Book these first, in this order
Beijing's problem isn't what to see, it's that the best things are rationed. Before you plan anything:
- Forbidden City — 7 days ahead at 20:00 Beijing time, on the museum's international portal. Peak slots go in seconds. This fixes your other days, so book it first and build around it.
- Tiananmen Square — yes, the square itself. A free real-name reservation is required, released at 12:00 Beijing time for the date exactly 7 days out. No same-day booking.
- Shaanxi-style trap: the National Museum of China — free, 7 days ahead at 17:00, and no working English booking path. Budget effort, or skip it.
- Mutianyu Great Wall — 15 days ahead, passport required, and its own English site.
One change worth knowing: Monday closures resumed on 1 September 2026 at the Temple of Heaven, the Summer Palace and Beihai Park — for their separately-charged inner attractions. The surrounding parks stay open daily. A 2026 summer trial of Monday opening ended on 31 August.
Day 1 — The imperial axis
Start at Tiananmen Square (free, but booked, and carry the physical passport you booked with — a photo will be refused). Then walk north through the Forbidden City, south to north. Entry is one-way: in at Meridian Gate, out at the north gate. Arriving at the north gate is the most common foreign-visitor mistake and costs an hour.
Come out of the north gate and cross straight into Jingshan Park — ¥2, open 06:00–21:00 in summer. Climb ten minutes to Wanchun Pavilion for the straight-down axis view over the Forbidden City roofs. Late afternoon puts the sun behind you and warm light on the yellow tiles. It is the photograph you came for, it costs two yuan, and most people miss it.
Then west into Beihai Park, or east into the hutongs around Nanluoguxiang for dinner.
Time: the Forbidden City deserves three hours.
Day 2 — The Great Wall
Give it the whole day. Mutianyu over Badaling: restored, dramatic, far less crowded.
- Entrance ¥40, including the compulsory shuttle from the car park to the ticket gate.
- Cable car ¥100 one way, ¥140 return. The chairlift is the same price — and chairlift up, toboggan down is the combination worth taking.
- Wall open roughly 07:00–17:00; lifts stop before that.
From Tower 6, walk left (west) towards Towers 20–23 for the steep, dramatic, almost empty sections. Most people turn right.
Getting there: 1.5–2 hours each way by car from central Beijing, longer on weekend mornings. By public transport it's the 916 Express from Dongzhimen to Huairou (about an hour, ¥6 with a transit card) then a local bus or shared taxi — allow 3–4 hours door to wall, and a full day either way.
Evening: Peking duck. Siji Minfu is about ¥150–250 a head and the branch by the Forbidden City moat has the view; it takes no phone bookings for small parties, so join the queue remotely in Dianping or arrive before 11:00 or after 20:00. Da Dong is ¥350–600. All of them serve foreign diners routinely.
Day 3 — Temple, park, hutong
Morning at the Temple of Heaven. The park opens at 06:00 and the gate ticket is ¥15; buy the ¥34 combined ticket, which adds the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, the Echo Wall and the Circular Mound Altar — the three monuments that are the reason to come.
Go at opening, and not for the temple. The Long Corridor fills with retirees doing tai chi, calligraphy, singing and dancing, and it has dispersed by mid-morning. It's the best free thing in the city.
Then either:
- The Summer Palace — ¥30 gate, ¥60 combined in peak season (¥20/¥50 in winter). Enter at the North Palace Gate (metro Line 4, Beigongmen, exit D) and walk south-east over Longevity Hill down to Kunming Lake and the Long Corridor, finishing at the East Gate. A half day, and book 1–7 days ahead; or
- Lama Temple (¥25, 09:00–17:00) plus the surrounding hutongs — Tibetan Buddhist, still active, compact. Go at opening; by late morning the incense crowds make the first courtyards hard to move through. The 18-metre sandalwood Maitreya in the rear pavilion is the thing not to miss.
Finish with a walk through the Gulou hutongs at dusk.
Getting around
The metro is excellent and cheap: ¥3 up to 6 km, ¥4 to 12 km, ¥5 to 22 km, ¥6 to 32 km — so most tourist hops are ¥3–6. Pay with an Alipay transit QR; foreign bank cards do not work at the gates directly. Every entrance screens bags, so allow a few minutes. Avoid 7:30–9:30 and 17:30–19:30.
From the airports: the Capital Airport Express is a flat ¥25 (Dongzhimen to T3, about 25 minutes); Daxing's is ¥10–35 in ordinary class. Note the two airports are 70 km and about two hours apart — check which one you're using.
DiDi fills the gaps cheaply. Between 4pm and 8pm the metro is usually faster.
If you have a fourth day
798 Art District (free to enter; many individual galleries close Mondays), the Ming Tombs, or slow down — Beijing rewards an aimless hutong morning more than another monument.
Honest notes
- Beijing is enormous. Two sights a day is a realistic pace, not a lazy one.
- Winter is cold and clear with thin crowds; spring and autumn have the best weather; summer is hot, humid and packed.
- Avoid the first week of October and Chinese New Year entirely unless you have no choice.