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Beijing Travel Guide

Beijing Travel Guide 2024

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Beijing is the capital city of the People’s Republic of China and the political, cultural and economic center of China. It has a glorious history which can be dated back three millennia. The most highlighting part is its great role of the ancient capital city since the past eight centuries. The city preserves the most magnificent imperial culture of China, including numerous historical architectures, relics, tradition, etc. Many world famous tourist sites are located in or near Beijing, such as Forbidden City, Great Wall of China, Temple of Heaven, etc.

Why visit Beijing:

  • City of World Heritage Sites - Beijing preserves seven World Heritage Sites declared by UNESCO (Great Wall, Forbidden City, Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian, Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace, Ming Dynasty Tombs and Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal), ranking first among all the cities around the world. Visiting these sites helps travelers to touch the best essence of ancient Chinese culture and history.
  • Great Wall of China - Though the Great Wall sketches though more than a half territory of northern China, the best pieces which are regarded as the masterpiece are located in Beijing, such as Badaling Great Wall, Mutianyu Great Wall, Jinshanling Great Wall, etc.
  • Transportation Hub of China - Beijing is the most important transportation hub of both the economy and tourism. It is mostly chosen as an international flight arrival city. Furthermore, the flights and trains radiate to most other regions of China, including the far western Xinjiang, Tibet, etc.

Travel News: Tourists from 53 countries (US, UK, Germany, France, Russia, Japan, Australia...) are allowed to stay in Beijing for 144 hours without China visa after checking in customs in Beijing Capital International Airport.

Top Attractions

Beijing is one of the most popular travel destinations in China. The diverse experiences here attract millions of people to visit this ancient capital city each year. The imperial culture is the essence of Beijing. During its playing as the capital of more than 800 years, many brilliant imperial sites were created, and preserved well, such as Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace, etc. There are many other places for you to explore, the most recommended is the Great Wall. Read more about All Beijing Attractions >>

Beijing Travel Guide
Forbidden City

It is the largest palace complex in the world, and used to be the imperial palace of Ming and Qing Dynasties for more than 600 years ...

Beijing Travel Guide
Badaling Great Wall

The masterpiece of Great Wall of China with fabulous design, sublime surrounding landscape. Conveniently located 50km from Beijing city ...

Beijing Travel Guide
Summer Palace

In Qing Dynasty, the Summer Palace was the private garden for the Emperors and his families to retreat during hot summer months ...

Beijing Travel Guide
Temple of Heaven

Built in Ming Dynasty, the Temple of Heaven is the largest architecture for sacrificial ceremony in the world which is featured in outstanding arrangement...

Beijing Travel Guide
Beijing Hutong

Beijing Hutong, connecting the quadrangle dwellings, is the pulse of old Beijing. It is the place where stories and memories are hidden...

Beijing Travel Guide
Mutianyu Great Wall

Mutianyu is a less-crowded and well-preserved segment of Great Wall built in Ming Dynasty, lives up to all of your nice expectation about Great Wall of China ...

Beijing Travel Guide
Tiananmen Square

Tiananmen Square is the heart of Beijing City and the largest center plaza in the world, known as the site for important national events...

Beijing Travel Guide
Ming Mausoleum

More than 13 powerful emperors of Ming Dynasty were interred here. Experience the solemn architectures, listen to the legendary stories...

Beijing Travel Guide
Juyongguan Great Wall

Juyongguan Great Wall is considered as the north gateway to Beijing. You can appreciate beautiful views, fine stone carvings, 14 watchtowers while hiking...

Beijing Travel Guide
Huanghuacheng Great Wall

Huanghuacheng Lakeside Great Wall is the only section of Great Wall in Beijing that is connected with a lake. It boasts both bold northern-frontier and gentle...

Beijing Travel Guide
Simatai Great Wall

Right next to Gubei Water Town and it was served as a vital military base from the ancient time, and impresses a lot of visitors for its breathtaking scenery, especially at night...

Beijing Travel Guide
Jiankou Great Wall

Jiankou Great Wall is one of the most challenging wild sections next to Mutianyu section. It has impressed a lot visitors who had an adventurous hike here...

Beijing Travel Guide
Gubei Water Town

At the foot of Simatai Great Wall, Gubei Water Town is a theme resort of ancient northern architecture, built by a lake. Its beautiful nightscape attracts many visitors...

Beijing Travel Guide
National Museum of China

With over 1 million precious and rare artifacts, covering Chinese history from 1.7 million years ago till the present, National Museum of China is one of the largest museums...

Beijing Travel Guide
798 Art District

798 Art District is a new landmark of art and culture in Beijing. Here is full of high-standard galleries, stylish boutiques, creatives sculptures and architectures...

Beijing Travel Guide
Lama Temple

Lama Temple, also called Yonghe Temple or Yonghe Lamasery, is the highest-standard Tibetan Buddhist temple in Beijing. The buildings are a combination of Han and Tibetan styles...

Beijing Travel Guide
Jingshan Park

Jingshan Park, located in the central axes of Beijing and adjacent to Forbidden City, is old Beijing's highest point offering a fantastic panoramic view of Forbidden City...

Beijing Travel Guide
Yandaixie Street

Yandaixie Street, also called Yandaixiejie or Yandai Byway, is a 232m northeast-southwest Hutong in downtown Beijing. This oldest commercial street in Beijing is now lined with...

Beijing Travel Guide
Nanluoguxiang

Nanluoguxiang is the most popular and one of the oldest Hutongs in Beijing with a history of more than 740 years. It looks like a fish bone with a 787m main street (Nanluoguxiang)...

Beijing Travel Guide
Beijing Olympic Park

Beijing Olympic Park, also called Olympic Green, is a spacious park built for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. It contains 10 Olympic venues, 7 non-competitive venues, and a forest park...

Weather & When to Go

Beijing is featured in the temperate and continental monsoon climate. Weather differs in different season. January is the coldest month with an average temperature of -4 °C. Hottest month is July with average temperature of 26 °C.

September and October are the best months to visit Beijing. In autumn days, Beijing greets tourist with pleasant cool weather, better air condition and golden autumn landscape. But actually Beijing is suitable for travel all year around. You can explore different landscape and culture in different season. If you come between December and February, you have chance to witness constant temple fair and the jubilant Spring Festival.

Learn more about Beijing weather >>

Transportation

International Arrival

Beijing Capital International Airport is one of the most important arrival hubs for international flight arrivals. It runs flight schedules to most major cities in the world (except sub-Saharan Africa and sub-USA American).

Domestic Transfer

Beijing has built a developed domestic transportation system of air, train and highway. One can transfer between Beijing and all provincial cities and other major cities in China, such as Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Guilin, Lhasa, and so on, by flight, regular train or high speed train.

Recent years, taking high speed train traveling is becoming more and more popular. Beijing is fully connected by high speed rails with many other important cities. You can take the fastest bullet trains from Beijing to Shanghai, or experience the world longest High Speed rail from Beijing to Guangzhou. For travelers, the high speed trains from Beijing to Xi’an are very popular. Since the new Fuxing trains of higher speed and more advanced technologies are used for some trains from Beijing to Shanghai (6 trains during 09:00~15:00), from Shanghai to Beijing (6 trains during 07:00~19:00), from Beijing and Guangzhou (G65 at around 10:30), from Guangzhou to Beijing (G80 at around 12:10), and intercity trains from Beijing and Tianjin (19 trains during 06:00~22:40), and from Tianjin to Beijing (19 trains during 07:00~22:50), travelers can experience the truebred Chinese high speed train in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Tianjin, and some midway destinations like Wuhan, Changsha, Zhengzhou, etc. you could contact us for detailed time schedule.

Beijing has highly developed transportation system for inner-city travel. You can go to many major sights by subway, city bus or taxi.

Learn more about Beijing transportation

Accommodation

Beijing offers top-class also flexible choice of accommodation. There are many luxury international hotel brands satisfying who pursuit deluxe stay, such as Shangri-La, Hilton, Marriott, Sheraton, Crowne Plaza, etc. At the same time, many domestic hotels with local features are also recommended as your choices for their more budget price while pleasant service.

Most hotels are conveniently located in or nearby the city central area. You can easily transfer to the surrounding tourist sites easily.

Learn more about Beijing hotels >>

Useful Maps

Top help you learn better about Beijing's location, attractions, etc., we have collected following tourist maps which are latest, downloadable and printable. View more Beijing maps >>

Bejing  Attractions Map

Bejing Attractions Map

Other Popular Destinations in China

China is vast and diverse. You can choose your favorite destination among more than 70 tourist destination and regions. Following are 4 popular destinations you may get interested in. Check all destinations in China

Chinese Name: Beijing

Chinese Pinyin: Běi Jīng

English IPA: /'bei'dʒiŋ/

Population: 21.148 million

Language: Mandarin & Beijing Dialect

Tel Code: 010

Zip Code: 100000

Time Zone: (UTC+8)

Plan Your Beijing Tour

Usually, 2~6 days are needed to explore Beijing and surrounding. The city central area gathers most of highlights of Beijing, including Forbidden City, Temple Heaven, Hutongs and so on, which can be done in two days. Spend a full day out of the city to hike the Great Wall and discover the Tombs of Ming Dynasty.

From Beijing, you can easily extend your trip to close destinations, such as Pingyao, Chengdu, Xian, Datong, Tianjing, and Hohhot within short transfer. Beijing is usually the starting point of an in-depth China tour to other famous destinations, such as Shanghai, Guilin, Chengdu, Lhasa, etc.

> Beijing Trip Planner

> Top Beijing Tour Packages

> Beijing Great Wall Tours

Travel with China Discovery

We have helped many global travelers enjoy their memorable wonderful trips to Beijing for the past few years. Among them, a special team of over 50 VIPKID teachers from North America traveled with us to see their dear studends in China with amazing experience in Beijing and shared us their special travel story! Travel with China Discovery to create your great China trip memories!

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