School Trip to Beijing

The two routes use the same city for different purposes. The 2026 route puts the palace and the pandas together and keeps the Wall for a day of its own. The 2027 route puts the temple and the Wall into one long day and gives a full day to a theme park. The sample itinerary gives the hour-by-hour version of the 2027 days.

The photographs of the group are PreeChina's own, taken on the 2026 trip, and are used with the permission of the school and of the people shown. No names are given.

Unit U1 on the curriculum page uses the roofs of the Forbidden City and the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests at the Temple of Heaven, which was built without nails. Students build and load-test a joint model and sketch the forces on a bracket set. The unit connects to IB MYP design and technology, AP Physics (statics) and A-Level design and technology, and the school's coordinator confirms each fit against the current course documents.

A group that wants a different course covered names it in the proposal request, and a unit is added or reshaped for it.

The sample route uses Mutianyu, because it is the same distance from the city as Badaling, restored, better wooded and quieter. The group takes the cable car up, and the toboggan or the cable car down, with about two and a half hours on the ramparts. Walking up is an option, not a requirement, which matters across a group of mixed fitness. The PreeChina page on the Great Wall at Badaling and Mutianyu compares the two sections.

• A long day, described as one. The sample day with the temple and the Wall runs from half past six in the morning to the evening. The Wangfujing walk is optional: whoever has had enough goes back with the second coach after dinner.
• A departure morning that holds nothing else. Daxing airport is forty-six kilometres south of the centre, about an hour at that hour, and check-in for an eleven o'clock departure opens two hours before. If the flight time changes, the last day and the day before it are rebuilt rather than squeezed.
• Group bookings. Venues take the group as a booking rather than as walk-ins, and the bookings are confirmed in writing before departure.

• Beijing travel guide for the city as a whole.
• The Forbidden City
• The Temple of Heaven
• Mutianyu Great Wall day trip from Beijing
• Things to do near the Forbidden City
• Seven day sample itinerary
• Cost of a school trip to China

How many days does a school group need in Beijing?

The 2026 trip used two full days and a departure morning, and the 2027 sample route uses the same. Two full days cover the Great Wall and the main city sites without crossing the city more than the group can manage.

Is the Great Wall suitable for a group of mixed fitness?

At Mutianyu a cable car goes up and a toboggan or the cable car comes down, and walking up is an option rather than a requirement.

What does a Beijing leg cost?

The service fee is set by the length of the whole trip, not by the city: USD 100 per person for trips of up to 10 days and USD 150 for 11 to 20 days. Hotels, meals, transport and tickets are listed separately. See the cost page.