Beijing | Our Itinerary

Now that are Shanghai portion of our vacation is wrapped up, let's move on to Beijing! We took the high speed train from Shanghai to Beijing and we were pretty pleased with our decision (flights from Shanghai to Beijing are notoriously delayed).  We bought the first class seats (I would recommend this to all foreigners), had plenty of room to spread out, Ev's slept for more than half of the 5 hour train ride! and we were there before we knew it! We got in fairly late (for traveling with toddlers) a little after 9pm and by the time we got to our hotel room it was after 10pm! The very best thing we did was hire a private tour guide for three days to show us around Beijing.  Before we left, he came up with the following itinerary which sounded pretty good to us so bright and early Saturday morning he met us at our hotel and we were off :).

Saturday

08:00: Depart hotel for Beijing Planning Exhibition Hall

08:30---10:00: Beijing Planning Exhibition Hall

(In this place you will see a huge layout model of Beijing city. It has more details, even you can find your hotel and window of your room.   We can watch a short movie about history of old Beijing, it's about 15 minutes. People rebuilt old Beijing in computer.  It's the best way to know history of Beijing.)

10:10---10:40: Tian'anmen Square

10:50---12:50: National Museum of China

13:10---14:00:  Lunch

14:00---16:00: Forbidden City

16:10---16:40: Coal Hill Park (There is a big hill right behind the Forbidden City. If you climb up the hill, you will have a great bird's eye view of the whole imperial palace.)

17:00---18:00: visit Wangfujing Street (the most famous walking street in China)

Sunday

08:00: Depart hotel for Temple of Heaven

08:30---10:00: Temple of Heaven

10:50: Olympic Park

12:00---13:00: Lunch at a Chinese restaurant

13:40---16:00: Summer Palace

17:00 Back to Hotel

Monday

07:00:  Depart hotel for the Great Wall

09:00---12:00: To climb the Great Wall at Mutianyu Section Great Wall

12:00---13:00: Lunch at a Chinese restaurant

13:00---15:00: If you like we can visit a local orchard and get some fruits and nuts

16:00: Check in at Beijing Capital International Airport

Whew! I am tired just looking at this itinerary again!! Ready or not, here we go - first stop, Beijing Exhibition Hall.