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.
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.
Why Beijing is one of the most fascinating cities on earth
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 (scroll down to see which part of it to hike). The same goes for the following sights and attractions.
1. The Forbidden City (Palace Museum): Beijing’s historic heart
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: 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 near the top of the ruling 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.
Since there is a lot to see in the Forbidden City, it might be best to book a guided tour. This is a highly rated one, taking you to the Temple of Heaven and the Summer Palace as well. You can of course also just buy your tickets at all of the entrances and see everything by yourself, but you’ll miss a lot of background info.
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. Tiananmen Square: face to face with Mao Zedong
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 pictures 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. Temple of Heaven Park: Beijing’s most peaceful escape
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. Beihai Park: a peaceful lake park in central Beijing
One of the other beautiful parks in Beijing – around a lake close to the Forbidden City – is Beihai Park. This is the main spot in this part of town 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 & the hutong: exploring old Beijing neighbourhoods
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. Don’t know where to start? Here’s a fun hutong tour with food stops and a rickshaw ride (optional) around the Drum Tower area. You’ll also meet a local family who’ll invite you to their hutong home.
“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.
Planning to visit the Great Wall from Beijing?
Skip the crowds at Badaling and hike the wild Jinshanling section instead: it’s way more authentic.
Book a highly recommended tour here
6. The Summer Palace: Beijing’s imperial country retreat
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 street food in Beijing: what (and what not) to eat
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 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.
Tip: this is a great (and very highly rated) guided food tour with beers and several tastings, in one of Beijing’s oldest neighbourhoods. Meeting point is just north of Beihai Park.
8. Beijing Olympic Park: the Bird’s Nest & Water Cube
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. The Lama Temple: Beijing’s most important Buddhist 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.
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. The best museums in Beijing
*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 most important 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. Jinshanling: the best Great Wall hike from Beijing
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, it 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 a real shame: 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. Amazing experience, and the views are absolutely stunning.
You can book a tour taking you straight to Jinshanling here (either private or with a group). Once there, you’ll go for a three hour hike over the old wall. It’s quite an intense climb in certain areas, but I can’t recommend it enough. You’ll feel like you’re on the actual historic wall, not on some tourist attraction. You can prolong your day trip with a visit to Simatai (another part of the wall), the Summer Palace and the Forbidden City (all optional).
Traveling to Beijing: activities, hotels and general tips
**There are a couple of affiliate links to interesting activities or hotels in Beijing in this article. These were all personally selected to make sure they actually add value. If you’re already planning to book a tour or hotel in Beijing, consider doing so via one of these links. Doesn’t cost you an extra cent and I’ll get a small compensation for my efforts. Thank you in advance.**
Where to stay in Beijing?
Where to book a hotel in Beijing depends on your personal preferences and interests, but make sure you pick one close enough to a subway station. It will save you lots of time each day. Sadly my favourite hostel in Beijing seems to be closed now, but the city has a whole bunch of other hostels and unique places to stay on. Here are some cool and affordable ones to check out:
–Happy Dragon Alley Hostel: quirky and colourful hostel in an old hutong, quite close to the Forbidden City.
–Happy Dragon Imperial Courtyard: not the same venue. Beautiful little hotel with stylish rooms in the middle of a hutong. Also close to the Forbidden City. Rooms vary in rates and go from very affordable to quite expensive.
–Hotel Cote Cour Deductive Beijing: also in a hutong right in the city centre, but a four star hotel in a wonderfully decorated place. Comes with a courtyard and a goldfish pond and is surprisingly affordable depending on the room.
–The Orchid Hotel: another great looking design hotel in a hutong, within walking distance of Houhai Lake. Surprisingly affordable, and comes with a lovely green garden. There are rooms with a rooftop terrace available, offering great views on the city and the Drum Tower.
–The Peninsula Beijing: obviously large and gorgeous hotel with every facility you could ever need for a luxurious stay in Beijing. Quite expensive, only book if you want to splurge.
–The Great Wall Box House: want to go for something really special? Book a room in this house in the traditional village of Gubeikou, literally built against the Great Wall. It’s obviously not in Beijing and for sure not in the city centre though. Great staff and raving reviews.
Tours and activities in Beijing
Looking for some interesting tours and activities in Beijing? Check out Get Your Guide. Here are some activities I didn’t write about, but all of them are highly rated and look very interesting:
-a private night tour to several of the city’s main highlights
-a culinary walk through the hutong with fifteen different food stops
-an hour-long kungfu initiation in an old temple right next to the Forbidden City
-a three day guided tour (including lunches and a theatre show) taking you to most of Beijing’s biggest sights and even to the Great Wall. This one is for completionists.
Getting around in Beijing
The subway is your best friend in Beijing. 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 with it (except for the Great Wall of course).
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.
The Great Firewall of China
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. I personally work with Surfshark, which is quite cheap.
Visa questions
Travelling to China has recently become much easier for Belgians (and for most other EU countries). 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). This is no longer the case. Until at least 31 December 2026, Belgians and most other EU citizens can now visit China visa free for up to 30 days. The only thing you need to present is a transport ticket proving you’ll leave the country within this period.
Safety in Beijing
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.
Further reading
Fancy some other Asian trips? Read my blog posts on Tokyo, Seoul, Hanoi, Singapore, New Delhi, Taipei, Hong Kong or Shanghai.
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