Half Day Private Tour To Summer Palace In Beijing

Wonderful introduction to the summer palace with the added benefit of having your own private guide. In my case I’ve had summer who was available to answer any questions I had about the palace , the Qing and Ming Dynasties and any other questions or doubts you may have. For example - I had particular interest in knowing more about empress dowager Cixi and her story’s in the palace and summer’s knowledge and explanations made the experience truly special. Thank you so much.

The Summer Palace is absolutely beautiful and something that you should do. The gardens are so calm and beautiful and our guide Jerry was amazing. He is so knowledgeable and made the tour so interesting for us. I highly recommend

The tour was wonderful. Our tour guide Nancy was fantastic! She helped us navigate the stairs to the top and see everyhing there was to see. It was big change from the other sites in Beijing. I highly recommend it.

Rita provided an amazing tour of the Summer Palace. The tour was well thought out, informative, and very engaging. She was on time to my hotel, guided me and taught me how to take the Beijing subway myself, and had a huge wealth of information and historical stories to share about the Summer Palace and its significance to Chinese history. This was a tour I will never forget.

Renny was a fantastic tour guide. She was punctual and polite and made a real effort to get to know us and understand our wants and tailored her approach accordingly. She was very knowledgable and gave us a lot of insightful quick history lessons as we went through the day. Renny was happy to guide us and have some flexibility over the itinerary based on what we felt we wanted to focus on. She was also very caring, ensuring we were walking in the shade (it was super hot!) and pacing the walk to slower/ faster dependent on our energy levels! We had a fantastic day filled with amazing memories!

Sally was absolutely amazing!!! From the minute she picked us up she was full of energy and had loads of information about the summer palace! This was a great half day tour. If your stuck for time and wondered between the summer palace and the forbidden city! I would choose the summer palace , all day long

This is the way to do it! Perfect with our personal guide. Thanks to Sunny and Li for this wonderful experience. Can’t wait to return.

I had an excellent tour of Tiananmen Square and the Summer Palace with Rita. She was enthusiastic, passionate, knowledgeable, friendly, and incredibly accommodating throughout the entire experience. Rita went above and beyond to make the day smooth and enjoyable. She helped me navigate the various security checkpoints, taught me useful Mandarin words and phrases, and even helped me find a hair salon afterward. Her kindness and willingness to help made a huge difference. I especially appreciated how much history and cultural background she shared along the way. Not only did I learn about Tiananmen Square and the Summer Palace themselves, but also about many of the places and landmarks we passed through during the tour. Her explanations brought the city’s history and culture to life in a very engaging way. I highly recommend this tour, especially with Rita as your guide. She truly made the experience memorable.

Jeffrey is a very good guide. Showed us the summer palace . Explained everything in detail .i will recommend him to anyone who wants to visit Beijing

We had a fantastic experience with our guide Rita! She was so nice and so knowledgeable. We got a real good insight into the history of China and the summer palace. I highly recommend Rita! She was so lovely and even took the tube and rented bycicles for us to give us the full experience!

Sunny was a very informative guide with excellent sense of humor. She guided us through an excellent tour of the Summer Palace, with a relaxing boat tour and very good length walking tour. Sunny is very highly recommended.

Lotus the local guide helped navigate Beijing and the Summer Palace. Also recommended and took us to see the Beijing acrobatics.

Fantastic trip of the summer palace. Such a great trip of a beautiful part of Beijing. Summer was wonderful. She gave us all the details and told us fascinating stories. We had fun conversations and she was willing to help all the time. Thank you Summer!

We joined half day tour in summer palace.Visiting the summer palace was like stepping into a Chinese picture.Summer was really amazing,she shared so many interesting historical stories and facts about every garden bridge and pavilion,making the visit vivid and meaningful.The summer palace is really so beautiful,peaceful.Thanks Summer for giving us an impressive tour.

The Summer palace is absolutely stunning!A perfect blend of natural scenery and imperial architecture.Summer was our guide,she was really friendly and helpful,guiding us strolling along the long corridor with beautiful paintings and a harmonious hidden garden.Thanks Summer.

We had an incredible day visiting the Summer Palace today! The weather was beautiful with sunshine, and our tour guide Sally was absolutely fantastic. She was warm, professional, and full of interesting stories that made the tour so engaging and memorable. Everything was perfectly organized, and we couldn’t have asked for a better experience. Highly recommend!

We had a wonderful visit to the Summer Palace, even though we were limited on time. Our guide, Maggie, did an excellent job making sure we still had a memorable and meaningful experience. She was fun, engaging, and incredibly knowledgeable, providing great insight into the history and significance of the site. Maggie also made sure we saw the most beautiful parts of the grounds, which we really appreciated given our tight schedule. What truly stood out was how helpful Maggie was beyond the tour itself. She and our driver took us directly to the train station afterward, and when we ran into an issue with one of our tickets, Maggie went above and beyond by coming inside with us and helping resolve it. Without her assistance, we likely would not have been able to board our train. Maggie was incredibly kind, attentive, and supportive throughout the entire experience. We’re so grateful for her help and would highly recommend her to anyone visiting the Summer Palace!

I had an excellent visit to the Summer Palace, followed by a visit to Prince Gong's mansion. My guide, Jeffrey, was an excellent companion and knew all the best locations for photographs as well as very interesting historical facts which kept me fascinated throughout the visit. Having a private driver really helped customise the program, especially since I wanted to stop at a specific location for dim sum dinner. Excellent trip 10/10

I did a solo tour on 24 Nov 2025 to summer palace and from pick up on time till tour finish Jeffery was my tour guide and he was good and shows me the wonderful highlights of summer palace and even we went up to the hill to see temple. Jeff gives the brief overview of history about the summer palace. Thanks to Jeff for making tour memorable.

We had a wonderful trip to the summer palace in Beijing with our guide Sunny. She was very attentive and knowledgeable and she made our experience very joyful and memorable. Thank you 😊

Very nice guiding tour by Sunny. We had a very nice time and we really recommend it . Sunny she is very helpful and we enjoyed the tour very much ! THANK YOU

We had a tour at the summer palace. The weather was very humid and misty atmosphere. Lots of people travelling to see the place. We got very tired, thirsty and hungry. This overlooking bridge is kind of familiar that you'll remember the long walk ever in your life.

An excellent choice of seen the summer palace.Bruce knows a lot. He is really helpful during the tour. I strongly recommend this tour to everyone.

We had a wonderful experience with Lily’s Tours at the Summer Palace. The place is stunning, with sprawling grounds, beautiful lakeside views and steeped in history. What made it all the more special was our incredible guide, Renny! She was a fountain of information and had the bubbliest, warmest character that just made it feel like we were with an old friend. When I say Renny went above and beyond for us, I mean it! She was so good we scooped her up for the following Thursday to give us a tour of the forbidden city - little did we know at the time she happily accepted, that it was her birthday on that Thursday. She even gave us a little token to remember her and the experience by. A wonderful lady with a heart of gold and a wealth of knowledge - couldn’t have asked for me - highly recommended !

Dennis was an excellent tour guide, and we had a wonderful day out with him . The summer palace was beautiful. He made getting there on the subway interesting, and easy.

Our tour guide, Renny, was fantastic! She was incredibly insightful and knowledgeable and gave us a wonderful tour of the Summer Palace. The palace itself is stunning, steeped in history and beauty. 100% recommend and suggest you ask for Renny, to make it all the more special!

A peaceful, pleasant tour. Unhurried. You feel great because you know that someone else is taking care of the details of this trip. Nothing else interests you except the experience. You just are and enjoy the charms of life. In a peace that only this kind of trip can give you. It was absolutely beautiful! PS. Tour leader Wendy is a wonderful girl! TOP

Sophie was very nice! She gave us a lot of information on the summer palace history. Nice tour, the summer palace is big and was nice to walk around.

We had a Fabolous time at Summer Palace with Ling. The place is stanning and the tour was very insightful and rich of interesting Chinese history. We would definitely recommend to book.

The experience was great and very comfortable. Really recommended. Shoutout to Lisa, who was an amazing tour guide. Can't get any better.

Lucy is the BEST and we really enjoyed her company during this excursion. Lucy has a vast knowledge of the Chinese history and everything in the park. As a keen photographer Lucy helped to find the best shots and different angles. The park itself is amazing, full of history and just a nice place to be. I will definitely recommend this tour to everyone.

Renny’s knowledge, professionalism and caring manner enhanced our experience at the Summer Palace. A wonderful start to our 14 day China tour.

What a fun day. We opted for the subway opposed to a taxi as we wanted to experience the Chinese subway system. Our guide Bobo was very kind and helpful and tailored the trip to our needs. She was also very knowledgable and informative throughout every exhibition.

What a fun day. We opted for the subway opposed to a taxi as we wanted to experience the Chinese subway system. Our guide Bobo was very kind and helpful and tailored the trip to our needs. She was also very knowledgable and informative throughout every exhibition.

We had a great experience. All the different areas of the Summer Palace were beautiful and Jeffrey, our tour guide, was so knowledgable and showed us areas we would have never explored without him. We especially enjoyed the gardens, they were so peaceful.

The 4 hour experience was great. We were picked up and dropped off at our hotel. Summer Palace is a great place to do something in town, that is yet relaxing. The only thing is that our tour was very interested in HER agenda. We wanted to go on the small boats, but she kept directing us to the large boat? And then we paid for HER boat ride (which is fine, just weird)? And she was REALLY into the paintings on the corridor we heard about the paintings many, many, many times. And we just kind of wanted to relax. So, I do love this tour, just be clear with your guide what it is that you want for the day. We were SO OVER EDUCATED, and just wanted to chill.

5 stars experience!!!! Maggie is the best tour guide in Beijing. Look for her to have an amazing time touring the Summer Palace. She is full of great inspirations as we trek the whole Summer Palace. I learned so much with the history behind the Chinese Dynasty as how the Summer Palace was constructed and how the Palace was designed and used by Emperors. The price we paid for this tour was very well worth it!!!

I love, love, love the Summer Palace experience and our tour guide. Maggie has made our tour very special. She totally committed herself to us since the night before our tour, and then picked us up at our hotel all the way through the whole day! She is very sweet, polite, professional and knowledgeable. I would highly recommend this tour and request Maggie as your guide. She is very flexible and kind.

Amazing afternoon with Jeffrey! Saw all the main sites with the historical commentary from. It was just him and I. Very personalized!! To begin, he was early in the hotel lobby. Very punctual. He explained what we would be doing before we got in a car. Car was great with leather, AC, and water. Standard Beijing traffic took us an hour to get to the Summer Palace. Jeffrey took me to some scenic spots for great pics! The whole area is stunning, a photographers dream! We walked to the palace and began the hike up the many steps for gorgeous view at the top. He took breaks without me asking, which was great. Near the Marble Boat we caught a ferry back to the 17 arched Bridge. A great way to end the day! I will add Jeffrey also helped get me into Tiananmen Square when I thought it was sold out on my usual website, Viator. Thank You Jeffrey!!

A beautiful oasis away from the bustle of Beijing, the lake and scenery were stunning and you can see why the royal palace moved there in the summer. My guide Lisa was amazing, informative, knowledgeable, excellent English and nothing was too much trouble, if all the guides in Beijing are only half as good as her, then you will have a great time.

Great tour experience! Rita was a very good tour guide, she is very knowledgeable and fun. The tour company was very responsive and easy to work with as well.

We had a wonderful experience with our tour guide, Jan. He took us to the Panda House and the Summer Palace.Jan’s knowledge of the history and culture made each stop even more special — he shared fascinating details that we wouldn’t have known otherwise. He was friendly, attentive, and made sure the whole day ran smoothly. We really appreciated his enthusiasm and professionalism, and we would highly recommend Jan to anyone looking for an insightful and enjoyable tour.

Maggie was amazing! From the moment she picked me up at my hotel to the very end of the tour, it was flawless! She has a strong command of the English language, very detailed in providing all the information and knowledge of the tour and she’s very friendly as well. I’m so glad I chose this tour with her because it made it more meaningful and memorable. Thoroughly enjoyed it and I would highly recommend her! So please request her when booking your Summer Palace tour! Thank you for everything, Maggie!

The Summer Palace was a great experience with lovely landscape and lake. Our guide Maggie was wonderful, very knowledgeable and we had some interesting conversations about Chinese culture. . She was also very helpful with a couple of other queries we had about reservations elsewhere. We ended the tour with a visit to the tea rooms at the Olympic Stadium.

This morning we had a half a day tour with Linda in Summer Palace. It was excellent, she picked us up at the hotel and in 30 min we were at the palace. The place is gorgeous, Linda was so knowledgeable about every detail. Highly recommend to ask for her when you book, especially if you are nosy like me and want to know every detail of a life of an imperial family. 😅 She was friendly but not overbearing, which is really nice, we could just enjoy the scenery. All in all 10/10 👍🏼

Rita was a wealth of knowledge and brought a level of context about the Summer Palace that would not have been possible without a tour guide. She knew not only surface level information, but had a deep historical perspective. As an aspiring Mandarin speaker (at least in my own mind), I mostly end up saying, “wo bu mingbai.” With Rita’s command of English (my native tongue), it made learning about the ins and outs of the Summer Palace very easy. The driver of the van was nice and she was attentive to our group of 10. Thank you, Rita.

Rita was excellent, very accommodating and friendly. She had great knowledge of the tour and was extremely helpful, we will definitely ask for her again for the next visit.

Because Maggie was a great guide we had another great experience. We booked a walking tour of the Summer Palace. Traveled by train and walked throughout the grounds as she shared the history of the place.

Linda sun was very kind in explaining the history of the summer palace to us, she also helped us take some good pictures..