Beijing 3 Day Tour with Local Family Visit

Picked by our tour guide at your hotel in Beijing early in the morning around 8:00 am. Then head to Diaowo Village. The village has 54 households with over 100 villagers. First come world's largest Glass Sightseeing Platform near Diaowo Village. It is hung out from the cliff on the highest peak inside Stone Forest Gorge (Shilinxia Scenic Area), 11 meters longer than the Grand Canyon Skywalk inside the Grand Canyon National Park in the United States.

You will be arranged to take the cable up to the transparent sightseeing platform and take cable down afterwards.

Then you will meet Mrs Li and her husband Mr. Hao in their courtyard home. Now they eat the vegetables they plant in their front yard and the Geese & Chickens in their back yard, enjoying an organic living and healthy life.

A few years ago Mrs. Li retired and left the busy downtown Beijing and relocated to her husband birth place for spending the retirement life. You will have a home lunch made by Lady Li , chatting on their life and getting a good feel of its people of China.

After lunch, drive to Mutianyue Great Wall (hiking about 2 hours), a beautiful section of the all 5 major sections of the Great Wall around Beijing, less crowded than Badaling Great Wall with picturesque views. Mutianyu Great Wall once worked as the northern barrier defending the capital and the imperial tombs.

There are three ways to get onto the Wall when you get to the base of Mutianyu Great Wall. Apart from hiking up on foot (half hour), you can choose take cable car or chair lift (Optional ). To get down the wall, you can also take Toboggan slide down ( Optional ).

Then return to the downtown Beijing and drop at the Olympic Green to have an outside look at the Bird's Nest and Water Cube. The bird nest stadium hosted the main track and field Football, and final competitions for the 2008 Summer Olympics, as well as the opening and closing ceremonies. The Water Cube has a total floor space of 50,000 square meters with a seating capacity of 17,000. It is dubbed "cube" because of its semi-transparent "bubbles" spread out all over its surface with a shape very similar to the structure of "H2O".

Back to your hotel in Beijing around 6:00 PM

After breakfast, first visit the Temple of Heaven (2 hours sightseeing), the place where the emperors of Ming and Qing Dynasties worshiped heaven and prayed for peace and harvest. It is located in the southern part of Beijing, and had been one of the most holy places for the whole country for more than five centuries.

After breakfast, head to Tiananmen Square ( 40 minutes sightseeing ), the largest public square in the world. Located in the heart of Beijing City, it is the site for massive parades and rallies, which is the largest square of this kind in the world. This was the site when in 1949, from a rostrum on Tiananmen (the Gate of Heavenly Peace), Chairman Mao proclaimed the establishment of the People's Republic of China.

Move on to Forbidden City ( 2 hours visit ), the Chinese imperial palace from the mid-Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. For almost 500 years, it served as the seat- bed of the Emperors in Ming and Qing Dynasties as well as the ceremonial and political centre of Chinese government.

Lunch will be arranged at one of our designated quality Chinese restaurants which offer traditional Chinese food.

After lunch, continue to visit Summer Palace (2 hours sightseeing), originally a royal garden and a temporary dwelling palace for emperors of Qing Dynasty. Its predecessor was the Garden of Clear Ripples (Qingyiyuan) started in 1750 and burned down by the British and French allied troops in 1860.

Back to your hotel in Beijing around 6:00 PM

Picked up from your hotel in Beijing around 8:00 and first visit Lama Temple also called the Yonghe Lamasery, or Yonghegong. It is the most handsome and impressive Buddhist temple in the city. Lama Temple was built in the 33 Qing Kangxi year (1694) and it is now the largest and best-preserved Lamasery of YellowSect in Beijing.

Then head to Shichahai Area for lunch. You are arranged to have home made lunch in a private and traditional local family.

After lunch, continue to visit Drum Tower, Ascending the 67-meter high and two-story Drum Tower dating from 1420 is sure to bring you back to the old Beijing by seeing the big drum tower and having bird's-eye view of the surrounding communities of hutongs and siheyuan - existing traditional courtyards in Beijing.

Then walking along the Yanda Xiejie (Yandai Byway), a quaint 800-year-old hutong located directly north of Yinding Bridge between Qianhai and Houhai and the south of the Drum Tower, used to be well-known for sellers of long-stemmed pipes, hence the name.

Continue to walk across the Silver Ingot Bridge ( Yinding Bridge ), a narrow channel joining Qianhai Lake and the Houhai Lake, the hub of Shichhai area with surrounding quiet hutongs. At Yinding Bridge, you will take a 30-minute pedicab drive through the zigzag and narrow alleys or hutongs. Two people share one rickshaw. You are not supposed to tip the pedicab driver since the tour cost includes the tip.

Arriving at an old courtyard and begin the one hour visit inside, with the help of your English speaking tour guide of the courtyard, you will have a detailed explanation of the old courtyard ( Siheyuan ) - its history, its layout, its Fengshui, and its traditional Chinese culture involved.

At the end of the tour, you returned to your hotel in Beijing