Beijing Travel Guide: Three Days, Six Sights and the Bookings That Matter
Three days is the right length for a first visit to Beijing. Spend one day on the central axis (Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City), one at the Great Wall at Mutianyu, and one split between the Summer Palace and the Temple of Heaven or Yonghe Temple. What decides whether the plan works is booking more than distance. The Forbidden City sells only advance tickets, released at 20:00 seven days ahead, and Tiananmen Square needs its own free reservation. Several of the big sights close on Mondays, and almost every ticket is tied to your passport. Get those right and the city itself is easy to move around: the metro reaches nearly everything except the Wall.
Beijing is a municipality of about 16,411 square kilometres with 21.8 million residents at the end of 2025. The Liao, Jin, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties all ruled from here, and in 2024 the Ming–Qing central axis was added to the World Heritage list.
Before you book anything: four Beijing rules
Book the Forbidden City first. Pick your palace day, then set an alarm for 20:00 Beijing time a week before it. The Forbidden City page covers the official channels and what to do if your date sells out.
Keep a Monday for the Wall. The Palace Museum is shut on Mondays except public holidays, and so are the inner halls at the Temple of Heaven and the Summer Palace. Mutianyu opens every day, which makes Monday the obvious day to head out of the city.
Carry your passport every day. Tickets for the palace, the square, Mutianyu, the parks and Yonghe Temple are all real-name. The name and number on the booking have to match the document you show.
Book Tiananmen Square too. It is free, but entry needs a reservation one to seven days ahead through an official WeChat mini-program. The Tiananmen Square page explains how foreigners do it.
When to come to Beijing
September and October are the best months. The air is dry and usually clear, the summer storms are over, and the hills around Mutianyu turn colour in October. The catch is the National Day holiday from 1 to 7 October, when domestic crowds peak at every big sight and tickets sell out. Try to avoid that week, or book everything well ahead if you can't.
Spring (April and May) is pleasant but short, with occasional dust and strong winds. Summer is hot and humid, and most of the year's rain falls in July and August, often in afternoon thunderstorms. Start your sightseeing early and keep afternoons for indoor museums. Winter is cold and dry, often well below freezing at night, but the palace and temples are quiet, and on a clear January day the Great Wall is spectacular if you dress for the wind. The city's annual average is around 13°C.
How to get in and where to stay
Airports. Beijing has two: Capital (PEK) in the northeast and Daxing (PKX) far to the south. Both connect to the metro: the Capital Airport Express runs to Dongzhimen, and the Daxing Airport Express runs into the southwest of the city at Caoqiao and Lize, with onward connections. Check which airport your flight uses, as Daxing is a long way from the northern hotel areas.
Trains. High-speed trains from Shanghai mostly arrive at Beijing South, from Xi'an at Beijing West, and from the northeast at Beijing Chaoyang. All three are on the metro. Rail tickets are booked with your passport on 12306 or through an agency.
Where to stay. Dongcheng district, between the Forbidden City and the Second Ring Road, is the best base for a short trip. You can walk to the palace and the hutongs and you are near metro Lines 2, 5 and 6. Wangfujing is the more polished hotel area. The Qianmen side is convenient for early square slots. Chaoyang (Sanlitun and the CBD) has more international hotels and nightlife, but you will spend longer on the metro for most sightseeing. Mutianyu is a day trip, so there is no reason to stay near the Wall.
Places worth visiting
These six sights each have their own page. The first three take most of a three-day trip; the other three are good additions depending on your time and interests.
The Forbidden City and Jingshan (day one, morning)
The former imperial palace, now the Palace Museum, covers 72 hectares and dates from 1406 to 1420. Enter at Meridian Gate in the south, keep to the central line through the three great halls of the Outer Court, then the Inner Court, and leave north by the Gate of Divine Prowess. Three hours covers the axis; four to five adds the side courtyards and the Treasure Gallery. Directly opposite the north exit, Jingshan Park gives the classic rooftop view for a small separate ticket. The Forbidden City guide has the detailed route and booking rules.
Mutianyu Great Wall (day two)
About 73 kilometres northeast of the centre, Mutianyu is the most practical restored section for a day trip. It has a cable car to Tower 14, a chairlift and toboggan run from the Tower 6 area, and an open stretch of 20 towers. Entry, the shuttle bus and each lift are separate tickets. Budget a full day: around 1.5 hours each way by car, longer by bus, and three to five hours on the wall.
How does it compare with Badaling? Badaling is closer, has a direct train and is where most tour groups go. Mutianyu has the toboggan, more trees and a longer open stretch. Choose Badaling if you only have half a day or want to travel by rail; otherwise Mutianyu is worth the extra time. See the Mutianyu guide for prices and transport.
The Summer Palace (day three)
The Qing imperial garden in northwest Haidian, mostly rebuilt for Empress Dowager Cixi after its destruction in 1860. Spend three to four hours: up Longevity Hill to the Tower of Buddhist Incense, along the Long Corridor, and out to the Seventeen-Arch Bridge. Take Line 4 to Beigongmen for the quieter North Palace Gate. On Mondays the inner sights close, so only the gate ticket makes sense. It is the sight to drop if you have only two days. Details on the Summer Palace page.
Tiananmen Square
The vast square in front of Tiananmen Gate needs a free reservation and a security check, and it has almost no shade. Treat it as the start of the palace morning rather than a destination in itself, unless you want to watch the flag-raising at sunrise, which needs its own reservation slot.
Temple of Heaven
The Temple of Heaven is the altar complex where emperors prayed for good harvests. Its park opens at 06:00, two hours before the halls, and the early-morning exercise scene is worth arriving for. Buy the combined ticket if you want to go inside the round Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, and avoid Mondays.
Yonghe Temple (Lama Temple)
A working Tibetan Buddhist monastery of the Gelug school above Yonghegong station, with an 18-metre sandalwood Maitreya in its rear pavilion. One to two hours, no advance booking, and the Confucius Temple and Guozijian Street are just across the road. The Yonghe Temple page has tickets and etiquette.
Eating in Beijing
Peking duck is the obligatory meal, carved at the table and eaten in thin pancakes with sweet bean sauce, cucumber and spring onion. The well-known duck houses get crowded at weekends and holidays; book or go at an off-peak hour. For everyday food, look for zhajiangmian (thick noodles with fried soybean paste), jianbing (a savoury crêpe sold from street carts at breakfast) and, in cold weather, copper-pot lamb hotpot. Places on the main tourist lanes around Qianmen and Nanluoguxiang tend to cost more and cook worse. A street or two back, neighbourhood noodle shops serve the same dishes to locals. Guijie, near Yonghe Temple, is the late-night street for spicy crayfish and hotpot.
How to arrange the route
Day 1, the central axis. Tiananmen Square from Qianmen, the Forbidden City from Meridian Gate, then Jingshan. In the afternoon, take a taxi or the metro to Yonghe Temple (last entry 16:30 in summer) and walk Guozijian Street, or wander the hutongs around Shichahai instead.
Day 2, the Great Wall. Leave by 07:30 for Mutianyu. Back in town by late afternoon for a duck dinner. If day two falls on a Monday, so much the better.
Day 3, gardens and altars. Temple of Heaven from 07:00 to about 09:30, then the metro across town to Line 4 for the Summer Palace (allow about an hour with changes). Alternatively, spend the whole day at a slower pace in the Summer Palace and the nearby Old Summer Palace ruins.
Going on from Beijing. Xi'an, for the Terracotta Army, is roughly four and a half to six hours by high-speed train from Beijing West, and Shanghai is a similar four and a half to six hours from Beijing South, depending on the train. For shorter trips, Tianjin is half an hour away by train, Chengde has the Qing summer resort and its temples, and Datong has the Yungang Grottoes. Zhangjiakou and Langfang are closer for mountain days or overflow nights.
What to cut if short on time
With two days, drop sights in this order:
- Yonghe Temple. Easy to reach and worthwhile, but the first to go if the palace and the Wall already fill your time.
- Temple of Heaven. A wonderful early-morning park, but its halls overlap with what you see at the Forbidden City.
- Summer Palace. The biggest of the optional sights and the furthest out. Drop it when you have only two days.
- Keep: the Forbidden City and the Great Wall. Those two make a two-day Beijing.
With one day, stay in the centre: the square, the palace, Jingshan and an evening in the hutongs. The Wall is too far to fit in.
Things to confirm before you go
- Forbidden City booking at 20:00 seven days ahead, and the Tiananmen Square reservation, released at noon one to seven days ahead.
- Monday closures: the Palace Museum, and the inner halls at the Temple of Heaven and Summer Palace (except public holidays).
- Mutianyu tickets (entry, shuttle and lift are separate) and your transport back to town.
- National Day week (1 to 7 October) and other holiday crowds, which change every booking.
- Peak and off-season hours, which switch on 1 April and 1 November at most parks (16 March and 16 November at Mutianyu).
Frequently asked questions
How many days do you need in Beijing?
Three days covers the Forbidden City, the Great Wall and one more half day of gardens or temples. Two days is enough for the palace and the Wall. Add a fourth day for the National Museum, a second Wall section or a day trip to Tianjin.
Mutianyu or Badaling: which Great Wall section is better?
Mutianyu, if you have a full day and want a quieter, greener stretch with a cable car and toboggan. Badaling, if you only have half a day or want to go by train. They are different sections of the Wall.
Do foreigners need to book Beijing attractions in advance?
For the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square, yes, using your passport. Mutianyu and the Summer Palace are best booked a day or more ahead. Yonghe Temple sells tickets on the day, and local reports from August 2026 say the Temple of Heaven has dropped its booking requirement too.
Can you combine Beijing with Xi'an and Shanghai?
Yes. That's the classic first China trip: Beijing for three days, high-speed rail to Xi'an for two, then on to Shanghai. Book train tickets early around public holidays.
Sources
The historical and geographic facts were checked against these Wikipedia entries, retrieved 4 September 2026. Climate figures follow the Chinese page.
- Beijing (city) https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/北京市
- Beijing (English) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing
- Forbidden City https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/故宫
- Mutianyu Great Wall https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/慕田峪长城
- Temple of Heaven https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/天坛
- Summer Palace https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/颐和园
- Tiananmen Square https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/天安门广场
- Yonghe Temple https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/雍和宫
Booking rules, prices and hours were rechecked on 9 October 2026 against the Palace Museum booking notice (dpm.org.cn), the Mutianyu Great Wall official ticket site, the Summer Palace official site (summerpalace.net.cn), the Temple of Heaven official site (tiantanpark.com), and Beijing local media reports on Tiananmen Square and Yonghe Temple ticketing. These change often; the official notice on the day of your visit takes priority.
The Tiananmen page on Wikipedia records political events on the square; this guide treats the square only as a place to visit.
All photos are from Wikimedia Commons, used under CC licenses; re-use requires attribution.
- beijing-gugong.jpg from File The_Forbidden_City_-_View_from_Coal_Hill.jpg, by Pixelflake, CC BY-SA 3.0
- beijing-mutianyu.jpg from File Great_Wall_of_China,_Mutianyu,_Huairou_County,_China-10June2009.jpg, by Bridget Coila, CC BY-SA 2.0
- beijing-tiantan.jpg from File Temple_of_Heaven_20160323_01.jpg, by Shujianyang, CC BY-SA 4.0
- beijing-yiheyuan.jpg from File Longevity_Hill_of_Summer_Palace.JPG, by Zcm11, CC BY-SA 3.0
- beijing-tiananmen.jpg from File 20130830-BJ-Zhengyangmen(Qianmen)_正阳门箭楼_2.JPG, by Rewindat (Pan Xuan), CC BY-SA 3.0
- beijing-yonghegong.jpg from File Lascar_Lama_temple_(4478042700).jpg, by Jorge Láscar, CC BY 2.0