Plan Beijing
Build your first Beijing plan.
Answer four questions and get a day-by-day starting plan, put together from the advice on this site. Save the link, print it, then bend it to your own taste.
Four questions
How I'd think about it
- One anchor sight per day. Distances are big and each sight takes longer than you expect. The Forbidden City fills three or four hours, and Badaling by train is most of a day once you count getting there and back. Put lighter stops around the anchor. You'll see more this way, not less.
- Book the Tiananmen cluster first, then build the days around it. The Square, the Gate Tower, the Forbidden City and the National Museum all need online reservations, mostly released seven days ahead. Release times.
- Stay near a transfer station. If you can't decide, Chongwenmen. If you want a courtyard night, Ping'anli. If the Great Wall matters most, Xizhimen, with the train to Badaling downstairs. The six areas.
- Avoid the national holidays, and if you're coming in July or August, expect crowds and heat and start your days early.
- With four days or more, leave one loose. Hutongs, Shichahai, the Drum Tower area, a market, a long lunch. It's usually the day people remember.
Help me decide what to build next
I'm working out whether to offer a paid planning service for first-time visitors, and what it should include. What you write here decides that. To be clear, this form doesn't get a personal reply. If the service opens, you'll get one email, and nothing else.
Thank you. It's in.
If the planning service opens, you'll get one email. Until then, the checklist covers what to do before you fly, and Where to Stay is the decision most people find hardest.