1. At round 8:00am you will be picked up from your hotel by your English-speaking guide, and by private van we will set out for the Mutianyu Great Wall, and the drive should take about 1.5 hours.
2. We will arrive at the Mutianyu Great Wall. As one of the best-preserved parts of the Great Wall, the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall used to serve as the northern barrier defending the capital and the imperial tombs. First built in the mid-6th century during the Northern Qi, Mutianyu Great Wall is older than the Badaling section of the Great Wall. In the Ming dynasty, under the supervision of General Xu Da, construction of the present wall began on the foundation of the wall of Northern Qi. In 1404, a pass was built in the wall. In 1569, the Mutianyu Great Wall was rebuilt and till today most parts of it are well preserved. Compared with other sections of Great Wall, the Mutianyu Great Wall possesses unique characteristics in its construction. Watchtowers are densely placed along this section of the Great Wall - 22 watchtowers on this 2,250-meter-long stretch. The Mutianyu Pass consists of 3 watchtowers, one big in the center and two smaller on both sides. Standing on the same terrace, the three watchtowers are connected to each other inside and compose a rarely seen structure among all sections of Great Wall. To get on the wall, you can either walk up or take the cable car, but on the way down you can take a toboggan ride, which is a lot of fun and highly recommended!
3. After about 2-3 hours of trekking along the wall, we will take a break for a Chinese lunch, and then we’ll drive to the northwest of Beijing to visit the Summer Palace.
 4. The Summer Palace has the largest royal park and being well preserved, the Summer Palace is ranked amongst the most noted and classical gardens of the world. In 1998, UNESCO listed it as one of the World Heritage Sites. Like most of the gardens of Beijing, it could not elude the rampages of the Anglo-French allied force of 1860 and was destroyed by fire. In 1888, Empress Dowager Cixi embezzled navy funds to reconstruct it for her own benefit, changing its name to Summer Palace (Yiheyuan). She spent most of her later years there, dealing with state affairs and entertaining. Highlights not to be missed are climbing Longevity Hill, viewing the Empress Dowager Cixi’s extravagant Marble Boat, and talking a walk down
Suzhou Jie, a canal meant to resemble the beautiful river city of
Suzhou.
5. After our tour of the Summer Palace, you’ll be dropped off back at your hotel, at no later than 6:00pm, allowing you to have time for dinner and anything else you’d like to do in the evening.
Mutianyu Toboggan (German technology) |
Optional Toboggan Run at Mutianyu
(extra)
You'll surely be intrigued about taking the toboggan down
from Great Wall to the entrance gate down the hill. You can
ride as fast or as slow as you want. However, it is also a
driving test. One person to a toboggan, you have a little
handle with which you press down to go faster and pull up to
stop. But if you are not intentionally pushing it, it will
slow down anyway. "It is funny when we Westerners are on
there, because we like to go a bit quicker than the Chinese
(read a lot quicker) and you hear the shrill voices of
locals shouting "brake! brake! Slow down!" It is hilarious.
Go on it even if it is just to hear that." --taylorstonebridge on LonelyPlanet
People at age 70 have managed the riding successfully. Can
you? |
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