July 15 – July 17 : Beijing

Beijing has is full of interesting architecture and infrastructure. Similar to Xi’an, there are several old buildings worth visiting and residential areas with narrow streets consisting of old traditional buildings, so-called Hutongs. If you need a pause from the crowds, there are several relaxing lake areas within the city which invite casual strolls and food by the lake.

Visiting Beijing during the summer months is, however, not a wise idea. It is overrun by domestic tourists, making it a terrible chore to visit the highlights. There are lines in order to access Tiananmen Square from every possible angle, extending as far as inside the metro stations.

The Forbidden City is the most visited place on earth with a daily average of 50,000 visitors. Online tickets were booked out 2 or 3 days in advance. Despite everyone saying that you cannot buy tickets offline, there was a line of about 2000 people waiting in the hot morning sun trying to buy a day ticket.

Personally, I did not make it. Despite having spent 2 and a half days in Beijing, I was unable to enter either Tiananmen Square or the Forbidden City. There were so many controversial hints on how to enter but none of them worked out for me. I heard several times that foreigners are allowed to enter the Forbidden City through the East gate (the main gate being South) on a fast lane, but this was simply not true! Might be true off-season, but certainly not in summer. I could have waited hours in the line outside, but that did not seem worth it.

The Great Wall was undoubtedly my personal highlight of all China. I had been looking forward to seeing this monumental building – or at least a small part of it – for a long time. The total length of the Great Wall is very hard to imagine: at about 21,000 km, it could surround half the earth along the equator.

There are several places near Beijing where the Wall can be visited. Here are the most popular ones:

• Badaling: This is the closest to Beijing, about one hour by car or bus. It is therefore also the most crowded, and after some research, it was clear to me that this would not be the right place for me to enjoy the Great Wall.
• Mutianyu: This is also in quite close proximity to Beijing. I got mixed reviews about how crowded it is, and due to my previous experiences with crowds in China, I did not want to take the risk.
• Jinshanling: This place is about two and a half hours by car outside of Beijing. It can certainly be reached by bus, but that seemed to be complicated and require several changes. So I chose the easy but secure way: I booked a private tour on trip.com. For around 200 €, a private driver took me to Jinshanling, where I had about 5 hours to explore the Wall before we drove back. This is certainly expensive, but wow, was it worth it! I basically had the Wall to myself. Certainly, there were a few people here and there, but I’d estimate that I did not meet more than 15 other people during my time on the Great Wall. This was certainly the best experience in China, and if you can afford it, you should absolutely make the extra expense to fully enjoy this grand place. Don’t forget your passport, as there will be border controls when you change from one province to another.

Avoid coming during the summer months and you should be able to do these things in Beijing :

• Visit the Forbidden City. Make sure to book your tickets in advance. This is a complicated process for foreigners as it can only be done through the WeChat app, which is in Chinese and requires a Chinese credit card. The best way is probably to ask for help about it at a hotel reception prior to arriving in Beijing or, if Beijing is your first destination in China, ask for help at your hotel as soon as you arrive.
• Visit Tiananmen Square. Equally difficult as the Forbidden City, ask your hotel reception for help with the online booking.
• Visit some of the museums around Tiananmen Square. Having an entrance ticket to one of these apparently automatically gives access to the Square. Due to this, the process of getting into a museum is equally difficult during the summer months.
• Explore the charming area around Qianhai Lake and the hutongs surrounding it.
• Visit the Temple of Heaven. This one was crowded too, but since it is not adjacent to Tiananmen Square, it is relatively easy to enter without pre-booking.
• Don’t forget to plan one day for the Great Wall. 🙂
• Have delicious Beijing duck for dinner at least once while in Beijing.