A second polymorph of technetium dichloride, beta-TcCl2, has been synthesized from the reaction of Tc metal and chlorine in a sealed tube at 450 degrees C. The crystallographic structure and physical properties of beta-TcCl2 have been investigated. The structure of beta-TcCl2 consists of infinite chains of face sharing [Tc2Cl8] units; within a chain, the Tc Tc vectors of two adjacent [Tc2Cl8] units are ordered in the long-range where perpendicular and/or parallel arrangement of Tc Tc vectors yields a modulated structure. Resistivity and Seebeck measurements performed on a beta-TcCl2 single crystal indicate the compound to be a p-type semiconductor while a magnetic susceptibility measurement shows technetium dichloride to be diamagnetic. A band gap of 0.12(2) eV was determined by reflectance spectroscopy measurements. Theoretical calculations at the density functional level were utilized for the investigation of other possible stable forms of TcCl2.