Beijing Essential Full-Day Tour including Great Wall at Badaling, Forbidden City and Tiananmen Squar

Beijing, China

If your time in Beijing is short, take this full-day tour to see all the essential sights: Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and the Badaling section of the Great Wall of China. You'll see why the capital of the People's Republic of China continues to be a historic center of power, culture and wealth today.

Your sightseeing day tour of Beijing's essential sights starts at Tiananmen Square, with an overview of China's communist history. You'll tour the grounds and see Tiananmen's vast array of halls and monuments.

From Tiananmen Square it's a short walk to the Forbidden City, also known as the Imperial Palace Museum. The history of every dynasty is represented in four palatial halls, plus antiques and treasures from China's thousands of years of history. Inside of the Forbidden City, you will see both Gate of Heavenly Purity and Palace of Heavenly Purity.

After a stop for lunch you will visit the Badaling section of the Great Wall, one of the best preserved sections of this 2,000-year-old architectural wonder. You will be able to climb the Great Wall and take in the panoramic views from the top.

The day tour also includes a stop at the famous Longdi Jade Factory where you can shop for beautiful bargains.

USD $87.00

Review by:   marloashton25,    April 2018
For the price, this tour was very accommodating. However, we were under the impression that the tour of the silk factory and jade factory would be more of an educational experience, but really it was just a moment to be haggled into buying something. The forbidden city and great wall were both breathtaking structures, Tiananmen square was closed when we were there so we went to a tea house instead. After we sampled different kinds of tea, of course that became another haggle fest as well. Overall, the tour was fine, I just didn't appreciate the sales people pressuring you into buying something as soon as you walked in the door.

Review by:   Alberto M,    April 2018
I did this trip last year and I still remember how well organized it was. If you have just a stop over, this is the best solution.

Review by:   Amber L,    February 2018
I booked a group tour, but was the only one. No one informed me I would be the only one. Plus they did not make any effort into picking me up from my hotel since I was the only one. The tour guide was very hurried and has a very strong accent which is hard to understand. The jade factory felt like a tourist trap to purchase something. They didn't adjust the time schedule and I ended up at lunch at 10:30 eating by myself with no one else in the restaurant. We made a stop at a tea house which was not included in the tour. I felt uncomfortable because I was the only one and no one knew about this stop. Again, the business owner tried to pressured me into making a purchase. Would not recommend.

Review by:   Tom C,    January 2018
We enjoyed and highly recommend the Beijing Essential Full-Day Tour. Our tour guide was amazing, spoke good English and really made our trip enjoyable and educational as well.

Review by:   Alice K,    January 2018
Rushed through Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City in order to get us to a shop selling Jade products. Lunch was very western-style at the Jade gallery and ridiculously early. We had to pay extra to get the cable car up to the Great Wall, and had to wait for another group to show up in order to get our tickets. We then finished the day with a visit to a tea-house where we were expected to buy overpriced tea. The guide was very friendly and helpful though.

Review by:   Stine,    December 2017
It was amazing. We went to the wall and experienced different sites. Since it was not tourist season aswell, it was not packed. Highly recommended. Its a nice way to experience Beijing when you are travelling by yourself

Review by:   Brandon P,    November 2017
This tour left me disappointed. Our tour guide barely did any tour guiding, she acted as if our questions were an annoyance to her. Our whole group left disappointed. rather than spending time at the sights we booked she took us to gift shop traps and spent hours there only for her to try and make $

Review by:   Thomas R,    November 2017
Exceptional Day Tour!_br/_ I was expecting to be in a mini-van but got picked up at the Marriott City Wall Hotel by the tour guide,Michael, and his driver,Xie, in a stylish sedan.Thus, I was given a private tour for the entire day 20th October,2017._br/_ The highlights were:_br/_ 1. Tiananmen Square and this coincided with the 5 yearly Congress, so the decoration of the Square was striking.The friendliness of the thousands of Chinese tourists was memorable._br/_ 2.The Forbidden City:a very long walk through the entire historical site:perfectly preserved and perfectly clean._br/_ 3.The Great Wall: involved a long drive on a beautiful expressway.Xie's driving was exceptional.I was given free time to explore and walk the Great Wall.The preservation,the width and the height of the Wall is impressive.Once again,the friendliness of the Chinese tourists was highly memorable.

Review by:   Lisa M,    November 2017
Our tour guy jacky was amazing. Speaks very good English and is willing to answer any questions you may have!!!

Review by:   Sherri Z,    October 2017
Enjoyed the day - although I felt the tour guide, Jackie spent too much time on salacious discussion of concubines. Also DO NOT USE the ATM at the Great Wall at Badaling! I tried with Jackie's help - it didn't work but low and behold - my number was used the next day in another country!!!! Lunch at the jade factory was delicious!

Review by:   holden.nuchols,    June 2017
Tour guide spent too much timing waiting on a couple who were an hour late for the tour. This delay forced us to NOT GO to Great Wall at Badaling but another part which was lackluster to say the least. We did not go in Tiananmen Square but looked at it from across the street. We wasted too much timing visiting tourist traps like a silk factory, jade factory and tea shop instead of the major players of the tour.

Review by:   Nicola S,    May 2017
This was a good trip, and the guide was lovely and helpful, if not a bit serious. The Great Wall was fantastic: I was amazed at how quickly the time went. _br/_ The Forbidden City was also good, but I would have liked 20 mins or so to wander around there on my own, also._br/_ The car was clean, and both the driver and the guide were courteous.

Review by:   Walter W,    April 2017
The tour was excellent. Our guide was Cynthia and she was amazing. She was full of information and took us through everything and explained the history of it and how it got to where it is now. We went to a silk factory, a jade factory, and a tea ceremony. We also had a great lunch. She explained some of the Chinese symbols to us between visits. I definitely recommend her and the tour. My two friends were also more than happy with the experience

Review by:   Shari B,    April 2017
Overall this was a great way to experience Beijing in one day. The Wall was amazing, I enjoyed the tea service and visiting the silk factory, although there was emphasis placed on wanting us to buy merchandise that you can get other places in the city for less, but also good for visitors in that you can buy many traditional Chinese souvenirs in one day.

Review by:   Shari B,    April 2017
Our tour guide was awesome - with a nice personality. A bit scripted, but his English was admirable and he did answer many questions. He talked ALL DAY, and it was a long day - so, kudos to him.

Review by:   Jenny,    February 2017
The Great Wall, Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square were all on my bucket list and we had plenty of time on our tour to see these. If I have an issue, there were two extra stops designed to make the participants buy jewellery or tea, which were really unnecessary and only made the day too long. No value in the extra stops, however the highlights were great.

Review by:   Robert B,    February 2017
Overall a good tour. Guide was too long winded and talked too fast. We missed 2/3 of what she said. We spent hours at silk worm factory and Jade shop and only 45 minutes at Great Wall. We mainly booked this tour for the Great wall and spent too little time there. Thousands of miles and thousands of dollars to go there for 45 minutes out of 14 hour tour left us feeling short changed.

Review by:   Margeaux B,    November 2016
This tour was HORRIBLE. I would have been better off renting a car and doing everything myself!!! The tour started at 7:30 AM.... although the tour guide was running late and made us walk down the street and wait outside in the freezing cold weather. We then got to the Tiananmen Square, he quickly went over the history, VERY QUICKLY. We then walked through the Forbidden City, also VERY QUICKLY. The tour guide Jackie? went through the different areas, but he was going very quickly and kept mentioning the emperors sex and prostitutes.. and then kept going on and on about how they could only have sex for 15 minutes, and then starting asking the group how long they had sex for.. this was very annoying and so I just started reading the signs through each area. This I found out to be much more interesting, because I was learning more about the actual room than the sex that occurred in it. Besides the 15 minutes of sex with each prostitute, I did not learn anything else from the guide through the Forbidden City. He then took us to a silk factory... and although he rushed us through the sites we wanted to see, he didnt rush us through the store here as he definitely got commission, about an hour later we then drove around the block to a Pearl factory. As I was not interested in shopping on this tour, and now quite annoyed with the tour guide we opted out of going in, the guide actually brought out pearls to try to sell them to us. For lunch, we went to another store, this time I believe it was a Jade factory, as a group we decided to eat quickly and leave quickly as we did not want to waste our time. Lunch was terrible, it is basically potluck, that you are sharing with a group of strangers from all around the world.. great and then there was 1 meat bowl and it was about 2 cups and it didn't even make it around the table. Unless you paid more you couldn't get more meat and everything else was vegetarian and very oily. Finally we were on our way to the Wall... about 2:00 PM we arrive there and he is rushing us once again, to get to the wall, telling us not to take pictures. We got an hour and a half at the wall and then he made us leave... Our flight was leaving that night and originally we just planned to grab a cab at the wall and then go to the airport from there but our guide insisted he had a ride for us that was closer than the wall. As we headed down and passed the airport we got stuck in bumper to bumper traffic, we kept asking where he was going to drop us off... to find out he never had a plan and was basically bringing us back to where he picked us up and was going to get us a cab... what?! And then he told me we couldn't get a cab from the wall, which multiple cabs asked us if we had a ride but I stupidly trusted our guide. In the end, we ended up getting a cab in the bumper to bumper traffic on the freeway to take us to the airport. The drive to the airport took 3 hours at that point when it should've taken one. This experience was terrible and will never be using this website again.

Review by:   Amy W,    October 2016
This tour is great for one day! My husband and I had a short visit, and this really captured all the essential stops. Tianenmen portion was a quick glance, where the guide pointed out some buildings. The Forbidden City tour was the right amount of time for us. Our family had warned that alone could be a full day, but this was a streamlined one-hour walk throughout, but allowed time for photos, some stories, and didn't feel rushed. Next was a stop at the Silk Factory and Jade Factory, where they encourage you to buy buy buy. Prices are negotiable, despite price stickers. Lunch was 1 out of 5 stars. Though we had been eating a week of truly authentic Chinese food, so we might be biased. But it was very Westernized, and not very tasty. Finally, the Great Wall! AMAZING. Our group paid an additional 100 YUAN to take cable cars up to the section we were walking and had an hour and a half to explore. Very pleasant tour, and our guide Jenny spoke English well!

Review by:   ELAINE,    October 2016
The tour guide is pretty funny and tells you history about each place you visit! Be prepare to WALK, A LOT! So wear comfy shoes!! The tour also includes stops to both the silk and pearl market, so get ready to spend some money!

Review by:   Adrian P,    October 2016
A really enjoyable, busy day. Knowledgable and friendly guide.

Review by:   Paul S,    August 2016
We did this tour on a 72-hour stay w/o visa. It's a great way to see a lot in a short amount of time. My only complaint is the heavy-handed sales pitches at stops along the way -- silk factory, jade factory, tea shop.

Review by:   Milo,    August 2016
I enjoyed this Tour. Travel Guide was very friendly and knowledgeable.

Review by:   Tyler V,    August 2016
Really good tour, Jackie was very knowledgeable and hilarious

Review by:   Jessica R,    July 2016
This tour was AMAZING! It was a perfect day, perfect locations to visit, outstanding tour guide!! Ask to eat at the Jade Factory restaurant.....it was INCREDIBLE! Will always use Viator for future tours :

Review by:   D N,    July 2016
It was very good experience , personalized guided tour _br/_ It was a like a Private Tour in exclusive Lucury car

Review by:   Joseph M,    June 2016
I was the only person on this tour and thought that I would have a better experience in some regards since the tour would be more personalized. Hope quickly faded as the tour guide could not speak coherent English. No explanation/insights on the Great Wall, tour guide sat in car the entire time.

Review by:   Stephen J,    June 2016
I had a Great Time. Very Educational. The Guide and Driver are some of the Best people I have ever meet. They make China Special in my Heart Steve Johnson

Review by:   Jesus S,    June 2016
The Great Wall is a must do, it's amazing when you get on top and see the wall around you. Our tour guide Mr. Jacquie Lee was very knowledgable, friendly and happy to show us around. Arquitecture in the Forbidden City is impressive.

Review by:   Ester Marie B,    June 2016
Fantastic tour that hit most of the sites in Beijing. If you only have one day, take this tour. The one thing I would change are the tourist shops like the silk factory and jade factory. If you remove one of those visits, I think this would be a top notch tour. Jacky Lee is a great tour guide with a good sense of humor. He kept us moving along and was very knowledgeable.

Review by:   Dean C,    May 2016
I was in China on business, and only had one day to spend in Beijing, so I wanted to see as much as possilbe. The Beijing Essential Full-Day perfectly meet my needs. Our guide Jackie was very knowledgable of the history and stories about each site we visited. He kept the group moving to ensure we didn't linger too long at any particular site. Jackie's English was very good and made the trip very interesting. One thing to remember on this tour is that it will make for a very long day, so if you tend to move at a slower pace, a shorter tour may be more well suited for you. However, if you have just one day to see the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, and Tiananment Square, this tour is perfect.

Review by:   VINAY J,    April 2016
tour was ok but tour guide i think name frank was not good . He kept talking on his mobile and was not ready to answer any questions.

Review by:   Nikki H,    April 2016
The tour was phenomenal! Very personalized. I highly recommend it!

Review by:   jagg222,    April 2016
Serry was fantastic. very organised, punctual, knowledgeable and pleasant. We thoroughly enjoyed the day._br/_ It was easy to book through Viator, and the reminder as the day drew nearer was appreciated.

Review by:   robwjames1,    April 2016
Our guide Cherry was brilliant. She had amazing tips and so much knowledge. She told us a quiet part of the Great Wall, away from the crowds. Forbidden City and Tianamen Sq were really interesting. Lunch was fine. Pressure to buy at the Jade and Silk places was a bit annoying, but otherwise a great day.

Review by:   Kenyatta F,    April 2016
Great time!

Review by:   Brett B,    March 2016
Fantastic Michael the tour guide was very friendly and spoke good english. Suggested a mid morning snack would be good.

Review by:   Srinivasan S,    March 2016
We could understand only one in twelve words of what the guide was saying in English

Review by:   Nikki H,    March 2016
The tour was well done and very thought out. We were a group of four and stayed at an airbnb. The company was very accommodating and picked us up from our location. This was most helpful as we had only been in Beijing for the night so hadn't really had time to learn the area. We were picked up promptly at 7:45am to begin our tour. Our guide and driver were exceptionally professional. Mike, the tour guide, was super knowledgeable and professional. He answered any and all questions we posed.

Review by:   Benjamin C,    February 2016
The tour was awesome. Jacki male was our guide and he was more than happy to tell us about everything! It was extremely informative. The tour ran a little long but that was perfectly fine because we went to Beijing just to take it. The food provided on the tour was also amazing! I highly recommend this tour!

Review by:   Kelsey O,    February 2016
The marketing for this tour is misleading. This is a shopping tour with cool sights thrown in. The majority of our time was spent in shopping areas or focused around spending tourist money.

Review by:   Benjamin B,    January 2016
William is an excellent tour guide -- he was knowledgable, flexible in terms of scheduling, and well-versed in English. He intrepidly led us up the Great Wall in -20 C temperature and wind chill as well as around Tiananmen and the Forbidden City. The trip was a great value in my opinion.

Review by:   Lorelei T,    January 2016
Great tour and very informative. Our tour guide Jackie was the best :

Review by:   Ryan D,    December 2015
Booked tour last minute, was contacted right away by our guide Cynthia. Very knowledgeable and covers a lot of information, was lucky to be the only party booked so more one on one time to do whatever. Had a couple stops at silk shop, jade shop and tea shop - all did a presentation and sales pitch

Review by:   Rachel H,    November 2015
Highly recommended if you are short on time. The tour guide was wonderful and knowledgeable. This tour is a must.

Review by:   Max C,    November 2015
The tour is only as good as your tour guide....our guilde Michael was excellent and so was the entire tour.._br/_ I highly recommend this tour._br/_ BTW_br/_ At lunch opt for the Peking Duck just a few extra dollars but well worth it.

Review by:   Steven D,    October 2015
For the price this is a good value tour that provides ample time at the Great Wall and decent walk through the Forbidden City. The booking process, and follow up communication was excellent and re-assuring given I made late changes. The guide, Victoria, was polite and enthusiastic with good English. Bus was clean and efficient picking me up on time from the hotel. The stop overs at a Jade and Silk factory were a little annoying but given they were timed for a useful stop, not overly troublesome. Overall excellent value.

Review by:   vinnie,    October 2015
Our tour was excellent. Our guide Jackie did an amazing job. The lunch was probably the best meal we had while in Beijing. I overall will rate this as a 5 star tour

Review by:   jaws02,    October 2015
Good tour covering several of the attactions one could expect in a 1 day tour.

Review by:   Chun W,    September 2015
First time in Beijing. This was a great tour to go on if you have a full day. Our guide Michael was amazing. Really knowledgeable and friendly. Amazing sights. Also visited silk, jade and tea factories. Good lunch provided. Downside was time travelling to The Great Wall long and the bus was too cold!