Beijing Food Discovery Tour

Welcome to Beijing! As the capital of China, Beijing has an area of 16,410.54 square kilometers, with a population of 21,893,095. Apart from being an ancient city, it is also a city with delicious foods. Delicacies such as Beijing roast duck, Chinese-style barbecue and stewed liver attract countless diners to come. Our tour guide will wait for you at the airport and then escort you to the hotel. Please take a good rest and get ready for the upcoming Beijing food tour!

Optional Activity:

After coming to Beijing, how can you not try the famous Beijing Roast Duck? Roast duck originated in the Southern and Northern Dynasties (420-589) and was a royal food. According to legend, the roast duck is derived from the precious species of Beijing duck. It is said that the breeding of this duck began about a thousand years ago. The most common way to eat Beijing Roast Duck is to eat it with sweet sauce, onion strips, and cucumber strips. You can use chopsticks to dip the sweet sauce, spread it on a special pancake, then put a few slices of roast duck and a few green onion strips as well as cucumber strips on it, then roll up the pancake and eat it. I believe that after you have tasted the authentic Beijing Roast Duck, you will never forget it!

Tian’anmen Square is in the center of Beijing. It is the largest city square in the world and can accommodate about 1 million people for grand celebration. On the square, there are many exquisite buildings and carvings. One conspicuous building you will see is the Tian’anmen Rostrum. It once was the main gate tower of the imperial city(the Forbidden City) during the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1636-1912) Dynasties, with five gates in total. This building is built in 1417 and covers an area of 4,800 square meters. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, strict regulations were made for people who could pass through the gates as well as the bridges in front of the gates. Generally, the middle gate was only allowed to pass through by the emperor and the emperor’s parents. Under some special situations, for example, on the emperor’s wedding day with his empress, the empress was also allowed to pass through the middle gate. Apart from the above situations, it was forbidden for anyone to pass through the middle gate, otherwise, they would be punished for a felony.

After visiting Tian’anmen Square, we will head to the Imperial Palace of Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Forbidden City (closed each Monday). In the past, there were lots of royal concubines, royal families, etc. lived in the Forbidden City. And many stories about them have come down. For example, the story of Zhenfei Well (Concubine Zhen Well) was widely circulated. In 1900, Beijing was attacked and Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Guangxu fled in panic. Before leaving, Cixi ordered one of her underlings to push Concubine Zhen into the well because she was very disgusted with her. After that, this well was named after Concubine Zhen.

After visiting the Forbidden City, we will head to Jingshan Park. Jingshan Park was established in 1928. It was a royal park in the past. The total area of the park is 230,000 square meters and the flower lawn covers an area of 1,100 square meters. There are more than 1,000 ancient pines and cypresses in the park. Besides, tens of thousands of peonies and other flowers are planted here. This royal park has also become one of the most beautiful places in Beijing. After coming here, you might as well find a place to sit down and enjoy the beauty of nature quietly.

After lunch, we will head to the Hutong near Shichahai. Hutong refers to the relatively small streets and alleys among traditional Chinese houses. Therefore, visiting the Hutong is also the best way to gain insight into the real-life of the old Beijing residents. Besides, you don’t have to worry about traveling a long way, because we will arrange a rickshaw for you. In addition, we will also visit a family in the Hutong and after that, you will have a deeper understanding of the daily life of old Beijing residents.

After visiting the Hutong, we will head to the Summer Palace. The palace is a royal garden during the Qing Dynasty in China, covering an area of 3.009 square kilometers. The corridor in the garden, is the longest corridor in the world with a length of 728 meters. It is divided into 273 parts with 548 pillars. Besides, it is also a colorful gallery, and there are more than 14,000 paintings on each beam. Furthermore, no two paintings are same. Admiring these paintings is a good way to have a glimpse of Chinese history and culture. After the tour, the guide will escort you to the hotel.

Jingshan Park

Summer Palace

Today we will continue our gourmet tour. After tasting the delicacies in Beijing, do you want to make them by yourself? In this tour, we will arrange a cooking class for you this morning, and the whole class will last about 2 or 3 hours. I believe that when you taste the food made by yourself, you will be very excited!

In the afternoon, we will head to Mutianyu Great Wall. It is located 80 kilometers north of Beijing, and it takes about one hour and 40 minutes by car to get there. We will take the cable car to the top of the mountain, and then begin our Great Wall journey. When facing such a magnificent Great Wall, would you think about how the huge stones used to build the Great Wall were transported here? In fact, they were all carried by people. During the construction of the Great Wall, about 100,000 men died for this fabulous project. It was the hard work of these ancients that created this world-famous miracle.

Our tour guide will escort you to the hotel after the tour. When we return to downtown Beijing, we will pass by Birds’ Nest and Water Cube, which are the venues for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. When you pass by these two buildings, you can appreciate their unique shapes, especially the bird’s nest, which is like a real huge bird’s nest. I believe you will be impressed by the architect’s superb design.

Mutianyu Great Wall

Birds’ Nest

You can tour freely today! We recommend you to go to the 798 Art District, Silk Street Market, Wangfujing Street, and Sanlitun Area. These are all famous shopping districts in Beijing. You can buy some souvenirs in these places to take back to your family and friends. In addition, you can also go to Huguosi Snack Street to start a food tour. Snacks here are inexpensive, delicious and rich in variety. It is a good chance to taste almost all the traditional Chinese food! It is highly recommended to have a bowl of stewed liver. It is the special Beijing snack famous all over China.

Sanlitun Area

Silk Street Market

Today our tour is over, the tour guide will see you off at the airport according to your flight time. Look forward to your next China tour with us!

Author: Ziyang Zhang

Proofreader: Yan Liu