Beijing Classic Full-Day Tour including the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, Summer Palace and Temple of Heaven

This was a great tour and a perfect way to see the highlights of Beijing in a day! There were only three of us in the group and our guide William was flexible with time at each stop, allowing for guided time as well as free time to explore and take photos. William answered all our questions about Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven, the Summer Palace, and any other topic. There were two shopping stops, for silks and pearls, but no pressure to buy. Lunch was nice with a variety of dishes to pick from. At the end of the tour, William suggested a drop off spot which would allow me to explore another area of Beijing, but also easily return to my hotel via subway. All in all, a great day!”

Great tour, specially when you have a short stay in the city”

Cheryl was my guide for this tour. She was engaging and knowledgeable. She was also great at keeping her group together and getting us ahead when possible. Having gone to the Fobidden city, the day prior, I initially thought I wouldnt want to see it again but Cheryl used the side walkways and corridors to show us the site. This made for better pictures and less interruption. She also gave great advise on how to improve your photos..She always offered to take photos of you at the various sites. Cheryl kept a tight schedule and even when I had a mishap at the Temple of Heaven I was unable to regain entry to the courtyard all hampered by the language barrier she made sure that I was comfortable.. At the Summer palace we opted to utilize the boats at an additional cost and that was a great addition. It was a lovely day which culminated with shopping for pearls and silk. A lovely day with a great guide”

perfect”

Tour guide was very good and knowledgeable. Made the experience very worthwhile. Felt that we were going back in time and experiencing life in the Forbidden City. Well done! Ask why the lions at the entrance of the Emperors Palace have floppy ears pointing down?”

Cynthia was a well informed and really helpful guide. She took lots of photos of us and was great at explaining things.”

We had a great experience. The other people who were supposed to be with us cancelled so it was basically a private tour. Our guide was very informative and spoke great English. Very convenient with hotel pick-up and drop-off, avoid all lines and makes the entire experience awesome and easy. Highly recommend and great value!”

Don't forget to bring your passport! Covered a lot within a small group. Usual souvenir stops and western style Chinese food.”

Thank you, thank you, thank you, William! We had a fabulous day with our guide and driver more like a personal chauffeur, and we covered the main parts of Beijing with a few additions thrown in along the way. William's English is superb and he described the history of the sites and the wider China with such eloquence that it helped us to understand the people and the country, setting up the rest of our trip perfectly. Beijing is a truly amazing city but it's jewels were brought to life by William. By the end of the day we felt as though we'd made a true friend in William and a life-long admiration for Beijing. If there were six stars, we'd still give it top marks! Thank you William.”

Well worth seeing for the price. We were fortunate enough to have William as a guide who maneuvered us through thousands of Chinese who were paying their respects to Chairman Mao's mausoleum. It would be nice to see as many US Americans visit their historical sights and better understand where the came from and where we are today. William was informative, patient and answered all our questions. There were only 7 passengers, the driver and our guide on a minibus, so it was comfortable and we could spend one on one time with the guide. The driver was amazing as he managed our way thru the humungous traffic jams in Beijing. Would high recommend this tour.”

This day trip was exactly as I expected and as advertised. Our guide Jacky was informative and comical making the event even more fun.”

It was really good, the tour guide did a great job!”

The guide spoke very good English and was able to answer a variety of questions about historical Chinese sites and modern culture. The tour was non-stop for the entire day, going from big sight to sight. I enjoyed the fast-pace but can understand why some may enjoy a slower pace. If so I recommend doing a tour with a shorter itinerary. There was a lot of walking but by no means an excessive/unreasonable amount. I thoroughly enjoyed the tour and the privacy it offered it was only me and one other guest which made it a very personal experience. Be careful though as a couple stops on the tour Silk factory, Tea House, and Pearl Market are somewhat 'built' to extract money out of you. As in, the informative portions of these stops were relatively short in comparison to the amount of time given to shop. However, it's very easy to simply decline to buy anything.”

Everything about the visit was excellent. From the contact with the tour guide to confirm pick up location and time to the delivery back at our hotel was a very good experience. William, our guide for the day was very knowledgeable about the history and traditions of the Palaces that we visited and Tiananmen Square. He gave us information about an area then gave us time to take our photos before moving onto the next section. The amount of time in each area was about right, we didn't feel rushed or wish we were moving along at a faster pace. The buffet style lunch at a local restaurant was very nice and timed to perfection as a large coach party arrived 15 minutes after us. We were in a small group of 4 which made the trip more manageable than walking in a large group. Security was heightened at Tiananmen Square as the Congress was meeting but William knew this and made sure we had our passports with us for inspection before entering the Square.”

Excellent experience with William! Great memories! I went to Beijing for work and had the day off. I planned this tour to kill time and it ended up being an experience of a lifetime. From the beautiful sites to the delicious meal, it is an A+ experience.”

This tour was amazing!”

I had a great day. Alice my tour guide was excellent with good english and very informative about each of the places we went to. I was in Beijing for only a short time so it was great to be able to see so much in one day.”

We were super lucky and had a small group of 4 that day and had an outstanding tour guide, Alice. Alice was a wealth of information and since the weather was hot, it was a nice fast pace through each stop with just the right amount of information for each location. My husband and I thoroughly enjoyed it.”

Totally amazing tour and a great way to see the sights of China”

This tour was amazing!”

Great guide, Alice. She knew a lot about history and was very attentive. It was a busy day, we walked a lot but if you don't have much time in Beijing, this is the city tour you want to take. Yes, there are visits to a silk factory and a pearl factory but they were alright.”

This tour was lots of fun and the guide was great.”

Very great guide and English was spectacular. Highly recommend this tour.”

This tour of the city was very good because of the places you get to see in such a little time. You will feel a bit rushed, but in order to see everything promised in the time allotted you have to push through. If you want to see these things better, you need to just go to one site and linger. Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City can be linked as one since they are adjacent to one another, but the other 2 are not so close. The Summer Palace is an all day thing all by itself due to size alone. Our tour guide was Kathy. She picked us up at our hotel as promised right on time. She knows how to work the system with this tour. We had around 400-600 people at the Forbidden City waiting for the gates to open, and with Kathy's experience, we were in within the first 50 people. Thank you for not having the day wasted waiting in line. The Forbidden City is very large and consists of alot of walking. Add that to 80-90 degree heat and wow what a trip. She was pretty thorough explaining each area, yet had to keep us to our schedule. Remember, this place is big and can be its own day trip. The meal we had was all hot food so you should be safe with eating. They only provided 1 small glass of beverage so be prepared to buy more or get a bottle of something before eating. The pearl factory was a waste of time: not much to look at and too high of prices. The Temple of Heaven was a nice place to take pictures, but was fast. You have to save enough time for the Summer Palace biggest place of the day. The silk factory was interesting and should be more involved with this tour since it holds such a big influence on Chinese history. The prices here were high as well, but not as outrageous as some of the other shops. We opted as a group to purchase the 3 boat tour an extra 150 yuan for the Summer Palace because Kathy made it sound like it was something we really needed to do in order to see the full grounds. Kind of feel like we were being worked over for more money, but we also did do 3 boat rides inside the park. It was a great way to see how large this place really was even though we had to sit through a history lesson given completely in Chinese. Don't forget this was also done while surrounded by about 100 Chinese people learning about their country's history: cramped just a bit. Kathy had a bad habit of walking faster than the group. I can see why she held a pink stuffed animal on a stick so we don't get completely lost. At the end of the tour, Kathy offered to drop us off at the Hutongs if we wanted also reminding us that if we did, we had to find our own way back to the hotel. We all opted to go back to the hotels. I was lucky to have an easy hotel to get in and out of because some had to walk 10-30 minutes to their pick up location. All in all the trip was a 10, our guide was an 8, and the driver was a 10.”