Beijing Classic Full-Day Tour including the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, Summer Palace and Temp

Beijing, China

See all the classic Beijing sights on a full-day sightseeing tour covering Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace and Temple of Heaven. Along the way, your busy day includes relaxing scenic bus ride, Chinese style lunch, plus an unbeatable shopping experience at the Pearl Market.

Your full-day tour starts at Tiananmen Square to explore China's more recent history, influenced by Chairman Mao and the rise of communism. From there it's on to the Forbidden City, built by Emperor Yong Le during the Ming Dynasty, and the seat of power for centuries. It has seen countless battles and reconstruction, and the architecture seen today dates from the 1700s. The Forbidden City is also known as the Imperial Palace Museum, with the history of every dynasty represented in four palatial halls.

After a delicious lunch, it's on to the Temple of Heaven, China's largest temple and altar complex. This extraordinary example of religious architecture dates back to the Ming and Qing dynasties.

Your final destination is the Summer Palace, the retreat of emperors for 800 years. One of Beijing's finest parks surrounds the palace, and you'll be able to explore the grounds, temples and the world's longest art gallery.

USD $83.00

Review by:   Smedes L,    June 2018
Obviously, the sites we visited were amazing, however a few notes of caution. We had three shopping stops which, in our opinion, took time away from seeing the historical sites. We could have done without so much time at the Silk and Oyster shops, and more time seeing the Summer Palace. Our guide, Cherry, was okay, but we've had better English speaking guides on this trip. Overall, you must see these very important sites while in Beijing.

Review by:   Sunil D,    May 2018
Great tour, specially when you have a short stay in the city

Review by:   GP Tours,    May 2018
Cheryl was my guide for this tour. She was engaging and knowledgeable. She was also great at keeping her group together and getting us ahead when possible. Having gone to the Fobidden city, the day prior, I initially thought I wouldnt want to see it again but Cheryl used the side walkways and corridors to show us the site. This made for better pictures and less interruption. She also gave great advise on how to improve your photos..She always offered to take photos of you at the various sites. Cheryl kept a tight schedule and even when I had a mishap at the Temple of Heaven I was unable to regain entry to the courtyard all hampered by the language barrier she made sure that I was comfortable.. At the Summer palace we opted to utilize the boats at an additional cost and that was a great addition. _br/_ It was a lovely day which culminated with shopping for pearls and silk. A lovely day with a great guide

Review by:   Michael M,    May 2018
perfect

Review by:   chocolatelinda3,    April 2018
Not recommended. The tour stopped at two sales stops, which were not on the agenda we signed up for. Because of the significant time spent at these stops, we were rushed through the stops we did pay for. The additional stops were silk museum, and traditional medicine, which was incredibly high pressured to buy hundreds of dollars worth. So high pressured, it was very uncomfortable. It was around 90 minutes for these sales stops, plus any additional driving time to get there. Leaving us only 1 hour at the Summer Palace, which we were left by ourselves to walk around. Look into other tours groups, and ask before booking how much time is spent on extra stops.

Review by:   Crystal B,    April 2018
It was a beautiful clear day. I was lucky and there was only three other people on my tour. It was nice to have a small group because it felt more personalized. We went to four locations plus a silk shop and pearl shop. With so many places to go I would have suggested we skipped both of the shops and spent more time on the historic spots. Maria was our guide and she was awesome. Very attentive and informative.

Review by:   ROTEM S,    March 2018
Beautiful attractions and a way to see a lot within a short time. Too much time spent in pressure shopping in partner shops. More time should be spent in the attractions. We had a knowledgeable and funny guide - Jackie, though sometimes we were not sure if he is laughing with us or at us. Biggest disppointment was that our return bus was merged with a different group, which made the trip longer for us but shorter for the guide. The excuse was that the bus needs fixing, but the same bus and driver arrived the day later for the next tour with no problems. It was an obvious lie, they just wanted to go home quickly and didn't feel like going through traffic to drop us off.

Review by:   William B,    March 2018
okay tour, saw everything I wanted to see, but felt very rushed. wanted to spend more time in areas, but was told we didn't have enough time, but we had time to go shopping?? we felt like we should have spent more time at the temples we paid to see not going shopping. that was a huge let down..

Review by:   Excursions,    March 2018
Amidst all the pollution and political overtones, the tour was actually quite fascinating. Tiananmen Square was cordoned off due to a passing of a presidential constituion, but we can see it from the Forbidden City. Alice, our tour operator was wonderful and very knowledgeable and spoke English well. it was a full day of walking thru the Square, Forbidden City and Temple of Heaven. We also had a nice lunch in town before heading to the Summer Palace. We were also treated with a complementary foot massage at the Chinese Medical Center just leave a tip. We also did a side trip to the Silk factory, where we were shown where silk came from and you may choose from a variety of silk merchandise for sale. All in all, it was a great tour and is highly recommended.

Review by:   bkilmarx,    March 2018
This was one of the worst tours I have ever gone on. We were rushed through the sites, had countless photos of ourselves taken when they were not wanted, and wasted an enormous amount of time at a silk shop, a pearl shop, and a traditional medicine shop where they wanted me to spend 225 on traditional medicines. And, the tour guide kept patting on the back and letting me know how old I am. Do any tour but this one.

Review by:   Shannon J. H,    March 2018
The square was closed due to parliament reelection but otherwise good tour. The only think the 2 selling tours where bad. Good driver

Review by:   Lili,    February 2018
Tour guide was very good and knowledgeable. Made the experience very worthwhile. Felt that we were going back in time and experiencing life in the Forbidden City. Well done! Ask why the lions at the entrance of the Emperors Palace have floppy ears pointing down?

Review by:   elgingreen,    February 2018
William, our guide was excellent. Good English. Knowledgeable. Genuine. _br/_ Because of a cancellation, we were the only two on the tour, which made it special and very personable. _br/_ HOWEVER, there were two problems:_br/_ 1. The first stop was supposedly Tirn’enmen Square, but we didn’t actually go on the Square. We saw it from across the street! It should NOT have been listed on the itinerary. (I went back on my own later. It was quick and easy. It should have been done as advertised.)_br/_ 2. Two undisclosed high pressure ”shopping” stops. They were pitched as educational. The first was “We’re going to show you how they produce all the wonderful silk and silk products that China is known for. It was three minutes of silk worms and the process, then 20 mins of how to buy our silk products in our showroom. The second was pitched as “learn about traditional Chinese Medicine”. The “Doctor” gave a 30-second exam consisting of taking my pulse and looking at my palm, declaring that their expensive natural meds would cure ailments that I didn’t even have. While the “exam” was going on we were treated to a foot soak and foot massage. But when it was finished, they each wanted a tip. I said NO. It was totally a scam and I complained to William. He also seemed truly surprised by this new foot massage-for-a-tip thing and told the masseurs to get lost. He apologized to us. _br/_ Our guide was great, but seemed to be constrained by the company to include the (non)optional stops.

Review by:   Kevin D,    January 2018
Was part of a small group of 4. Our tour guide was spoke good english and was very informative. She even happily took photos of us so we didn't have to rely on selfies the entire time. Unfortunately, when we were at the Forbidden City there was a foreign political visitor that basically shutdown the city for a private tour...as a result our tour of the place was cut short due to limited access.

Review by:   Ann G,    January 2018
Cynthia was a well informed and really helpful guide. She took lots of photos of us and was great at explaining things.

Review by:   Jason Edward L,    January 2018
Surprise Visits to Tourist Traps and Hidden Expenses

Review by:   Douglas G,    January 2018
Michael was our tour guide for the day, a nice young man who spoke good English. There were only four others on the tour which made it nice. The van left something to behold standard shift in very heavy traffic so constant stopping and shifting but not bad. _br/_ On the way to our first stop we had plenty of time due to heavy traffic never ending so it took a while to get to Tienanmen Square, our first stop. But there was no overall commentary about Beijing itself, its history, current facts or layout. No commentary until we got to Tienanmen Square followed by the Forbidden City. Some background on Beijing would have been nice. Once there Michael was very knowledgeable and especially in the Forbidden City where he stopped at several spots and made comments. _br/_ Unfortunately as walked to the van to drive to the next stop my wife tripped trying to get out of the way of a scooter, fell and broke her arm so we had to leave the tour. Long story short it was a real challenge figuring out where to go and how to get help. Although we didn't expect the guide to stop the tour we thought he could have been much more helpful in where a hospital was etc. We ended up taking a cab to the hotel and then got help as to what to do..

Review by:   rosaleen a,    December 2017
This is a good trip, though be prepared for a lot of walking._br/_ Our main issue was with the visits to local businesses selling e.g silk, tea and pearls. Beware of extortionate prices around 400 higher on two items we bought elsewhere and the tour guide trying to us sell as they get commission._br/_ We felt like targets to be ripped off rather than paying guests to be respected.

Review by:   Veronica K,    December 2017
I took this trip with my 7yo son. He's not into lengthy explanations or history at the moment, so this whirlwind tour was great. Just the right amount of exposure to each site. If you want to spend more time at each of these fascinating locations, it would be better not to pack all 4 sites into one day. We also had a great guide, Gale. She was very knowledgeable and was able to provide answers to all our questions. We also had a nice driver, Mr An.

Review by:   Alex Joseph F,    December 2017
We had a great experience. The other people who were supposed to be with us cancelled so it was basically a private tour. Our guide was very informative and spoke great English. Very convenient with hotel pick-up and drop-off, avoid all lines and makes the entire experience awesome and easy. Highly recommend and great value!

Review by:   Joyce A,    December 2017
Overall, great visits to the various tourist spots. However, for the visit to the Temple of Heaven, it was only to The Hall of Prayer of Good Harvests. However, note that ticket didn't include visits to the imperial vault of heaven and the circular mount altar. Had to make a second and separate visit to the other two. Would be helpful if the guide had notified us beforehand or state in the bookings that there are the other two monuments in the garden.

Review by:   NADIA R P,    December 2017
Alright tour

Review by:   SUPerb.JingBang,    December 2017
The tour was supposed to be very interesting, unfortunately we had really bad experience with tour. Our day started beautifully, we were picked in time , completed Tiananmen Square. Thereafter Summer Palace was drag story repeated over and over by tour guide . Lunch was one of the worst experiences. We had from beginning informed the tour company about our Vegetarian requirements. However, we were separated out from rest of our group and given a small table near the washroom. Rest of them were accommodated on a lavish round table in a private party room. The tour operator hadn't made proper arrangements for whole group and felt discrimination as we were horribly treated. This spoilt our mood and rest of the trip wasn't enjoyable. Honestly, tour operator should advise tour guide to provide sensible commentary and make proper arrangement for Lunch.

Review by:   Sen W,    November 2017
Don't forget to bring your passport! Covered a lot within a small group. Usual souvenir stops and western style Chinese food.

Review by:   Jayne W,    November 2017
Thank you, thank you, thank you, William! We had a fabulous day with our guide and driver more like a personal chauffeur, and we covered the main parts of Beijing with a few additions thrown in along the way. William's English is superb and he described the history of the sites and the wider China with such eloquence that it helped us to understand the people and the country, setting up the rest of our trip perfectly. Beijing is a truly amazing city but it's jewels were brought to life by William. By the end of the day we felt as though we'd made a true friend in William and a life-long admiration for Beijing. If there were six stars, we'd still give it top marks! Thank you William.

Review by:   Lady in Pink,    November 2017
Well worth seeing for the price. We were fortunate enough to have William as a guide who maneuvered us through thousands of Chinese who were paying their respects to Chairman Mao's mausoleum. It would be nice to see as many US Americans visit their historical sights and better understand where the came from and where we are today. William was informative, patient and answered all our questions. There were only 7 passengers, the driver and our guide on a minibus, so it was comfortable and we could spend one on one time with the guide. The driver was amazing as he managed our way thru the humungous traffic jams in Beijing. Would high recommend this tour.

Review by:   Scott C,    November 2017
This day trip was exactly as I expected and as advertised. Our guide Jacky was informative and comical making the event even more fun.

Review by:   RENE C,    November 2017
It was really good, the tour guide did a great job!

Review by:   Jade O,    October 2017
I did this tour at the beginning of September. Our guide, Jacky, first took us for a stroll through the Forbidden City. He told us all about the city, but it was hard to keep up. He also didn't really stop for us to take pictures. However, he took us on the side of the city, where there weren't any other people which was nice. After the Forbidden City, we went to the Temple of Heaven and a cotton shop. We didn't stay long at the Temple of Heaven, which was fine as it's fairly small. The tea tasting afterwards was great, and I went home with a few different kinds. We spent longer than I would have liked at the cotton store, and a few of us were uncomfortable with the fact that we felt obligated to buy something. Lunch was great we went to a local spot where they brought out several dishes even vegetarian options. We then went to a pearl store, again, feeling obligated to buy something. Lastly, we went to the Summer Palace. This place is huge and there are so many amazing things we could have seen. Yet, we didn't see any. This part of the tour was rushed and we only walked alongside the water for about 25 minutes, and were told we could quickly walk to the bridge before getting back on the bus. The actual buildings looked amazing, but we didn't even have the opportunity to check them out. I will definitely have to go back here it could have easily been one of my favourite places in Beijing but was ignored on this tour.

Review by:   Mason B,    October 2017
The guide spoke very good English and was able to answer a variety of questions about historical Chinese sites and modern culture. The tour was non-stop for the entire day, going from big sight to sight. I enjoyed the fast-pace but can understand why some may enjoy a slower pace. If so I recommend doing a tour with a shorter itinerary. There was a lot of walking but by no means an excessive/unreasonable amount. I thoroughly enjoyed the tour and the privacy it offered it was only me and one other guest which made it a very personal experience. Be careful though as a couple stops on the tour Silk factory, Tea House, and Pearl Market are somewhat 'built' to extract money out of you. As in, the informative portions of these stops were relatively short in comparison to the amount of time given to shop. However, it's very easy to simply decline to buy anything.

Review by:   Avril M,    October 2017
Everything about the visit was excellent. From the contact with the tour guide to confirm pick up location and time to the delivery back at our hotel was a very good experience._br/_ William, our guide for the day was very knowledgeable about the history and traditions of the Palaces that we visited and Tiananmen Square. He gave us information about an area then gave us time to take our photos before moving onto the next section. The amount of time in each area was about right, we didn't feel rushed or wish we were moving along at a faster pace. The buffet style lunch at a local restaurant was very nice and timed to perfection as a large coach party arrived 15 minutes after us. _br/_ We were in a small group of 4 which made the trip more manageable than walking in a large group. Security was heightened at Tiananmen Square as the Congress was meeting but William knew this and made sure we had our passports with us for inspection before entering the Square.

Review by:   Martin S,    October 2017
Great tour to see all the palaces that Beijing has to offer. Our tour guide, Jackie was a fantastic guide that spoke succinct English. It was a great lunch meal. I would not recommend taking the boat to the summer palace as it costs extra and was not worth the ride.

Review by:   Lia S,    October 2017
Great day.

Review by:   polskalaska,    October 2017
This tour was exactly how others said - Horrible._br/_ - Ticket says pick up from Hotel. I was told night before 7pm that I need to go to a hotel 20 mins away for pick up.

Review by:   julian,    October 2017
Rushed tour, except when we were taken to shopping stores. Additional undisclosed charges in-site. Between the attractions, we were taken to a Silk store in the morning, and a Pearl store in the afternoon, where the sale representatives explained us silk/pearl production and showed us around warehouses with different products for sale. The total time spent in these facilities was almost 3 hours combined, whilst we had to rush from attraction to attraction in the main tour if we wanted to see everything on time. When we arrived to the Summer Palace, a beautiful lake with palaces around it, we were asked for cash by the guide, around 20 USD in the local currency as fare to board the boat that would take us into and around the Summer Palace. When several members of the group refused to pay arguing that the tour description said every entrance fee was waived, the guide explained that we could walk to the site instead of taking the boat, which would take around 1 extra hour. So naturally we all paid. The guide was very knowledgeable and nice throughout the day. Lunch was ok.

Review by:   Simone R,    October 2017
It was great to see all these sites in 1 day, however the trip also included a stop at a silk factory, pearl factory AND a tea ceremony. At the Summer Palace, you had to pay an extra 140 yuan for a boat. I didn't pay and had to wait around for 30 mins- then we just left. Meal request not considered.

Review by:   linabelle_bella,    October 2017
Excellent experience with William! Great memories! I went to Beijing for work and had the day off. I planned this tour to kill time and it ended up being an experience of a lifetime. From the beautiful sites to the delicious meal, it is an A+ experience.

Review by:   John C,    September 2017
This tour was a bit more rushed than I liked. Though it is understandable that we had much to see, it seemed that we did not really get much out of it. We only stayed in Tiananman Square, for about five minutes before going to the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City was ridiculously crowded and it was more like being herded through the palace on a set path. We were not allowed to deviate from the flow, nor go off on our own. On the day we went, there was a surprise VIP visiting the palace, so all the interior rooms were closed to the public. We were taken to a silk market and, not surprisingly, we were not rushed through there. It seemed like we were given plenty of time to look around and buy something. We were then taken to lunch, which wasn't bad at all, however, only the first tea and first drink are included and they are very small drinks. After lunch, we were taken to the Temple of Heaven which was better than the Forbidden City, as there were less crowds. After the Temple, we were taken to a fresh water pearl market and, again, we were not rushed through that portion of the tour. We took a boat ride to the summer palace and we were disappointed to learn that this was not included in the tour price but an additional charge. Once at the summer palace grounds, we took another boat to the other side of the lake, and though the grounds were beautiful, we were again disappointed to learn that, due to it not being the high season, the inside of the palace was closed.

Review by:   Justin M,    September 2017
Our guide was great and I'm glad I had the chance to see all these things, however it all started to blend together after a while and became boring. The food stop wasn't great.

Review by:   Lucio G,    September 2017
This tour was amazing!

Review by:   Bryan K,    September 2017
I really enjoyed this tour! It gave me a survey course in the sights of Beijing with very efficient use of time. I'll use this experience to do solo deep dives on Beijing sites in the future. The tour guide gave excellent cliff notes on the history associated with the sights. The tour was speedy and gave quick entry that I'd not have had If I went solo, however I did not feel rushed. The driver was great, I felt very safe. The guide Jackie L. was very friendly and very educational. As a solo traveler I really enjoyed spending the day with an international group of like minded, friendly visitors, a great ice-breaker for people to meet and visit. It was fantastic to here everyone's perspective on both the history of China and on current work events. If you are on the edge of this decision--just do it!

Review by:   S J,    August 2017
This tour was amazing!

Review by:   Rosemary G,    August 2017
I had a great day. Alice my tour guide was excellent with good english and very informative about each of the places we went to. I was in Beijing for only a short time so it was great to be able to see so much in one day.

Review by:   Julie C,    July 2017
We were super lucky and had a small group of 4 that day and had an outstanding tour guide, Alice. Alice was a wealth of information and since the weather was hot, it was a nice fast pace through each stop with just the right amount of information for each location. My husband and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Review by:   Jimmy K,    July 2017
AVOID AT ALL COSTS! WORST TOUR EVER! Would provide 0 stars if they let me.

Review by:   David F,    July 2017
Totally amazing tour and a great way to see the sights of China

Review by:   Brenda L,    July 2017
This tour was amazing!

Review by:   James S,    May 2017
This tour of the city was very good because of the places you get to see in such a little time. You will feel a bit rushed, but in order to see everything promised in the time allotted you have to push through. If you want to see these things better, you need to just go to one site and linger. Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City can be linked as one since they are adjacent to one another, but the other 2 are not so close. The Summer Palace is an all day thing all by itself due to size alone. _br/_ Our tour guide was Kathy. She picked us up at our hotel as promised right on time. She knows how to work the system with this tour. We had around 400-600 people at the Forbidden City waiting for the gates to open, and with Kathy's experience, we were in within the first 50 people. Thank you for not having the day wasted waiting in line. The Forbidden City is very large and consists of alot of walking. Add that to 80-90 degree heat and wow what a trip. She was pretty thorough explaining each area, yet had to keep us to our schedule. Remember, this place is big and can be its own day trip. The meal we had was all hot food so you should be safe with eating. They only provided 1 small glass of beverage so be prepared to buy more or get a bottle of something before eating. The pearl factory was a waste of time: not much to look at and too high of prices. The Temple of Heaven was a nice place to take pictures, but was fast. You have to save enough time for the Summer Palace biggest place of the day. The silk factory was interesting and should be more involved with this tour since it holds such a big influence on Chinese history. The prices here were high as well, but not as outrageous as some of the other shops. We opted as a group to purchase the 3 boat tour an extra 150 yuan for the Summer Palace because Kathy made it sound like it was something we really needed to do in order to see the full grounds. Kind of feel like we were being worked over for more money, but we also did do 3 boat rides inside the park. It was a great way to see how large this place really was even though we had to sit through a history lesson given completely in Chinese. Don't forget this was also done while surrounded by about 100 Chinese people learning about their country's history: cramped just a bit. Kathy had a bad habit of walking faster than the group. I can see why she held a pink stuffed animal on a stick so we don't get completely lost. At the end of the tour, Kathy offered to drop us off at the Hutongs if we wanted also reminding us that if we did, we had to find our own way back to the hotel. We all opted to go back to the hotels. I was lucky to have an easy hotel to get in and out of because some had to walk 10-30 minutes to their pick up location. _br/_ All in all the trip was a 10, our guide was an 8, and the driver was a 10.

Review by:   ANDRES O,    May 2017
The tour guide Jacky was rushing all morning at the forbidden city giving a nasty actitud leaving a very short open time to take photos or even to have a look of the sight. But of course then we where taken to a silk factory which is not listed on the website and of course something that we didn't want. Here at the factory we spend about 45 min then we had lunch also in a rush, he came and told the group that we were going to another factory in this case pearl factory. However everyone in the group refused to go, so we continued to the temple of Heaven where we roughly spent 30 min even that the whole group refused to go to pearl shop so we could had more time to stay and enjoy the sights. At this point we had an argument with the guide for been in so much rush and not letting anyone enjoy. more time was given to the silk factory. We are very disappointed with this tour. Be careful most tour here in beijing will take you to places not listed such as factories and stores so the an rip you off with the ridiculous prices and so that tour guides or the company itself get more money in commissions. they care more about taking you to those places then doing the actual tour we paid for... greedy sobs.

Review by:   Calvin O,    May 2017
We spent more time at pearl factory and silk store which wasn't listed on the itinerary than we did at any of the list site. What a scan. Our guide was nice but I had a hard time deciphering her English.