Beijing runs on reservations. Here is the order to book in.
Which stretch of wall suits your knees. What the Forbidden City really costs once the passport reservation is done. Whether a layover is long enough to get to Mutianyu and back. Reviews of every tour and ticket you can book in Beijing.
Out past the sixth ringBeijing Great Wall ToursNine sections, one decision, an hour and a half each way.from $11
On the axisForbidden City ToursNine thousand rooms, a timed slot and a passport at the gate.from $6
South of the axisTemple of Heaven ToursThe park wakes at six with choirs, kites and tai chi.from $7
Off the axisBeijing Hutong ToursGrey lanes, courtyard doors and the duck oven behind them.from $15 Four bookings a first week in Beijing is built around.
A full wall day, a wall you walk alone, an afternoon by the lake and an evening that needs no language. What each costs, and what the people who went say.
01Wall and tombs in oneGreat Wall of China at Badaling and Ming Tombs Day Tour from BeijingBadaling and the Ming Tombs in one run, the way most first visits do it. Longest queues, shortest drive.
02The quiet wallSmall Group Hike at Jinshanling Great WallJinshanling in a small group, where the restored ramparts run out and the towers stand as they fell.
03Kunming Lake, lateSummer Palace Entry Ticket and Optional Guided TourKunming Lake, the Long Corridor and the marble boat. Go after three, when the coaches have gone.
04The eveningRed Theatre Beijing Acrobatic Show TicketsAcrobats at the Red Theatre, an hour long and needing no Mandarin. The night nobody has to plan.
Mutianyu, Badaling, Jinshanling: which stretch of wall is yours.
Every section is the same wall and a completely different day. Cable car or six hours on foot, ninety minutes from the city or three, shoulder to shoulder or nobody for a mile. What each one costs to reach, and who it suits.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · Mutianyu Great Wall Tours with Options
MutianyuCable car up, toboggan down, restored ramparts and trees.
BadalingThe closest and the steepest, with the crowds that come with it.
JinshanlingTen kilometres of towers, half of them unrestored.
Huanghuacheng and JiankouWall that runs into a reservoir, and wall that runs wild.
Simatai and GubeiThe only section lit after dark, with a water town below it.
All 152 ways onto the wall →
The days out more travellers book than anything else in Beijing.
Every Beijing tour we have reviewed →Eight bookings that carry more travellers than the rest of the city put together, and what earns each of them the slot.
1
Mutianyu Great Wall Tours with Options
Take a direct Mubus coach from Beijing to Mutianyu for 4 to 5 hours on the Great Wall. Choose free exploration, a 30-minute architecture talk, a strenuous 5-kilometer hike, lunch, or an overnight villa stay. Guides include Jily, Helly, Amelia, John, Mike, and Jessica.
From · $19
Read our review →
2
Forbidden City Tour(Group/Private)-Tickets Included
from $4
3
T-Square & Forbidden City Group or Private Tour
from $17
4
All-Inclusive Tour: Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Great Wall
from $128
5
MuBus: Mutianyu Great Wall ENG/ESP/RUS Guided Bus Tour
from $20
6
4-Hour Small Group Tour to Forbidden City with Entry Tickets
from $15
7
Tiananmen Square Registration Service(Ticket)
from $3
8
Beijing Full Day Tours: Tiananmen Sq, Forbidden City, Great Wall
from $99
Six imperial sites, and the best way into each.
A palace on the axis, a summer estate around a lake, a round temple where the emperor asked for rain, the square in front of the gate, thirteen tombs under the hills and a Tibetan temple in the north-east lanes. Prices, entry rules and the tours worth paying for.
The palace decides your first morning. Book it before the flight.
Every way into the palace →
Tickets go on sale a week ahead, carry your name and passport number, and are gone by lunchtime in high season. The gate scans the passport you booked with. These three carry more travellers than anything else on the axis.
Reservation only, and it is in your name
Nobody sells a walk-up ticket. Every entry is a named reservation released on a rolling week, which is why so many of these listings are a booking service with a guide attached rather than a tour in the usual sense.
Tiananmen needs its own reservation
The square in front of the gate is free and still has to be reserved, on its own permit, days ahead. Plenty of travellers reach the flag-raising and get turned back at the barrier for want of it.
Square, palace and hill in one morning
Tiananmen, the palace end to end, then the climb up Jingshan for the roofs from above. One booking covers three sets of entry rules, which is most of what you are paying the guide for.
The grey lanes are still there, behind the ring roads.
Shichahai after dark, courtyard doors with brass studs, a bell tower at the end of the lane and a sidecar engine you can hear three streets away. The hutongs are the half of Beijing the axis does not explain.
Duck carved at the table, dumplings you fold yourself, tea poured three times.
The city eats early and eats out. Book the lane crawl for the first night, the class that ends as lunch, and the banquet once, for the room as much as the food.
Beijing is a hub, and the best of it is two hours out.
A bullet train south to the terracotta army and back by night, a half-hour hop to Tianjin's riverfront, cliff temples and grotto Buddhas at Datong, a gorge north of the wall that freezes into an ice festival. All of it is a day, and all of it starts at a station.
- 1Beijing to Xi’an See Terracotta Warriors with Bullet Train Round Trip Transferfrom $564
- 2Beijing Private Transfer to Jinshanling or Simatai Great Wallfrom $86
- 3Simatai Great Wall & Gubei Water Town Private Tourfrom $133
A park ticket, a wall day, a driver: what Beijing charges.
Every tour and ticket on the site, grouped by price. Entry to the great imperial sites costs less than lunch; the wall is where the money goes.
Site entries, reservation services, park tickets, the public bus to Mutianyu and the lane walks.
Guided wall days, the Jinshanling hike, food crawls and the full axis with one guide.
Private drivers by the day, two-day itineraries and the wall to yourself before it opens.
Three Beijing days that do not travel.
Palaces and street food exist in every capital in Asia. A Soviet-pattern sidecar in the hutongs, a park full of people practising at seven in the morning, and a Ming court robe rented for the afternoon do not.
The sidecar run
The bikes are copies of a Soviet copy of a BMW, built in China from the fifties on and kept alive by a small trade of mechanics in the north of the city. Riding pillion in the chair puts your eyeline at door-handle height, which is exactly the right height for a hutong. Drivers know which lanes are still through-routes and which end in somebody's bicycle.
- 12-Hour “Ancient & Modern” Beijing Sidecar Tour (Day /Night)★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 36 reviews
- 24 Hours Private Discover Beijing Tour by Sidecar★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 30 reviews
- 3Ancient & Modern City Tour by Sidecar(Day/Night)★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 15 reviews
Tai chi in the park
Beijing parks fill before breakfast: retired men with birdcages, choirs, ballroom dancers with a speaker, and rank after rank of people moving through the twenty-four form. Classes for visitors run in the Temple of Heaven grounds and in Ritan, usually an hour, usually in the open, and the point is less the form than being in the park at the hour it belongs to the city.
- 1Beijing Private Tai Chi Class★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 16 reviews
- 2Beijing Private Tai Chi Class★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 10 reviews
- 3Temple Of Heaven+Tai Chi Class+Tea Ceremony★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 8 reviews
Hanfu for the afternoon
Renting court dress and being photographed in it started as a young Chinese pastime and has become an industry with studios around the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace. Hair and make-up take longer than the shoot. Book the earliest slot: the gates that make the pictures work are empty for about an hour after opening and never again.
- 1Must-Try Chinese Ancient Costume Rental& Photoshoot★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 26 reviews
- 2Beijing Traditional Hanfu Experience & Photoshoot for Groups★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 8 reviews
- 3Temple of Heaven Hanfu Photography with Ticket★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 7 reviews
Four Beijing bookings that will not wait for you to land.
Most of this city can be settled the night before over a bowl of noodles. These four run on named reservations, passport numbers and release windows that take no interest in when your flight gets in.
- 01Forbidden City Tour(Group/Private)-Tickets IncludedEntry is a named reservation tied to your passport, released about a week ahead and gone the same day in summer. The palace is also closed on Mondays.
- 02All-Inclusive Tour: Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Great WallThe square has its own permit, separate from the palace, checked against the passport you booked with. Turning up without it means watching from the far side of the road.
- 03Mutianyu Great Wall Tours with OptionsThe cable car and toboggan run to their own daily caps, and the last car down is earlier than the gate closes. Book the ride, not just the transport.
- 04Beijing Capital Airport Layover Mutianyu Great Wall Private TourThe visa-free transit window starts when you land, not when you clear the terminal. A wall run inside it only works if the car is already waiting.
Half of booking Beijing is getting in and getting across.
The city is enormous, the sites are ticketed separately, and the subway does not go to the wall. Reservation services, a car with a driver for the day, an airport run at four in the morning and layover tours built to fit the transit window: this is the plumbing that makes the rest work.
By place — the axis, the wall, and out of town
By kind of day — wall, palace, table or lane
Square, palace, wall, lanes: the run almost every first visit makes.
The newest Beijing tour reviews.
The rest of the new ones →
Small-Group Beijing City Highlights Tour With Lunch
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Bell and Drum Towers Entry Ticket—Historic Landmark
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Beihai Park Full Access Ticket – Must-See in China
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Badaling Great Wall VIP Pass w/Optional Attractions
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Badaling Great Wall Private Tour w Language Option
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Badaling Great Wall Night Tour+ Light Show + Performance
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Beijing 2-Day Highlights including Great Wall with Options
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