This summer (2019), I traveled through East Asia with my family. We had a blast! We spent just over 2 weeks (16 days) visiting China, Korea, and Japan. However, this trip is not for the faint of heart! Every day was packed full and we were EXHAUSTED by the end of it (honestly, we were pretty exhausted after the first few days), so embark on this trip at your own risk. We traveled in late June/early July, and it was HOT and muggy, especially in China! But it actually wasn’t that crowded (peak season in East Asia is Spring) and, according to some locals, it gets even hotter in July and August. So I think late-June ended up being a good time to travel.
For the sake of clarity, I’m breaking down my itinerary for each leg of the trip individually. You can read my posts for Seoul (https://www.lavitabloger.com/seoul-korea/), Tokyo (https://www.lavitabloger.com/the-complete-travel-guide-for-tokyo-japan/), Tokyo Disney Resort (https://www.lavitabloger.com/tokyo-disney-resort/), and Kyoto (https://www.lavitabloger.com/24-hours-in-kyoto/).
So, without further ado, here is what we did in Beijing, China.
First, a few things about Beijing:
- If you are traveling to China from the United States, you will need to get a visa. Start the process at least a month in advance, and make sure your passport won’t be expiring anytime soon.
- The Chinese government blocks a lot of websites. You can’t access Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or any other social media. To workaround this, some people get a VPN on their phone. We just decided to be sans social media for a few days. Google is also not very reliable. If you need to search for something online, use Bing.
- Beijing is a very, very large city. If you’ve traveled in Europe, you might be used to being able to walk pretty much everywhere. Do not expect that in Beijing. The city is very expansive and almost nothing is close enough to walk to. I’d recommend figuring out the metro system ASAP.
- Bring tissues with you to take to the public restrooms and be prepared to squat. Most of the public bathrooms in Beijing are just holes in the ground.
- Beijing is not very credit card friendly, so bring cash.
- Locals might ask you for your picture! Chinese people don’t see a lot of foreigners, especially those living in more rural parts of China, so when they do, it’s a bit of a novelty.
TOP 10 THINGS TO DO IN BEIJING
- Walk along the Great Wall of China
- Wander through the Forbidden City
- See Tiananmen Square in person
- Eat Peking Duck
- Explore the historic Hutongs
- Ride in a Tuk Tuk
- Eat some amazing Chinese food. My favorites were Black Sesame Kitchen, the Hutong Food and Beer Tour by Tuk Tuk, and Din Tai Fung (links below)
- Experience the Temple of Heaven
- Visit the Summer Palace
- Burn incense at the Lama Temple
A PERFECT 4 DAY ITINERARY
DAY 1: Arrival & Lama Temple
We arrived in Beijing at around 2:00pm, took a taxi to our hotel, then hit the town! Taxis in Beijing are pretty inexpensive, but they’re not always easy to catch, so I wouldn’t recommend solely relying on them for transportation. Instead, it’s best to venture underground into the subway system. Even if you don’t speak any Chinese, the Beijing subway is fairly straightforward and reliable. Be warned, the cars get PACKED during rush hour.
We started off our trip by hitting the Lama Temple, also known as the Younghe Lamasery. It is the biggest Zen Buddhist Temple outside of Tibet. It was built in 1694 during the Qing Dynasty and it is beautiful! We spent about an hour there, wandering around, taking pictures, and burning the free incense they pass out. You do have to pay for admission to get into the complex.
Our hotel was in the Wangfujing Shopping area (which I would recommend). We walked around the pedestrian shopping street and got dinner at a restaurant called 1949, per the recommendation of our hotel concierge. We got the Peking duck, and it was so wonderful! I had never had Peking duck before and it was such a fun experience, not to mention super delicious. The waiter came over and showed us the proper way to roll it up into the pancakes with the little pieces of radish, onion and cucumber. My favorite part was the crispy skin that you dip into sugar. It reminded me of chicharrones!
DAY 2: The Great Wall of China
Our first full day in Beijing, we took a private tour to the Great Wall of China. After some research, I decided on the Mutianyu Section of the Great Wall. It’s not the closest section to Beijing (it’s about an hour drive), so it’s not the most crowded section, but it’s still fairly accessible. (Based on my research Badling is the closest and most crowded section). The Mutianyu section also has the notable advantage of having a toboggan that you can ride down the Wall! It was so much fun!
Walking along the Wall was such a great experience. It’s one of the Seven Wonders of the World and it really did feel significant. Make sure you bring lots of water and sunscreen, it gets hot up there!
I would highly recommend going with a tour group. Specifically, our tour guide, Ling, was great! She was very nice, provided us with ice cold water, and recommended a great place for dumplings by the Wall for lunch. It was really convenient to have someone pick us up directly from our hotel and take us to the Wall. She also took us to a fruit stand on the side of the road, per our request, to pick up some fresh fruit! The whole experience was 8 hours. https://www.tripadvisor.com/AttractionProductReview-g294212-d11455479-Private_Mutianyu_Great_Wall_Trip_with_English_Speaking_Driver-Beijing.html
For dinner we went to the Black Sesame Kitchen (http://www.blacksesamekitchen.com). This is a CAN’T MISS EXPERIENCE! It was easily one of the best meals I’ve ever had in my entire life. It’s a ten course, communal dining experience where you get to watch the chef cook each course in front of you. Everything was absolutely delicious! And different from most of the Chinese food I’ve had in the states. My favorite dish might’ve been dessert, which was made of caramelized sweet potato over black sesame ice cream. So yummy!
DAY 3: Temple of Heaven & Summer Palace
Both the Temple of Heaven and the Summer Palace are on opposite ends of Beijing from each other (the southeast corner and the northwest corner respectively). However, they are also far away from anything else, which is why I decided to pair them together in one day. Today, would also be a good day to figure out the public transportation system in Beijing. I’m not usually a big fan of public transportation, but it is really necessary in Beijing. We initially tried to take a taxi, but it was really difficult to flag them down, the public transportation system is actually much easier and more reliable. Beijing is also waaaayy too big a city for walking.
Built in 1420, the Temple of Heaven is currently the largest building for religious worship in all of China. It is the royal altar where the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties worshipped heaven. It is seen as the most holy of Beijing’s imperial temples and has been described as a “masterpiece of architecture and landscape design.” It is also a popular spot for locals to exercise and play games, especially in the mornings.
The Temple of Heaven was beautiful! I’d recommend getting the combo ticket, so you can see all of the main attractions. My personal favorite was the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest, which will be the first thing you see if you come in from the East Gate. It took us about 2 – 2.5 hours the walk around the complex.
Next, we went to the Summer Palace. The Summer Palace has the best-preserved imperial garden in the world and the largest of its kind still in existence in modern China. In 1998, UNESCO added the Summer Palace to its World Heritage List, saying it is “a masterpiece of Chinese landscape garden design. The natural landscape of hills and open water is combined with artificial features such as pavilions, halls, palaces, temples and bridges to form a harmonious ensemble of outstanding aesthetic value.”
Be prepared for a LOT of walking at the Summer Palace. We did not purchase the combo tickets at this location. We just bought a general admission ticket, and an additional ticket to the Tower of Buddhist Incense. We entered from the East Gate and took a boat across Kunming Lake. I would highly recommend doing this. The boat ride was my favorite part of the Summer Palace!
TheSummer Palace is perched at the top of a hill, and to get up it you have to walk up a million stairs or find a small path up the hill. I’d recommend trying to find the path, although I will admit that we got lost once trying to find the path and accidentally took the wrong route. It’s a wide, paved pathway, so if that’s not where you are, keep looking. The Tower of Buddhist Incense has a great view, but it was pretty smoggy, so we couldn’t see much. However, the Temple itself was so pretty, it was still entirely worth the trek. We spent about 2.5 – 3 hours total at the Summer Palace.
We ended the day with a Hutong Food and Beer Tour by Tuk Tuk (https://www.tripadvisor.com/AttractionProductReview-g294212-d11894570-Beijing_Hutong_Food_and_Beer_Tour_by_Tuk_Tuk-Beijing.html). One of my favorite things to do while traveling is to take a food tour, and this might be my favorite food tour I’ve taken so far! We were driven around by Tuk Tuk to four different food locations and one brewery. Everything we ate was amazing and nothing I’ve ever tried before, and it was such a blast riding the Tuk Tuk’s! The tour took us through some of the Hutong neighborhoods, which are historic alleys and streets in Beijing. My favorite stop was the last one, where we got to eat the Chinese version of a burrito! We were given a bunch of meat and vegetable dishes that we wrapped up into tortilla-like “pancakes.” I would highly recommend making time for this tour!
DAY 4: The Forbidden City & Tiananmen Square
NOTE: The Forbidden City is closed on Monday’s, so you might have to move around your schedule if Day 4 falls on a Monday for you.
On our last full day in Beijing we got an early start to get to the Forbidden City right when it opened. The Forbidden City is the best-preserved imperial palace in China and the largest ancient palatial structure in the world. There are also a limited number of tickets sold each day, so it’s important to get there early. Also, you need your passport to purchase a ticket, so make sure to bring the passport of everyone in your party!
The Forbidden City is HUGE, so get ready for a long day with a lot of walking. Even if you walked quickly through the entire thing, it would probably take you about 2 hours. I’d budget 3-4 hours for the Forbidden City, depending on how long you want to linger. There are a fair amount of mini-museums within the buildings, but honestly I found the exteriors of the buildings to be the most impressive. If it had been a clear day, we would’ve climbed up to Jingshan Park for a view of the Forbidden City from above. However, the day we were there it was very smoggy and visibility was poor, so we decided to skip it.
When touring the Forbidden City, you go south to north. That means you are walking away from Tiananmen Square. If you can, I would recommend starting your day extra early and going to Tiananmen Square first. Then heading into the Forbidden City. However, we got dropped off in an unideal location to enter Tiananmen Square. The Chinese government highly regulates the entrances and exits to Tiananmen Square, so it ended up being easier for us to start at the Forbidden City and circle back. Luckily for us, there was a cute trolley bus at the north exit of the Forbidden City that takes you to Tiananmen Square.
Being in Tiananmen Square was a little surreal. It was an expansive, open square with hundreds of cameras and dozens of guards. For it’s historical significance, I was really glad I went, but it did make me feel a little uneasy, and VERY watched. We only spent about 30 mins at Tiananmen Square before deciding to move along. There is no information anywhere in the square about the Tiananmen Square Protests, and I wouldn’t recommend loudly musing about them while you’re there.
A brief history: In 1989, there were student-led demonstrations in Tiananmen Square. The students were protesting for governmental accountability, free speech/freedom of the press, and constitutional due process, among other things. This was in response largely to anxieties about the future of China post-Mao. On June 4th, 1989 the government declared martial law and open fired on the protesters with assault riffles and tanks. Death toll estimates vary from several hundreds to several thousands.
Our next stop was the Drum & Bell Towers and Pipe Street in the nearby Hutong Neighborhood. It was cool to experience more of the old Beijing neighborhoods, but I’d recommend checking out South Luogu Alley instead. We walked through it during our food tour, and it seemed like a much cooler Hutong than Pipe Street.
We ended the day be hitting up the shopping mall in the Wangfujing area and going to Din Tai Fung (https://www.lavitabloger.com/din-tai-fung/). Din Tai Fung is a dumpling restaurant that is originally from China, but has opened a few, very popular, branches in Los Angeles. It’s just as good in Beijing as it is in LA!
We spent a final night at our hotel and woke up early to fly to our next destination: Seoul, Korea! https://www.lavitabloger.com/seoul-korea/
I had a great time in Beijing! I wouldn’t take anything out of our itinerary, I really enjoyed every stop and every tour, but make sure to bring your walking shoes. It is definitely a physically intensive few days that involved a lot of walking. If we had more time/energy, and it wasn’t so swelteringly hot, I might’ve added Beihai Park to our itinerary. This park is a favorite among the locals’, and one of the oldest and most representative imperial gardens in China. If you have an extra half day in Beijing, or get through any of my days quicker than we did, I’d recommend checking out Beihai Park.
My Other East Asia Itineraries:
Seoul, Korea: https://www.lavitabloger.com/seoul-korea/
Tokyo, Japan: https://www.lavitabloger.com/the-complete-travel-guide-for-tokyo-japan/
Tokyo Disney Resort: https://www.lavitabloger.com/tokyo-disney-resort/
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