Private Day Trip: Shilinxia Glass Platform and Ming City Wall Park

Meet your private guide in your hotel lobby at 8am for the 2-hour drive to Shilinxia (Stone Forest Gorge) through the rolling hills outside of Beijing.

Also known as the Jingdong Stone Forest Gorge, the Shilinxia Scenic Area covers an area of around 4.5 square miles (12 square kilometers) about 43 miles (70 kilometers) northeast of Beijing. The gorge is home to many striking rock formations, some of which weigh over 1100 tons (1000 tonnes).

After looking at a few sculptural formations with your guide, you'll take a cable car (own expense) halfway up the mountain, then climb to the peak, around 2,500 feet (768 meters) above sea level, where a dramatic canyon plunges over 1300 feet (400 meters) into the void. Please note the steps are pretty steep so a reasonable level of fitness is required: it takes about half an hour to climb to the top.

You’ll be rewarded with the highlight of the tour: the world's largest cantilevered viewing platform, a staggering circle of glass suspended in mid-air high, high above the gorge. At 103 feet (32.8 meters) long, the Shilinxia Glass Platform projects 37 feet (11.4 meters) further than the Grand Canyon Skywalk, making it a breathtaking experience – provided you're not scared of heights, of course!

Slip on your shoe covers and stride out over the gorge. Besides the incredible views down through the reinforced glass, you'll be able to see all the way across to Jinhai Lake and Mount Pan near Tianjin.

Enjoy a delicious Chinese lunch at a nearby restaurant before you drive back into the city to the Site of Ming City Wall Park. It takes around an hour and 40 minutes to reach this impressive park where the last surviving section of the 15th-century city wall that once encircled Beijing has been preserved and rebuilt: the rest was demolished in the 1960s to make way for new roads and the subway. 

Once the wall stretched for 15 miles (24 kilometers) around the city: today, just 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) remain. Admire the brickwork, complete with bullet holes in places, and ascend the impressive, heavily fortified Southeast Corner Watchtower, with 144 windows for archers.

From here, you'll drive a short way to your hotel, arriving around 5pm.