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Discover the 11 most beautiful sights & attractions in Beijing

Beijing is a city of a special magnitude: an unfathomable metropolis, stretching out over an area half the size of Belgium with twice as many inhabitants. Centuries-old imperial heritage sits alongside modern architecture, and it offers an endless network of little streets and markets to explore. Beijing is a must-see for any trip to China, and an extremely rich destination you should experience at least once.

Wat te doen in Peking - Forbidden City

Beijing is a fantastic and challenging city to discover, but my first experience was a bit of a rough one. When my plane landed after a flight from Shanghai, smog had enveloped the terminal like a rancid yellow curtain, to such an extent I could barely see the building from my window seat. Unlike Shanghai, Beijing is not a coastal city. When there’s little to no wind, the ever-present air pollution has nowhere else to go. To anyone still wondering why many Chinese people were already walking around with a face mask long before covid: there’s your answer. A tad worried, I waded my way through this mustard-coloured purgatory and hopped into a cab to the city centre. Behind the wheel was a friendly little lady who unfortunately didn’t understand a word of what I wanted to tell her. Through the rudimentary translation app on her phone (we’re talking 2014), I was able to type down where I wanted to go with some difficulty. She nodded and quickly wrote something in return, which translated to “you have a beautiful beard sir”. That’ll break the ice.

 

Discover the 11 most beautiful sights & attractions in Beijing

I got lucky as far as the rest of my stay in Beijing was concerned. The smog cleared up a day later, and it was bright and sunny almost continuously. This was good news. There’s a lot to visit in the Chinese capital, and doing so is always more pleasant without cultivating a dust lung in the process. Few other cities have a historical heritage as rich as Beijing. It’s a hectic megacity where rickety neighbourhoods from the last century lie in the shadow of hypermodern mega-buildings. The skyline is not quite on Shanghai or Hong Kong’s level, but it’s impressive nonetheless. The inner city is a cultural treasure trove where the ghosts of Mao Zedong and the ancient emperors still haunt both streets and hearts. The magnificent Forbidden City – the world’s largest palace complex – dominates the old town. Opposite is Tiananmen Square: one of the most iconic and notorious patches of pavement of the 20th century. There’s plenty to visit on the outskirts of the city as well. A few hours away, the Great Wall of China winds its way through the wildest landscapes like some mythical Eastern dragon. Worth the short detour if you ask me. The same goes for the following sights and attractions.

 

1. The Forbidden City: the centre of the world is in Beijing

Wat te doen in Peking - Tiananmen Square
Wat te doen in Beijing - Verboden Stad
Wat te doen in Peking - Forbidden City

The Mandarin name for China is Zhongguo. This literally means “the state in the middle”. Being incredibly modest guys, the Chinese emperors saw their country as the centre of civilization; as a beacon of light surrounded by simple-minded peasants. Nothing embodies this worldview better than the massive Forbidden City, with its thick walls and masterfully decorated golden roofs. It’s located right in the geographical centre of Beijing. From here, the whole of the Chinese empire was ruled for over five hundred years and twenty-four emperors. This only ended in 1911 when the revolution came knocking. In the following years, the palace (as a symbol of the ancien régime) was in danger of being demolished. Fortunately, a few people at the top of the party were able to put a stop to that.

“The Forbidden City is the largest palace complex in the world and is located right in the geographical centre of Beijing. From here, the entire Chinese empire was ruled for over five hundred years and twenty-four emperors.”

Most of the nearly 1,000 buildings on the seventy hectares of palace grounds were reconstructed in the eighteenth century or even later. The majority of the Forbidden City was built of wood, and wood has the rather annoying characteristic of catching fire whenever it sees an opportunity to do so. The more than three hundred copper barrels you’ll see everywhere originally served to help extinguish these fires. A visit to the Forbidden City (or the Palace Museum as they call it here) can take a whole day if you want to be thorough. There are so many buildings, gardens and exhibitions to explore you could fill half a Lonely Planet with them. Of course, Beijing’s biggest draw is almost constantly overcrowded, but if you pretend to be a stupid tourist just before closing time and stay out of calling distance of the guards long enough, you might have the whole place to yourself for a short while.

PS: for a nice top-down view of the Forbidden City, you can climb the hill in nearby Jingshan Park. This park also holds the white acacia from which the last Ming emperor hanged himself when the city was about to fall. Perfect place for a picnic.

 

2. Face to face with Mao on Tiananmen Square

Wat te doen in Peking - Tiananmen Square
Wat te doen in Peking - Tiananmen Square
Wat te doen in Peking - Tiananmen Square

Anyone who lived under a rock for the last forty years will probably not find Tiananmen Square (which somewhat ironically translates to “Square of Heavenly Peace”) all that interesting. After all, the largest public square in the world looks like a sprawling empty parking lot flanked by Soviet-style buildings. Yet it’s one of the most famous squares in the world. It’s located opposite the entrance gate to the Forbidden City and is in a way a negative reflection of it. It was built to glorify the greatness of the CCP, and it hosted parades of more than a million people during the Cultural Revolution. In 1989, one of the most iconic photographs of the 20th century was taken here, when a single man – shopping bag still in his hands – stopped a column of tanks thundering down on a group of protesting students by simply standing in their way. No one officially knows what happened to the tank man, but what we do know for sure is that his massive titanium testicles were heavy enough to create a new black hole.

“Tiananmen Square is one of the most famous public places in the world. It’s right across the street from the gateway to the Forbidden City and is in a way a negative reflection of it.”

The fate of Mao Zedong himself is well known. He died in 1976 and has been lying in state in a refrigerated Snow White coffin in the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall on Tiananmen Square ever since (he himself wanted to be cremated, but I guess his opinion ceased to matter as soon as he died). You can grant him a visit, but you’ll have to stand in line with a surprisingly large number of weeping patriots first. The man has close to a hundred million (mainly Chinese) deaths on his conscience by the way. The more you know.

 

3. Find some time to relax at Temple of Heaven Park

Wat te doen in Peking - Temple of Heaven Park
Wat te doen in Beijing - Temple of Heaven Park
Wat te doen in Peking - Temple of Heaven Park
Wat te doen in Beijing - Temple of Heaven Park

Temple of Heaven Park might be my favourite place in Beijing. Stretching out over no less than 276 hectares in the south of the city, it’s a textbook example of Ming architecture and design: orderly, geometrically perfectly aligned and full of symbolism. This is where the Chinese emperors (the “sons of heaven”) organised a great ceremony every year to ask for a fruitful harvest and to atone for the sins of their people. The central hall of the temple complex in the middle of the park is unique in design. The building is round, but stands on a square base made up of finely carved marble staircases. The roof looks like three purple umbrellas stacked on top of each other and the massive beams holding everything up do so without any nails or cement: pure craftsmanship. Inside, the four central columns represent the seasons, the twelve above them the months and the twelve on the highest level the days (don’t ask me how they ended up on twelve). If you visit during the weekend, you’ll see a few dozen couples in extravagant outfits pass by for their wedding photo shoot in less than an hour. Very entertaining.

4. Behai Park: the perfect spot to meet leisurely locals

Wat te doen in Peking - Behai Park
Wat te doen in Peking - Behai Park
Wat te doen in Peking - Behai Park

One of the other beautiful parks in Beijing – around a lake close to the Forbidden City – is Behai Park. This is the main spot in this part of the city where Beijingers can escape the hustle and bustle of daily life. You can rent a pedal boat to enjoy the lake, and from the white dagoba on the hill you’ll get a beautiful view of the city. The most interesting activity for visitors though, is to observe the locals practicing their hobbies. Elderly people in Bruce Lee tracksuits go through their tai chi routine; passionate card and mahjong games attract crowds and the endearingly enthusiastic public singing lessons, massive waltz sessions or the occasional Pavarotti adept violating one of the man’s arias in his Sunday tuxedo complete the picture. No judgement is given and no one bats an eye, it’s all good. Sometimes I suspect the Chinese to be so used to the constant crowds they stopped caring about futile things like personal space or public appearance ages ago.

 

5. Nanluoguxiang and the hutong

Wat te doen in Peking - Nanluoguxiang
Wat te doen in Peking - Hutong
Wat te doen in Peking - Nanluoguxiang

If you want to experience Beijing at its most authentic, you’ll have to venture into the hutong. These are teeming networks of narrow residential streets crammed in between the main boulevards. Due to the building frenzy and the bulldozers of progress, there are not that many of them left, but some are still there. In the hutong, life plays out at a different speed: you’ll wade through pink Chinese underwear hung out to dry; workers will be passionately arguing about some topic you can’t understand; a bunch of kids will be passing a ball around, some old guy will be watching the world go by smoking from his doorstep and street vendors will praise their wares from overloaded cargo bikes. In the countless food stalls people sell dirt-cheap snacks and the small local shops are twice as cheap as the larger chain stores two streets away. The at times dystopian busyness of the city completely vanishes in the narrow alleyways, making way for what’s almost a village atmosphere.

“If you want to see Beijing at its most authentic, you’ll have to venture into the hutong. These are teeming networks of narrow residential streets crammed in between the main boulevards.”

Nanluoguxiang is a special case. This is an old hutong that was cleaned up, and now houses countless independent shops, restaurants and live bars. As a result, it became a trendy and hugely popular neighbourhood, where it can get pretty wild in the evenings. Perhaps projects like these are the best way to preserve this waning form of living for posterity.

 

6. The Summer Palace: Beijing’s imperial country retreat

Wat te doen in Peking - Summer Palace

Located on the outskirts of the city, Beijing’s Summer Palace is a complex of gardens full of water features, temples and walkways. This is where the emperors used to escape the city’s most punishing summer heat. This park was built around a central lake as well, but here it’s the architecture stealing the show. The most important buildings can be found on so-called Longevity Hill: the Buddhist Fragrance Pavilion and the Cloud Dispelling Hall (the emperors were pretty good at naming things). The former is a magnificent three-storey tower and the latter a beautifully decorated ceremonial hall. The Long Corridor on the other hand, is a seven-hundred-metre-long roof-covered walkway leading to the foot of the hill. More than 14,000 works of art were painted on its walls and ceilings. On the lake-shore you’ll find the Marble Boat: an extravagant vessel obviously not built out of actual marble but painted wood.

 

7. Night markets and food in Beijing: the circle of life on a stick

Wat te doen in Beijing - Donghuamen Night Market
Wat te doen in Beijing - Donghuamen Night Market
Wat te doen in Beijing - Donghuamen Night Market

Beijing is a fantastic place for good food, but some dishes are more adventurous than others. The now closed night market of Donghuamen – near the Forbidden City – was the most notorious example of this. I’m still not sure whether it was actually frequented by locals, or if it only served to shock tourists. I’m cautiously leaning towards the latter. When I visited it ten years ago, it was still running at full speed and you could pretty much get half a zoo worth of animals on a stick. Snakes, starfish, chicken legs, scorpions, spiders, all kinds of insects and even whole squids: sometimes having too much choice isn’t ideal either. Donghuamen Night Market was closed down about eight years ago, but similar night markets and food streets elsewhere in the city are still as popular as ever. Wangfujing Snack Street is the busiest, but Qianmen Food Street, Guijie Street or the Nanluoguxiang Night Market are good alternatives. Close your eyes, start chewing and hope for the best.

 

8. Visit the Beijing 2008 Olympic site

Wat te doen in Peking - Olympic Site

One of the most famous buildings in Beijing is also one of its most modern. The fantastic Bird’s Nest Stadium is where the athletics competition was held during the 2008 Olympic Games. The Olympics ended more than fifteen years ago, but in my opinion this stadium is still one of the most beautiful on the planet. It can be visited with a guide. Equally insane in design is the Water Cube or the National Aquatics Centre. This venue looks like it was covered in a giant roll of bubble wrap. The swimming competition was held here at the time. For a while, it was feared the entire Olympic Site would quietly be abandoned after the games, but the most important buildings are still there and were refurbished for the 2022 Winter Olympics. They’ve even created a new green lung for the city with the nearby Olympic Forest Park. The Olympic site is located quite deep in the north of Beijing, but is easily accessible by metro. It was the same Olympics that ensured Beijing’s metro network was significantly expanded and that English was introduced almost everywhere. Don’t expect everyone you meet on the street to understand you, but if you can somewhat read, you won’t easily get lost in Beijing.

 

9. Explore new spiritual heights in the Lama Temple

Wat te doen in Peking - Lama Temple
Wat te doen in Beijing - Dongyue Temple
Wat te doen in Peking - Lama Temple

There are many interesting temples to visit in Beijing. Some of them we’ve already discussed, but we’ve yet to get to the biggest one. The Lama Temple – where, to my consternation, not a single lama could be found – is the most important Buddhist temple in the city and one of the most beautiful Tibetan temples outside the region itself. It’s still an active temple, but you’ll probably see more tourists than actual worshippers these days. The complex consists of three impressive gates and five halls, all meticulously decorated. In the last and largest hall is an eighteen-meter-high Buddha statue carved from a single piece of wood.

“There are a lot of interesting temples to visit in Beijing, and the Lama Temple is the biggest of them all.”

Want your spiritual revelations to be a bit more unsettling? Visit Dongyue Temple instead.  It can be found in one of Beijing’s busiest business districts and is probably the strangest temple in the city. The courtyard galleries are full of kitschy monster statues that are supposed to show what will happen to your soul if you die a sinner. Among other things, there’s a department for implementing fifteen kinds of violent death and a department for wandering spirits. Be good and stay in school, kids.

 

10. Museums in Beijing

Wat te doen in Beijing - Temple of Heaven Park

*Whoopsie: I didn’t make any pictures in the museums, so here’s a lovely Chinese bride instead.

In addition to the Forbidden City, there are many other great museums to visit in Beijing. Here are a couple of the main ones.

National Museum of China: located on Tiananmen Square and one of the most visited museums in the world. Its huge collection focuses mainly on historical and cultural Chinese heritage from prehistoric times to the present day.

National Art Museum of China: this museum has a massive collection as well, focused mainly on Chinese art in all its forms.

Capital Museum: this museum showcases the cultural and historical development of Beijing over the centuries.

China Science & Technology Museum: museum about space exploration, energy and biology. Includes lots of interactive exhibits, an IMAX theatre and several scale models of Chinese spacecrafts.

Beijing Museum of National History: museum about the natural world, evolution and the various Chinese ecosystems. It has a lot of dinosaur skeletons and animatronics to enjoy.

Red Brick Art Museum: museum of modern art (both Chinese and international), gathered in a fantastically designed red brick building.

 

11. Jingshanglin: visit the right stretch of the Great Wall of China

Wat te doen in Peking - Jingshanglin Great Wall of China
Wat te doen in Peking - Jingshanglin Great Wall of China
Wat te doen in Peking - Jingshanglin Great Wall of China

Visiting Beijing without taking a detour to the Great Wall of China would be pretty silly indeed. It’s one of the most iconic man-made structures on the planet. The oldest parts are older than Christ, but the wall we can still see today was mainly built during the Ming Dynasty between the 14th and 16th century. At its peak, the wall was almost 9,000 km long. Due to all kinds of (civil) wars and centuries of neglect, the original wall has been destroyed or disappeared in many places. Mao even encouraged the population to use the stones as building materials. Fortunately, a lot of long stretches are still standing today and the current government would unceremoniously throw you into some secret dungeon if you dared pry loose even a single pebble.

“Visiting Beijing without seeing the Great Wall of China would be pretty silly indeed: it’s one of the most iconic structures on earth. Not every part of the wall is equally impressive though.”

Not every piece of wall is created equal. Most guides will try to sell you a trip to Badaling. This is the most well-known part of the wall and closest to the city centre. Don’t. The wall in Badaling was completely “restored” in the 1980s and lacks the authenticity of the older parts. Furthermore, you’ll have to share the experience with what seems like a million other tourists. Jinshanling is a bit farther away, much rougher and in some places still fully original. Here, about three hours by bus from Beijing, the wall winds its way for miles over the steepest hills and valleys. The number of visitors is much lower here – in my case there were a couple of hundred on the whole stretch of wall. This really gives you the feeling of trekking through a remote, wild landscape. The views are of course absolutely stunning.

 

Traveling to Beijing: general tips and tricks

Wat te doen in Peking - Temple of Heaven Park
Wat te doen in Beijing - Dongyue Temple
Wat te doen in Peking - Forbidden City

** Disclaimer: This section contains a number of (useful) affiliate links. This means that if you book a hotel or tour through a referral on this page, I’ll receive a small compensation for it, so I can put food on the table without having to beg for it in the train station. It won’t cost you even an extra cent, so why hesitate? Thank you in advance!**

Travelling to China has recently become much easier for Belgians. In the past, you had to go to the Chinese Visa Centre in Brussels (they would have you jump through several hoops for everything that wasn’t tourism or business). As from March 14, 2024 however, holders of a Belgian passport can travel to China visa free for up to 15 days and 14 nights. The only thing you need to present is a transport ticket proving you’ll leave the country within this period. The Chinese government will decide on extending this measure late 2025.

Once actually in Beijing, the subway is your best friend. It runs consistently and on time, everything is indicated in English as well as Mandarin and you can reach just about every part of the city on it (except for the Great Wall of course). Make sure you book your hotel close enough to a subway station. It will save you lots of time each day. Find your place on Booking.com.

Looking for some interesting tours and activities in Beijing, or want to get to the Great Wall comfortably? Check out Get Your Guide.

Want to navigate Beijing smoothly? You’ll need an e-sim with some mobile data. I’ve been using Airalo for years. This is an app that lets you buy easy and cheap data in almost every country on the planet. It just takes a couple of clicks. Install the sim at home and activate it after landing: that’s all you need to do. As you probably know, the internet in Beijing is still locked behind the Great Firewall of China. If you want to be able to use your favourite websites (this includes basic stuff like Google, Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp…) you’ll have to install a paid VPN service before travelling.

Beijing – like the rest of China – is generally very safe to visit as a tourist. Even as a single female traveler, you can walk practically everywhere at any time of day or night. The one thing you have to watch out for are scam artists. Most notorious are pretty girls pretending to be studying English, who’ll invite you for a tea ceremony in their favourite bar. Stay strong and politely refuse the offer, or you’ll leave with your visa card plundered and your honour bruised an hour later.

Fancy some other Asian trips? Read my blog posts on Asakusa, Ueno, Hanoi, Singapore, New Delhi, Taipei, Hong Kong or Shanghai.

 

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