Beijing Day Tour of the Temple of Heaven, Beijing Zoo and the Lama Temple

Beijing, China

Visit some of Beijing’s most iconic sights including: The Temple of Heaven, the giant pandas in Beijing’s Zoo, and the Lama Temple. This tour will give you an insight into Beijing’s history, its natural environment, and some of its cultural and religious traditions.

Meet your guide in the lobby of your hotel in Beijing city center to start the tour. You will first visit the Temple of Heaven, a notable icon of the capital. The Temple of Heaven was a sacrificial complex for annual harvesting ceremonies during both the Ming and the Qing Dynasties. You can learn more about this in the museum accompanying the iconic temple. The surrounding park is vast and offers the opportunity to watch or join the locals doing their daily morning exercises or morning stroll. After that, you will be taken to a Silk Factory where experts will explain the process of silk making, from silkworm to finished product. Your guides can also help explain how everything is made and it’s the perfect place to get souvenirs for friends and families at home.

The next destination is 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, having survived the Cultural Revolution, and it reopened to the public in 1981. Take in the architecture in 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.

Following your visit to the Lama Temple, you can have a traditional Chinese cuisine lunch at a local restaurant with your guide’s help (lunch on your own expense).  After lunch, you will move on to see the giant pandas at the Beijing Zoo, where you’ll be able to see the endangered giant panda in real life. Did you know that giant pandas eat about 26.5 - 83.75 pounds (12-38 kg) of bamboo everyday to get all their nutrients? Giant pandas (in)famously spend most of their day eating or digesting their food while napping. Once the visit is finished, you will be dropped back off at your hotel in Beijing city center.