Beijing 4 Day Itinerary (No Tourist Traps)
Four days is enough to see Beijing’s headline sights without rushing them, as long as you treat the Great Wall as the standalone day it actually requires, not a bolt-on to an already packed morning.
| Day | Focus |
|---|---|
| 1 | Forbidden City, Jingshan Park, Tiananmen Square |
| 2 | Great Wall at Mutianyu |
| 3 | Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace |
| 4 | Lama Temple, real hutongs, 798 Art District |
Book these before you go:
- A Mutianyu Great Wall tour with cable car on GetYourGuide .
- A hotel near Dongcheng or the Drum Tower on Agoda , central enough for days 1, 3, and 4.
Day 1: The Imperial Core
Book Forbidden City tickets the moment your dates are fixed, they release at 8pm Beijing time exactly seven days out through the official site or WeChat, and weekend slots go fast. ¥60 peak, ¥40 low season, actual passport at the Meridian Gate, closed Mondays except holiday Mondays. Give it three to four hours.
Climb Jingshan Park (¥2) directly after for the rooftop view over the palace, then move to Tiananmen Square on its own separate WeChat reservation, passport again, plus airport-style security at the gate. Dinner at Siji Minfu for Peking duck, real value, no tour-group markup. Skip the Wangfujing scorpion skewers on the way, that’s a photo prop, not food.
Day 2: The Great Wall
Skip Badaling, the closest section and the busiest by a wide margin, every tour bus in the city funnels there. Mutianyu is the better call: about 90 minutes out, well-restored, entrance ¥45, real crowd relief, cable car up (¥100 one-way, ¥140 return) and toboggan down. Arrive at opening. This is the whole day once transport is counted, don’t plan anything else around it.
Day 3: Temple of Heaven and the Real Hutongs
Temple of Heaven in the morning, ¥15 park-only or ¥34 combined in peak season, calmer than either of Day 1’s sights. Here’s where most itineraries send you wrong: they’ll route you to Nanluoguxiang for “authentic hutongs.” Don’t go. It’s craft beer and souvenir stalls wearing a historic street as a costume. Wudaoying Hutong and Fangjia Hutong, or the quiet backstreets around Houhai, are the version that still looks like Beijing actually lives there.
Evening: Houhai lakeside for dinner and a walk, paddleboats by day, bars by night, and nobody’s trying to sell you a tea ceremony here the way they will near Tiananmen.
Day 4: Lama Temple and Modern Beijing
Lama Temple in the morning, ¥25 flat, and it now requires timed-entry booking online for every visitor, foreigners included, reserve it a day or two ahead rather than assuming you can walk up. Afternoon: 798 Art District, a converted factory complex of contemporary galleries, free to wander, metro to Wangjing South plus a short taxi. If you’re flying out soon after, Sanlitun’s Taikoo Li mall is the easiest one-stop option for last-minute shopping near the airport road.
Practical notes. Everything runs on the yuan, and Alipay or WeChat Pay linked to a foreign card covers nearly everything except the smallest stalls. The Beijing subway reaches every stop here and takes foreign contactless cards directly at the gate. Set up and test a VPN before you fly, Google, WhatsApp, and Instagram disappear the moment you land. Nanluoguxiang gets recommended in every generic guide and it’s the wrong call for day 3, Wudaoying and Fangjia cost nothing extra and show you something real. If four days still feels rushed, our 5-day itinerary adds the Ming Tombs and a slower final afternoon.