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USD $109.00
Beijing's Present and Past: Olympic Park and Hutong Tour
Beijing, China
On this guided full-day trip, see Beijing’s incredible modern architecture at the Olympic Park, the site of the 2008 Olympic Games. Explore the site of the opening and closing ceremonies at the Bird’s Nest and see the site of the aquatic competitions at the Water Cube. Get a feel for Old Beijing as you ride in a rickshaw down the hutongs – the narrow streets of Beijing. Visit the home of a Chinese family with your local guide and sample fragrant Chinese tea at a tea tasting.
On this full-day tour of Beijing’s past and present, experience Beijing’s mix of tradition and innovation as you visit the Olympic Park and Old Beijing’s hutongs (narrow streets).
In the morning, you’ll be picked up from your hotel by your guide and transported to the Olympic Park, the site of the 2008 Summer Olympics. Admire the architectural beauty of the Beijing National Stadium, also known as the Bird’s Nest. The Swiss and Chinese architects who designed the stadium intended it to look like a large nest with exposed steel structures. Walk inside the Bird’s Nest and see the massive interior with a capacity for 91,000 spectators!
Adjacent to the Bird’s Nest is the National Aquatics Center, also known as the Water Cube. This site hosted the swimming, diving and synchronized swimming events during the 2008 Olympics, and has since been converted into a water amusement park. Get a feel for the excitement during the Olympics as you walk around the Olympic Park.
Then, enjoy lunch at a Chinese restaurant before exploring the hutongs – Beijing’s narrow streets. Depart from the Drum and Bell Tower and drive down the alleyways by rickshaw. See the traditional courtyard homes and elderly men playing mahjong (a four-player tile game) on the streets. On your way, stop and visit the home of a Chinese family with your local guide. Interact with the local people and see the traditional Chinese way of life.
Finish off your tour with a tea tasting at a tea shop on one of the city’s many hutongs. Experience the traditional Beijing tea culture and learn about the different varieties of Chinese tea. Then, enjoy a relaxing drive back to your hotel.
What a waste of time, really not sure what we paid for with this tour. The guide picked us up from hotel took us to Hutong and passed us over to another guide and driver who took us thru Huntong area we then had to pay the guide and the driver. The Hutong guide was excellent but I dont know why we were not told that we would have a 2nd guide and driver that we had to pay as well. We then had to go to tea ceremony,Lunch was terrible as usual on these tours. We then went to the Olympic park where we got to walk around the stadium we asked about going in but were told we would have to but tickets which we did and went in alone. This tour is a joke, as I
Review by: LarryG, April 2013
Beijing's Hutong neighborhood of small alleys is too small for a tour bus, and, really, too small even for automobiles; rickshaw is the ideal mode of transportation. The opportunity to visit a real home in this neighborhood is extraordinary. It turns out that the Olympic Aquatic Center "Water Cube" provides public swimming sessions, either in a family-style water park, or for lap swimmers in the "warm-up" pool; had I been prepared, I would have left the tour at the end for a swim!
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