The first stop led by the guide through “Gate of Heavenly Peace” is Forbidden City. HQChinaTours would like to offer this day tour beginning from the rostrum with one of the best views of Tiananmen Square, the largest city center square in the world. Tiananmen Square stretches 880 meters from north to south and 500 meters from east to west, making for a total area of 440,000 square meters. Until January 1, 1988, when the rostrum was opened to the public, this was a view reserved only for state leaders. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the emperors announced imperial edicts from here to officials kneeling below. Once the edicts were removed from their gilded, phoenix shaped box, they were copied and announced all over the country. Another important political event took place here on October 1, 1949. On that day, Chairman Mao stood here on the rostrum and proclaimed the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

The Purple Forbidden City contains the imperial palaces of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Twenty-four emperors, fourteen in the Ming and ten in the Qing Dynasties, ruled here. It covers an area of 72 hectares. It is rectangular in shape, 961 meters long from north to south and 753 meters wide from east to west. There are 9999.5 rooms in the whole ancient Chinese architecture complex. There are 9999.5 rooms because Chinese used to believe that only the palace for the ruler in the heaven could have ten thousand rooms. But not all of the rooms are open to the public. For visiting the public parts, 2 or 2.5 hours are needed. 

Morning half day tour includes the Temple of Heaven, which was built in 1420 during a time when many other important structures were constructed in Beijing. Emperors of the Ming and Qing Dynasties visited the Temple of Heaven to worship heaven and pray for an abundant harvest. This temple was for imperial use only, however, it is a public park today. The park spans 1,700 meters from east to west, 1,600 meters from north to south, and covers about 273 hectares. It is one of the largest parks in Beijing. All day long, you can see a lot of local folks in the park doing exercises, singing, dancing, flying kites or something like that. 

12:30pm, it is time for lunch when you finish seeing the Forbidden City. Perhaps you do not need to have lunch because of your habits, but it is important for our guide and driver. If they were hungry, they might have no more energy to take tours. We would like to offer Beijing day tour with lunch in a local restaurant, which is included in the given price. We also consider that in this way you can learn a lot more about Chinese cuisines during your stay in China. 2 hours are needed for having lunch and driving to the next stop, the Summer Palace.  

The Summer Palace lies about 20 kilometers northwest of Beijing. It is up to now the best preserved and the largest imperial gardens in China. The main features of the Summer Palace are Kunming Lake and Longevity Hill. It has an area of 290 hectares, approximately the size of seven Tiananmen Square. It also boasts more than 3,000 bays of various buildings in different palace and garden architectural styles. Kunming Lake consists of three fourths of the whole garden. 1.5 or 2 hours are needed for the visit to the Summer Palace.