongs, in Beijing, hutongs are alleys formed by lines of siheyuan, traditional courtyard residences. Many neighbourhoods were formed by joining one siheyuan to another to form a hutong and then joining one hutong to another. The word hutong is also used to refer to such neighbourhoods. Since the mid-20th century, the number of them has dropped dramatically as they are demolished to make way for new roads and buildings. More recently, some hutongs have been designated as protected areas in an attempt to preserve this aspect of Chinese cultural history.

   • Acrobatics for the evening, as Acrobats & gymnasts from throughout China, perform at Theatre – breathtaking routines of flexibility involving chairs, bikes, jumping hoops, spinning plates & human strength.

2. Great Wall & Beijing

   • Visit the Mutianyu Great Wall, this is a little further from Beijing than the most popular section at Badaling, but it doesn't get as crowded. This section of the Wall is fully restored; there are handrails to help you up on the very steep parts and the views are spectacular.  

   • Then, visit the Beijing Olympic Garden, which was designed for use throughout the 2008 Summer Olympics and Paralympics. It shaped like a Bird`s Nest, hence the name Bird`s Nest.

   • Then, visit the Lama Temple, a series of beautiful pavilions comprise this Mongolian-Tibetan yellow-sect temple, which features an impressive fifty-four-foot (25m) high Buddha carved from one piece of Tibetan sandalwood.

3. Beijing

   • Temple of Heaven, built in 1420 with a total area of 270 acres, is the largest building for religious worship in China. Originally used by the Ming and Qing emperors to pay homage to heaven, the temple also heard prayers from the locals to attain a year of a rich harvest.  

   • Summer Palace, which was once a summer retreat for emperors, is a 290-acre park that is still a retreat for the crowd-weary tourist, who can relax here or stroll around ancient pavilions, mansions, temples, bridges and a huge lake, stopping occasionally at a shop or tea-house. The much-loved summer retreat of the Imperial families are the lovely landscaped gardens, halls, pavilions, and corridors are set around the lake and rivers in natural harmony.