Beijing Day Tour of the Forbidden City, Beijing Zoo and the Lama Temple

Beijing, China

Join this tour to visit one of the most famous imperial palaces in the world: The Forbidden City. See China’s national treasures, the giant pandas at the Beijing Zoo. Revel in the beauty of the Lama Temple with its main halls filled with intricately designed Tibetan Thangka paintings and carved Buddhist images.

You’ll meet your guide at your hotel, then driven to Tian’anmen Square and the Forbidden City to experience some of the most amazing historical sites of one of the greatest empires in the world. These sites will help you understand just how impressive China’s history is, and you’ll be able to gain a deeper understanding of it with the tour guide’s explanation. In imperial China, only the emperor, deemed the ‘son of heaven,’ was allowed to pass through the central meridian gate into the palace. However, today, you can also experience the majestic palace fit for emperors, first-hand.

To quench your thirst afterwards, taste traditional Chinese tea at a tea house inside the Bell Tower. If you thought tea tasting was easy, just watch the intricate processes involved in boiling Chinese tea – a process that differs for each type of tea. At the tea house, you’ll be able to sample a range of different Chinese teas.

Following the tea house visit, the tour guide will bring you to the Lama Temple, the most celebrated Buddhist temple in Beijing and a temple of the Geluk School of Tibetan Buddhism. It is one of the largest and most influential in China, and was the only temple to have been said to have survived the Cultural Revolution, and only reopened to the public in 1981. Take in the architecture and the oasis of calm amidst one of the most buzzing historic districts in the city, and enjoy the Tibetan thangkas, a traditional painting on cotton, or silk, depicting a Buddhist deity, scene, or mandala.

And finally, arrive at the Beijing Zoo, where you’ll be able to see the endangered giant pandas in real life. Did you know that giant pandas spend about 12-38 kg for bamboo everyday to get all their nutrients out of bamboo? When they are not eating, they are generally napping and digesting all that bamboo.

After this trip, you will be taken back to your centrally located Beijing hotel.