Colophon · First Edition · Spring 2026

The Folio

Beijing Folio is a compact editorial reference: twelve entries on the city's sites, organised in three sections — five imperial-era monuments and gardens, five everyday neighbourhoods and parks, and two practical pieces on getting in and getting around. It is not a comprehensive guide. The city is too large for a comprehensive guide written by anyone short of an institution, and there are well-resourced institutional guides already. This is something narrower — a stripped-down folio of what's worth a visitor's time over three to five days, with the practical detail at the level of opening hours, ticket prices and how to get there.

Selection

The five imperial sites cover the spine of pre-1912 Beijing — the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square at the centre, the Temple of Heaven on the southern axis, the Summer Palace as the imperial summer residence, and one section of the Great Wall (Mutianyu) chosen for its balance of restoration, accessibility and lower visitor density relative to Badaling.

The five lived-city entries cover the daily-use sites: an active Tibetan Buddhist monastery (Lama Temple), a representative grid of hutong alleys (around Nanluoguxiang), a Bauhaus-factory contemporary art compound (798), and two imperial-origin parks now used as everyday public space (Beihai Park and Houhai Lakes). The split is editorial rather than rigorous — Beihai's imperial origins go back to the Liao dynasty; we have placed it among the lived city because the way visitors actually use it today is as a park, not as a court.

The two practical pieces — Beijing airport transfer and getting around the city — exist because they are the questions every visitor asks first, and the answers are non-trivial. The airport entry covers both Capital (PEK) and the newer Daxing (PKX), since which airport a visitor lands in changes the whole arrival.

What's deliberately left out

Restaurants are not full entries. The Beijing food scene is wide enough that any selection here would feel arbitrary, and recommendations age in months. Anyone planning a meal-led visit should consult a current restaurant column — this folio is not that. The same applies to nightlife, contemporary fashion shopping, and the city's seasonal events. Hotels are also out of scope.

Tiananmen's Mausoleum, the National Museum on its eastern flank, and the Olympic Park are real attractions with their own audiences. They are mentioned in passing where relevant but do not have their own entries — the editorial calculation was that on-site reporting energy was better spent on places where independent observation still adds something to what is already widely documented.

How the entries are made

Each of the twelve entries has been visited and rechecked on site. Hours, fares, ticket prices and entrance points are taken from the operator's signage on site, then cross-referenced against the operator's own website (and noted as external links where useful). Where on-site information conflicts with the operator's published material — which happens, particularly with temple opening times and ticket pricing in the post-pandemic period — the on-site reading is used.

Photographs are chosen for editorial fit; none are commissioned. External links to museums, transit operators and tourism authorities are provided for the reader's verification and convenience and carry no commercial relationship to the folio.

Revisions

The folio is revised on an ad hoc basis. When an entry's facts drift — hours change, a temple closes for restoration, a metro line opens — the relevant entry is updated and the "last revised" date on the index is moved. The current edition is First Edition, last revised April 2026.

Editorial policy on commercial content

The folio accepts no sponsorship, no paid placement and no affiliate links. There are no booking widgets, no advertising units, and no commission arrangements with hotels, restaurants, ride-hail apps or travel agents. External links exist where they offer the reader verification or genuine practical information — and not otherwise.

Comments, corrections and pointers to things the folio should add or remove are welcome. The folio is small enough to remain responsive to good notes — particularly from Beijing residents whose lived knowledge of the city is invariably more current than ours.