Beijing Travel Guide: How Many Days, What to Book Ahead, and How to Get Around

Beijing needs more days than most first-time visitors give it, and more planning than other Chinese cities: the Forbidden City sells no same-day tickets, Tiananmen Square itself takes a reservation, and the Great Wall is a full day out of town. The good news is that the hard parts got easier in the last two years — a foreign bank card now taps you straight through the subway gates, most museums have dropped mandatory reservations, and the Forbidden City, the one that matters most, takes a passport on an English page. Here are the decisions in the order you'll make them.

How many days, when to come, and how the city is laid out

Plan four days if you can, three at a minimum, five for a slower pace. The Great Wall takes one of those days by itself — an hour and a half or more each way — so a three-day trip really means two days in the city. Four days lets you add the Summer Palace and a proper hutong afternoon; five adds a museum morning or a second trip out.

Season matters more here than in most of China. Autumn, September to early November, is the best time: dry, clear and comfortable. Spring, April to May, is the other good window, with the occasional dust day when the sky turns yellow-brown for an afternoon. Summer is hot and humid with heavy showers; winter is cold and very dry but usually sunny, with quiet sights and cheaper hotels. In any season, avoid the first week of October and Chinese New Year, when every big sight is at its most crowded — our Golden Week survival guide explains what that looks like.

The city is easy to read once you see the pattern. Everything sits on a north–south central axis with the Forbidden City in the middle and Tiananmen Square directly south of it, and the numbered ring roads run around that core. Inside the 2nd Ring Road is the old walled city: the palace, the temples, the lakes and the hutongs (胡同, hútòng — the old alleyways of courtyard houses). East of it, Chaoyang district (朝阳, Cháoyáng) holds the business district, the embassies and the Sanlitun bar-and-shopping area. To the northwest, Haidian (海淀, Hǎidiàn) is the university district and the way to the Summer Palace.

On getting in: Beijing's two airports, Capital and Daxing, are both among the 65 ports where China's 240-hour visa-free transit applies, so eligible nationalities can fly in without a visa when continuing to a third country. Separately, ordinary-passport holders from 50 countries — including most of Europe, Australia, Japan and South Korea — currently get 30 days visa-free for tourism. Which one covers you is in our visa-free entry and transit guide.

Getting in from the airports

Capital Airport (PEK), northeast of the city, handles most long-haul flights. The Airport Express train is a flat 25 yuan; the last train into town leaves T3 at 22:52 and T2 at 23:10, and the first around 06:20 to 06:40. It stops at Sanyuanqiao (Lines 10 and 12), Dongzhimen (Lines 2 and 13) and Beixinqiao (Line 5). Taxis from the official ranks are metered — 13 yuan for the first 3 km, then 2.3 yuan per km — and you should budget about an hour to the centre, more at rush hour. Late at night the taxi is the sensible choice; at rush hour the train is.

Daxing Airport (PKX) is far to the south. Its Daxing Airport Express is priced by distance — 10, 25 or 35 yuan, the full run to Caoqiao being 35 — and Caoqiao connects to Lines 10 and 19. A taxi from Daxing is a long metered ride into the centre, so take the train unless you land after its 23:00 last departure. Both airport lines take a tapped foreign bank card at the gate, like the rest of the network. Buses, luggage and late arrivals are covered in the Beijing airport guide.

Getting around the city

The subway does almost all the work: it reaches every sight in this guide except the Great Wall, it is signed and announced in English, and the payment problem that used to trip up visitors is gone. Since September 2024 you can tap a contactless Visa or Mastercard — physical card or phone wallet — directly on the gate, and since June 2025 JCB and American Express too, at every station on all 29 lines including both airport lines. No app, no ticket; just tap the same card in and out. Fares start at 3 yuan for the first 6 km and rise with distance, so most rides inside the city cost 3 to 6 yuan. The city's English FAQ on subway payment spells out the foreign-card rule.

If your card isn't contactless, the machines and staffed windows at every station sell paper single tickets and take foreign cards as well as cash. If you'd rather scan a code, use Alipay: once registered with a card linked, its Transport → Metro section issues a free Beijing subway code. WeChat Pay's own transit code does not work on the Beijing subway — inside WeChat you'd need the DiDi mini-app, a small app that runs inside WeChat.

Beijing's day passes (1-, 2-, 3-, 5- and 7-day) live only inside the official Yitongxing (亿通行, Yìtōngxíng) app, whose promised international version hasn't launched — for a short visit, skip them and tap your card. The BEIJING PASS, a 20-yuan physical card sold to foreign passport holders at both airports and a few big stations, is worth it only if your card won't tap or you want to ride buses too.

Every station has a security check at the entrance — bags through an X-ray, and knives and large aerosols (over 120 ml) are banned; it takes a minute or two, more around Tiananmen. Last trains are earlier than a city this size suggests: most lines run roughly 05:00 to 23:00, every line and station differs, and ticket sales stop five minutes before the last train. Check your home station before a late dinner — our Beijing last-train page lists every line, and the Beijing metro map and planner works out routes and changes. Around major state events the stations near Tiananmen can close at short notice, always with an official announcement first. the WaysChina app

For door-to-door trips, DiDi is the backup: the English app takes international credit cards, and you type the destination instead of explaining it — setup is in our DiDi guide. Buses cost 2 yuan for the first 10 km, you tap both on and off, and an app ride code gets the same discount as a card. Every route now announces stops in English, but the foreign-card tap is officially confirmed only for rail, so on a bus use a BEIJING PASS. Shared bikes (Meituan, Hello, Qingju) unlock by scanning the code on the bike and register with a phone number and country code; Meituan charges 1.5 yuan per half hour. The apps may also ask for passport verification, so try one near your hotel before you count on bikes for a hutong day.

Where to stay

Choose by subway line and walking distance, not by hotel brand. For a first visit, the Wangfujing–Dongsi area in Dongcheng is the balanced choice: you can walk to the Forbidden City (entry is at the Meridian Gate on the south side), Lines 1, 5, 6 and 8 are all close, and the Wangfujing pedestrian street is open around the clock. Qianmen–Dashilan, just south of Tiananmen Square, is the old-city option with an early start on the square. The hutongs around Shichahai and the Drum Tower are where the courtyard hotels are — the most atmospheric stay in Beijing, with the trade-off that taxis can't reach many doors and you'll walk to Line 8 or 6.

Sanlitun and the central business district (CBD) around Guomao, both in Chaoyang, are for nightlife, restaurants and business; the international chains and most embassies are here, but you'll ride the subway to every historic sight. Haidian only makes sense if the Summer Palace and the universities are your focus. Wherever you land, the hotel registers you with the police at check-in using your passport; if you book a private rental instead, you must register yourself at the local police station within 24 hours — our hotel booking and registration guide explains the rule. Hotels in all these areas are easy to compare on Booking.com.

What to see, and what has to be booked ahead

The half that needs real planning is the imperial center. The Forbidden City sells no same-day tickets: tickets for a given day are released seven days ahead at 20:00, entry is capped at 40,000 a day, each ticket is tied to one ID, and it closes on Mondays. Foreign visitors book on the museum's English ticketing page with a passport number, or e-mail each visitor's name, passport number and date to [email protected] at least one day ahead. You choose a morning or afternoon session, enter only through the Meridian Gate on the south side and leave by the north or east gate; the ticket is 60 yuan from April to October and 40 yuan from November to March. Tiananmen Square is free but also needs a reservation, made 1 to 7 days ahead with a passport in one of four time slots including the dawn flag-raising; the booking runs through Chinese-language mini-programs and the square's own portal, so keep a translation app handy. A Forbidden City or National Museum booking for that day gets you onto the square on its own. The National Museum on the square's east side is free but reservation-only, up to seven days ahead with tickets released at 17:00, and closed on Mondays.

The other half got easier. In June 2024 Beijing dropped mandatory reservations at almost every other sight and museum — you turn up and buy a ticket. The one wrinkle for foreigners is that the online ticket system for the city parks needs a mainland Chinese phone number, so at the Temple of Heaven, the Summer Palace, Beihai and Jingshan you buy at the gate with your passport — the city's 12345 hotline points foreign visitors to that window, and its English park-ticket guide covers the online route. Watch the Monday rule inside those parks: the Temple of Heaven grounds open every day, but the Hall of Prayer, the Echo Wall and the Circular Mound close on Mondays, and at the Summer Palace the Tower of Buddhist Incense, Suzhou Street and the other inner sights do the same. The Lama Temple (雍和宫, Yōnghégōng) is booked with a passport on its official account inside the WeChat app — you need WeChat itself, not just WeChat Pay — so book it before the day rather than counting on a ticket window; it has no closing day. The 798 Art Zone, Nanluoguxiang, the Houhai lakes and Qianmen street are free and open all day.

So: book the Forbidden City at 20:00 seven days before — that ticket also gets you onto the square that day; reserve the square separately only for the dawn flag-raising or a day without a palace ticket. Give Monday to the Great Wall or the hutongs, because that is the day the palace, the National Museum and the inner sights of both big parks are shut. The table below has the current rules and prices for each sight.

On the Wall, the answer for most first-time visitors is Mutianyu: restored, less crowded than Badaling, with a cable car up. It runs on tickets tied to the passport you book with (what China calls "real-name" tickets), bookable up to 30 days ahead, and you go straight to the gate with that passport; entry is 45 yuan, with the shuttle bus, cable car and toboggan charged separately. Badaling needs no reservation — real-name tickets are sold on the day at the gate, where the windows take foreign cards — and it is the one section with a proper train: the high-speed line from Beijing North or Qinghe station reaches Badaling Great Wall station in a little over half an hour, or bus 877 from Deshengmen takes about 70 minutes for 12 yuan. The old S2 train from Huangtudian no longer serves the city — that station closed in October 2025. Mutianyu has no train and the bus route needs a change in Huairou, so most visitors take a shuttle or a small-group tour — Klook lists Mutianyu transfers and day tours you can book in English. The section-by-section comparison, including the quieter Jinshanling and Simatai, is in Beijing day trips.

A three-to-four-day shape

Day one is the imperial axis: Tiananmen Square at opening, the Forbidden City on a morning ticket, Jingshan Park for the view over the roofs, then the hutongs and Houhai for the evening. Day two is the Great Wall. Day three starts early at the Temple of Heaven, when locals are doing tai chi in the park — any day but Monday if you want inside the Hall of Prayer — then Qianmen for lunch and the Lama Temple in the afternoon. Day four is the flexible one: the Summer Palace in the morning and 798 in the afternoon, or a museum and a duck dinner. The hour-by-hour version is our 3-day Beijing itinerary.

What to eat

Peking duck (北京烤鸭, Běijīng kǎoyā) is the dinner to book: the skin and meat come sliced to the table and you wrap them in a thin pancake with cucumber, scallion and sweet bean sauce — reserve, the well-known places fill up. Everyday Beijing food is wheat and lamb: zhajiangmian (炸酱面, noodles with a salty fermented soybean-and-pork sauce), shuan yangrou (涮羊肉, thin-sliced lamb swished in a copper hot pot and dipped in sesame sauce) and jianbing (煎饼, the breakfast crêpe from street carts). One warning on old-Beijing snacks: douzhi (豆汁, a fermented mung-bean drink) is sour and smells strong, and most visitors stop after one sip. Where to eat each of these, and how to order without Chinese, is in the Beijing food guide.

Money and internet

Set up payment before you land. Nearly everything in Beijing is paid by scanning a QR code with Alipay or WeChat Pay, and both link foreign cards, Visa and Mastercard among them — check the supported-card list shown in the app when you add yours, since that list is the current one. Both register with a passport and your own phone number; our Alipay setup guide walks through it. Keep a little cash for the odd stall — how much, and where to get it, is in do you need cash in China.

For data, an eSIM bought before you fly (for example via Airalo) means you land connected, and many travelers find a roaming eSIM also keeps their usual apps working — the comparison with a local SIM is in our China SIM and eSIM guide. If you'll rely on hotel Wi-Fi, sort out a VPN before departure; see the internet and VPN guide.

Out of the city

The Wall choice is covered above. The Ming Tombs lie in the same direction as Badaling and combine well with it: take the Changping Line to Changping Xishankou, then a walk of about 2 km and the park shuttle, or bus 872 from Deshengmen. Tianjin, with its European-era streets and riverfront, is about 30 minutes from Beijing South on intercity trains that run almost like a metro. Chengde's imperial summer resort is now a day trip: from Beijing Chaoyang station the fastest trains to Chengde South take 49 minutes. Train booking with a foreign passport is in how to book train tickets, and every option is ranked in Beijing day trips.

If something goes wrong

Dial 110 for police, 120 for an ambulance and 122 after a traffic accident; the calls are free, though the ambulance ride is not. For anything that isn't an emergency, Beijing's 12345 hotline answers in ten foreign languages, including English, French, German, Spanish, Japanese and Korean. Three hospitals with 24-hour emergency lines for international patients are Peking Union Medical College Hospital's International Medical Services, Beijing United Family and Raffles Hospital Beijing. And because this is the capital, your embassy is here rather than a consulate in another city; addresses and out-of-hours numbers are in our embassy contacts guide, with the full list of numbers in emergency numbers in China.

Last updated: September 2026