4 Days in Beijing: First-Timer Plan
Four days gets you past the two headline sights and into the version of Beijing that actually rewards a slower look, the imperial gardens, the incense-thick temples, the neighborhood that never quite goes to sleep. It’s the shortest trip length where you stop feeling rushed between stops. Tighter on time? Our 3-day plan covers the essentials; got a fifth day, our 5-day itinerary adds the Ming Tombs and 798 Art District.
Book these before you go:
- Forbidden City tickets release online exactly 7 days ahead and sell out for weekends
- A Mutianyu Great Wall tour if you’d rather skip arranging your own driver
- A hotel in Dongcheng near Wangfujing; check rates on Agoda before September and October fill up
| Day | Focus | Time needed |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tiananmen Square + Forbidden City + Jingshan Park | Full day |
| 2 | Great Wall at Mutianyu | Full day (incl. drive) |
| 3 | Temple of Heaven + hutongs + Qianmen | Full day |
| 4 | Summer Palace + Lama Temple + Sanlitun | Full day |
Day 1: The Imperial Core
Why Does the Forbidden City Require Booking a Week Ahead?
The Palace Museum releases every ticket online at 8pm Beijing time exactly seven days before the visit date, real-name and passport-required, with no gate sales at all. It’s the only way the site manages crowd numbers on a palace this size, and weekend dates go fast once they go live.
Tiananmen Square opens the trip, and it takes its own advance booking through the WeChat mini-program, one to seven days ahead, with your passport ready for the security check. From there, walk north into the Forbidden City . Give the palace a solid three to four hours, it’s closed Mondays outside holiday weeks, and let yourself get a little lost among the courtyards.
Wind down at Jingshan Park just behind the palace walls for the best rooftop view in the city, then wander Wangfujing for souvenirs and street snacks before a Peking duck dinner to open the trip properly.
Day 2: The Great Wall at Mutianyu
This one gets the whole day. The drive runs about ninety minutes each way, and my one strong opinion here is to skip Badaling entirely. It’s the closest section and the most famous, which just means it’s also the most tour-bus-clogged stretch of wall in the country. Mutianyu gives you genuinely restored watchtowers, a cable car up (check current hours on the official Mutianyu site ) so you’re fresh for the walk, and a toboggan run down that’s the best fifteen minutes of the day. Budget three to four hours on the wall itself, and get there early for lighter crowds and softer light. Back in the city, Ghost Street (Gui Jie) is a solid pick for a late dinner, a single street of restaurants glowing red with lanterns well past midnight.
Day 3: Temple, Hutongs, and Old Streets
The Temple of Heaven opens the day, its round Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests sitting on tiered marble terraces unlike anything else in the city. The surrounding park fills with locals playing cards, practicing tai chi, or working through slow fan routines, worth a bench and ten quiet minutes to watch.
Spend the afternoon in the hutongs, either the famous but commercialized Nanluoguxiang or, better, the quieter lanes around Wudaoying and Houhai where courtyard homes and bicycle bells replace the coffee shops. Finish at Qianmen and the Dashilan alleys, a restored pedestrian street with century-old shops selling silk and handmade shoes, polished for visitors but genuinely old underneath.
Day 4: Summer Palace and Lama Temple
Is the Summer Palace Worth a Full Morning or Just a Quick Look?
A full morning, easily. The Summer Palace is a genuinely huge lake-and-pavilion complex, and rushing it in an hour means missing either Longevity Hill’s view or the painted Long Corridor, not both. Treat it as a half-day-plus stop rather than a quick photo stop between other sights.
Give the morning to the Summer Palace, the enormous lake-and-pavilion retreat where Qing-dynasty emperors escaped the summer heat. Climb Longevity Hill for the view back over Kunming Lake, then walk the covered Long Corridor with its painted scenes running the length of the lakeshore.
In the afternoon, head to the Lama Temple (Yonghegong), a working Tibetan Buddhist monastery thick with incense smoke and genuinely striking statuary, including a towering Buddha carved from a single piece of sandalwood. Note that entry now requires a timed booking made online or through WeChat ahead of time, even for foreign visitors, so sort that the night before. Close the trip in Sanlitun, where Taikoo Li’s glass towers and the bar street nearby make for a lively last night before heading to the airport or train station the next morning. Building a longer China trip around this, our Beijing-and-beyond guide covers the visa and payment logistics this in-city plan leaves out.