Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City Half Day Tour

Overview

Tour Type: Exclusive Private Tour

Vehicle: Car or Van

Operates: Daily

Departs: 8:00am or 1:30pm

Returns: 12:00am 5:30pm

Duration: Approx. 4 hours

Pick-up: Your midtown Hotel

Tour Highlights

Enter the Forbidden City - the world's largest palace complex

Visit Tiananmen Square - s the biggest square in the world

View the Monument to the People's Heroes

See Mao Zedong Memorial Hall from its outside

The Great Hall of the People from its outside

National Grand Theatre from its outside

Tourist Attraction Description

Forbidden City - Lying to the north of Tiananmen Square and rectangular in shape, Forbidden City ( also known officially as the Imperial Palace Museum ) is the world's largest palace complex and covers 74 hectares. The palace was built between 1406 and 1420, but was burnt down, rebuilt, sacked and renovated countless times, so most of the architecture you can see today dates from the 1700's and on wards. The Forbidden City was the seat of Imperial power for 500 years, and is now a major tourist attraction in China.

Tiananmen Square - Tiananmen Square is the heart and symbol of Beijing and is the biggest square in the world, occupying an area of 440,000 square meters (about 109 acres), and able to accommodate 10,000,00 people at one time. Located in the downtown Beijing.

The Monument to the People's Heroes - There are Monument to the People's Heroes and Chairman Mao's Mausoleum on the south of Tiananmen Square. The Moument is composed of 413 granites and monument base is paved of 17.000 granites and white marbles. There are eight white marble sculptures on the monument seat: including a series of importanti history events, Such as Opium burning in Humen, Jintian Uprising. Wuchang Uprising. The May 4th Movement of 1919. the May 30th Movement of 1925, Nanchang Upring. War against Japan and Successful Crossing of the Changjiang River.

The Great Hall of the People - On the west of Tiananmen Square it is the Great Hall of the People, the meeting place of national people's congress of the People's Republic of China . The Great Hall with huge and complicated engineering was built within ten months in 1950's, possessing central hall, great hall, banqueting hall with 7000 square meters, office building of people congress standing committee and hall named with all provinces and autonomous region.

Mao Zedong Memorial Hall - Chairman Mao's Mausoleum started to construct in November 1976 and completed in May 1977. The area is 2000 square meters and it is composed of north hall ( the place holding memorial activity), viewing hall (crystal hall special for Chairman Mao relique) and south hall. In addition, there are Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Liu Shaoqi and Zhu De revolution achievement memorial rooms.

The China National Museum - Flanking the eastern side of Tiananmen Square, The mission of the museum is to educate about the arts and history of China. It is directed by the Ministry of Culture of the People's Republic of China. The museum is closed for renovations until 2010, when it will reopen with more than double the space, 192,000 square meters, and state of the art exhibition facilities and storage.

National Center for Performing Arts - The egg-shaped theatre is designed by the French architect Paul Andreu, the designer of the terminal of the Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. The National Grand Theatre. The new National Theater is composed of the three halls nestled inside the egg. The 2.68-billion-yuan (US$328 million) theatre holds 6,000 people. With its modernity, it is in the strong contrast to the Stalinist-style building of the Great Hall of the People and the golden eaves of the Forbidden City.