Mini Group Beijing City Tour

Our first stop will be the Temple of Heaven, a World Cultural Heritage built in the 15th century as a place for emperors to worship Heaven and pray for harvests. During the visit to those landmark buildings with your guide, learn more about the Chinese Heaven worship culture. For ancient dynasties, the annual Winter Solstice sacrifice to Heaven at the Temple of Heaven was regarded as the highest-level national ritual - early from the wee hours, the emperor, dressed in ceremonial attire, accompanied by solemn guards of honor, led the officials to go there. After arriving at noon, the complex ceremony was held on the Circular Mound Altar, featuring the emperor’s devout recitations and prostrations to the Heaven, as well as the rich offerings, including three animals and five grains, the country’s most precious products. Afterward, the emperor would return to the imperial palace to host a banquet for his ministers and bestow rewards. 

Now it has also become a large park for the locals; thus, besides cultural immersion, you can also observe the local people's real leisure life scenes, such as doing morning exercises, playing chess, and playing musical instruments.

► Note: 
As the main historical sites of the Temple of Heaven are closed on Mondays, the visit scheduled for these days will be replaced by the Beihai Park, which boasts both stunning scenery and cultural landscapes like the double-sided colored glazed Nine-Dragon Screen.

Next, let’s make our way to traditional Hutong Alleys, flanked by quite a few folk quadrangle dwellings, to savor the most authentic old Beijing lifestyle. To enhance your trip, we’ll arrange a special ride in a rickshaw, a three-wheeled vehicle ridden by a man in front. As you travel in the intricate lanes, you’ll notice that many old residences have red gates, which are actually important signs of the former status of the courtyard owners. As one of the exclusive colors of the ancient Chinese royal family, red could originally only be used to decorate the gates in the imperial palace and some national temples; however, as time passed, with the rewards of the emperor, some noble clans and prominent official families in the folk were also permitted to adorn their own houses with red. Also, follow your guide to step into a courtyard to get a closer look at the locals’ lives. 

► Lunch is not included. Various authentic local restaurants and snack bars can be found in the Hutong area for a simple lunch on your own. Your guide could provide you with recommendations according to your taste.

In the afternoon, let’s head to the Lama Temple, an imperial Tibetan Buddhist site. Take your time to admire the splendid architecture as your guide unveils the mysterious Tibetan religious culture. As you stroll to the innermost and iconic Pavilion of Ten Thousand Happinesses, prepare to be awed by its engineering ingenuity as well as the 26-meter-tall (85-foot) giant Buddha statue carved from a complete white sandalwood. Remarkably, this three-story pavilion was built around the statue after its completion, utilizing ancient mortise-and-tenon joinery without a single nail. Now, the temple is considered Beijing’s most popular spot to pray for peace and blessings.

The following is the Summer Palace, the best-preserved and largest-scaled imperial garden in China. When marveling at the shimmering Kunming Lake, the core landscape that occupies three-quarters of the entire Summer Palace, how could you imagine that it is actually a hydraulic engineering project? As the first artificial reservoir in Beijing, its construction, evolution, and value have embodied China’s thousands of years of water conservancy wisdom, ecological practices, and royal culture - it was used to supply water for the imperial palace, irrigate farmland, regulate water transportation, and even train water soldiers. Admire the magnificent Seventeen-Arch Bridge spanning the lake, and watch the shimmering lake and towering Longevity Hill bathed in the golden sunset glow - a perfect end to a fulfilling day.

Finally, your guide and driver will accompany you on a comfortable return to your hotel. Your small group Beijing city tour has come to a successful end. Hope you had a nice day with us! Want to see more of Beijing’s top sights? Check out our other Beijing day tours to the Forbidden City and Mutianyu Great Wall.