Beijing Taiyuan Pingyao 7 Days Tour - 7 days Private Tour of Beijing, Taiyuan and Pingyao

Entry Beijing

Day 1.

Arrive in Beijing.
Your tour guide from Beijingservice.com will pick you up at Beijing capital airport.
Be transferred to your hotel for check in.
Rest day is free.

Beijing: Local Cloisonne factory, Ming Tombs-Changling, Lunch, Badaling Great Wall

Day 2.

Be picked up from hotel at 08:30 am.

Visit a local Cloisonne factory for about 40 minutes to know the process of making a real Cloisonne.
Cloisonne, also called Copper Based Pinched Wire Enamel, belongs to ancient royal art in Chinese Ming dynasty.
The product combines gold, silver, copper and other natural minerals as the original materials, integrating fine art, crafts, carving, mosaic, glass melting and metallurgy together.
With a history of more than 600 years, Cloisonne is one of the most Beijing-featured traditional crafts.

Drive to Ming Tombs to visit Changling, the largest one. Ming Tomb is the final resting place of 13 Ming Dynasty emperors, along with 23 empresses and a number of concubines. It has a history of over 600 years. Surrounded by mountains on three sides, the Ming Tombs features splendid landscape. Chang Ling (the Tomb of Chang) was built by the third emperor of the Ming Dynasty in 1409 AD. Chang Ling is the largest tomb in architectural scale. The hall of Chang Ling is the largest structure of nanmu wood in China.

Proceed to a restaurant to have lunch and a short rest.

Drive to the famous Badaling Great Wall. The Great Wall was built and maintained between the 7th century BC and 17th century BC. It was originally built to protect the empire from northern invaders. The Great Wall stretches through the countryside over deserts, hills and plains for 8,851.8 kilometers.
Badaling was built in 1505 during the Ming Dynasty. This section of the Great Wall is the best preserved and most visited one. It is 7600 meters long and 1000 meters above sea level, commanding a strategic position in ancient times.
Spend two hours on the Great Wall. Cable car is optional to get the top to have a bird view of the wall.

Be transferred back to your hotel after the whole day tour.

Breakfast, Lunch

Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Capital Museum, Beijing - Taiyuan

Day 3.

Be picked up from hotel at 08:30 am.

Walk around on Tiananmen Square. Tiananmen Square is the largest public square in the world. Surrounded by many well-known cultural and political institutions, the square is the final resting place of Chairman Mao Zedong. The square has witnessed the founding of the People's Republic of China.

Then we will enter the Forbidden City from the north end of Tiananmen Square. Known as the Palace Museum, Forbidden City is a treasure house of Chinese cultural and historical relics. The palace was the exclusive domain of the imperial court for almost 500 years. As one of the World Cultural Relics, the palace consists of 90 palaces and courtyards, 980 buildings and 8,704 rooms.

Take a Chinese Herbal Medicine class for about 40 minutes before lunch.
Drugs that the Chinese medicine uses are usually plants, so it usually called Chinese herbal medicine. In Chinese people's process of fighting with the disease for thousands of years, rich medical knowledge was gradually accumulated through the practice and understanding. These medical knowledge be passed by apprentice dictation first, and then were written down in books, which helped the medical knowledge spread fast and farther.

Drive to restaurant to have lunch.

After lunch visit the Temple of Heaven. Built in 1420 during Ming Dynasty, Temple of Heaven is the best preserved and largest sacrificial building complex in the world. The emperor came to the temple every winter to pray for ample harvests and good weather. Strictly built on the basis of philosophical requirements, the temple in many ways features the relationship between Heaven and Earth.

Taste Chinese tea, enjoy Chinese tea ceremony and have a rest in a local tea house.
China is the hometown and birthplace of Chinese tea.
Being the national drinks of China, tea has a history of four to five thousand years.
Tea culture is one of the specific representative of Chinese culture.

Then visit the Capital Museum. The construction style of the Capital Museum is an integration between classical culture and modern features. The Museum contains three independent constructions, including the rectangular exhibition hall, the circular exhibition hall and the quadrate office and scientific research building. The exhibition items are divided into three categories: permanent exhibitions, exhibitions of fine artistic collections and temporary exhibitions.

Take the overnight soft berth train to Taiyuan, it takes about 10 hours.

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Taiyuan - Pingyao

Day 4.

Arrive in Taiyuan railway station on the morning, your local tour guide will meet you and drive to Pingyao.

Visit Qiao Family's compound, Shuanglin Monastery, Pingyao Ancient City Wall. The Ancient City Wall in Pingyao was originally built using rammed earth, and was rebuilt with bricks in 1370 during the reign of Emperor Hong Wu of the Ming Dynasty. The wall testifies to the profound influence of Confucianism in this region, as the 3,000 embrasures on the wall are said to represent the number of disciples of Confucius, and the 72 small watchtowers represent his 72 top disciples.


Transfer to your hotel.

Breakfast, Lunch

Pingyao - Taiyuan - Beijing

Day 5.

Pick you up from hotel at 08:30.

Pingyao is a county of Jinzhong City of Shanxi Province. It is one of the second National Historical and Cultural Cities in China. Pingyao is especially famous for its beef. Pingyao is the county with the most AAAA level tourism attractions in China. It is also called one of the 50 places in China which is most worthy to go for foreigners.

Visit the Ming - Qing Street, Ri Sheng Chang Financial House, Chenghuang Temple and the Tongxinggong ancient bank bodyguard establishment.

Drive back to Taiyuan, visit the Jinci Temple on the way.

Drive to railway station and take the overnight soft berth train back to Beijing.

Breakfast, Lunch

Beijing: Hutong, Summer Palace, Pearl Market, Lama Temple, Capital Museum

Day 6.

Arrive in Beijing, the guide will pick you up from railway station.
Be transferred to your hotel.
Pick you up from Hotel and visit Beijing Hutong. Hutongs are lanes or alleys formed by lines of Siheyuan (a compound with houses around a courtyard). Most of them were built during the Yuan (1206-1368), Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1908) dynasties surrounding the Forbidden City. Many famous operas and dramas are based on the themes of hutong life. Man-power rickshaw is arranged for you to feel the Hutong of Beijing.

Transfer to visit Summer Palace. Summer Palace was first built in 1750 by Emperor Qianlong in Qing Dynasty. It covers an area of 2.9 square kilometers, including 70,000 square meters of building space. Summer Palace perfectly combines the natural landscape of hills and open water with humankind works such as pavilions, halls, palaces and bridges. In 1998, UNESCO included the Summer Palace on its World Heritage List. Take sightseeing in this attraction for about one hour.



Go to a local restaurant to have lunch and a short rest.

After lunch, we will visit Lama Temple for one hour. As the biggest lamasery in Beijing, the Lama Temple was built in 1694. The temple contains 5 halls along a central axis plus three Memorial Archways. The Hall of Harmony and Peace is the main building of the temple.

Drive to visit the Capital Museum. The construction style of the Capital Museum is an integration between classical culture and modern features. The Museum contains three independent constructions, including the rectangular exhibition hall, the circular exhibition hall and the quadrate office and scientific research building. The exhibition items are divided into three categories: permanent exhibitions, exhibitions of fine artistic collections and temporary exhibitions.

Be transferred back to your hotel after the whole day tour.

Breakfast, Lunch

Departure

Day 7.

Transfer to airport for departure.

Breakfast