Beijing · First Edition · Spring 2026
Twelve entries on the city visitors actually come to see — the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square, the Temple of Heaven and the Summer Palace, the Great Wall at Mutianyu, the lived hutongs, the 798 Art District, plus the practical pieces: arrival from either of Beijing's two airports, and how the metro works.
Twelve entries · Three sections · Researched on site
Beijing is a city of vast distances and clear hierarchies. The imperial axis runs north–south through the centre — Tiananmen, the Forbidden City, Beihai, Drum and Bell — and the major sites mostly fall along or near it. Outside the old city, the Summer Palace and the Great Wall pull visitors thirty to seventy-five kilometres further out. Twelve entries here cover the core of what's worth seeing in three to five days, plus the two practical pieces that frame any visit.
Every entry has been visited and rechecked on site. Hours, ticket prices and station codes are current as of spring 2026. They drift, and we revise the folio when we notice.
no. one
An imperial palace complex of 980 surviving buildings on 72 hectares, used by twenty-four emperors of the Ming and Qing from 1420 to 1912. Now the Palace Museum, holding the largest single collection of Chinese imperial artefacts in the world.
no. two
The largest planned public square in the world, 440,000 sq m at the south end of the Forbidden City. Tiananmen Gate (1417) at the north, Mao's Mausoleum (1977) at the south, the Monument to the People's Heroes between, the Great Hall and National Museum on the flanks.
no. three
The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests on a circular triple-tiered marble base, built in 1420 and rebuilt in 1889 after a lightning fire. The Ming and Qing emperors visited each winter solstice for the harvest ceremony. Now a UNESCO site and morning gathering place.
no. four
The largest surviving imperial garden in China — three-quarters Kunming Lake, one-quarter Longevity Hill, with the 728-metre Long Corridor connecting the Hall of Benevolence to the Marble Boat. Used as the Qing court's summer retreat. UNESCO World Heritage.
no. five
A 2.25-kilometre restored stretch of the Ming-era Great Wall in Huairou district, with 22 watchtowers along a forested ridge. Less crowded than Badaling, more accessible than Jinshanling. Cable car or chairlift up; toboggan, chairlift or steps down.
no. six
A 17th-century imperial residence converted into a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in 1744 by the Qianlong Emperor. The largest functioning lamasery in mainland China, holding the 18-metre standing Maitreya Buddha carved from a single sandalwood trunk.
no. seven
The grid of narrow alleys north of the Forbidden City, lined with siheyuan courtyard houses dating from the Yuan dynasty onwards. Nanluoguxiang and the side lanes — Mao'er, Yandai Xiejie, Wudaoying — survive as a living residential quarter, increasingly tourist-influenced.
no. eight
A 1950s East-German-designed Bauhaus military electronics factory complex in Chaoyang, repurposed as China's largest contemporary art zone since 2002. Some four hundred galleries, studios, design firms, restaurants and bookshops occupy the original brick halls.
no. nine
One of the oldest, largest and best-preserved Chinese imperial gardens, north-west of the Forbidden City. The 36-metre White Pagoda on Jade Flower Island (1651, Tibetan style) dominates the lake. Used by the courts of Liao, Jin, Yuan, Ming and Qing — a near-millennium of continuous gardening.
no. ten
A connected series of three lakes — Qianhai, Houhai, Xihai — that formed the northern terminus of the Grand Canal in the 13th century. Today an evening district of bars, boats and lakefront walking, with the Drum and Bell Towers a short walk north.
no. eleven
Beijing has two international airports — Capital (PEK) 32 km north-east, and Daxing (PKX) 46 km south, opened 2019. Both have dedicated express subway lines, shuttle buses and taxi access. The trade-offs are sharper than they look.
no. twelve
Twenty-seven subway lines and roughly 800 km of network — the world's largest by length. Fares from ¥3, distance-based, ¥6–9 typical. DiDi the dominant ride-hail (the international app works for foreign cards); taxis abundant, signage bilingual throughout.