Beijing 5 Day Tour for Experienced Travelers

Picked from your downtown hotel in Beijing at 8:00am by our English speaking experienced great wall tour guide and have 2.5-hour drive to the starting point at Jiankou Great Wall. We will start to hike eastward around 10:30 from the unrestored Jiankou Great Wall to the restored Mutianyu Great Wall.

For the first hour, we will clamber up the mountain and get to the wall atop the mountain ridge. Starting from Zhengbeilou Tower, then walk eastward ups and downs on the rugged wall along the mountain ridges past the wild and crumbling towers at Jiankou, and reach the restored and magnificent Mutianyu Great Wall. The hike takes about 4-5 hours for 8km trekking.

Lunch will be arranged at Xinshuangquan Restaurant which serves traditional Chinese food.

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.

Then 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 walk along Chenxian Street - the east-west roadway, starting about 700 years ago with its structures built in line with ancient Chinese customs, once one of the China's most important humanist centers - the Confucius Temple and Guozijian (Imperial College).

On the street, you will visit "Rongbu Tang " with a century old craftsmanship at its boutique store on Chengxinjie Street. The title of Rongbu Tang is given to a famous craftman - Tang Qiliang, a well-known elder craftsman in making toys with downy materials including wool and cotton (rongbu).

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 15-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

Picked up from your hotel in downtown Beijing around 8:00am, then escorted by our tour guide, drive along Jingping Expressway to the Pinggu District in the east of Beijing.

First visit Stone Forest Gorge. The stone forest valley is 6 kilometers long with its main peak looking like trees put together, hence the name stone forest for the scenic area. The stone forest gorge area has dense plantations and fresh air, a good place to walk close to the greatness of the nature.

Then move on to the world's largest glass sightseeing platform. 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.

The transparent sightseeing platform allows you to have a terrific view of the valleys and mountains below.

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

Then head to the Diaowo Village. The village has 54 households with over 100 villagers. Today you will meet Mrs Li and her husband Mr. Hao in their courtyard home. 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.

Now she eats the vegetables she plants in her front yard and the Geese & Chickens in her back yard, enjoying an organic living and healthy life.

You will have a home lunch made by Lady Li , chatting on their life and getting a good feel of it people of China.

After lunch, drive along deep valley called Flying Dragon Valley. The ravine is well known for its deep valley, original sandstones, thick forest, beautiful waters and mysterious caves. This north-south canyon is a 8 km-long, 20m wide and 7m wide at the narrowest.

Then drive up along the mountain roads with hairpin turns and cross over the mountain to get to Bolitai Village (120km east of Beijing city proper). Bolitai Village is nestled on an flat valley surrounded by the high mountains and dense forest with a zigzag mountain highway passing from north to south, linking the village to the outside world. It is a beautiful village. There are 230 villagers living in Bolitai.

The Bolitai Great Wall here is made of rocks and stones, not bricks made in kilns. Only one section of the wall in Village has been cleared and cleaned, bushes and saplings removed from the wall and you will have one and half hour hike on the Wall.

Back to your hotel in Beijing around 6:00 PM

Stroll around the three ancient village - Shuangshitou village, Cuandixia Village and Yanhecheng Village. Shuangshitou Village: Shuangshitou Village ( or Double Stone Village ) is located in the valley sandwiched by the east hillside and the west hillside, 5km north of Zhaitang Town in Mentougou District Beijing.

Overlooking from the hillsides, the over 500-year old ancient village looks like a phoenix extending its wings. Stone culture is found everywhere in the village – stone mills, stone mortars, stone walls and stone houses built on the stones.

Cuandixia Village:Candixia Village is located between Shuangshitou Village and Baiyu Village under the jurisdiction of Zhaitang Town in Mentougou Beijing. Lying about 90km west of Beijing, Cuandinxia Village is an ancient village of over 400 years built in Ming and Qing Dynsties with an area of 5.3 square km.

There are about 74 coutyards with 689 rooms, most of which were built in late Qing Dynasties. Many of the local villagers, especially the young people have left the village for the development in the big cities. But there are still approxi. 29 households with 93 people living in the village.

Yanhecheng Village:"Yanhecheng" literally means "a riverside city". It used to be a fortress built in 1578 during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), as part of the Great Wall in Ming Dynasty, a stronghold between Beijing and the northern frontier. The fortress was built by the Yongding River, hence the name of Yanhecheng.

The fortress and the river are nestled in the valley sandwiched by Huangchao Ridge and Qingshuijian Mountain. The old fortress, the ancient village, the river and the Ming Great Wall constitute a poetic picture of primitive simplicity.

Back to your hotel in Beijing around 6:00 PM

Walking Tips:

1. Make sure you know what the local weather conditions

2. Good shoes are an essential when hiking

3. Taking plenty of water so you don't get dehydrated is an essential

4. Wear a head and arm coverings in sunny or high altitude areas, and use sunblock

5. The first rule with interacting with the environment is: Leave it as you found it

6. Respect the local custom in the villages around Beijing

7. Make sure you have appropriate rain gear

8. Leave a change of clothes in your car.

9. Carry a spare handkerchief to dip in cool streams and spread over your neck, forehead, etc.