Offbeat Beijing and Beyond: 7 Days
A full week in Beijing is the one itinerary in this series where you’ll actually finish it with time to spare, which is a strange feeling in a city this size. It also comfortably fits the 240-hour visa-free transit rule for 55 nationalities through 65 ports, both Beijing airports included, as long as you’ve got a confirmed onward ticket; the clock starts at midnight the day after you land. Book Forbidden City tickets from home before you fly, since they release exactly 7 days ahead at 8pm Beijing time.
Book these before you go:
- Forbidden City real-name ticket (releases 8pm Beijing time, exactly 7 days ahead)
- Tiananmen Square’s separate WeChat reservation
- Your confirmed onward ticket (required for the 240-hour transit scheme)
- Your Mutianyu and Jinshanling transfers, or small-group Wall tours for both
- Your Tianjin high-speed rail seat
| Day | Focus | Distance/time out | Rough cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tiananmen, Forbidden City, Jingshan Park | Central Beijing | ¥150-250 |
| 2 | Mutianyu Great Wall | ~73km, ~1.5hr drive | ¥300-450 |
| 3 | Temple of Heaven, Houhai, Lama Temple | Central Beijing | ¥100-200 |
| 4 | Summer Palace, 798 Art District | Short metro ride NW/NE | ¥100-200 |
| 5 | Ming Tombs, Sanlitun | Roughly an hour NW | ¥150-300 |
| 6 | Tianjin day trip | ~30min by high-speed rail | ¥150-250 |
| 7 | Jinshanling Great Wall, or a slow wind-down | ~130km, 2-2.5hr drive | ¥100-350 |
Day 1: Handle the Boring Stuff First
Clear immigration, confirm your VPN works, and link Alipay or WeChat Pay to a foreign card while airport wifi is still calm, or tap a foreign contactless card straight at the metro turnstile. The Airport Express from PEK reaches Sanyuanqiao in 20-30 minutes for about ¥25; from PKX, take the Daxing Express.
Tiananmen Square needs its own separate reservation, passport in hand, plus airport-style security at the gate. Walk from there into the Forbidden City on your pre-booked slot; give it three to four hours, it’s bigger than any photo lets on. Climb Jingshan Park afterward (¥2) for the view over the palace rooftops, then eat in Wudaoying Hutong rather than the more commercial Nanluoguxiang. If a stranger near Wangfujing offers a “traditional tea ceremony,” walk on.
Day 2: One Wall Section, Chosen on Purpose
Badaling is closest and, unsurprisingly, the most tour-bus-clogged section by a wide margin. Mutianyu, about 90 minutes out, is better restored, has a cable car and toboggan, and leaves you room to actually enjoy the thing. Bring cash for stalls near the car park. Back in the city, Peking duck at Siji Minfu near the Forbidden City matches the famous names on quality without the tourist markup.
Day 3: The Slow Beijing
Start at the Temple of Heaven (¥15 park-only) while it’s quiet, then spend the afternoon around Houhai and Shichahai, paddleboats replacing the postcard hutong scene. The Lama Temple now requires timed-entry booking via WeChat for everyone, so reserve ahead. For dinner, order zhajiangmian somewhere unglamorous, and skip Wangfujing’s scorpion-skewer stalls; they’re a photo-op aimed at visitors, not a real Beijing meal.
Day 4: Palace Grounds and Contemporary Art
Give the Summer Palace a genuine half-day, then head to the 798 Art District, a converted 1950s factory complex full of contemporary galleries, free to wander; metro to Wangjing South, then a short taxi or walk. A useful contrast after three days of imperial architecture.
Day 5: Tombs, Then Modern Shopping
Ming Tombs day, worth doing on its own rather than bolted onto a rushed wall tour, which is how most day-tour operators sell it. General admission runs about ¥60 peak, individual tombs extra; no reservation needed, buy on arrival. Back in the city, Sanlitun’s Taikoo Li covers fashion and nightlife if you want a break from duck and dumplings, while Wangfujing is worth a walk for the shops, not the skewers. For dinner, Da Dong is worth the splurge for the skin alone.
Day 6: A Different City Entirely
Take the high-speed rail to Tianjin, as little as 21 minutes each way for roughly ¥55-70, and spend the day somewhere that isn’t trying to be Beijing; the colonial-era riverside architecture and the Italian Style Town make for a genuinely different afternoon after five days of imperial sites. Use the evening back in Beijing for a relaxed hutong wander and whatever dish you haven’t tried yet.
Day 7: Second Wall, or Slow Wind-Down
With a week to work with, a second Great Wall section is worth the drive: Jinshanling, rugged and far less restored than Mutianyu, rewards two-plus hours each way with a wall that’s genuinely quiet, a real contrast to day two’s more polished stretch. If hiking twice isn’t your idea of a good time, spend the morning wandering a second hutong district or a last dumpling crawl, then use the afternoon for repacking without the usual departure-morning panic.
Whichever you pick, double-check which Beijing airport your outbound flight actually uses before booking your final transfer; PEK and PKX are 80km apart and mixing them up costs a genuinely bad morning.
Getting Around and Paying
Metro rides run ¥3-10, tapped via a foreign contactless card at the turnstile, a Yikatong card, or a phone transport QR code. DiDi covers whatever the metro doesn’t; link your card through Alipay or WeChat first, since foreign cards added directly into the DiDi app are frequently declined.
Where This Trip Sleeps
Somewhere between Dongcheng and Chaoyang keeps daily travel time reasonable across a full week, especially on the Tianjin day when you’ll want an easy run to the high-speed rail station. Compare rates on Agoda before booking.
One Concrete Tip
Screenshot your hotel’s address in Chinese characters before you leave each morning, and do the same for the departure terminal code on your last day. Data drops underground and in older alleys more often than you’d expect, and a screenshot gets a taxi driver moving faster than any pronunciation attempt he’s never heard rendered quite that way before.
Want the deep in-city version instead of the gateway framing? One week in Beijing covers the same seven days without the visa-transit angle, or see Beyond Beijing: Offbeat China for the guide-length version of this whole trip.