One Day In Beijing

The Summer Palace, hutongs, a rickshaw ride, Tienanmen Square, and the Temple of Heaven were all stops during our first day in Beijing. It turned out to be NON STOP!!
We awoke early. Partly because we were struggling with the 14 hour time change and partly because we had to be on a tour bus at 8:00 a.m. with 40 other people!
Originally, we’d planned to take this private tour of Beijing. It has great reviews on Trip Advisor and Viator. Jeff and I ended up cancelling the private tour and committing to the optional day tour with Rewards Travel China for two reasons. One, I wasn’t feeling well and the tour picked us up and dropped us off everywhere we needed to go. I didn’t have any extra energy to try to figure out the subway and our guide, Amy, said it would be tough to get a taxi. Two, Amy called an audible. For some reason she changed what we were going to do, and it threw off the plans we’d made for the three days in Beijing.
According to the itinerary emailed to us before our trip, we were scheduled to go to the Forbidden City and a Chinese Herbal Institute on the morning of our first full day in Beijing. After an included lunch we’d then tour the summer palace.
Instead we went to the Summer Palace, then the hutong area of Beijing, and finally the Temple of Heaven. The tour was complete with a rickshaw ride and lunch in a hutong home. We paid an additional $79 per person for the hutong tour, lunch, and Temple of Heaven tour. We also forked over another $65 per person to tour the Summer Palace. Anyone who wanted to one of these tours, basically needed to pay to do the other one too. If you didn’t, you were left on the bus while the rest of the group explored. In my opinion, each of these tours are worth the price instead of wasting time just sitting on the bus. If you didn’t prepay for these, you can pay your guide the day of the tour, which is what we ended up doing.
We arrived at the Summer Palace. Outside of the gate it was impressive, but as soon as we walked through it, it’s like we stepped back in time! It’s name literally means “the Garden of Restful Peace” in Chinese. It’s known as the grandest garden in the country.

Construction on the Summer Palace began in 1750, during the Qing Dynasty. It was the summer home for the emperor and members of the imperial family. During the winter they lived in the Forbidden City. While this is called the Summer Palace, there are hundreds of buildings, palaces, temples, shops and walkways on this sprawling ground.

We entered through the impressive East Palace Gate and walked past building after building as Amy explained what happened in each. The first building we came to turned out to be the Hall of Benevolence and Longevity. This is where the emperor handled government business.

The buildings weren’t open, but we looked in the windows. The rooms inside were furnished as they would have been during the time of the imperial family.
Our trip to Beijing was at the beginning of December. The grounds of the Summer Palace were pretty, but we could only imagine how beautiful the area would be in spring and summer.
Amy shared all kinds of stories, legends, and history about the palace — and the people who lived there — as we walked. We each had a small headset to wear so we didn’t have any problem hearing her stories.
The only issue we ran into is that there were a lot of other people at the palace. Our group got split up and it was confusing to figure out if Amy was in front of us or behind us.

At one point as we walked, we heard people singing. Their voices floated over the palace grounds. It was amazing to hear. Amy said that they were locals. When it’s warm outside, they gather to do tai chi. Since it was so cold, they instead gathered to chant and sing the country’s old songs.
We continued to walk along the corridor and we were rewarded with a spectacular view of the Temple of Buddhist Virtue. The temple is in the center of the palace.

It sits on the Hill of Longevity. Glance the other direction and you will see a fantastic gate. The emperor ordered the gate to be built around 1752 to welcome visitors to the grand palace.
Amy gave us time to explore the grounds of the palace and wander back to the entrance.
Amazingly all 40 people in our group arrived at the meeting point on time! (I mention this because it paid off and we squeezed in an unscheduled stop after lunch.)
Back on the bus and we headed toward the hutong area of Beijing. This is one thing that was definitely on my bucket list! I am glad that the Rewards Travel China tour included the stop as an option.

The hutongs are basically old homes separated by narrow alleys. Like in many other areas of China, multiple generations live in each home. Many of the hutongs have been destroyed to make way for more modern buildings. The ones that remain are now protected by the country and are actually expensive to own.

We were told that the people living in the area actually have to apply to be able to host tourists. Amy told us that if we just walked up and knocked on a random door in the hutongs, the people inside wouldn’t open it.
The tour bus was too large to fit through the streets where we were going. Instead we boarded rickshaws to travel the several miles to our approved hutong.

The rickshaw ride was cold but nice. Our driver had a blanket to cover our laps to make the ride more enjoyable. (And yes, I felt guilty as he trucked out butts to our destination.)
When we arrived at the hutong, we went downstairs. It was set up almost like a restaurant. There were enough round tables and chairs set up to allow all of our large group to sit.
Once we were settled, our hosts started hauling in bowl after bowl of delicious homemade food. We enjoyed everything from a simple, warm, potato and broth soup, and rice.

Ou

r hosts also made noodles right in front of us. Then they made even more delicious dishes for us to enjoy! Everything was made in the home’s tiny first-floor kitchen. We didn’t see it until we toured the home as we left. I have no idea how they were able to make enough food to feed more than 40 people in such a small space!
After lunch, we walked through a little more of the hutongs. Make sure you have your camera ready. You’re going to want to snap pictures at every turn.
After our short walk, we arrived back at our rickshaws and enjoyed the ride back to our tour bus. While it’s not customary to tip for many services in China, Amy did say that we could tip our rickshaw drivers without insulting them, but that it wasn’t necessary.
At this point, Amy checked the time and announced we could make an extra stop. One that wasn’t on the itinerary and one that other buses wouldn’t be making.

She said that we had time to go to Tienanmen Square! This announcement made the day even better. It was one of the big reasons we’d planned to take a private tour. I was surprised when the landmark wasn’t included in the tours offered by Rewards Travel China. I remember watching the coverage of the deadly protests and then the tank standoff as a little kid. Since then I’ve studied it and written about it. Since we saved time at the Summer Palace, and a little more during the hutong stop, we were able to squeeze in the stop.
As we drove, Amy called someone and learned that we were going to need to hurry if we wanted to make the stop. Apparently the Canadian Prime Minister was in town and the square would close for a ceremony to welcome him to China.

She pushed us along and we arrived at the square in time. We all took selfies and pictures while standing in the middle of the landmark. Like most locations, Tieanaman Square wasn’t exactly like I’d imagined. I mean the square was there. There was the portrait of Chairman Mao on the wall in front of the Forbidden City, but something was different. I finally figured it out. There weren’t any soldiers. No military equipment. The square was almost empty. I think most of the pictures and video I’ve seen of the Square included a military presence of some kind.
I mean, there were barricades set up for crowd control and to keep cars out of certain areas, just like at every other major landmark in any other city. And there were a handful of police, but no members of the military. Just several handfuls of tourists like us mugging for cameras.
After our short stop at Tienanmen Square, we headed back to the bus. As Amy herded us back on board and started counting we realized we were missing at least five people. Amy seemed to be a little confused about how many of us were with her for the stop. She kept saying, “OK. Everyone here. Let’s go.” We stopped her more than once and pointed out that several people hadn’t arrived.

PRO TIP: BE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOURSELF. MAKE SURE YOU ARE ON THE BUS WHEN YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE THERE SO YOU DON’T GET LEFT BEHIND.

The rest of our group eventually showed up and we headed toward our next stop.

Two things captivated us when we arrived at the Temple of Heaven. First of all, it’s beautiful. But we couldn’t believe how cold and windy it was around the building!
Bundle up if you end up here in the late fall or winter like we did!
Amy provided history and some perspective about the temple. Then we had a little time to explore and take pictures. This wrapped up the sightseeing for the day.
As we filed back onto the bus, we learned that our group would be heading in different directions for the evening. Some people paid for an optional evening banquet that included Peking Duck. The tour is an additional $35 per person. You can book it before you leave on your trip, or the day of the banquet.
There were enough people who did not book the banquet that our bus driver took us back to the hotel. We were not left to wait until the banquet was over for everyone to head back to the hotel. This is one of the big complaints I did read about when I researched Rewards Travel China … and it will play a roll later on in some of the smaller cities.
Originally we’d planned to do something different than everyone else with us on the tour. We booked this private evening foodie tour of one of Beijing’s famous markets. I was as excited to take pictures of the market as I was to actually see the strange food it offered.
Unfortunately we ran into two issues. First our tour of the Temple of Heaven went far later than I expected. We couldn’t find a taxi and didn’t think we’d have time to figure out the subway to get to the meeting point in time. I wasn’t feeling any better either, so we ended up cancelling the tour of the market. It does have great reviews, however, if you are looking for something to do while in Beijing! (And I’m jealous if you go!)
With most of our group either at the banquet, or heading to a restaurant near our hotel, we said goodnight and headed to our room for hot showers and retired early.
If I took this tour again, I’d probably go ahead an pay for the evening banquet and show. Some people who went really liked it. Others weren’t as impressed, but if you only plan to visit the city once, why not experience as much as possible?