Beijing: where to stay, when to go, and how to get around

Overview

Beijing is vast, flat and organised in rings — literally, as concentric ring roads numbered from the 2nd (which traces the line of the old city walls) out to the 6th, far in the suburbs. The imperial core sits dead centre: the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square and the lakes just north of them. This is not a walkable city in the way a European capital is; distances are long, blocks are enormous, and you will use the subway constantly. The reward for the sprawl is that Beijing holds two things at once — the imperial monuments and the grey-brick hutong alley neighbourhoods on one hand, and a genuinely 21st-century city of towers, tech and traffic on the other. Come knowing that the pollution, the winters and the language barrier are real costs, not travel-blog exaggerations, and plan around them.

Where to stay

The decision here is genuinely about logistics, not just vibe: the city is too big for “anywhere central is a short walk” to be true. Pick a base near a subway interchange, inside or just outside the 2nd Ring, and think about whether you want to wake up among old alleys or among glass towers.

Dongcheng — Forbidden City, Wangfujing and the Gulou hutongs

The eastern half of the historic core, and the obvious first-time base. You are walking distance from the Forbidden City, Tiananmen and the Wangfujing shopping street, and the grid of hutongs around the Drum and Bell Towers (Gulou) and Nanluoguxiang is the best of the surviving old city — low grey courtyards, tiny bars, cramped noodle joints. Stay here if you want to step out of the door into historic Beijing on foot. The trade-off is that the prettiest hutong lanes are also the most touristed and the most expensive, and courtyard hotels convert charm into small, sometimes cold rooms with thin walls. Nanluoguxiang itself is a tourist funnel — sleep a couple of alleys off it, not on it.

Xicheng — Houhai and the western lakes

The western half of the old core, quieter and more residential, built around the Shichahai/Houhai lakes. This is where Beijingers still swim, skate in winter and sit out in summer, and the hutongs here feel more lived-in than staged. Good for a second visit or for travellers who want the old-city texture without the Nanluoguxiang crush. The trade-offs: the immediate lakeside strip is loud with bars at night, so stay a street back; and Xicheng has fewer big international hotels and more small guesthouses, which suits some people and not others.

Qianmen and Dashilan — south of Tiananmen

Directly south of Tiananmen Square, this is old commercial Beijing: the rebuilt Qianmen pedestrian street and, behind it, the tighter, scruffier Dashilan lanes. Central for sights and well connected by subway. Stay here if you want to be close to the core but pay less than in the Gulou hutongs. The catch is that Qianmen Street itself is a heavily restored, slightly artificial shopping stretch, and the genuinely atmospheric parts behind it are patchy — a good block and a rough one side by side.

Chaoyang — Sanlitun and the CBD

East of the core, outside the 2nd Ring: this is modern Beijing. Sanlitun is the nightlife and embassy district, with the city’s densest concentration of bars, international restaurants and shopping; the CBD further south is towers and business hotels. Stay here if you want comfortable modern rooms, a night out, or you are in town partly for work. What you give up is old Beijing — you are a subway ride from the Forbidden City, and the area has essentially no imperial character. It is also where prices for both drinks and rooms run highest.

Haidian — the university and tech northwest

Far to the northwest, home to Peking and Tsinghua universities, the Summer Palace and the Zhongguancun tech district. Only worth basing yourself here if your reasons are specific: a university visit, the Summer Palace, or business in the tech quarter. Otherwise it is simply too far out — long subway rides to everything in the centre — and it is short on the food and street life that make the older districts worth the stay.

When to go

Autumn (mid-September to early November) is the season to aim for: clear, dry, mild days and the lowest odds of heavy smog. Spring is warmer but brings dust and the occasional sandstorm blown in from the north, and it is short. Summer (June–August) is hot, humid and prone to sudden downpours, and it is peak domestic-tourism season — the Forbidden City and the Great Wall are at their most crowded, and popular sites cap daily numbers, so book ahead. Winter is cold, dry and often bitterly windy, with temperatures well below freezing, and it is also when air quality is at its worst, as coal heating across the region combines with still winter air. Winter has its arguments — thin crowds, snow on the palace roofs, lake skating at Houhai — but check the air-quality forecast before committing to a day outdoors. Avoid the first week of October (National Day holiday) and the Lunar New Year period unless you have no choice: domestic travel peaks and many small restaurants close.

Getting there & around

Beijing has two big airports, and which one you land at matters. Capital (PEK), to the northeast, connects to the city by the Airport Express train, which runs to Dongzhimen on the 2nd Ring where you change to the subway. Daxing (PKX) is far to the south and has its own dedicated express line into the city — a longer haul, so factor the extra time if you are connecting to a flight from there. Taxis from either are metered and reasonable but slow in traffic; use the train unless you are arriving very late.

In the city, the subway is the answer to almost everything: it is enormous, cheap, signed in English and far faster than any road vehicle in Beijing’s traffic. Buy a stored-value transit card or use a phone; note that every station has an airport-style bag scan on entry, which adds a minute at busy times. Do not rent a car — you cannot drive on a foreign licence, the traffic is punishing and parking is a nightmare. For the Great Wall, know which section you want: Badaling is the most restored and most crowded, reachable by a direct suburban train; Mutianyu is less mobbed and more scenic but needs a bus-and-shuttle combination or a hired car for the day. Beijing is also China’s main high-speed rail hub — trains to Shanghai take under five hours from Beijing South station — but the different lines leave from different stations (South, West, and Beijing station), so check which one your train departs from before the day.

Practicalities

Two things surprise first-timers most. First, payment is almost entirely by phone — Alipay and WeChat Pay run the city, and while both now let foreign visitors link an overseas card, cash is awkward and foreign contactless cards are accepted only patchily. Set up mobile payment before you need it. Second, the internet is filtered: many Western sites and apps (maps, search, messaging, social media) are blocked, and if you rely on them you will want a working VPN installed before you arrive, since you cannot easily download one once you are here. Download an offline map and a translation app too — English is limited outside hotels and tourist sites.

Carry your passport: you need it to buy train tickets, enter some sights and check into hotels, and only hotels licensed for foreign guests can take you. On food, the dish the city is built around is Peking duck (kǎoyā) — lacquered, carved at the table, rolled into thin pancakes with scallion and sweet bean sauce; it is worth seeking out a specialist rather than ordering it as an afterthought. Beyond it, look for zhájiàngmiàn (thick wheat noodles with a salty fermented-soybean pork sauce), the sesame-paste lamb hotpot (shuàn yángròu) that is the winter staple, and street jiānbing, the folded savoury crêpe, for breakfast. Tipping is not expected. Beijing is a very safe city for visitors; the real daily friction is the language and the internet, not crime.