Beijing is China’s capital city filled with amazing culture, incredible temples, and tonnes of history. It’s one of the best spots in the country to find old sights blended with modern touches. In our in-depth 4 day Beijing itinerary, we’ll show you all the best things to do, which area to stay and how to get around!
Even with 4 days in Beijing, you’ll still need to plan your days well as there is so much to do in the ancient capital. So we’re glad you’ve found our Beijing itinerary and now you can feel fully prepared.
Beijing has been high on our bucket list for a long time, and it didn’t disappoint! From seeing the huge Forbidden City to wandering through the old Hutong villages, we absolutely loved our time in Beijing. Plus it’s the perfect place to visit the infamous Great Wall of China.
Over the years Beijing has made a huge effort to help the air pollution in the city (as it’s one of the most populated cities in China) and we were so surprised to see that 95% of the vehicles were electric!
We spent 3 weeks exploring China, so be sure to check out our other China guides if you need them!
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Quick Tips for 4 days in Beijing
- Currency – Chinese Yuan CN¥ (compare your own currency here)
- Language – Mandarin
- Cuisine – Chinese (Sichuan, Shandong, Cantonese, Huaiyang, and Northeastern)
- Apps – Trip.com, Alipay, WeChat, Didi App (like Uber) & Baidu Maps or Amaps
- Power Voltage – Plugs A & C (220 V)
- Tipping Culture – No tipping in China
- Tap Water – Not drinkable, get a reusable bottle for filtered water
Where to stay in Beijing? Beijing Xinqiao Hotel – Find it on Trip here!
Sim Card in Beijing
Physical Sim Card – If you need a Chinese phone number, you’ll have to get a sim card. They can be found at the airport on arrival with different price packages depending on how much data you want. You can also find them at stalls or 7-Eleven’s around Beijing.
E-Sim – We highly recommend using Airalo when travelling around China. Most e-sims come with a built-in VPN, so if you get a big enough data package you won’t need to worry about connecting to Wifi. We gave Nomad a try for this China trip and it didn’t work very well.
Airalo – Chinacom (3GB / £9) & (5GB / £11) & (10GB £22) – all 30 Days
If you’re new to Airalo use (DAN8993) or (NEWTOAIRALO15) for some discount! Alternatively (AIRALOESIM10) will work for anyone! This is the discount code we usually use. Check out the prices on Airalo here.
VPN in Beijing
We recommend getting a VPN if you want to access important sites such as Google, your emails, Instagram, Notion and Facebook. China’s Great Firewall blocks a lot of foreign sites. This is pretty important if you use Google Photos or Gmail.
If you’re only spending 4 days in Beijing on your China trip and not visiting any other cities, you can get away with just using an E-sim which has a built-in VPN.
As we spent 3 weeks in China we chose to use Let’s VPN and it was perfect for us. It’s only £5.50 for the non-premium version with two devices.
4 Day Beijing Itinerary: Best Things To Do
Now that you know the basics of planning a trip to Beijing, we can jump into our 4 day Beijing itinerary!
We arrived quite late on the day before this itinerary from Shanghai, so we were able to get our bearings together. If it’s your first time in China, you’re going to be amazed at everything!
Beijing is a very large city with a great public transportation system. We’ll share more tips on how to get around after this itinerary.
Here’s a few activities you may want to book in advance on your Beijing trip:
- Forbidden City – book at least 1 week in advance.
- Caligraphy Class – learn how to write Chinese characters!
- Great Wall of China Tour (note – we didn’t book a tour and used public transport)
We also wanted to note that you may have to switch these days around depending on the weather and the day of the week. The Forbidden City is closed on Mondays and the Great Wall of China is best visited on a sunny day, possibly not the weekend or a Monday (as it will be busy).
Major Tip – You need to bring your passport with you for any activity in Beijing!
Day 1 – The Forbidden City, Hutongs & Markets
After doing lots of research, we found out that the Forbidden City is less busy in the afternoon, so we decided to spin our day around and visit the most famous site in the afternoon. You usually have to book tickets for the Palace Museum (Forbidden City) a week in advance, especially in peak season.
Stroll around Houhai Lake
We started our first day with a walk around the peaceful Houhai Lake. Okay, it’s only peaceful in certain areas. We first visited the pagoda in the north of the lake (find the location here) before heading towards the towers.
There are so many tricycle riders offering rides around the lake but they didn’t bother us too much after we said no thank you. Houhai Lake isn’t huge, but we knew we didn’t have time to walk or take a ride around the whole lake.
It’s also popular to take little boat rides around the lake which looked like the most fun thing to do!
See the Beijing Bell and Drum Towers
After walking along the lake you’ll arrive at the Bell and Drum Towers which can’t be missed on your 4 days in Beijing! The buildings are beautiful and you can even visit inside by climbing steep stairs!
Both of these towers were built in 1272 during the Yuan Dynasty and later rebuilt in 1420 and again in 1747.
The bell tower was once used to announce the time of day with Beijing and consists of one of the biggest bells in China. The drums were always beaten before the dong of the bell.
We saw locals playing ball games like professionals! It’s a really cute little square in between the two towers. It’s definitely worth a visit during your 4 days in Beijing.
Right next to the drum and bell towers is the wonderful Jiaodaokou Neighborhood, we chose to grab a quick lunch here and explore the neighbourhood in the evening! We’ll share more about it later on!
➤ Check out our 3 week China itinerary to see the best of the country!
Admire Tiananmen Square
Tiananmen Square is the largest in the world and the most important square in China. It can hold over 1 million people, which is wild! It was built in 1651 and expanded in the 1950s under Mao Zedong’s direction.
Jump on a bus or order a Didi (taxi) to make your way to the entry point of Tiananmen Square. Make sure you book your free tickets in advance!
The tickets are a little harder to get these days as you have to find the Tiananmen Square Reservation WeChat Mini Program (微信小程序). You will need your WeChat verified by someone who already has WeChat downloaded, so you can get your accommodation to help.
We managed to book tickets one day in advance but due to security issues on the day we couldn’t attend our session and the square closed!
The square gets a lot of visitors a day and that’s why they have a ticketed system, similar to Forbidden City.
Explore The Forbidden City
A visit to the Forbidden City is a must on this 4 day Beijing itinerary! It’s been a UNESCO world heritage site since 1987 and after the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1912, it became a museum in 1925.
The Forbidden City (known as The Palace Museum) was an imperial palace for 24 emperors and was China’s political and ritual centre for over 500 years.
The yellow roofs and red walls symbolized imperial authority and only important members were allowed to enter the grounds. It’s absolutely huge and you can easily spend 3-4 hours there with or without a guided tour.
It’s amazing that Beijing has kept this huge micro city still in the city centre for everyone around the world to view.
As the Forbidden City has a wall and is surrounded by water, there are only a few entrances you can use. We recommend the south entrance after visiting Tiananmen Square. You’ll also exit right next to Jingshan Park!
How to book tickets for The Forbidden City
You’ll need to book tickets for the Palace Museum 1 week in advance. During peak seasons they can sell out on the day of release! Here’s the official Palace Museum Website here! You can choose a ‘morning’ or ‘afternoon’ slot and it will be 60 yuan during peak season and 40 off-peak.
You need to be quick when booking tickets online. We added the Gallery of Clocks and Treasure Cove to our ticket for an extra 10 each, but it wasn’t totally worth it as the Palace Museum is huge to explore anyway!
See the views at Jingshan Park
Next up on this Beijing itinerary head to Jingshan Park for incredible views of the Forbidden City. There’s a short hill to climb to reach the viewpoint, but it’s totally worth it. You’ll have to queue for a ticket which is 2 yuan.
Jingshan Park was once the imperial garden throughout many dynasties, which makes sense as it’s so close to the imperial palace.
The park is beautiful, but at this point in our day, it was already getting dark. Luckily the park is a great sunset spot on a clear day but there were too many clouds for us!
End your night at the Nanluoguxiang Market
After the park head back to Jiaodaokou Neighborhood to explore the hutong village and find some dinner (we went to Liansu World for amazing veggie food).
Hutong is a narrow street or alley that’s within traditional houses where people in Beijing used to live. There’s a few of them around the city and we’re so glad they still exist!
Nanluoguxiang Market is nestled within the alleys of Jiaodaokou Neighborhood and it’s one long street filled with modern shops and small restaurants. You can find plenty of places to buy tea, street snacks and even souvenirs.
➤ Here’s our top things to know before visiting China if you’re here on a first time visit!
Day 2 – Visit the Great Wall of China
The Great Wall of China is the longest wall in the world (although it’s split into sections) and it was originally built to stop any enemies from the North coming in, especially Mongols.
Visiting the Great Wall of China during our 4 day Beijing itinerary was a dream come true! We can’t believe that we’ve now seen the wall with our own eyes. It’s a pretty long day so rest well the night before! There’s a few different sections of the wall you can visit, so we’ll explain them briefly now.
- Badaling Great Wall – the most popular tourist section of the wall and very preserved. You can get there by metro which is how it gets so busy. Skip the queues for the Badaling Great Wall.
- Mutianyu Great Wall – preserved and popular for foreigners to visit and easy to get to by bus. We recommend booking this tour to Mutianyu if you want to save the hassle of public transport.
- Jiankou to Mutianyu Hike on the Wall- not a legal option anymore due to safety and security issues. It’s rural and wild, but that also leads to a more dangerous hike on the wall. It’s also a little harder to get to compared to Mutianyu or Badaling.
- Jinshanling Great Wall – beautiful, less busy and a little harder to get to by tour or public transport.
- Huanghuacheng Great Wall – another lovely section with a lakeside part of the wall.
- Get tickets for the Juyongguan Great Wall.
Visiting Mutianyu Great Wall
We chose to visit the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall as it was easy to get to and looked incredible from the photos we saw online. It was incredible! We highly recommend visiting here if you’re on a first-time visit to Beijing like we were.
The Mutianyu Wall is around 2 miles long and we managed to walk the whole section in a day doubling back on ourselves too. We didn’t realise there is a West Route, Central Route and East Route and usually people choose one. Why not do them all?!
We recommend starting with the West Route first and taking lots of photos whilst the crowds haven’t arrived yet. This is classed as the most scenic route, but they’re all pretty scenic.
You’ll have to double back on yourself to where you started the trail in order to head the other way via the Central Route towards the East Route.
It only took us 1 hour to complete the hike for West Route and back with only a couple of steep stairs and then the Central Route and East Route took less time to complete. Give yourself at least 3-4 hours on the Great Wall for hiking, admiring and taking photos!
Plus crowds can add more time to your walking level. The queue for the toboggan can often take 30 minutes to get down, but it moves quickly and it’s totally worth it!
Summary of our Mutianyu Great Wall Hike
- Start with the West Route and return back to the starting point
- Follow Central Route one way
- Pass by the chair lift to follow the East Route and return
- Use the toboggan to get down from the Great Wall
The Great Wall of China exceeded our expectations! It was also a lot steeper than we ever thought. We always saw photos of the wall trailing along through the hilly mountains, but we never thought the steps could be so steep!
There’s ladders to climb and many towers to pass through, the day is definitely an experience we’ll never forget! We found a map with the numbers of all of the towers which really helped us understand where we were on the wall. Here’s a rough idea though:
- West Route starts at towers 15 to 20
- Central Route has towers 14 to 7
- East Route has towers 6 to 1
Tower number 20 has a steep incline and some of the best-overlooking views away from the cable car and chair lift stations. Tower number 4 on the East Route is called the Zhengguan Pass and it’s one of the most beautiful watchtowers in the Mutianyu section. You’ll find the Grand Turret at tower number 1.
You can book your wall tickets, shuttle bus and one-way cable car tickets in advance to skip the queue! You’ll need to queue for the toboggan one-way journey though or you can buy the ticket at the top of the wall.
➤ Book your Mutianyu Great Wall tickets here!
How to get to the Mutianyu Great Wall with Public Transport
Get a metro, bus or taxi to Dongzhimen Terminal and follow signs for the 916 Express Bus. The buses leave every 9 minutes and we managed to get the 6:08 am bus. The next one was at 6:17, and 6:26. A few locals use the route to get off at other stops along the way.
Get off at the Huairou Bei Da Jie stop in Huairou. Our journey took just over 1 hour. We had a local taxi driver trying to convince us to take a ride for 20 yuan per person, but we wanted to wait for the local bus as there were quite a few people at the stop. There are a couple of H buses that will take you to Mutianyu, but we ended up getting the H23. You can track the buses in amap.
If there’s no one at the bus stop and there’s not one scheduled for a while, you can order a Didi or hop in a taxi to save time. It won’t cost too much anyway.
Follow the maps until you reach Mutianyu Roundabout and you’ll reach the ticket office for the Great Wall! Reverse the journey to get back to Beijing.
At the ticket office, you can pick up your tickets and take the shuttle bus to the cable car station or chair lift. It can take around 45 minutes to walk so the shuttle bus is a good option to beat the crowds!
We got off the shuttle at 8:38 and reached the Great Wall of China just before 9 am. So it’s a pretty long journey, but it can be just as long if you go with a group tour anyway.
How to get to the Mutianyu Great Wall by Tour
- Trip – Mutianyu Great Wall Tour with Trip!
- Klook – Mutianyu Great Wall Tour with Klook!
- GetYourGuide – Mutianyu Great Wall Tour with GetYourGuide!
When it’s time to leave, the bus stop is across the road from the Great Wall ticket area. Have a look at the timetable or use Amap to check on the waiting time. We ordered a Didi (taxi) for 35 yuan because we just missed a bus!
It will take 30 – 45 minutes depending on the traffic. Then catch the 916 back to Beijing!
After a long day exploring the wall and catching the public transport back to Beijing, we were wiped out! We got back to the city around 6 pm and headed straight for dinner at Tianchu Miaoxiang.
Note – You can also visit the Ming Tombs on some group tours to the Mutianyu Great Wall. The Ming Tombs have 13 out of the 16 emperors of the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) buried there. We chose not to visit as a few bad reviews were stating it’s not worth it and it’s a little harder with public transport.
Day 3 – Temples, Qianmen & The Art District
Next up on our 4 day Beijing itinerary, we visit a beautiful (but busy) temple complex, explore the cultural streets of Beijing and visit a trendy art district.
We didn’t actually make it to 798 Art District as the day got the better of us, but we highly recommend visiting as it’s a really unique place to see on this itinerary!
Explore The Temple Of Heaven Complex
Start your third day in Beijing with a visit to one of Beijing’s most famous temples.
When we first heard about the Temple of Heaven, we thought it was just one temple to visit and we would only need 30 minutes. This is not the case! The Temple of Heaven Park Complex is massive, with a free park, more temples and a full morning’s worth of things to do.
We highly recommend booking tickets on Trip to skip the queues. If you book on the day you’ll need the activity ticket not just the park ticket. It was really busy in the morning like most major sights in China.
The Temple of Heaven – Book your tickets in advance to skip the queues on Trip!
The Temple of Heaven was once used by emperors who performed rituals to pray for good harvests and maintain harmony between heaven and earth. The complex became a public park after the collapse of imperial China and now you’ll find locals doing Tai Chi, stretches or simply relaxing! It’s now one of China’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
On the complex, there’s more to see than the iconic main temple (in the photos). Also visit the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests and Circular Mound Altar, plus walk around the park and explore other sights!
Wander around Qianmen Street
Next up on our 4 day Beijing itinerary is a visit to Qianmen Street – a long and wide shopping street with Dashilan heading off of it. This area of Beijing is filled with small alleys, street snacks, souvenir shops and boutique stores. You can also find a lovely bookstore named Page One here!
If you didn’t manage to get Tiananmen Square tickets the other day, this is your second opportunity to grab a slot!
From here you can admire Zhengyangmen, a beautiful gatehouse built in 1419. There is also the most beautiful Starbucks building we’ve ever seen! This area is amazing in the evening too, so try to come back later and visit.
➤ Check out our Shanghai 4 day itinerary to see China’s modern gem!
Discover the 798 Art District
Spend your afternoon admiring the murals and art at the 798 Art District. An area that was once home to old factories, is now filled with art galleries and studio spaces. It’s a little out of the way from Beijing City but easily reachable by the metro or Didi.
Just like most places in China, the Art District is huge! You can spend anything from 1 to 5 hours there browsing through all the different styles of art. There’s also a few cafes there if you spend a while.
The Art District is a great way to see China’s history through cultural art with many museums and galleries. It’s worth a visit if you’re looking for something non-touristy and laidback compared to the hustle of the city.
Browse the Wangfujing Street
Wangfujing is one of Beijing’s main shopping streets. There are a few alleys with street food from the main street, but apparently, they’re not as good as they used to be! Along the strip, you’ll find main retailers (especially shoe shops) but you can also find a 3D billboard which is worth seeing!
For food, you can also head back to Dashilan Street as it’s so close! We walked back to Suhu Vegetarian Tiger for a tasty feast.
Day 4 – The Palace, Parks & More Temples
Don’t let day 4 of this Beijing itinerary fool you, these activities will take up a lot of time! One thing we learnt in Beijing is never to underestimate a temple or park complex.
Explore The Summer Palace
Another beautiful UNESCO World Heritage Site in Beijing is The Summer Palace, another huge complex with plenty of things to do. You’ll need the whole morning to visit if you want to see everything. It can get super busy, so try to visit early to enjoy some peaceful less crowded moments.
Book your Summer Palace tickets in advance here! (closed on Mondays)
The Summer Palace was built in 1750 during Emperor Qianlong’s reign. It’s a beautiful place to visit, which is why we added it to our Beijing itinerary. Here’s a few things to do in the complex:
- Kunming Lake – the unmissable huge lake in the centre of the complex. You can take boat trips or rent your own boat to see The Summer Palace by water.
- Long Gallery – an impressive 728-meter-long corridor going through the complex!
- Marble Boat – resting on Kunming Lake, you’ll find a huge unique boat!
There’s an extra small payment to visit the Tower of Buddhist Incense and Hall of Dispelling Clouds, but it’s totally worth it (especially for the views).
- Hall of Dispelling Clouds – pass through the gate to find a beautiful ceremonial hall.
- Tower of Buddhist Incense – has the best views from Longevity Hill with quite a few stairs to get up to the top. The tower sits high on the complex so you can see the lake from above!
You can also visit the Hall of the Sea of Wisdom and Suzhou Market Street whilst exploring the complex. There’s a few exits to choose from depending on your visit. For this 4 day Beijing itinerary, you can leave through the East Gate to visit Yuanmingyuan Park.
Wander through Yuanmingyuan Park
At this point in our Beijing itinerary, it was lunch and we decided to visit a hot pot place closer to the city, which meant we missed out on visiting the old Yuanmingyuan Park! We’re keeping it on our itinerary as it’s worth a visit, we just simply underestimated how big The Summer Palace would be. Bring some snacks to get you by or find a lunch spot in between the parks.
Get your Yuanmingyuan Park tickets on Trip here!
Yuanmingyuan Park is also known as the Old Summer Palace as it’s now in ruins. The buildings were destroyed back in 1860 by the British in response to the Qing forces killing and torturing the British! The Palace was brutally set alight and now we can see the crumbled mess of history.
If you’re short on time, there’s a boat to help you get around. As we mentioned, these complexes are huge in China!
Admire Lama Temple
The Lama Temple was built in 1694 during the Qing Dynasty. It’s a beautiful Tibetan Buddhist temple and worth a visit during your 4 days in Beijing. The temple is peaceful and still used by locals and anyone to pray. Don’t forget to see the 18-metre-high golden Buddha! They close before 5 pm and there’s a small entry fee.
If you haven’t eaten yet, grab some food from a nearby restaurant at the temple.
You can also visit the Confucius Temple and The Imperial College Museum if you have time.
Wander around Wu Dao Ying Hutong
After Lama Temple, explore another one of Beijing’s beautiful Hutong neighbourhoods! The area is less busy than other hutongs which makes it feel more authentic. You’ll still see that it’s a blend of history and modern culture with lots of tea shops, art galleries and little shops.
Explore Gui Jie (Ghost Street)
We visited Ghost Street in the evening for a delicious dinner at Hua Kai Sushi (Blossom). It’s an affordable Michelin-graded restaurant and it was so good with amazing Sichuan noodles.
Gui Jie is full of restaurants, beautiful red lights and so much atmosphere. It’s definitely a spot to check out during your 4 days in Beijing.
We couldn’t really find the real reason the street is nicknamed Ghost Street, a few ideas we found were due to most of the diners arriving after midnight, the street used to have lots of coffin shops or that the street looks ghostly with the lanterns in the dark. We’re not sure which one is true or maybe they’re all true!
Enjoy San Li Tun
Lastly, nearby Ghost Street is San Li Tun – another hip and trendy neighbourhood in Beijing. It’s often known for celebrity sightings, but I don’t think we would have seen any we recognise there! San Li Tun has lots of major shops and it’s best to visit in the evening when the bars and clubs come to life. It’s one of the best spots in the city for nightlife!
That’s it for our 4 day Beijing itinerary! It’s a big one! There’s so many things to do in Beijing, so make sure you have comfy shoes and get some good sleep. Here are some more things to do in Beijing and other helpful information about where to stay and how to get around.
More things to do in Beijing
- Universal Beijing Resort – Find tickets on Trip here.
- Prince Kung’s Mansion – Get tickets on Trip here!
- Beihai Park – a little paid park on the water near the Forbidden City.
- Chinese Caligraphy Class – learn how to write Chinese characters!
- Longtan Lake Park – a relaxing spot out of the hustle
- Galaxy SOHO – funky building
- Olympic Park – up in the north of Beijing where the Olympics were held!
- National Museum of China
4 Day Beijing Itinerary Breakdown
Day 1 – The Forbidden City, Hutongs & Markets / Day 2 – Visit the Great Wall of China / Day 3 – Temples, Qianmen & The Art District / Day 4 – The Palace, Parks & More Temples
Where to stay in Beijing, China
Beijing is a huge city with tonnes of options! It was a little overwhelming at first, so we made sure to do our research. The best places to stay are Wangfujing, Qianmen, Houhai and Xidan. We stayed near Beijing Railway Station which was only two metro stops away from Qianmen. This was a great option to save some money!
Beijing Xinqiao Hotel – A budget-friendly private room in Beijing and only one metro stop away from Tiananmen Square. We stayed very close to this hotel and would book here if we visited Beijing again! – Find it on Trip.com here!
Sunworld Hotel – This hotel is full of amenities and is in the centre of the city! Most rooms have windows, which is a bonus for Beijing! – Find it on Trip.com here!
Livefortuna Hotel – Although a little more pricey, you’ll pay for the incredible rooftop pool and other amenities. It’s close to Jianguomen metro – Find it on Trip.com here!
💤 Find more hotels in Beijing on Trip here!
Best Vegan Places in Beijing
You won’t go hungry in Beijing, even if you’re vegetarian or vegan like us! Here’s our favourite places to eat in Beijing. Even if you’re not vegan, visit some of these places to taste the vegetables and tofu of China!
- Liansu World – serving tasty vegan food in the Jiaodaokou Neighborhood.
- Hua Kai Sushi (Blossom) – a lovely Michelin-approved restaurant in Ghost Street with reasonable prices!
- Gongdelin Vegetarian Restaurant – easy, affordable food in Beijing with a takeaway Baozi counter. We kept getting these for breakfast.
- Suhu Tiger – the best vegan buffet in Beijing with so many options!
- Wu Tai Yun – amazing vegan hot pot in Beijing!
- Tianchu Miaoxiang – incredible vegan food in the Chaowi district
- King’s Joy – a very upscale restaurant with Michelin stars ($130 each, we didn’t get to eat here)
How to get to Beijing, China
Beijing is a well-connected city with multiple ways to get there! As we came from Shanghai, we chose to get the High Speed Rail which is the best way to travel through China. If you’re starting your China trip in Beijing, you’ll likely fly here!
By Train – There are five railway stations which connect to major cities in China! We arrived at Beijing West Railway Station from Shanghai and grabbed the metro to get into the city centre. The HSR journey from Shanghai is 4.5 hours and from Xi’an it’s 4 hours (times may vary depending on train availability).
By Plane – Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK) is the closest airport to the city and Beijing Daxing International Airport (PKX) is a little further out. You can get a metro or train from either airport.
You can book your trains on Trip or log in to Railway 12306!
How to get around Beijing, China
Before your China trip, download Ali Pay or WeChat. We used Ali Pay as our transport card all around China, including Beijing. You can connect your card to Ali Pay and pay for metros, buses or taxis all over the city.
We used a mix of buses, the metro and Didi taxis in Beijing depending on where we were.We would usually spend 10 – 15 yuan (£1-£1.60) each on transport for the day using public buses or the metro which covers us for 3 or 4 rides each!
When we visited the Great Wall we used Didi to get from the bus station closer to the Great Wall entrance and it only cost 36.03 for a 30-40 minute ride.
Best time to visit Beijing
The best time to visit Beijing is between April to June and September to October! This is Spring and Autumn time in Beijing and you’ll hopefully experience good weather. Avoid any Chinese public holidays such as the first week of October, as the whole country will be too busy!
We visited mid-October after China’s Golden Week and had a mix of warm and cold throughout our whole China trip. Beijing was the coldest destination we visited as it was the most North. Our visit to the Great Wall was around 6°C which was too cold for us without coats, but we managed with lots of layers. Plus the sun helped a lot.
Summer in Beijing is very hot and humid while the winter can be very cold and snowy! Winter would be a magical time to visit, but you’ll have to deal with the short days which makes this Beijing itinerary harder to achieve.
How many days to spend in Beijing
The minimum amount of time you should spend in Beijing is 2 days, but you’ll only touch the surface. We highly recommend spending at least 4 days in Beijing so you can spare a day for the Great Wall, visit the main cultural sights and wander the trendy streets.
The city is filled with museums that we didn’t even get to visit, as our 4 day Beijing itinerary was packed!
Is Beijing expensive?
Beijing is one of the most expensive cities in China, but it’s not as expensive as Western Europe, Canada, the US or Australia. So if you’re travelling to Beijing on a budget, you’ll be able to get by without breaking the bank.
Even visiting the Great Wall is relatively affordable considering how famous it is! The biggest hit will be finding good accommodation, but there are plenty of options under £50 a night. We stayed in a budget-friendly private room for £36 a night, but the room was a little unloved.
You can find restaurants for less than £10 a meal and local food for less than £5. Although Beijing is an expensive city in China, it’s not that expensive.
Is Beijing worth visiting?
YES! If you’ve ever dreamed of visiting the Great Wall of China, you have to visit Beijing.
The cultural temples, the old Chinese alleys and the beautiful parks, Beijing is filled with much more than the Forbidden Palace and the base for the Great Wall. We easily spend 4 days in Beijing and still had so many more things on our list.
Beijing is worth visiting on any China trip, no matter the length.
Where to visit after Beijing
We knew Beijing was high on our list of places to visit in China, so when we planned our 3 week China trip, we ended up with a long list of destinations! Here’s a few places to visit after your Beijing trip:
- Shanghai – Visit an even newer Chinese city with international modern influences! Here’s our Shanghai itinerary!
- Xi’an – Visit another ancient wonderland and see the Terracotta Warriors!
- Hong Kong – Fly to Hong Kong and experience a high energy with a fusion of Eastern and Western influences.
Now you know what to do in Beijing! We hope our 4 day Beijing itinerary helped you plan your trip. Check out our other China travel guides to plan your trip!
- 4 Day Shanghai Travel Guide
- The Ultimate 3 Week China Itinerary
- Things to know before visiting China (for the first time)
- The Best Xi’an Itinerary: 3 Days in Xi’an
- The Best 3 Day Chengdu Itinerary
- 3 Day Hong Kong Itinerary
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