One sight you book a week out, and a city you can decide on the day
The mistake here is not money — it is the calendar. Nothing in Beijing is expensive, and only one thing is genuinely hard: the Forbidden City sells no same-day ticket at all, releases exactly 7 days ahead at 20:00, and has no window to fall back on. Everything else here can be decided over breakfast. Here is where each of our Beijing guides fits.
China for TravelersThe Forbidden City and the Great Wall — UNESCO World Heritage since 1987
Two things decide a Beijing trip and neither of them is the fare. The Forbidden City is real-name and online-only, on sale 7 days ahead at 20:00 and closed Mondays — a passport books it and scans you in, but there is no counter, so an unbooked morning is simply lost. And the Wall opens 07:30 from 1 November to 31 March, an hour later than the rest of the year and later than the first train gets there.
First time here?
Beijing’s sights are spread across a city the size of a small country, and only one of them constrains the shape of your trip. Build the week around the morning your Forbidden City ticket is for — it enters at 午门 and nowhere else, and you leave by 神武门 / 东华门. Give the Wall a whole separate day. Everything after that is interchangeable: the Temple of Heaven wants a dawn, the Summer Palace wants a half-day, and the hutongs want no plan at all.
3-5 h · ¥60
Nine hundred rooms on one axis, and the only sight in the city where the ticket is harder than the visit. It goes on sale at 20:00 exactly 7 days before your date, sells no same-day ticket at all, and has no window to fall back on. A passport books it and scans you in — you enter at 午门 and nowhere else.
Book it seven days out
3-5 h · ¥40
The restored section everyone means, and the only one with a high-speed train to its foot — ¥35-¥50 and about half an hour from Qinghe. ⚠️ From 1 November to 31 March the wall opens at 07:30, an hour later than the rest of the year, so the first train of the day lands you at a shut gate.
Which section, and which train
2-3 h · ¥34
Two attractions on one ticket and two different clocks. The park opens at 06:00 and is where Beijing does its tai chi and its choirs; the monuments inside it — the Hall of Prayer, the Echo Wall — keep museum hours, 08:00 to 18:00. The cheap gate ticket buys you the trees and not the halls.
Get the through-ticketHow long
Beijing is where most first China trips start, and it is four and a half hours from Shanghai by train at the other end. The Wall is a whole day on its own and the Forbidden City owns a fixed morning, so three nights is the floor rather than a comfortable stay. Everything below assumes you are sleeping inside the second ring.
Days 1-3
As above: the Forbidden City on its booked morning, the Wall, and the Temple of Heaven at dawn.
Day 4
The Summer Palace — a lake rather than a palace, and half a day at ¥60 on the through-ticket. The inner sites run 08:00-18:00, shorter than the park around them.
Day 5
798 for something that is not imperial (10:00-18:00, ⛔ not on a Monday), or a second Wall section if the first one was crowded.
Want it written up properly for your dates? We build free custom itineraries →
Where to sleep
Beijing is ring roads all the way out, and what a hotel really buys you is metro time on the one morning that cannot move. Inside the second ring you walk to the palace; outside it every imperial sight is a ride. The better rooms are further out and everything you came for is further in, so the column that decides it is the third.
| Area | Right for | To the palace | What it buys you |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wangfujing & Dongcheng | A first visit | ~15 min walk | Walking distance to the Forbidden City’s east gate and on two metro lines. If you are unsure and the trip is short, stay here — it removes the transport question from the one morning that has a fixed clock. |
| Qianmen & Dashilan | The south axis and old lanes | ~20 min walk | Below Tiananmen, and the closest base to the Temple of Heaven. Quieter at night than Wangfujing, with the rebuilt lanes on the doorstep and the real ones a street behind them. |
| Shichahai & Gulou | Hutongs, and evenings | ~25 min by metro | Courtyard hotels around the lakes, which is the one part of the city where where-you-sleep is itself a sight. The trade is a longer run to the Forbidden City each morning. |
| Sanlitun & Chaoyang | Modern hotels, eating and bars | ~30 min by metro | The international quarter — chains, embassies, the best non-Chinese food in the city, and 798 close by. Every imperial sight is a metro ride, so it suits a second visit more than a first. |
| By Beijing South station | One night between trains | ~25 min by metro | Only worth it if you arrive late and leave early on the Shanghai line. A transit precinct with little around it. |
The full comparison, with named chains and what each block actually costs, is in where to stay in Beijing →
Everything we have
Sights carry our verdict — must see, worth it, or skip if you are tight — and each group is ordered by it rather than alphabetically. Transport and practical pages do not: “must see” answers whether to go somewhere, and a railway station has no such question.
Temple of HeavenMust seeTwo attractions on two clocks — a park from 06:00 and monuments from 08:00. The ¥15 ticket buys only the first.
The Shichahai hutongsWorth itFree to walk. The only thing that can go wrong is the pedicab: ¥150-¥200 licensed, per vehicle.
798 Art DistrictWorth itThe one stop on a Beijing list that is not imperial. Free, 10:00-18:00 for the galleries, and most of them shut on Mondays.
The Beijing subwayWhich lines you actually use, how a foreign card gets through the gate, and where the security queues are.
Capital or Daxing?Two airports 67 km apart on opposite sides of the city. The wrong one is two hours of your first day.Beijing Capital (PEK)Terminals, the Express, and the taxi rank that is not where the signs suggest.
Beijing Daxing (PKX)One Zaha Hadid terminal, and a rail link that decides whether it is far.
Beijing South stationWhere the Shanghai trains go from, and how long the walk from the metro really is.
Beijing West stationThe other big one, for the south and the west. Different building, different rules.
Beijing → ShanghaiThe corridor the whole network is built around, and why the plane rarely wins.Beijing → Xi’anThe classic second stop, and whether to do it overnight.Beijing → ChengduLong enough that the flight is a real option. Here is where the line falls.Beijing → ChongqingThe other Sichuan-basin run, and the sleeper that makes it work.Beijing → GuangzhouThe full length of the country by rail, in one sitting.Beijing → HarbinNorth for the ice festival, and when the trains fill.Beijing → TianjinHalf an hour each way — the easiest day trip on the network.Beijing → ZhangjiajieThe long haul to the pillars, and whether to fly it.On the ground
Getting online
China blocks Google, WhatsApp and Instagram at the network level, so a local SIM and hotel Wi-Fi do not get you round it — and since the April 2026 crackdown a VPN is no longer a dependable workaround. What works is a combination: your home SIM on international roaming, which keeps your real number for the SMS codes Chinese apps send, plus a travel eSIM — such as Nomad eSIM — routing through a foreign carrier so the firewall never applies to it.
Sort it before you fly. A foreign eSIM profile generally cannot be installed once the phone is already in mainland China, and that is a location restriction, so airport Wi-Fi does not solve it.
See Nomad eSIM plans and prices
Which one, and why not a VPN → China eSIM vs VPN·How to buy and install one → Stay connected in China
Beijing has the densest foreign-embassy district in mainland China — every major Western nationality maintains a full embassy here, clustered in two zones: Sanlitun (US, Australia, Canada, Germany, Israel, Italy, Korea, Russia) and Liangmaqiao (UK, Japan, Singapore, India). Lost passports in Beijing are handled here. For foreign tourists visiting from a different Chinese city, your country's Beijing embassy is the senior consular authority — Shanghai/Guangzhou consulates report up to it. The Beijing PSB Exit-Entry main office (安定门东大街2号) handles foreigner cases for Dongcheng + Xicheng + general queries; the Chaoyang district office has a dedicated foreigner service hall.
For a lost passport or a major emergency. If your country has no consulate in this city, your nearest support is your embassy in Beijing or a consulate in another Chinese city. Phone numbers are not listed here — consulate phones change with staffing; consult your country's official Foreign-Affairs website for the current number.
For medical emergencies dial 120 (ambulance). The major hospitals listed below are large, well-equipped, and most likely to have English-speaking staff. For non-emergency visits, ask your travel insurance for in-network options.
Public Security Bureau Exit-Entry offices handle lost-passport reports, visa extensions, and foreigner residency registration. Use the most central municipal office for a standard lost-passport report; provincial or city-level offices handle complex cases such as visa-category changes.
