The Palace Museum (故宫博物院, Gùgōng Bówùyuàn)

The Forbidden City

The world's largest ancient palatial complex — 980 surviving buildings across 72 hectares. 3-4 hours minimum. Book tickets 7 days in advance.

Great Wall at Mutianyu

The best-preserved Great Wall section, 70 km from central Beijing. Cable car + toboggan slide. 3-4 hours including travel.

Summer Palace

The largest and best-preserved imperial garden in China — 300 hectares of pavilions, Kunming Lake, and the 728 m Long Corridor. Plan 3–4 hours. ¥60.

Temple of Heaven

The Ming Dynasty altar where emperors prayed for harvest — the iconic blue-tiled Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests plus the Echo Wall. 2 hours. ¥35.

Tiananmen Square

The world's largest public square (440,000 m²) — the symbolic heart of Beijing, framed by the Forbidden City to the north, Great Hall of the People to the west, and the National Museum to the east. Flag ceremony at dawn and dusk. Free.

Jingshan Park

The best panoramic view of the Forbidden City from an imperial hill built with soil excavated to create the palace moat. ¥2 entry. 30–60 minutes.

National Museum of China

1.3 million artifacts across 5,000 years of Chinese history in the world's most-visited museum. Free entry but book ahead. 3–4 hours minimum.

798 Art District

Contemporary art in a former East German-designed electronics factory. Free entry. Galleries, cafes, and Beijing's best creative scene. Half day.

Lama Temple (Yonghe Temple)

Tibetan Buddhist temple with a 26-meter sandalwood Buddha carved from a single log — a Guinness World Record. Active monastery with chanting monks. ¥25.

798 Art District

Contemporary art in a former East German-designed factory complex. Free entry. Galleries, studios, cafés. Half-day for art lovers. 30 min from central Beijing.

Tiananmen Square

The world's largest public square (440,000 m²). Flag-raising at dawn, Mao's mausoleum, National Museum. Free entry. Security checks at all entrances. 1–2 hours.

Jingshan Park

The classic Forbidden City panoramic view — a 45m artificial hill directly north of the palace. ¥2. Best at sunset. 30–60 min. The single best photo spot in Beijing.

Gubeikou Great Wall

Wild, unrestored Ming Wall section 2.5h from Beijing. Crumbling watchtowers, no crowds, camping allowed. ¥45. Best for hikers and photographers wanting the real Wall.

National Museum of China

The world's second-most-visited museum with 1.3M+ artifacts spanning 5,000 years of Chinese civilization. Free entry but book 7 days ahead. Tiananmen East stop.

China Railway Museum

Stand inside Mao Zedong's personal train carriage, then walk among dozens of steam locomotives in a vast roundhouse — all for ¥20.

Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution

Beijing's massive free military museum — tanks, missiles, and Korean War exhibits told through a Chinese perspective, housed in a Stalinist architectural landmark.

Beijing Planetarium

China's largest planetarium with two buildings, a 3D space theater, and a 200mm refractor telescope open to the public. ¥45. Excellent for families and space enthusiasts.

Capital Museum

Beijing's city museum: 3,000 years of the capital's history with world-class galleries of ancient bronzes, Buddhist art, and Beijing folk culture. Free. An excellent complement to the National Museum.

Anhui Museum

Huizhou art and architecture, Shang-Zhou bronze, and the Anhui School of painting — a strong provincial museum in Hefei's 2011 landmark building. Free.

Beijing Auto Museum

China's automobile history from Chairman Mao's limousine to modern EVs, in a striking turbine-shaped building in southwest Beijing. Rare Hongqi and Shanghai sedans. ¥30.

Museum of Chinese Gardens

All Chinese garden styles in one place — from Suzhou scholar gardens to Lingnan tropical courtyards — in a museum with real outdoor gardens and indoor exhibitions. ¥20.

Beijing Ancient Architecture Museum

Chinese architectural history from Neolithic to Qing, housed inside the 15th-century Temple of Agriculture (先农坛). ¥15. The Hall of Jupiter ceiling alone is worth the trip.

Jilin Provincial Museum

Manchurian history from Paleolithic to modern, Koguryo kingdom artifacts, and the unique frontier culture of China's northeast. Free entry.

China Customs Museum

Seized smuggled goods — ivory, endangered animal parts, counterfeit luxury items — and the 2,000-year history of Chinese customs. Free. One of Beijing's strangest museums.

Beijing Police Museum

Police history, forensics, and criminal investigation through the ages. Free. Passport required for entry. One of Beijing's most unusual specialty museums.

Today Art Museum

Contemporary Chinese art in a converted boiler factory. ¥20. One of Beijing's first private contemporary art museums. Experimental and unpredictable.

UCCA Center for Contemporary Art

The anchor museum of Beijing's 798 Art District. World-class contemporary exhibitions. ¥100. The most internationally recognized contemporary art museum in China.

National Art Museum of China

China's flagship state-run art museum with 100,000+ modern Chinese paintings, calligraphy, and folk art; 1.5-3 hours is enough to see the highlights during a single sit-and-skim visit.

Red Gate Gallery

China's first privately-run contemporary art gallery, operating since 1991 in a Ming-dynasty watchtower, with rotating shows by 200+ Chinese and international artists across roughly 800 sqm of exhibition space — plan 60 to 90 minutes.

CAFA Art Museum

China's top fine-arts university museum holds roughly 13,000 works across six floors inside a purpose-built I.M. Pei-adjacent campus; allow 2 to 3 hours.

798 Art District (798 Art Zone)

Beijing's converted 1950s East German factory complex now packs roughly 200 galleries, cafes, and design shops into about 600,000 sqm of Bauhaus industrial space — a full day of wandering, though 3 hours covers the highlights.