Beijing has been a capital for most of the last three thousand years, and the city wears that history in layers you can walk between in a single afternoon. The Forbidden City — 240 hectares of imperial palace complex, home to 24 emperors across the Ming and Qing dynasties — sits at the geographical centre of the city. Tiananmen Square is immediately to the south. The hutong alleyways of the old residential quarters branch out in every direction from there, unchanged in layout if not always in character. The Temple of Heaven is a 20-minute drive away. In most cities, any one of these would be the headline attraction. In Beijing, they are a morning's work.
The Great Wall is not in Beijing — but the most-visited sections are within two hours of the city centre by road. Mutianyu is the practical choice: well-restored, less crowded than Badaling, and accessible without a tour group. Back in the city, the Summer Palace provides a counterpoint to the imperial formality of the Forbidden City — a landscape garden of lakes and pavilions built for the Qing court to escape the summer heat. Halal food is easy to find in Beijing's Niujie Muslim quarter, which has served the city's Hui community for over a thousand years.
Three nights is the minimum to cover Beijing without rushing. Four gives you the Great Wall without sacrificing a city day. The subway is efficient and well-signed in English; most of the major sites are straightforward to reach independently. Beijing is typically the entry point for a first China trip, and it earns that position — nowhere else in the country gives you the same concentration of imperial-scale history in one place.
Best time to visit
April to May, September to October
