Welcome to China! We will pick you up from the train station and transfer you to your hotel. Overnight - Beijing

We travel beyond Beijing to Badaling to an imposing section of the UNESCO protected Great Wall of China. The wall was built originally as a defensive structure to protect China against marauding invaders from the north. Although the present wall dates mainly from the Ming dynasty, some 20 states and dynasties were involved in its immense construction over a period of 2,000 years and followed different routes and building extensions as required. At one time perhaps nearly 9700km long, the wall was garrisoned by nearly 1 million soldiers and featured over 1,000 fortified passes and 10,000 beacon towers. Today, the now partially ruinous Great Wall stretches some 6700 kms across barren hills, deserts, mountains and plateaus.

Today’s visit offers a healthy, if steep and vertiginous walk with breathtaking views of the Chinese countryside. Afterward we stop for lunch and tour a nearby cloisonne workshop demonstrating the ancient Chinese art of combining copper and enamel to make decorative pieces. Overnight - Beijing (B, L)

After breakfast we will set off on our sightseeing, with the first stop being Tiananmen Square. We then explore the Forbidden city, a centre of power for five centuries and seat of the emperors. Entry was forbidden to all but those on imperial business until 1911, when the last emperor, Puyi, was overthrown. Last stop is the Summer Palace before returning to Beijing where our tour ends. (B)