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Beijing: Private Night Tour with Great Wall & Ice Lanterns

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Free cancellationTravelers' pick

1/7

Duration3h–8h

GroupPrivate

LanguagesEN · ZH +1

PickupAt your hotel

Beijing glows differently after dark—eight ways to see it

You choose from eight night packages in Beijing: customizable downtown tours hitting Tiananmen, Houhai, and the Olympic landmarks; summer Great Wall climbs under stars; or winter ice lantern festivals. Hotel pickup, guide, and entry tickets are included; you control the pace and which zones to linger in, and the private vehicle means no group schedule to follow.

3h–8h

Step-by-step itinerary

Beijing private night sightseeing tour

Hotel pick up by guide and driver
Visit Qianmen century-old commercial street
See National Centre for the Performing Arts
Optional visit to Tian’anmen Square
Explore Houhai Lake at night
Walk through Old Beijing Hutongs
Visit Olympic Village: Bird’s Nest and Water Cube
Drive through CBD area: CCTV Headquarters and The Place
Return to hotel or central Beijing destination

The Experience

The red lanterns along Qianmen Street flicker to life as the sun drops, and suddenly the old commercial street stops being a daytime tourist corridor and becomes something else entirely. This is when Beijing's night tour packages start to make sense. You get picked up from your hotel, settle into a private vehicle with a guide who knows which landmarks photograph best when lit, and then you choose your route. Four hours exploring the downtown glow—Tiananmen Square, Houhai Lake, the Bird's Nest and Water Cube lit up like a modern sculpture park, the CCTV Headquarters (locals call it "Big Pants" for its twisted shape) glowing against the CBD skyline. Or you push further out: the Great Wall at Badaling under starlight in summer, or the ice lantern sculptures at Longqing Gorge carved and lit in winter, turning the ravine into what they call a "fairyland." The guide handles entry tickets and timing; you just move through the city as it transforms.

The downtown route divides into four zones, each with its own rhythm. Qianmen-Tiananmen is the historical core—gray brick, red lanterns, street food stalls selling fried scorpions and silkworm pupae if you're curious. Houhai-Hutong is where you slow down; the lake quiets at night, shops glow warmly along the water, and the old alleyways with their hundred-year histories feel less crowded than they do by day. The Olympic Village is pure photography—the Bird's Nest's lattice structure lit from inside, the Water Cube's blue glow, both of them reflected and framed in ways that make every phone shot look intentional. The CBD is the opposite: skyscrapers, the Place's massive overhead LED screen, the sense of Beijing as a modern capital. Your guide can adjust the stops and timing as you go, so if you want to linger at Houhai or skip ahead to the Olympic Park, that flexibility is built in.

If you're there in winter, the Longqing Gorge ice lantern tour pulls you two hours outside the city to see craftsmen's work—massive ice blocks carved into lanterns, sculptures, castles, slides—all lit from inside with thousands of colored lights once darkness falls. Summer flips the equation: the Great Wall at Badaling becomes the draw, and the 1.5-hour transfer gives your guide time to walk you through the wall's history before you climb it under stars, avoiding the daytime crowds entirely. The Gubei Water Town and Simatai option splits the difference—you catch the sunset from Simatai, then explore the illuminated Great Wall there, then wander Gubei's ancient alleys with their red lanterns glowing. Every package includes hotel pickup, the guide, entry fees, and transport in a private vehicle. If you want to add dinner—Peking roast duck, hot pot, Sichuan—or catch an acrobatics show before the night tour, those are options too. The only real constraint is that Tiananmen Square itself requires your passport details a day in advance for security clearance; without that, the guide explains it from outside.

What’s included

Your day includes hotel pickup and drop-off, a professional guide fluent in your language, entrance tickets for your chosen attractions (Tiananmen, Houhai, Olympic Park, Longqing Gorge, or Badaling Great Wall depending on package), and private vehicle transport.
Meals, acrobatics shows, and cable car rides are optional add-ons.
The guide adjusts timing and stops throughout the tour based on your interests and pace.

Good to know

Easy physical levelInfants must sit on laps

Operated by Discover Beijing Tours

Is this one for you?Right for travelers staying in central Beijing who want to see the city's lit landmarks without arranging transport or tickets themselves. The 4-hour downtown tours fit an evening; the Great Wall and ice lantern trips take a full half-day, which is what makes reaching those sites and spending real time there possible.