3-Day Beijing Highlights Tour with Mutianyu Great Wall

Visit Tiananmen Square, a large city square in the centre of Beijing, China. It is named after the Tiananmen Gate (Gate of Heavenly Peace) located to its north, separating it from the Forbidden City. It has great cultural significance, as it was the site of several important events in Chinese history.

Continue to the Forbidden City, the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. Located in the centre of Beijing, it now houses the Palace Museum. For almost 500 years, it served as the home of emperors and their households, as well as the ceremonial and political centre of the Chinese government.

Then visit Jingshan Park, a green space in the heart of Beijing and home to one of the city's few hills. It was made from the earth dug out to create the Forbidden City's moat. Covering about 57 acres (230,000 square meters), Jingshan Park once served as an imperial garden during the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties. It is a great place to enjoy a bird's-eye view of the Forbidden City if the weather is clear.

Explore the Old Beijing Hutongs. In Beijing, hutongs are alleys formed by lines of siheyuan, traditional courtyard residences. Many neighbourhoods were created by joining one siheyuan to another to form a hutong, and then joining one hutong to another. The word hutong is also used to refer to such neighbourhoods. Since the mid-20th century, their number has dropped dramatically as many were demolished to make way for new roads and buildings. More recently, some hutongs have been designated as protected areas in an attempt to preserve this aspect of Chinese cultural history.

In the evening, enjoy acrobatics as acrobats and gymnasts from throughout China perform at the theatre, presenting breathtaking routines of flexibility involving chairs, bikes, jumping hoops, spinning plates, and human strength.

Visit the Mutianyu Great Wall. This section is a little farther from Beijing than the most popular section at Badaling, but it does not get as crowded. It is fully restored, and there are handrails to help you on the very steep parts. The views are spectacular.

Then visit the Beijing Olympic Garden, which was designed for use throughout the 2008 Summer Olympics and Paralympics. It is shaped like a Bird's Nest, hence the name Bird's Nest.

Then visit the Lama Temple, where a series of beautiful pavilions comprise this Mongolian-Tibetan yellow-sect temple. It features an impressive fifty-four-foot (25 m) high Buddha carved from one piece of Tibetan sandalwood.

Visit the Temple of Heaven, built in 1420 with a total area of 270 acres. It is the largest building for religious worship in China. Originally used by the Ming and Qing emperors to pay homage to heaven, the temple also heard prayers from locals seeking a year of rich harvests.

Continue to the Summer Palace, which was once a summer retreat for emperors. This 290-acre park is still a retreat for the crowd-weary tourist, who can relax here or stroll around ancient pavilions, mansions, temples, bridges, and a huge lake, stopping occasionally at a shop or tea house. This much-loved summer retreat of the imperial families features lovely landscaped gardens, halls, pavilions, and corridors set around the lake and rivers in natural harmony.