Private Beijing City Overview Tour with Imperial Lunch and Cruise to Summer Palace

Beijing, China

See a different side of Beijing on this comprehensive 8-hour private tour that includes less-visited areas of the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Forbidden City. Feast on imperial cuisine, cruise like an emperor to the UNESCO-listed Summer Palace, and enjoy stunning views across Beijing from the Central Radio and Television Tower. Tour operates from April to October only and includes entrance fees plus set lunch.

Meet your private guide at your hotel at 8:30am for the short drive to Tiananmen Square, an urban enclave that has witnessed hundreds of years of Chinese history. Since Chairman Mao first stood in the Gate of Heavenly Peace (Tiananmen Tower) and proclaimed the founding of the People's Republic of China on 1 October 1949, it has been the symbolic center of China.

From here, you'll walk to the Forbidden City, a UNESCO World Heritage Site (please note this is closed on Mondays except in July, August, and National Week). Built between 1406 and 1420, the Forbidden City served as the residence for 24 emperors from the Ming and Qing dynasties. For centuries commoners could not enter here, but it opened to the public as a museum in 1925.

Most tour groups hurry along the central axis of the Forbidden City. Your guide will show you a different and less crowded route. You'll walk on the newly opened, 26-foot (8-meter) wall to get a bird's-eye view of the complex as a whole, enter the Watchtower and the East Gate, and explore the Hall of Clocks and Watches and the Treasure Gallery, home to exquisite artifacts hand-crafted in gold, jewels, and jade.

Your guide will introduce you to some of the characters who lived here as you visit their favorite haunts: learn about the Qianlong Emperor, who ruled China for over 80 years, as you visit his garden, and the powerful Dowager Empress Cixi as you see her bedroom and the theater where she watched her favorite Peking Opera.

It's not far to Fangshan Restaurant, an imperial-style restaurant on an island in Beijing's oldest imperial park, Beihai, where you'll feast on a set lunch.

Relax on the 30-minute drive to Zizhuyuan Park (Black Bamboo Park), where you'll climb aboard a canopy boat for a scenic 40-minute journey to the Summer Palace, another UNESCO World Heritage Site. The imperial waterway you ride along has a history of more than 700 years: it was Kublai Khan who first commanded its excavation in the thirteenth century, while the Qing emperors and the Empress Dowager Cixi reserved it for their exclusive use. Your guide will point out the many historical sites along the way.

At the Summer Palace, your guide will lead you to the living and working quarters of the emperor and empress, the Long Corridor, an elegant covered walkway with 14,000 exquisite pictures, and the Marble Boat, built by Emperor Qianlong as a symbol of imperial stability. Climb Longevity Hill for panoramic views of the lake, gardens, and pavilions, and take a little boat to Suzhou Street: please note that, as this is an intensive tour with a tight schedule, a shopping stop will not be possible.

Hop back in the vehicle for the 25-minute drive to the Central Radio and Television Tower, where you'll ride an ear-popping lift to the observation deck, 781 feet (238 meters) high above the city. It's just a short drive back to your hotel, where you'll arrive around 4:30pm.