Beijing Gubei Water Town and Simatai Great Wall Tour

In the morning, your tour guide will wait for you at your hotel. First, you will visit the famous Tian’anmen Square. In the north of the square stands the magnificent Tian’anmen Gate Tower. It’s on the Tian’anmen Gate Tower that Chairman Mao Zedong declared the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. Since then, the Tian’anmen Gate Tower has been a symbol of New China and has become an indispensable part of China’s national emblem.

Through the Tian’anmen Gate Tower, you will enter the Forbidden City (closed each Monday). Serving as the imperial palace of the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1636-1912) dynasties, it is the world’s largest existing and best-preserved ancient wooden construction. When visiting the Forbidden City, you will find many buildings featuring red walls and yellow roofs. In ancient Chinese culture, red refers to happiness, luckiness, and wealth on the one hand. On the other hand, yellow is associated with royalty and has become the color that symbolizes the imperial family. Thus, the main colors in most buildings in the Forbidden City are yellow and red. In addition, ordinary people were not allowed to use it in their clothes and buildings in ancient times. Besides, more things in the Forbidden City are waiting for you to explore, such as the 6 main palaces along the central axis, the story of Empress Dowager Cixi, the enthronement ceremony of an emperor, etc. Come to join us and unlock more mysteries about this imperial palace!

After having lunch at a nearby restaurant, you will have a 2-hour drive to the Gubei Water Town. It is 140 kilometers northeast to the Forbidden City. Backed by China’s most beautiful and steep Simatai Great Wall and surrounded by the Yuanyang Lake, it is a famous tourist resort featuring the combination of mountains and waters in Beijing. On this trip, you cannot miss the two shops. The one is the Yongshun Dyehouse that showcases China’s dyeing characteristics and achievements at the time. With special refining techniques, richly colored clothes will be dyed with madder, lithospermum,walnut kernel and other dye-yielding herbs. Under the sunshine, colorful clothes hung out swaying in the breeze, which looks like young ladies dancing in colorful dresses. The other is the Sima Bistro, where you can know about the traditional way of Chinese winemaking. While wandering in this beautiful water town, you will encounter squirrel graffiti everywhere. If taking photos in front of the graffiti and sharing them on your Twitter, you may get “likes” from your friends!

This evening, we will arrange a visit to the Simatai Great Wall. Inscribed in the World Heritage List in 1987, it is China’s only ancient architectural relic that has been kept as it was. Your guide will accompany you to climb the Simatai Great Wall in the night this time. A night tour on the Simatai Great Wall is considered one of the exciting and memorable tours from Beijing. After climbing it, you will see a sea of lights in the water town and twinkling stars in the sky. This evening, we will arrange for you to stay in the Gubei Water Town to have a good rest.

Option: After a long time visit, you might be tired. Soaking in a hot spring is recommended for tourists to relax. Apart from that, you can enjoy a foot massage or a full-body massage to relieve fatigue.

Gubei Water Town

Forbidden City

After breakfast, you will take a free morning to explore the Gubei Water Town by yourself.

Free Time Suggestion:

You can go to the Yuelao Temple. Yuelao is a god of marriage and love in Chinese mythology. In China, it is believed that Yuelao knows who will marry whom. Many young people come to worship Yuelao to wish for a happy marriage.

After lunch, you will be transferred to your hotel, which means the end of this brilliant water town tour. We hope to meet you again in other cities! See you next time!

Author: Liu Na

Proofreader: Vivian Zhou