Meet your guide in your Beijing hotel lobby at 7am and start the tour from visiting the Great Wall at Mutianyu. It was built and restored in the early Ming Dynasty (1368–1644), on the remnants of a wall originally built in the Northern Qi Dynasty (550–577). You will take the cable car for both ways and spend more time on the actual wall.

Drive back the city to see the Ming City Wall Ruins Park. Drink in the park’s peaceful atmosphere and see its showpiece: the last remaining, and restored section of the 15th-century wall that once encircled Beijing. Admire the 2-kilometer Ming-era edifice, noting its brickwork and bullet holes, and climb the Southeast Corner Watchtower to see exhibitions, the largest arrow tower existing in China with 144 windows.