China · Beijing
Plan your Beijing trip
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01Your itinerary
02Where to stay
Gulou and the northern hutongs (Dongcheng)
Best for first-timers who want atmosphere rather than a lobbySingle-storey grey-brick courtyard lanes around the Drum and Bell Towers, ten minutes' walk from the back gate of the Forbidden City. Quiet at night, good coffee, and the only part of central Beijing built at a human scale.
Le Zai Nanluoguxiang Courtyard Hotel
Sleeping inside a converted courtyard house is the single most distinctive stay in Beijing. Pick one on a side lane rather than on Nanluoguxiang itself, which is a crowded pedestrian shopping street until late.
¥¥¥Nostalgia Hotel Beijing Yonghe Lama Temple
Walking distance to the Lama Temple and the best concentration of independent restaurants and bars in the old city, with subway Line 2 and 5 at Yonghegong for everything else.
¥¥Qianmen and Dashilar
Best for sightseeing efficiency without hotel-district blandnessImmediately south of Tian'anmen, where the rebuilt commercial street gives way to genuinely old, scruffy lanes of shopfronts and small studios. Central for the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven both.
Beijing Hyde Courtyard Hotel
This slanting lane is the most interesting street in the district — old bookshops and design workshops rather than souvenir stalls — and it is a ten-minute walk to the Forbidden City's south gate.
¥¥Sanlitun and Chaoyang
Best for nightlife, comfort, and anyone nervous about the language barrierModern Beijing: embassies, the Taikoo Li retail blocks, the deepest bar and international restaurant scene in the city, and the highest density of staff who speak English. No history whatsoever.
CHAO Sanlitun Beijing
Everything international is within a few blocks, and Tuanjiehu and Agricultural Exhibition Centre stations put you two changes from the old city. You will be commuting to the sights, though.
¥¥¥Beijing Landmark Towers
Greener and calmer than Sanlitun proper, along the Liangma River walking path, and a sensible base for longer stays or families who want a kitchen.
¥¥Guomao and the CBD
Best for business trips and points redemptionsBeijing's financial district on the east Third Ring — the looped CCTV tower, the China Zun, and international chain hotels with the reliability and character that implies.
China World Hotel, Beijing
Subway Lines 1 and 10 intersect here, putting Tian'anmen a straight twenty-minute ride west with no changes. Ask for a high floor facing the CCTV building.
¥¥¥¥Affiliate notePostcardRoute is reader-supported. Some links to Booking.com (stays, flights, car hire, tickets and tours, airport transfers) are affiliate links, tracked through CJ Affiliate: if you book through them we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only recommend places we would send a friend.
03Tickets & tours
The Forbidden City (Palace Museum)
Nearly a thousand surviving buildings inside a moat and a ten-metre wall, the seat of the Ming and Qing emperors for almost 500 years and the largest…
Tip Tickets are timed, capped daily, and must be booked online in advance with your passport number — popular dates sell out days ahead, and it is closed on Mondays.
Temple of Heaven Park
The circular triple-roofed Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests is the icon, but the surrounding 270-hectare park is the better experience — and it is…
Tip Arrive by 7am. The park opens before the monuments do, and the ballroom dancers, tai chi groups, erhu players and card schools under the cypresses are the reason to come…
Jingshan Park
An artificial hill directly north of the Forbidden City, built from the earth dug out of the palace moat, with a pavilion at the top.
Tip Go at the end of the afternoon and stay for sunset — the golden roofs from up here are the shot everyone wants, and the queue for the summit pavilion is short compared…
Summer Palace
A vast imperial garden estate in the northwest suburbs built around Kunming Lake and Longevity Hill, with a 700-metre painted covered walkway and the…
Tip Allow half a day and enter by the North Palace Gate rather than the crowded east — you walk down through the garden rather than up through the crowds, and it is a short…
Lama Temple (Yonghegong)
A working Tibetan Buddhist monastery in a former imperial residence, thick with juniper incense, and home to an 18-metre Maitreya Buddha carved from…
Tip Combine it with the Confucius Temple and Guozijian a few minutes west — much quieter, with a courtyard of ancient cypresses and Ming stone tablets — then walk down…
Drum and Bell Towers, Gulou
Two Ming-era timekeeping towers facing each other across a small square at the north end of the imperial axis, surrounded by the best-preserved…
Tip The climb up the Drum Tower's brutally steep staircase gives you a rooftop view over the grey tile sea of the hutongs — the single clearest illustration of what old…
798 Art District, Dashanzi
A decommissioned East German-designed electronics factory complex turned into Beijing's contemporary art quarter: sawtooth-roofed halls, galleries,…
Tip Half of it is now cafés and photo backdrops. Head for the serious galleries — UCCA is the anchor — and if you want the harder-edged version, take a taxi ten minutes to…
Tian'anmen Square
The largest public square in the world, flanked by the Great Hall of the People, the National Museum, and Mao's mausoleum, with the Gate of Heavenly…
Tip Entry requires advance online reservation and a passport check, and bags are scanned. Go early, keep it brief, and understand that this is a heavily policed political…
The Great Wall of China
The wall everyone pictures before they picture anything else about China, and the day trip almost every visitor to Beijing eventually takes —…
Tip Skip Badaling if you can. Book a driver or tour to Mutianyu instead, take the cable car up and the toboggan down, and go on a weekday — weekends bring coach parties from…
Day trips from Beijing
Mutianyu Great Wall
The section to pick if you are picking one. About 90 minutes northeast of the city, restored in the 1980s, running 22 watchtowers along a wooded…
Day tripBadaling Great Wall
The closest and most heavily engineered section, reachable by direct train, and consequently the default for every coach tour and domestic…
Day tripJinshanling Great Wall
Two to two and a half hours from the city, and the choice for anyone who actually wants to hike.
Day tripThe Ming Tombs and the Sacred Way
Thirteen Ming emperors are buried in a valley about an hour north, approached along a seven-kilometre avenue lined with stone elephants, camels and…
Day tripGubei Water Town and Simatai
A purpose-built resort village below the Simatai section, two hours out. It is unashamedly a constructed attraction, but Simatai is the only stretch…
Day tripEverything to do in Beijing
Skip-the-line tickets, guided tours and day trips, all in one place on Booking.com.
04Getting there & around
Getting around
The subway is the answer to almost every question. It runs to more than twenty lines and 800-odd kilometres of track, every station is signed in Chinese and English with pinyin, announcements are bilingual, and fares are distance-based starting around 3 yuan and rarely exceeding 8 or 9 for a normal cross-city trip.
Flights
Compare fares into Beijing and pick dates that suit the days you planned.
Airport transfers
Book a private or shared ride from the airport so the first evening starts at your door, not at a ticket queue.
Car hire from Beijing
Only worth it for day trips beyond the city — in town, the plan above works on foot and public transport.
Affiliate notePostcardRoute is reader-supported. Some links to Booking.com (stays, flights, car hire, tickets and tours, airport transfers) are affiliate links, tracked through CJ Affiliate: if you book through them we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only recommend places we would send a friend.