The cost is cheap if you go with a group tour, and you can visit many attractions without having to worry about it. However, the disadvantage is that you can't fully explore each attraction, and it's very tiring to just look around. For example, the Summer Palace only lasts about two hours.

And there will be shopping and other things, especially in the Forbidden City, it is definitely recommended to buy Pixiu.

I recommend self-guided tours. I once took my parents on a four-day trip to Beijing and I was the tour guide for the entire trip.

The arrangement is as follows: On the first day in Beijing, we visited the Summer Palace in the afternoon. We spent the whole afternoon sitting on a boat on Kunming Lake and taking a rest on the promenade. There was a very beautiful lotus pond.

(Kunming Lake is a very suitable place for boating, especially rowing by hand.)

In the evening, go to Tsinghua University and Peking University to appreciate the elegance of the famous school. It is also the highest university in the country. You can dine nearby.

The next day we went to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.

In Tiananmen Square, you can go up to the tower for about half an hour and overlook the Monument to the People's Heroes and Tiananmen Square.

By the way, we visited the vicinity of the monument, the Great Hall of the People, Chairman Mao Memorial Hall, etc. People of my parents’ generation longed for Beijing largely because of Chairman Mao.

The Forbidden City is very large. It takes almost half a day to walk down every corner. It is worth visiting. There are palaces, imperial gardens, etc.

From the back door, you can walk along the moat to Wangfujing Street. There are also many alleys nearby, where you can see Beijing's characteristic houses.

The third day is to visit the Badaling Great Wall.

Since it is in the suburbs, you have to plan a whole day. You can take the express bus there. Don't be fooled by unscrupulous travel agencies. Just trust yourself.

If you are old and don’t have enough physical strength to reach the Great Wall, I recommend taking the cable car, because there is still a very steep and strenuous section after I climbed the Great Wall. Even if you take the cable car, you still have to climb the Haohan Slope section.

Return to the city to rest in the evening, and you can take the opportunity to eat Beijing’s delicacies.

On the fourth day, we came back by train in the afternoon, so we arranged to stay in the Temple of Heaven Park near the train station in the morning, which is regarded as the oxygen bar of Beijing. The air is very good, and of course there are attractions such as the Echo Wall.

Since the plan is for five or six days, you can go to Guijie Street for dinner one night, which is the food street in Beijing, and then go to the Bird's Nest and Water Cube to see the night view. The relatively new attractions are the Olympic venues.

If it is your first time to go to Beijing, the arrangements in these places are relatively reasonable and it will not be too hard to travel around.

As for Yonghegong, it is a lamasery for marriage, and Old Summer Palace is more average. The only thing is that the Dashui method can truly recreate the scene of the year. If time is tight, I don’t recommend the Ming Tombs and Xiangshan.