42 Best things to see & do in Beijing

Built in the early 15th century, the Forbidden City is a vast palace complex of regal halls, ceremonial courtyards, gardens and living quarters, that served as the home of Chinese emperors and their households for 500 years. Behind its vermilion walls was a closed-off world of antique ritual and intrigue, where the ‘Son of Heaven’ was tended to by an army of servants, eunuchs and concubines.

Today the palace complex is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the world’s largest collection of heritage wooden buildings. Officially called the Palace Museum, many of the rooms have been given over to museum exhibits of imperial treasures, from priceless ceramics to Qing-dynasty furniture.

Its central location, historic importance and architectural beauty make this Beijing’s most popular site of interest for tourists.

The monumental Great Wall of China is a defense work stretching from ocean to desert across the vast expanse of China’s northern regions. In the strategic uplands around Beijing, the Wall was built from bricks and stone, with crenelated battlements and watchtowers. Elsewhere it was more simply fashioned from tamped earth.

The Great Wall is actually a series of walls built during different eras of Chinese history, but the first unifying wall was constructed by China’s first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, from around 220 BC. Much of the wall that remains standing today was reconstructed using stronger materials during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

Later sections of the Great Wall – including Badaling, the first section to be opened to tourists – stand on average 8m tall and just under 6m wide, designed to allow five horses to ride abreast or ten soldiers to walk shoulder to shoulder.

The nearest stretches to Beijing have been restored and are now among the world’s most visited tourist spots. Unrestored sections, sometimes called the ‘wild wall’, remain in a precarious state of ruin, with an estimated thirty percent already lost to the vagaries of weather, earthquakes and human activity. Around Beijing, the undulating mountain landscapes are as inspiring as the defensive ramparts themselves.

Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism, the three ancient belief systems of China, each have their own temple sites in Beijing.

At White Cloud Temple you might see grey-robed Taoist monks with their hair gathered in topknots, while at the Lama Temple, Buddhist acolytes in saffron-hued robes come and go between the incense-shrouded halls. The Confucius Temple, being more a memorial than a place of worship, has dozens of stone stelae inscribed with the names of famous scholars.

All three styles are architecturally similar, comprising a symmetrical series of halls and courtyards rising in importance the deeper one moves into the temple complex.

There are also many Islamic Chinese in Beijing; the Niujie Mosque dates back 1,000 years and is the city’s largest.

Despite its name, the Temple of Heaven isn’t a temple but an imperial altar used for esoteric state sacrifices, such as when the emperor would ask heaven for good harvests.

The former retreat of China’s imperial rulers, the Summer Palace is a masterpiece of classical Chinese garden design on a truly awesome scale. Artificial hills, lakes, opulent buildings and graceful arched bridges convene in carefully orchestrated harmony.

Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the gardens, 12km northwest of the Forbidden City, were first built in the 12th century but were developed to their artistic height during the Qing Dynasty (1644 – 1912).

Most famously, the Summer Palace became the royal retirement home of Cixi, the Empress Dowager, a formidable character who ruled China from behind the curtain for almost five decades. The palace and its gardens were remodelled to serve as her private retirement complex.

There’s plenty to see and do, from strolling the famous ‘Long Corridor’ to pleasure boating on Kunming Lake. Several of the palace buildings hold historical artefacts and exhibits, including possessions belonging to the Empress Dowager.

The Temple of Heaven is unlike any other temple in China. In fact, it’s not really a temple at all but a richly symbolic event space of sorts, where the emperor, accompanied by a grand entourage, would perform arcane rites twice a year to pray for heaven’s blessing.

Ceremonies took place upon the open-air Round Altar, next to the Imperial Vault of Heaven where the spirit tablets of the gods were kept. A 360m-long paved walkway connects to the splendid centrepiece, the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests.

Surrounded by sculpted parkland, the layout of the complex was designed to reflect Chinese cosmology and symbolise the relationship between heaven and earth.

This vast public space sits at the very heart of modern China, both literally and symbolically. It takes its name from the Gate of Heavenly Peace which divides the square in the north from the Forbidden City, and upon which Mao Zedong proclaimed the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949.

The socialist-realist Great Hall of the People, China’s most important government building, lines the western flank, facing the hulking National Museum across the square.

In the centre is Mao Zedong’s mausoleum and the Monument to the Peoples’ Heroes. Demarcating the southern boundary are the parallel Zhengyangmen and Arrow Tower city gates.

During the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s, rallies of up to a million Red Guards took place. In 1989, pro-democracy demonstrators took over the square for six weeks before the government’s brutal crackdown that sent shockwaves around the world.

Eating is the most cherished activity in China, and Beijing is no different. Naturally, the capital attracts Chinese chefs and restauranteurs from across its 34 provinces and regions, which means you can feast on fragrant Yunnan rice noodles one day and hearty Inner-Mongolian lamb the next.

With its icy northern winters, Beijing’s own food is hearty and filling – think stews, wheat noodles, potatoes, steamed bread and mutton – generously laced with garlic and salt.

One of Beijing’s most spectacular historic sights, the Lama Temple started out as a grand imperial residence before being converted to a lamasery for Tibetan Buddhists in 1744.

During the Qing Dynasty, it became one of the most important religious sites in China, tasked with determining the reincarnations of the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama.

The palace-like site unfolds symmetrically through a series of ornamental halls, courtyards and pavilions to its incense-shrouded finale, an 18m tall statue of the Maitreya Buddha carved from a single trunk of Tibetan sandalwood.

The divine middle of the ‘Middle Kingdom’, Beijing has ruled over China since the 13th century. In 1287, Kublai Khan established the Yuan Dynasty and built Khanbaliq, a predecessor to today’s city. Less than a century later, Khanbaliq was razed by the emergent Ming Dynasty, and Beijing as we know it took shape.

Ming emperor Yongle designed his capital as a compass-perfect exercise in feng shui, with the newly built Forbidden City at its heart. Twenty-four emperors ruled from its hallowed halls, together with their eunuchs and concubines, until revolution swept aside China’s last imperial rulers, the Qing Dynasty, in 1911.

Wandering the atmospheric hutong neighbourhoods is Beijing’s most evocative experience.

Hutongs are residential lanes and alleyways traditionally associated with Beijing and defined by the outer walls of courtyard homes called siheyuan – usually single storey – which join together to form communities. The oldest date back hundreds of years. The word itself is believed to be of Mongol origin, dating back to the Yuan dynasty.

The narrow hutong lanes north of the Forbidden City and around the Drum and Bell Towers and Houhai Lake, are some of the best for strolling, where you might see local residents playing xiangqi, traditional street sellers, and surviving Qing dynasty courtyard architecture.

Explore independently, or hire a guide to explain the unique cultures of the more fascinating hutongs such as those around the Dashilan neighbourhood southwest of Tiananmen Square, which served as Beijing’s red-light district before the Communist revolution.