How To Spend Five Days In Beijing, China

I (Reanna) visited Beijing on a 144hr transit visa, as this was my first time in mainland China I wanted to see all of the top sites and embrace the culture as much as possible! I quickly fell in love with the city, it is truly how you would picture China: Intricate colourful architecture, incredible history, amazing food and beautiful scenery. Below is how I spent my 5 days in Beijing, the sites I visited and what I would recommend.

Time spent here – 5 days

Budget £150

Whilst in Beijing I stayed in Leo Hostel. You really can’t beat the location of this hostel, situated in Old Town Beijing, right in the hustle and bustle of it all and within walking distance to a lot of the main attractions. At around £7 per night for a 6-bed dorm, you can’t really go wrong!

For more solo Asia travel guides also read Discovering Taiwan here.

How I spent my first day in Beijing:

When visiting a new place, I always like to spend my first day exploring and getting a feel for the area I’m staying in and this area certainly lent itself to doing this!

I tried amazing local food (which is surprisingly more like English Chinese than I was expecting), wandered the cobbled streets peered in shop windows and observed local arts being crafted.

I finished my day in a restaurant called ‘Vege tiger’, home to a vegan buffet every lunch and dinner and for any vegetarian/ vegans/ people who don’t fancy meat, I would 100% recommend it. The place is quite beautiful inside and the food is displayed in a beautiful way, plus the food is delicious with a huge choice! The meal cost me around £7.40 and for all I ate was an absolute bargain. A really great addition to five days in Beijing.

Day Two in Beijing:

The Forbidden City  The Forbidden City is the world’s largest and best-preserved imperial palace complex for over 500 years the palace was off limits to the public (hence the name). The palace was home to two dynasties of emperors, the Ming and the Qing dynasty. You can purchase your ticket for The Forbidden City either online in advance or when you get here, a standard adult ticket costs 60 yuan (around £6.90). The place gets extremely crowded so I would head there as early as possible. Tiananmen Square Tiananmen Square is a square in the centre of Boiling separating the Forbidden City from the rest of the city named after the Tiananmen to its North.

Tip – you’ll need your passport to get into both here and the Forbidden City. Houhai Lake; is a beautiful lake located above The Forbidden City, get away from (some) of the tourists and have a stroll around the water and look in the cute gift shops. Jingshan Park A beautiful park costs only 2 yuan to enter. I spent my evening surrounded by tons of locals watching the sunset from the hill here. It may get crowded, but there’s certainly a good reason for it! Enjoy a beautiful view over Beijing and The Forbidden City and wait for the sun to set in a mixture of pink smoggy hues. A really great addition to five days in Beijing!

Day 3 in Beijing:

The Great Wall – Panlongshan section. This beautiful, rural section of the Great Wall is the only section which has undergone no restoration and is yet still open to the public. Some sections were just rubble, some hidden by overgrown grass, it was a beautiful mess surrounded by rolling hills and barely another tourist in sight. If you’re looking to experience the original great wall then I would highly recommend it. It took me almost 4hrs to get here from Beijing however, my journey was a tad messy. Catch a bus to Miyun then hop in a shared taxi, coming back I managed to do the cheaper option of 2 buses but with my obvious lack of Chinese, I think I might have just got lucky this time!

Day 4 in Beijing:

The Great Wall – Badaling section. Really not to be missed when spending five days in Beijing! This section, completely different to the one yesterday was equally as beautiful but for completely different reasons. The direct bus from Beijing (bus number 877 from Tiananmen bus station) makes this section the most easily accessible for tourists, combined with its being very well restored makes this section an extremely popular section to visit. I caught the first bus out of the city centre at 7.30 am and by the time I arrived at The Great Wall, it was already swarmed with tourists. Despite this, it lived up to all expectations I had and made me truly feel like I was on ‘The Great Wall of China something which I felt it lacked the day before. 

Day 5 – My Last Day Exploring Beijing

The Temple of Heaven was built in 1420. The Temple of Heaven is an imperial complex located within a beautiful park in the South Eastern part of central Beijing. The temple was visited by the Emperors for annual ceremonies of prayer to Heaven in the hope of a good harvest. Described as a masterpiece of architecture and landscape design’. After here I grabbed my last proper Chinese meal (dough drop soup – so, so good), picked up my bag and off I went to the airport, my amazing five days in Beijing had come to an end.