5 Days In Beijing, China. Duck, Rooftops, And A Lot Of Lanterns

I went to Beijing with a loose plan and a metro card, and that was mostly enough. Five days, no rental car, a lot of walking, and the kind of meals you remember by the smell.

This is the itinerary as I actually did it. Imperial heavy in the first half, slower and stranger in the second. I built each day so you could swap in a long lunch, miss a temple, get lost in a lane, and still end up somewhere good by dark.

Bring your passport everywhere. Book the big sites a week out. The rest can stay loose.

Day 1, The Imperial Core

Day one is the heavy hitters, all of them within walking range of each other. I started at the Forbidden City the moment it opened and let the day pour outward from there, across the square, over the moat, up the hill for the view, and down into a park before dinner.

Wear shoes you have already broken in. You will walk more than you think.

Forbidden City

First thing, before the cafes opened, I was at the south gate with my passport in one hand and a printed booking on my phone. You really do need to book a week ahead. They check your ID three times before you set foot on a courtyard stone.

The scale is the thing nobody quite prepares you for. You walk, you cross a courtyard the size of a city block, you walk again. Roof guardians, dragon carvings, golden tiles that look almost edible in the morning light. I rented the audio guide at the main gate, forty yuan, and I am glad I did.

Easy to spend a slow three hours here. Five if you take the side halls and the gardens. Closed Mondays, learn from the people who flew in on a Sunday and could not get in. I drifted south afterward toward the square, a five minute walk across the moat road.

Tiananmen Square

The square is enormous and weirdly quiet given how many people are in it. Mao’s portrait on the gate is one of those things you have seen a hundred times in photos and still stops you a little when it is actually there.

Book the free reservation a day in advance. Bring your passport again. Security is intense and slow. Once you are through, the space opens up and you can walk a long perimeter loop, taking in the National Museum on one side, the Great Hall of the People on the other, and the monument in the middle.

I lost about an hour here. Long enough to feel the scale, not so long that you bake in the open sun. I wandered north next toward Jingshan, an easy twenty minute walk if you cut up past the moat.

Jingshan Park

After a slow walk up from the Forbidden City’s north gate, Jingshan is the payoff. Two yuan to get in, basically nothing, and a gentle climb up the artificial hill to Wanchun Pavilion at the top.

From the pavilion you look straight back down over every golden roof of the palace you just walked through, in perfect axis, all the way to the horizon. In flat afternoon light it is one of the best views in the city.

I stayed up there longer than I meant to. Easy to spend an hour just watching the rooftops change colour as the sun shifts. From the top of the hill I drifted west along the park wall toward Beihai, about a ten minute walk through the side gate.

Beihai Park

Beihai feels gentler than everywhere else you have been all day. A big lake, willows leaning over the water, the White Dagoba sitting up on its island like it has always been there.

Twenty yuan to enter, less if you skip the inner pay areas. I walked the lakeside path with no real plan and ended up at the Nine Dragon Wall, one of only four in the country. There is a teahouse, Fangshan Tea House, where you can refill the pot for free and eat little traditional sweets without paying tourist prices.

I stayed until the light went. Then a short taxi over to Wangfujing for dinner, about fifteen minutes in evening traffic.

Siji Minfu

Dinner on day one had to be Peking duck, and Siji Minfu on Dengshikou is the one locals kept pointing me toward. There is a long wait. There is always a long wait. They give you a number, you go walk Wangfujing for an hour, you come back when the WeChat ping tells you to.

The duck is carved at your table. Skin first, with sugar. Then meat and pancakes with scallion and that dark thick sauce. The waitress showed me how to wrap it with just chopsticks. I ordered the braised beef in tomato on a tip from another table and it might have been the best thing I ate in Beijing.

Back to the hotel slow and full, by subway from Wangfujing.

Day 2, The Wall at Mutianyu

Day two belongs to the mountains. I gave Mutianyu the whole day, in and out from the city, with a long lunch at a little place at the foot of the wall. No rushing. The Wall does not reward rushing.

It is roughly an hour and a half each way by car. Leave early. Come back tired and happy.

The Great Wall at Mutianyu

I left the city around seven, in a Didi, and was at the Mutianyu ticket office before the crowds. The drive is about ninety minutes if you beat the traffic. They scan your passport at the shuttle, again at the cable car, and then you are up.

This section is less crowded than Badaling and properly restored. Twenty watchtowers, green hills going on forever. I walked east as far as my legs wanted and turned back.

Take the cable car up. Take the toboggan down. It is silly and fun and you get a track-long view of the Wall as you go. Easy to lose a whole morning here. I came down to a little restaurant at the foot of the hill for lunch.

Mutianyu Schoolhouse Restaurant

By the time I came down off the cable car, I was hungrier than I had been in days. The Schoolhouse sits right at the foot of the trail, a quiet courtyard place with a few tables outside and the mountain rising behind.

I had a small lunch and a cold drink and let my legs unclench. The point of stopping here is not the food review, honestly. It is the pause. You have just walked a piece of the Great Wall. Sit with it for a bit before you climb back into a car for the long drive south.

Plan an hour, maybe more if the sun is out. Then back to Beijing, which is roughly an hour and a half by car, longer if you hit the late afternoon traffic ring. I was in bed before nine.

Day 3, Temples, Noodles, Old Streets

Day three I stitched together the southern end of the old city with the temple lanes up north. A long avenue, a vast sky-praying temple, a bowl of noodles, an antique street, and two of the most atmospheric religious sites in Beijing.

This one is best done by subway, with a lot of walking in between.

Qianmen Dajie

Day three I started early, before the shutters came up, walking the length of Qianmen Dajie while it was still mostly empty. It is a long pedestrian avenue south of Tiananmen, lined with grey shopfronts and old shop signs that have been polished back to something close to original.

You can ride the little tram if you are tired. I walked. The whole street is theatre, a little touristy, but in the early light before the tour groups arrive it has a real atmosphere to it. Lanterns swinging. A man sweeping. The smell of something frying somewhere off a side lane.

Easy to spend forty minutes here just drifting. From the south end of the avenue it is a short walk across the road to the west gate of the Temple of Heaven.

Temple of Heaven

The grounds are enormous. Locals come here in the morning to do tai chi, play cards under the cypress trees, and sing in small groups along the corridors. I walked in on a row of older women practising a fan dance and stood watching for ten minutes before I moved on.

The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests is the photograph you came for. Triple-tiered, deep blue tiles, built without a single nail. In flat morning light the blue is almost unreal.

Plan two hours, more if you want to do the Echo Wall and the Imperial Vault. From the east gate I caught the subway north, about twenty minutes, for noodles.

A Big Bowl of Henan Noodles

Lunch was a bowl of Henan hand-pulled noodles, the kind with broth that tastes mild on the first sip and turns rich and bony by the third. Thick noodles, lamb, scallions on top. I ordered the original soup, not spicy, and a small side of pickled vegetables.

The room is small. Maybe seven tables. You order from the QR code at the table and pay on the way out. The owner was buzzing around topping up tea.

Thirty minutes is enough here. I drifted west afterwards, a short walk and a quick subway hop, toward Liulichang.

Liulichang West Street

Liulichang is the old antique street, narrow and grey-bricked, with calligraphy brushes hanging in shop windows and the smell of ink coming out of half-open doors. The community activity room on the west end is more of a local hang than a tourist stop, which is exactly why I liked it.

Bring your phone with WeChat Pay set up. Most of these little shops do not take cards.

Easy to spend a slow hour here just looking. I bought a small brush I will probably never use. Then I drifted north up toward the Confucius Temple, a short subway ride and a few hutong lanes.

Confucius Temple and the Imperial College

Quieter than the big imperial sites and all the better for it. The cypress trees in the courtyards are old, some of them six hundred years and counting. Stone steles in long rows. A central hall where emperors once lectured to students, still grand, still mostly empty of tourists.

Thirty yuan gets you both the temple and the college next door. Stop scanning at 4.30 sharp, so do not roll up late.

I almost skipped it. I am glad I did not. Plan around an hour, maybe ninety minutes if you read the panels. Then it is a five minute walk along the lane to the Lama Temple, which is right next door.

Lama Temple

The smell hits you before you see anything. Sandalwood incense, thick, hanging in the cold air. They hand you a free bundle of sticks as you enter, you light them in threes, and you walk the courtyards bowing in each direction.

It is a working monastery, not a museum, and you can feel the difference. At the far end the eighteen metre Maitreya Buddha is carved from a single piece of sandalwood and is genuinely awe-inspiring. No photos inside the halls.

I stayed until just before sunset, when the light turned the painted woodwork gold. Then a short walk to the subway and back to the hotel, slow.

Day 4, Ruins, Art, and a Lake

Day four moves out to the northwest. Imperial ruins in the morning, contemporary art galleries by midday, and an enormous lakeside palace before the light goes. It is a long day but a beautiful one, and the contrasts make it.

Yuanmingyuan, the Old Summer Palace

Day four I started early, out at Yuanmingyuan before the heat. This is the old summer palace, the one that was destroyed in the nineteenth century, and most of it is still in ruins. That is sort of the point.

The Xiyang Lou stones are the photograph everyone comes for, carved European-style columns lying on their sides in the grass. But the park itself is huge, mostly trees and lakes, and in autumn the leaves turn a colour I am still thinking about.

Easy to spend a couple of hours here. You can take a boat across the lake for thirty-five yuan if your legs are done. Then a short subway hop east, around forty minutes, to the art district.

Beijing 798 Art Zone

798 is a converted factory complex out in Chaoyang, all brick chimneys and red slogans painted on the walls of what used to be East German industrial halls. Now it is the biggest contemporary art district in Beijing.

Galleries everywhere, most of them free. I drifted between three or four of them, stopped for a coffee in a cafe wedged between two installation spaces, and watched a group of art students photograph each other against a graffiti wall.

I lost an afternoon to this and did not regret it. Then I caught a cab west, about forty minutes in traffic, to make it to the Summer Palace before the gate closed.

The Summer Palace

I got to the east gate just as the late afternoon light started doing its thing across Kunming Lake. The whole place is huge, far too huge to do properly in a couple of hours, but that is fine. I walked the Long Corridor with my head tilted up, looking at the painted ceiling panels, all seven hundred and twenty-eight metres of it.

Up to the Tower of Fragrance of Buddha for the view. Down to the Seventeen Arch Bridge as the sky started turning. I stayed until the light went pink.

Back into town by subway, tired and a little dazed. Dinner near the hotel and a very early bed.

Day 5, Hutongs and Lakes

Last day, slowest day. I stayed in the old lakes and lanes district almost entirely, drifting between water, towers, narrow alleys, and one last imperial garden. Bring a small appetite. There are snacks everywhere.

Houhai

Last day I started slow at Houhai, the big inner lake ringed with willows and old bar fronts. In the morning before the bars open it is just locals. Old men fishing. A woman doing slow tai chi on a stone platform by the water. Someone selling little paper boats.

You can rent a pedal boat for a hundred and eighty yuan an hour if you are with friends. I just walked the loop, which takes maybe forty-five minutes if you stop a lot.

Easy to spend a couple of hours doing very little. Then I drifted east into the lanes toward Nanluoguxiang, a five minute walk through the hutongs.

Nanluoguxiang

Nanluoguxiang is the most famous of the old hutong lanes and it is, yes, very touristy. Snack stalls shoulder to shoulder, bubble tea, embroidered slippers, the works. But it is fun, and the side alleys that branch off it are where the real wandering happens.

I bought a little fried thing on a stick that I could not name and ate it standing in a doorway. Then I ducked off into a quieter alley, got mildly lost, and came out next to a courtyard cafe with one table free.

Maybe an hour on the main lane is enough. From the north end of Nanluoguxiang it is a short walk up to the Drum Tower, ten minutes through the lanes.

Drum Tower

The Drum Tower is a steep climb. The stairs go almost vertical and there is no shame in stopping halfway. At the top, the old drums, a small museum with some digital displays, and a wide view out over the grey-tiled rooftops of the hutong neighbourhood.

Performances are on the hour, not the half hour like some sites still say. The drumming lasts about two minutes. Short but loud.

I stayed up top longer than the performance, just for the view. Plan thirty to forty minutes. Then it is a short walk across the little square to the Bell Tower, maybe two minutes.

Bell Tower

The Bell Tower sits directly opposite the Drum Tower, grey where the Drum is red, slightly taller, slightly quieter. Same fifteen yuan ticket, same steep stairs. At the top a forty-two tonne bronze bell, and the same view from a slightly different angle.

The square between the two towers is the real find. Locals come here in the late afternoon to play jianzi, the shuttlecock kick game, and one tiny woman was so good at it I lost ten minutes just watching her.

Easy thirty minutes here if you do not climb, an hour if you do. From the back of the Bell Tower a small lane drops down toward Yandai Xiejie, a couple of minutes on foot.

Yandai Xiejie

Yandai Xiejie is a short, slightly crooked lane that runs from the Drum Tower area down toward Houhai. It used to be the tobacco pipe street, hence the name, and a few of the old shop signs are still there in faded paint.

Now it is mostly little shops and snack windows. Sugared hawthorn skewers, embroidered jackets, ceramic teapots. I bought a small paper fan I did not need and a paper bag of something sweet and crunchy that I ate as I walked.

Twenty minutes is enough if you are not shopping. From the western end the lane spits you right back out at the Houhai waterfront. From there I drifted south along the lake toward the last stop, Prince Gong’s Mansion, a quiet ten minute walk down the west side.

Prince Gong’s Mansion

Just before the sky started turning, I got to Prince Gong’s. The mansion belonged first to Heshen, one of the most famously corrupt ministers in Qing history, and you can feel the wealth in every painted beam. Each panel along the long covered walkway is a different painting. I looked up so much my neck hurt.

The garden out the back has the famous stone with the character for fortune carved by the Kangxi Emperor. Tour groups crowd around it. I waited them out, took a quiet photo, and kept moving.

It is a bit commercialised and a bit oversold, but I liked it more than I expected to. A good last stop in Beijing. Back to the hutongs for one more bowl of noodles, and that was the trip.

Five days in Beijing barely scratches it. I left with sore feet, a notebook full of bad sketches of roof guardians, and the feeling that I had only walked the edges. Which, in a city this size, is sort of the point.

If you have done Beijing in five days, tell me what you would swap in. I am already half planning the next trip.

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