15 Best Things to Do in Beijing

1. 1
   

   Mutianyu Great Wall

   Park & nature

   Mutianyu is the stretch of the Great Wall most visitors to Beijing should choose: it's beautifully restored, wraps over densely forested ridgelines that turn gold in autumn and white in winter, and…

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2. 2
   

   Palace Museum

   Museum

   The Palace Museum is not just a building but a treasure trove of Chinese civilization, with over 1.8 million artifacts, including paintings, ceramics, jade, and bronze.

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3. 3
   

   Forbidden City-The Palace Museum

   Museum

   The Forbidden City is the vast imperial palace at the heart of Beijing, the largest surviving palace complex in the world, with nearly a thousand buildings arranged along a strict north–south axis…

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4. 4
   

   Yonghe Temple

   Religious site

   Yonghe Temple, also known as the Lama Temple, is a Tibetan Buddhist monastery and temple in Beijing's Dongcheng District.

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5. 5
   

   Temple of Heaven

   Religious site

   The Temple of Heaven is a masterpiece of Chinese architecture and landscape design, where emperors once prayed for bountiful harvests.

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6. 6
   

   Tiananmen Square

   Landmark

   Tiananmen Square is a vast paved plaza in central Beijing, covering 440,000 square meters.

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7. 7
   

   Wangfujing Street

   NeighborhoodFree entry

   Wangfujing is Beijing's most famous shopping street, a broad, largely pedestrianised avenue near the Forbidden City lined with department stores, malls, flagship shops, and bookstores, bustling day and night.

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8. 8
   

   Jingshan Park

   Park & nature

   Jingshan Park is the perfect complement to a Forbidden City visit, an imperial park built around an artificial hill directly behind (north of) the palace, created from the earth excavated to make the…

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9. 9
   

   798 Art Zone

   NeighborhoodFree entry

   The 798 Art Zone is Beijing's leading contemporary-art district, a sprawling complex of decommissioned Bauhaus-style factories (built by East German engineers in the 1950s) reinvented as galleries, studios, design shops, cafés, and public art.

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10. 10
    

    Beihai Park

    Park & nature

    Beihai Park is a historic imperial garden in central Beijing, originally built in the 10th century.

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11. 11
    

    Beihai Park (Beihai Gongyuan)

    Park & nature

    Beihai Park is one of Beijing's oldest and most beautiful imperial gardens, a serene 1,000-year-old royal park just northwest of the Forbidden City, arranged around a large lake.

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12. 12
    

    Nanluoguxiang

    MarketFree entry

    Nanluoguxiang is a narrow, 800-meter-long alley in the Dongcheng District of Beijing, famous for its preserved hutong architecture and vibrant shopping scene.

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13. 13
    

    National Museum of China

    Museum

    The National Museum of China is located on the east side of Tiananmen Square. It is one of the largest museums in the world, with a collection spanning 5,000 years of Chinese civilization.

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14. 14
    

    Drum Tower and Bell Tower of Beijing

    Landmark

    The Drum Tower and Bell Tower, built in 1272 and rebuilt in the Ming dynasty, stand at the northern end of Beijing's central axis.

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15. 15
    

    National Centre for the Performing Arts (China)

    Entertainment

    The National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) is an arts centre and opera house in Xicheng, Beijing.

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That covers the heavyweights. Browse by category for the rest.