6 Days Private Beijing and Zhangjiajie Tour

After breakfast, your guide and the driver will meet you at your hotel lobby and provide a smooth ride to your first destination, Tiananmen Square. As a venue holding major national celebrations and military parades, the square is surrounded by many iconic buildings, such as the National Museum and the Monument to the People’s Heroes. At the northern end sits the imposing Tiananmen Tower, guarded by a pair of majestic stone lions. Introduced to China around 2,000 years ago, lions have gradually become the symbol of imperial authority, which is why you can see stone or bronze lion statues scattered in the ancient imperial palaces. They also evoke Napoleon’s famous remark: “China is a sleeping lion. When she wakes, she will shake the world.”

Passing through the Tiananmen Tower, let’s welcome today’s climax, the Forbidden City, a living chronicle of China’s imperial history from the 15th to 20th centuries. As the world’s largest and best-preserved wooden architectural complex, it is ranked among the world’s top five palaces alongside the Palace of Versailles and Buckingham Palace. Symmetry aesthetics is the most harmonious melody of its layout, which is organized along a north-south central axis. In traditional Chinese cosmology, this axis was viewed as a sacred passage connecting heaven and earth, with the “Son of Heaven”, the emperor, residing at its heart. Thus, the Three Great Halls, the palace’s political center, are solemnly aligned along this line, reflecting the supreme imperial power in harmony with cosmic order. Leaving the palace from its northern gate, let’s enter Jingshan Park at its opposite. Climb up to its hilltop, and the panoramic view of the Forbidden City with golden roofs and crimson walls will unfold in front of you like a painted scroll. 

In the afternoon, let’s move on to the Temple of Heaven, the largest existing imperial religious building complex, which perfectly embodies the ancient Chinese cosmological principle of “round heaven and square earth.” Upon entering, the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, a large circular building with three layers of blue glazed tile roofs, mainly playing a role as its name suggests, will immediately catch your eyes. Also, follow our guide to the Circular Mound Altar, where the emperors used to worship heaven on Winter Solstice. At its center lies a marble disc, which is believed to amplify sound so that the emperor’s prayers could reach the Heaven. To this day, visitors still line up to stand on this very stone and make their own wishes. 

At the end of the day, your guide and the driver will escort you back to your hotel.

Meals: Western buffet breakfast

In the morning, your guide and the driver will pick you up from your hotel for a scenic drive to the Mutianyu Great Wall in suburban Beijing. With the included round-trip cable car, you can easily reach the “spine” of this giant stone dragon. Known as the most beautiful and the best-preserved part of the Great Wall, Mutianyu is a paradise for shutterbugs. When speaking of the Great Wall, you may also recall the Germanic Wall of the Roman Empire at the other end of Eurasia. While the Germanic Wall served as a private boundary for nobility, the Great Wall of China was built as a “fence” protecting a shared homeland. It kept out the arrows of nomadic tribes, yet allowed the flow of outstanding foreign cultures, such as Buddhism, to enrich Chinese civilization. Standing on the Great Wall, the British scholar Joseph Needham (1900-1995 AD) once remarked that the Great Wall, standing as one of humanity’s greatest geographical landmarks, is a testament that true defense is not about isolation, but rather a bridge for dialogue between civilizations.
► FYI: For adventure seekers, a chairlift up and toboggan down are also available. Please let your guide know if you are interested. 

After a buffet lunch, we’ll return to the city center, stopping on the way for photos at the National Stadium, the iconic steel “Bird’s Nest.” After that, dive into authentic Beijing culture with a rickshaw ride through the old Hutong alleys. If skyscrapers are the flesh of Beijing, Hutong alleys are like veins connecting traditional compounds with contemporary communities. To the sound of the rickshaw bell, you may come across hawkers selling rock candy gourds, outdoor barbers, or repairmen on bicycles shouting about repairing furniture, all of which are scenes the same as it was decades or even a hundred years ago. Besides, go deep into a traditional courtyard and pay a family visit to gain a basic understanding of ordinary Beijingers’ lifestyle. 

At the end of the day, your guide and the driver will escort you back to your hotel.

Meals: Western buffet breakfast, Buffet lunch

Accompanied by your guide and driver, start today with a delightful encounter with giant pandas in the Panda Hall of Beijing Zoo. We’ve scheduled your visit for the morning when the pandas are most active, so you can observe their playful behaviors up close. These black-and-white furballs, looking like roly-poly rice balls with limbs, lean against logs, frolic with one another, or sway lazily in their hammocks while munching on bamboo.

Then, conclude your Beijing sightseeing at the Summer Palace, a UNESCO-honored imperial garden. Based on Kunming Lake and Longevity Hill, it was originally commissioned by Emperor Qianlong (1736-1796 AD) as a birthday gift for his mother. Here, you’ll surely be amazed by China’s longest corridor, which is adorned with painted beams describing flowers, birds, mountains, or character stories. Throughout the grounds, you’ll also admire numerous classical pavilions, towers, and archways.

In the late afternoon, your guide and the driver will escort you to the airport for a 2.5-hour flight to Zhangjiajie. Upon arrival, the local guide and the driver will pick you up and help you check into your hotel near the core scenic area of Zhangjiajie that we’ll visit tomorrow. 

Meals: Western buffet breakfast

Meet with your guide and the driver at your hotel lobby, and begin your immersive journey through Zhangjiajie National Forest Park. 

★ What to Expect: 

Our itinerary is thoughtfully designed to cover four core scenic areas in one day, whereas some operators may visit only two or three. Besides park admission, our service includes all cable cars, Bailong Elevator, and shuttle buses, so you can enjoy the most spectacular views with minimal physical effort.

Once you arrive at the park, the first surprise will be the world’s highest cliffside Bailong Elevator, which offers an unforgettable sightseeing experience in just 88 seconds. As it smoothly lifts you to the summit, a large number of peaks rise straight up, like soldiers lining up before you. Every second your view will be a little more open, and the shifting scenery is so breathtaking that you won’t want to blink. More than a name card of Zhangjiajie, the elevator is also like a time machine, passing through 17 distinct rock layers that reveal nearly 400 million years of Earth’s geological history.

At the summit, let’s enter Yuanjiajie Scenic Area, where towering quartz-sandstone pillars will give you an illusion of being on the Pandora Planet in the film “Avatar”. Here, you’ll see the real-life inspiration for the floating mountain, the Heaven and Earth Column, which is believed to separate heaven and earth in ancient Chinese mythology. Following the global success of “Avatar”, it was renamed “Hallelujah Mountain”. While this brought a surge of global tourism, many locals still cherish the original name for the deep Chinese cultural heritage it represents.

After lunch, follow your guide onto the park’s eco-friendly shuttle to Tianzai Mountain. Here, jagged stone peaks formed by hundreds of millions of years of water erosion and weathering can really be called masterpieces of nature. Among them, the Flower Fairy Peak is easily recognized by the basket‑like rock at its side. According to a legend, a Tujia girl who deeply loved the local king was sacrificed in war. She held a flower basket and lovingly looked in the direction of the king’s martyrdom for countless years, and eventually became this very stone peak. After descending by cable car, let’s enjoy a hike along the Golden Whip Stream. This 5-mile bluestone path winds through a deep valley alongside clear waters. Looking up, the two sides are cliffs bristling with verdant trees and brilliant flowers. Legend says that an evil spirit once terrorized the area until a deity transformed his whip into a golden dragon to defeat it. Gravely injured, the dragon’s blood transformed into the stream, and its body turned into a rock along the bank. Finally, hop on the round-trip sightseeing train to explore the picturesque Ten-mile Gallery. About 30 meters from the entrance, look for the rock Longevity God Welcoming Guests, which resembles an old man with his left hand raised high, warmly welcoming you to this majestic landscape. 

At the end of the day, your guide and the driver will escort you back to your hotel.  

Meals: Western buffet breakfast, Lunch

After your guide and driver pick you up from the hotel, your last morning in Zhangjiajie will start from Tianmen Mountain. To make your trip less strenuous, we’ll arrange a round-trip cable car and multi-level transmountain escalators for you. Halfway up the mountain, be jaw-dropped by the iconic Tianmen Cave, also called Heaven’s Gate. Legend has it that a local prayed to the mountain, whereupon the cliff face suddenly split open to form this colossal arch, and a divine voice echoed from within. The man climbed to the opening and found it only a step from heaven. Since then, the arch has been seen as a mystical portal between the earthly and celestial realms. Ascending to the mountaintop, you’ll have a chance to step onto the transparent cliffside Glass Skywalk, where the sensation of hovering high above vally delivers an unforgettable adrenaline rush. 

After descending the mountain, your 6 days Beijing to Zhangjiajie tour comes to a close. Your guide and driver will offer you a smooth transfer to the Zhangjiajie airport or high-speed train station. To ensure ample time for check-in and boarding, we recommend you book departures scheduled after 7:00 PM. If you wish to extend your journey to other cities, such as Xi’an, Shanghai, or Guilin, please feel free to contact us, and we would be delighted to customize a follow-on itinerary for you. 

Meals: Western buffet breakfast, Lunch