Half-Day Beijing Walking Tour in a Neighborhood

Your private guide will pick you up at your hotel lobby. An experienced driver with a comfortable and private vehicle (non-smoking, with air-conditioning) will be ready to drive you to the destination you will explore by walking.

Your discovery will start with the religious beliefs of local people. Your guide will show you around Tianning Temple, which has the oldest pagoda in Beijing, telling the temple's stories and explaining the religious activities that people like to take part in.

If your travel dates happen to coincide with a Buddhist festival, you will find it is quite busy in the temple and local believers chant the sutras together with monks.

The abandoned thermal power plant next to the temple will suggest to you something of the effort that Beijing has made to protect the environment.

Observe people doing their daily shopping in a market next to Tianning Temple. You will see the food that people like, the daily necessities, the fish and flowers that people like to have to decorate their homes. Your guide will explain how payment methods have been changing as China develops.

Then you will walk through a residential community built in the 1990s. Discover more about housing developments in Beijing. The bulletin board will show you how the local government advocates for its policies and values.

Cross the bridge on the city moat. If you like, try a popular pancake breakfast at a local breakfast stand.

Then you will visit a pretty park where senior citizens congregate to do exercises. Retired life in China might be quite different from that in your country, with dancing, writing on the ground, playing Chinese chess, and having fun with grandchildren.

You will end your tour by visiting a hutong, without any other tourists. This is a place where you can see authentic hutong life. Senior citizens stand or sit at the doorways, talking. Beer vendors make a living by hawking beer on a tricycle.

Drive back to the hotel after the tour.