Forbidden City & Mutianyu Great Wall Day Trip

Forbidden City & Mutianyu Great Wall Day Trip

Departure: Except Monday
Duration: Approx 8 hours
Pick-up point and time: Your Hotel between 7:30am – 8:00am
Finishing point and time: Your Hotel around 5:00pm – 5:30pm
Language: English

Itinerary:

Pick-up travelers from hotel on departure time between 7:30am and 8:00am, This tour starts at Tian’anmen Square, the largest square in the world. Then proceed to the Forbidden City, the largest and best-preserved ancient imperial palaces group with 500 years history in the world. Visit the Forbidden City along the central axis from south to north for 2 hours. After visiting the Forbidden City, shopping at a Jade Carving Factory for 45 minutes. The jade carving is very famous special local product, it was not only the excellent skill on carving, but also mixes many Chinese traditional cultures in the jade carving. After lunch, visiting Mutianyu Great Wall about 2 hours. Mutianyu Great Wall is known for its beautiful surroundings – dense woods and rich pastures changing colors with the seasons of a year. If you want to reach the highest point, cable car is a good choice (optional). Finally, you are returned to the downtown and will have a chance to enjoy the Chinese traditional medicine culture. Finishing the tour and transferred back to hotel around 5:30pm.

Tiananmen Square Travel Tips:

For security reason, Tiananmen Square is a fenced square circled by low iron grids with main four entrances – east, west, south and north. The square is now open to the public till midnight, but all the tourists have to pass a security check before they enter the square. So check points have been set up at all the entrances leading to the square.

The 40-minute visit allows you to have a glimpse at the outside of Memorial Hall of Chairman Mao, the Monument to the People’s Heroes, the magnificent Great Hall of the People, the National Museum of China, the ancient Zhengyang Gate and Arrow Tower as well as the Tiananmen Tower which leads to the well-known Forbidden City.

Then move on to Forbidden City (2 hours). The Forbidden City is the Chinese imperial palace from the mid-Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). 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.

People have to enter Forbidden City from its southern gate (linked to Tian’anmen Square) and exit from its northern gate, which is officially set as a one-way south to north travel route.

Forbidden City Important Tips:

Tiananmen Square Travel Tips
Forbidden City Important Notice
1. Forbidden City is closed for the entire day every Monday, except the Chinese national public holidays and the summer vacation from Jul 01 to Aug 31;
2. Forbidden City Ticketing Purchase is based on real name policy;
3. You need to Show your passport to buy your entrance tickets;
4. Free of charge for children under 1.2 meters, each required to be escorted by an adult;
5. There are some exhibits within Forbidden City that require additional tickets to access such as the Treasure Gallery and the Clock and Watch Gallery.

Price Information:
Treasure Gallery: RMB 10
Clock and Watch Gallery: RMB 10

Opening Hours:
April 1st – October 31 ( 8:30 – 17:00 )
Last Entry at 16:10
Tickets sold until 16:00

November 1st – March 31 (8:30 – 16:30)
Last Entry at 15:40
Tickets sold until 15:30

After lunch, have an excursion to Mutianyu Great Wall (hiking about 2 hours), the most 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. 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 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.

Mutianyu Great Wall Travel Tips:

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

When you get off the ferry shuttle bus going from the shuttle bus terminal near the ticketing office, you still need to walk along an accessible stone path (600 meters long) leading up first to the starting point for chairlift (or toboggan down), second to the walking path up to the Wall and last to the starting point for cable car up to the Wall respectively.

So the mostly used Cable Car Station is at the end of the 600-meter stone slope. That said, there are three ways to go up to Mutianyu Great Wall.

1) Taking chairlift to the Great Wall – to the 6th Watchtower (or where you can take a toboggan down).
2) Walking up the Great Wall along the stone steps (like a mountain hike – 30 minute hike) – to the 10th or 8th Watchtower.
3) Taking cable car up to the Great Wall – to the 14th Watchtower.

The Most Beautiful Part of Mutianyu Great Wall
The hike from Watchtower No.14 east up to Watchtower No.23 is the most scenic part of Mutianyu Great Wall. Many people would choose to take cable up to Watchtower No.14 and hike east to Watchtower No.23. Later you may retrace to Watchtower No.14 and take cable car down the wall, or continue to hike down to Watchtower No.8 where you walk down the wall; or you may continue to hike down to Watchtower No.6, where you either take chairlift down or toboggan down.

Price Information:
Cable Car: 100 yuan (single way); 140 yuan (return)
Chairlift or Slide (Toboggan): 100 yuan (single way)
Chairlift + Slide (Toboggan): 120 yuan (return)

Opening Hours:
April to October: 8:00 – 17:00
November to March: 8:30 – 16:30

Lunch: Typical Chinese lunch

Drive back to downtown Beijing and pass by the Olympic Green, having a distant view of both the National Stadium – the “bird Nest” and National Aquatics Center – the Water Cube. Then you are arranged to rewind yourself by tasting the famous Chinese tea and enjoying Chinese tea ceremony in a big Chinese tea market. After the whole day tour, you are returned to your different hotels around 5:30m.

Just a Kindly Reminder:

This group day tour is available daily all the year round. Each morning, you will be picked up from your midtown hotel, then you will go visit the major attractions together with other tourists. Groups are kept to about 10-15 passengers in an air-conditioned coach or van with a professional Beijing chauffeur and a licensed Beijing English speaking tour guide on board who will pass on their knowledge of the sites including facts, stories and local information. There are two shopping stops on the tour.

1. On the evening before your tour departure early next morning, you will get a call to your hotel room or message at your hotel front desk from your tour guide to reconfirm your next morning’s pickup time which is normally set around 7:00am.
2. Our pick-up service starts from the hotels in the southern Beijing to the hotels in the northern Beijing. If you stay in the south of Beijing, please have the patience in waiting for all the participants to be on the seat-in coach before starting your group tour.
3. If you stay in an apartment block, please find a nearest hotel as your pickup point.
4. If you stay in a hutong hotel in a narrow lane, please walk a few steps and wait for our bus parking on a main street.
5. We offer complimentary pick up service from your hotel located within the third ring road in Beijing. For pickup service for the hotels beyond the third ring road in Beijing, please contact our trip advisors for the details.
6. You will have the narratives of local history and culture by your tour guide while you are comfortably sitting on a shared air-conditioned vehicle and enjoying the views passing by.
7. All tours & transfers are all based in English Speaking local guides.

Travel Tips:

Wear casually and pay attention to the climate in Beijing.

Special Features:

Only English-speaking travelers in the coach;
Well-trained english speaking tour guide;
Keep proper quantity travelers in suitable type air-conditioned coach.

Add-ons:

If you have some free time in the evening, you are kindly advised to join some of the Beijing night shows or night tours below to supplement your daytime activity.