Beijing Hop on Hop off Bus Tours

Some of these tour buses can operate as a package tour that includes transportation, tickets and tour guides, touring iconic sites such as the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven, the Chinese Wall, Tiananmen Square, and other tourist attractions. There is no doubt that seeing the city aboard a sightseeing bus is one of the best things you can see and do in Beijing.

In Beijing there are two ways to get around the city by using the sightseeing buses:

• One of the tour bus routes is Beijing Bus Tours, which offers you a choice of two routes that will take you all over the city.
• The second way to tour the capital of China is by means of those buses that offer urban and suburban tour packages, to get to know some of the most popular places of interest in the city.

One of the most outstanding features of these tourist buses is that not only will you be able to see the monuments and places of interest, but you will also be able to enjoy different audio and video guides throughout the tour, to learn about the historical and cultural details of each of the sites to be visited during the tour.

Beijing Bus Tours

The Beijing Bus Tour is the tourist bus of the city, which takes you to visit some of the most interesting places of the city, and it is distributed in three tourist lines or routes, known as the Beijing Sightseeing Bus Line 1, 2 and 3.

This bus has 12 stops that go from Huizhong Li to Qian Men, which is equal to an approximate length of 24,4 kilometres, so you will have the opportunity to visit the whole city in a very practical way because you can get on and off as many times as you want.

What is interesting, because not in every city in the world, is that the bus driver acts as a tour guide and will introduce you and tell you about the picturesque places you will pass by. The disadvantage in this case is that you will be able to listen to the information in both English and Chinese, but not in Spanish.

Beijing Tour Bus Center or Beijing Hub of Tour Dispatch

If what you are looking for is a more personalised and dedicated tour of the city of Beijing, then I recommend you to get on the Beijing Tour Bus Center as it not only offers different stops to get on and off as many times as you want, but you can also choose to do different tours, from general sightseeing tours to more specialised excursions on the culture and history of the city.

With this tourist bus you will also have the company of professional guides who will give you the information you want to know about the city and its history.

These tour buses offer tours by routes, such as the World Cultural Tourist Sites Route, the Urban Route and the Suburban Route, and some even allow you to book a bus transfer to the Great Wall

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The hop-on hop-off sightseeing buses have three lines with at least 12 stops where you can hop on and off as many times as you like. These city tour buses have the advantage of offering day and night routes, that's why I will explain in detail how each one works.

Beijing Bus Tours Daytime Lines

There are three daytime bus tour routes that will take you on one of the best tours in Beijing. Generally these buses start working from 8:00 to 17:30, every day.

These routes offer an approximate frequency of 5 to 10 minutes in each case, although it may vary according to the day and the season of the year.

As for the places you will be able to visit on board these daytime routes, you should know that some of them are:

• Yongdingmen Gate Tower
• Xiannongtan
• Tianqiao
• South Zhushikou
• Dashilar
• Tiananmen Square, which you can explore in depth by booking a tour of Beijing with the Great Wall of China, the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square.
• Zhongshan Park West Gate
• West Gate of the Forbidden City
• Beihai
• Forbidden City
• Beichizi Beikou
• Jingshan Park East Gate
• Beihai Park North Gate
• Deshengmen Inner Deshengmen
• East Beichen Road

Beijing Bus Tours Night Lines

On the other hand, you'll have the chance to see the city from a different perspective if you hop on the Beijing Bus Tours night buses, one of the best things to see and do in Beijing at night. They operate between 18:00 and 21:30 every night. All three lines have their arrival point at Qianmen.

The best thing about these bus lines is that as soon as you get on them you will have the opportunity to see the whole city under the typical night lights, LED lighting and moonlight. It is quite a sight to see Beijing at night.

The places to visit on lines 1, 2 and 3 are as follows:

• China World Trade Center CBD
• CITIC Tower
• Zhongnanhai
• Chinese People's Revolution Military Museum
• Tiananmen
• Great Hall of the People
• Beijing Railway Station
• Tianqiao
• China World Trade Center CBD
• Guijie Night Market
• Sanlitun Commercial Area
• Shichahai

Beijing Hub of Tour Dispatch's World Cultural Sites Tour Route

On this tour you will have the opportunity to see the most interesting cultural and tourist sites in and around Beijing. Among the places you can visit on this route are the Badaling Great Wall, which is one of the sites you should visit on your trip, the Ming Tombs and the Summer Palace.

The departure time for each of these routes is about 15 to 25 minutes, while the departure time of each route may vary according to weather conditions and the season of the year.

Beijing Hub of Tour Dispatch Suburban Tour Routes

Suburban sightseeing tours are available at certain times of the year only, which is usually during April 15 and July 15. The best thing about these routes is that they take you to places outside the city, including:

• The ShiDu
• Gushan Village
• Huanghuacheng Great Wall
• The Eastern Royal Tombs of the Qing Dynasty
• The Great Wall of Mutianyu
• Longqing Gorge.

Each of these places is visited on a different route. Because they are direct routes from the city of Beijing to the final destination on the outskirts of the city. Generally these buses usually depart from the starting point in Xuanwumen or the Beijing Hub of Tour Dispatch, directly to the place you are going to visit.

Beijing Hub of Tour Dispatch City Sightseeing Routes

City sightseeing tours are another of the most sought-after tours in the city, and you'll love hopping on one of them because they will take you to see some of the most iconic sights and monuments within Beijing's city limits. In this case, there are a total of five routes that work for urban destinations.

These routes take you to sites such as:

• Peking University
• Singhua University
• The Water Cube
• The Bird's Nest
• The Fuguo Underwater World
• The Temple of Heaven
• Prince Gong's Mansion
• The Ancient Summer Palace
• Tiananmen
• The Imperial Palace
• The Summer Palace
• Bird's Nest
• The Water Cube
• Prince Gong's Mansion
• Hutong
• Beihai Park
• The National Grand Theatre
• Lama Yonghe Temple
• Fuguo Underwater World

The length of time for the full Beijing sightseeing bus tour may vary depending on the route and traffic conditions. However, in general, it is estimated that each full route will take around two and a half to three hours to complete.

It is also important to note that the amount of time each route takes may vary according to the number of stops and sights included in each particular route. In the case of the Beijing Hub of Tour Dispatch routes, the duration of each route depends on the distance of each place of interest from the city of Beijing.

Everything you see on the sightseeing bus route depends on the route you choose to take, whether you get on the multi-stop bus or the specific sightseeing bus routes. But you will almost always go to see popular sites in the city including the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven, the Summer Palace, the Great Wall of China, and some historic neighbourhoods such as the Hutong Quarter.

Remember that you can get to know some of these places in more depth by hiring a tour of Beijing with the Great Wall of China, the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square

Some tourist buses offer specific tours to see impressive structures that stand out for their architectural beauty in the centre of the city. On the other hand, by boarding routes that offer trips outside the city, you will have the opportunity to see other sites that are less visited by tourists, but are still really interesting and worth seeing and visiting.

The ticket price for the different sightseeing buses may vary according to the different routes. In the case of the Beijing Bus Tours routes, the approximate price of the tickets is about 2 to 4 euros to get on to enjoy all the stops of the bus system, the price difference will depend on the route you choose, whether it is route 1, 2 or 3.

Of course the night lines also have a different price than the rest of the routes. So the price can vary between 4 and 6 euros depending on the route and the timetable. In the case of tourist bus routes with a fixed destination, prices may vary a little more according to the distance between the city and the places of interest.

The routes may have different operating hours. In the case of Beijing Bus Tours daytime routes:

• Between 9:00 and 19:00 during peak season, which is between approximately 15 April and 15 October.
• Between 8:00 and 16:00 and between 9:00 and 17:00 in the low season, which is between 15 October and 14 April.

In the case of the specific travel routes, the timetables tend to work in a very varied way, bearing in mind that these are routes that take you to specific places in and out of the city. In that sense, the departure times of these routes are between 6:00 and 10:30 on some routes, while on other routes they may operate between 8:30 and 11:00.

City buses usually leave at 8:30, while suburban buses usually leave around 9:30 in most cases, regardless of the time of year.

The operation of the tourist bus is very simple, although it may vary from one bus route to another. Normally on this type of bus you can hop on and off the bus as many times as you like, which gives you the opportunity to explore the places you are most interested in.

The experience usually includes an audio guide that gives you all the historical and cultural information about the places visited. Although in the case of the tourist buses that take you to the most famous places in the world, they usually also offer the service of a specialised guide.