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Forbidden City Layover Tour: Explore Royal Palaces
4.6
9 Ratings
Beijing
Make the most of your layover in Beijing with a 4-hour tour to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. Explore one of the world’s most magnificent palace complexes, and learn about the fascinating history from your knowledgeable guide. Perfect for layovers of 9 hours or longer.
Make the most of your layover in Beijing with a 4-hour tour to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. Explore one of the world’s most magnificent palace complexes, and learn about the fascinating history from your knowledgeable guide. Perfect for layovers of 9 hours or longer.
Duration:
4 hours
Cancellation:
24 hours
Highlights
- Tiananmen Square (Tiananmen Guangchang) - Tour guide will show you around the Tiananmen Square.Tiananmen Square, also known as Tian’an Men Square can be translated to mean the Square of The Gate of Heavenly Peace. It is situated in the centre of Beijing City. It is the original gate of the Imperial Palace (more commonly known as the Forbidden…
- Tiananmen Square (Tiananmen Guangchang) - Tour guide will show you around the Tiananmen Square.Tiananmen Square, also known as Tian’an Men Square can be translated to mean the Square of The Gate of Heavenly Peace. It is situated in the centre of Beijing City. It is the original gate of the Imperial Palace (more commonly known as the Forbidden City). It is the largest city square in the world, encompassing 44 hectares (108.7acres). It is 880 metres from north to south and 500 metres from east to west, big enough to hold over half a million people!
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Forbidden City-The Palace Museum - You will be guided to see the whole Forbidden City for 1.5 hours. Forbidden City used to be the residence for the Emperors (24 emperors in total) in the Ming (1368-1644) & Qing (1644-1911) dynasties and occupies 72 hectares (180 acres).
( Kind notice: You can require a stop for food if you would be hungry during the tour-pay extra)
What's Included
- English-speaking guide service
- Private vehicle with driver
- Local tax included
- Complimentary bottled water in vehicle
- Admission ticket (first entrance)
- English-speaking guide service
- Private vehicle with driver
- Local tax included
- Complimentary bottled water in vehicle
- Admission ticket (first entrance)
What's Not Included
- Any Meals
- Gratuities (RMB100-200 if you enjoy our service)
- Any Meals
- Gratuities (RMB100-200 if you enjoy our service)
Additional Information
You will visit the most beautiful royal palace group in the world. Tour guide will provide some history background that make your trip more impressive. You will be dropped off at airport on time for flight connection.
Note: Making such trips possible, your layover time has to be at least 9 hours or longer (between two flights); alternative plan of visit…
You will visit the most beautiful royal palace group in the world. Tour guide will provide some history background that make your trip more impressive. You will be dropped off at airport on time for flight connection.
Note: Making such trips possible, your layover time has to be at least 9 hours or longer (between two flights); alternative plan of visit at Tiananmen Square, Jingshan park to let you get bird’s eye view to the whole Forbidden city in case that the Forbidden city would be fully booked.
- A current valid passport is required for security check to Tiananmen area
- Forbidden city opens from 8:30am to 3:30pm from Tuesday to Sunday, so this tour is not available if your flight arrival time is later than 12:00pm, because it take about 2 hours to get out of airport and around 1 hour drive to downtown from airport.
- It require at least 9 more hours layover between the two flights to make this tour availabe.
- If you are not able to go through customs for any reasons, please take your own responsibility. There is no refund for the same day cancellation
- Visa Process: 1) Arrive in Beijing and get off the plane. 2) Follow signs to baggage claim, then you will find China immigration inspection. 3) Apply 24-144 hours visa(fill out a long white form beforehand) 4) After get visa, walk back to the regular line for immigration clearance. 5) Walk outside baggage claim to find your driver. 6) Driver will hold your name sign outside baggage claim.
- Since it is difficult to book tickets for the Palace Museum after the epidemic, as only 30,000 tickets are sold every day, so we will try our best to help you get tickets. If we really can’t get tickets for you, we will take you to Tiananmen Square and Temple of Heaven as an alternative, thank you for your understanding.
Location
Tiananmen Square (Tiananmen Guangchang)
West Changan Street, Dongcheng District,
Cancellation Policy
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
Customer Ratings
4.6
(9 Ratings)
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Nita_p
Oct 25, 2023
Worth it - Very friendly. Knowledgeable guide. Excellent English. Beautiful buildings and history. Goes at your pace.
Review provided by Viator
Texaninindo
Jan 10, 2020
Great Experience - This was our second tour with the company and it was fantastic. Sherry picked us up promptly at the airport, taught us quite a bit on the ride, and gave us a wonderful tour through Forbidden City. She explained so many interesting facts and took us through many places we may have missed on our own. It was nice having a driver as well because he picked us up on the other side so we didn’t have to walk all the way back. Highly recommend both this and a Great Wall tour if your time allows!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Cruiser32608140332
Dec 16, 2019
Forbidden city tour - This tour was very well organized. All involved were extremely helpful and considerate, and Sherry the tour guide went over and above from what was expected from her. She taught us a great deal of her city and her culture, and conducted a superb tour.
As we were transfer people we did not have alot of time, but organized it on line from our hotel and were picked up at our hotel and met Sherry on route. Excellent.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Samuelgutierrez
Nov 18, 2019
Forbidden city Tour - Sherry was our tour guide and she sure was knowledgeable!! Her and the driver were on time from picking us up at the airport and were super nice. We also asked for jackets prior to tour via email, which they provided. Not only did my wife and I feel very safe with driver and tour guide, but had a lot of fun! The car was very clean, looks brand new! Highly recommend. Also, pick up and drop off from airport was included in price, which was very convenient.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Rhtabani
Nov 14, 2019
Trip to great Wall of China - Me and my wife took a trip to great Wall with Tony the guide in Beijing. He made our trip very enjoyable and comfortable. On our way back he took us to an automatic halal Chinese restaurant for soup and BBQ. In our next trip to Beijing we will use this company and also refer to our friends and families.
Thank you Tony.
Rizwan & Nausheen Tabani
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Angelika
Apr 19, 2019
Perfect tour for a very long layover in Beijing - I had a 22 hours layover in Beijing and booked this tour to escape the airport and see some of the beautiful things of the surrounding of the city.
It was a day full of walking, good exercise btw after a long flight:). We spent a few hours in the forbidden city. As it was very warm and I was a little bit tired we had a short coffee break there.
After lunch which we had in a very good restaurant we went for another long walk at the summer palace.
I got a lot of informationen about the chinese history and about the places we had been.
My tourguide Michael was always kind, caring and focused on my welfare.
I would highly recommend this tour if you are interested in seeing nice places, getting plenty of informationen and having a great exercise in between your flights.
Have fun:)!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Eliza
Jan 17, 2019
Great experience of a lifetime! - I am so glad I took this layover trip rather than rot with nothing to do for 13 hours in the airport. Jessica was a very good private tour guide and friend, explaining the culture and significance of the places we went to, and diligently took pictures of me. Then we had lunch at a nearby steamed dumpling place, I bought some goodies at a sweet shop. Time flew pretty fast after that. Had more than enough time to get back to the airport where she led me to the shuttle that connects to the terminal. Blus, the driver, was our efficient driver. Many thanks to them and Viator! It was money well spent.
Review provided by Viator
Justinpj5286vv
Dec 7, 2018
Great tour! Well worth it during a layover - This was a terrific way to spend my long Beijing airport layover. As soon as I registered for the tour, I received an email with very specific directions on how to obtain the necessary visa and then locate my guide. Special thanks to Jessica for being very knowledgeable about Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City- she knew lots of little details that really enriched the experience. The entire airport pickup and drop-off went without a hitch.
Note: for anyone visiting in the winter, dress VERY warmly, including long underwear. The windchill factor is not to be underestimated.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Z891xjclarag
Nov 30, 2023
Disappointment - Can‘t recommend this tour! We were really looking forward to see the forbidden city but unfortunately our flight was delayed. After 2:30 hours delay and the crew telling us it will be at least another hour we contacted the tour straight away. We asked kindly for refund because we can’t make the tour. We had a originally layover of 9hours but with the 3hours delay it won’t be enough time. The agency just told us no you can’t cancel it anymore. I was really hoping for a better customer service because we told them straight away 11 hours in advance. Really disappointing!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
