Mutianyu Great Wall Tour and Ming Tombs Tour - Beijing Day Tours

Pick up at your hotel around 8:00am. First head to the Underground Palace (1.5 hours) ( Dingling, one of the 13 Ming Dynasty Tombs complex ) . From the Yongle Emperor onwards, 13 Ming Dynasty Emperors were buried in this area. You will visit Dingling, the tomb of the Wanli Emperor, which is the only one of the Ming Dynasty Tombs which has been excavated.

For many visitors, the visit to Ming Tombs is not as important as the visit to Forbidden City, Summer Palace and the Great Wall of China. But generally it is quite worth having a glimpse on a combined journey to or back from the Great Wall since the location of Ming Tombs is quite accessible on the way to the bits of the Great Wall of China – Juyongguan, Badaling and Mutianyu.

Of course, their accessibility is not the only reason for being worth visiting. Listed as UNESCO world cultural heritage, Ming Tombs provide people a kind of real experience. They tell why this complex is a popular place for native Chinese, especially those who are attracted by history.

1. Of all the 13 imperial tombs in Ming Dynasty ( 1368 - 1644 ), only three are open to the public: Changling, Dingling and Zhaoling ("ling" literally means "Tomb" in Chinese).

2. Only Dingling has been excavated. Any you will be arranged to visit Dingling ( also known as Underground Palace ).

3. Dingling is not wheelchair-user friendly. You will first have a long walk from the Dingling Entrance before you get to the Tomb itself, where you walk down 8 flights of stairs. The walk to the tomb can be hard and long during high season, but normally takes about 15 minutes.

4. If you are wheelchair users or have some difficulty in walking, just forget Dingling, and choose Changling instead. Changling is the largest tomb of all the 13 Ming Tombs. Changling is the tomb where buried the Third Emperor Zhu Di with his queen Nee Xu. Changling is not excavated. But its grand hall on the ground is worth visiting. The construction of the hall started in 1409 and finished in 1427.

5. As for Zhaoling, you can simply skip it since it is often full of hordes of Chinese tourists.

Ming Tombs Opening Hours:

Changling Tomb: 08:30 – 17:30

Dingling Tomb: 08:30 – 18:00

Zhaoling Tomb 8:30 – 17:30

Tickets stop selling about half a hours before the tombs are closed.

After lunch, head to Mutianyu Great Wall, which takes about one hour. Mutianyu Great Wall (2 hours) is known for its beautiful surroundings - dense woods and rich pastures changing colors with the seasons of the year. Mutianyu Great Wall once worked as the northern barrier defending the capital and the imperial tombs. It is a green section of the great wall in Beijing with vegetation, green pines and cypresses covering 90 per cent of the section.

There are 23 watchtowers on the Mutianyu Great Wall snaking the ridge for about 3000 meters. The watch towers at the Mutianyu Great Wall are distributed at short intervals. The 23 watch towers are numbered from right (east) to left (west). The 23rd tower is highest point of the Mutianyu Great Wall.

After the day tour, return to your hotel in Beijing.

Lunch: Chinese lunch