6 Days in Beijing: First-Timer Plan

Six days in Beijing means you finally get to be a little greedy about the Great Wall, doing the classic restored section early in the trip and a rougher, near-empty one later once you’ve got your legs under you. Five days is plenty too, see our 5-day plan ; a full week and our 7-day itinerary adds a market morning and Olympic Park.

Book these before you go:

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
5 Ming Tombs + 798 Art District Half day + half day
6 Great Wall at Jinshanling Full day (incl. drive)

Day 1: The Imperial Core

Tiananmen Square opens the trip, its own advance reservation required through the WeChat mini-program, booked one to seven days ahead, passport in hand at the security gate. The scale of the place is enormous, Mao’s mausoleum on one flank, the National Museum of China on the other.

Walk north into the Forbidden City , booked online at 8pm Beijing time exactly a week out since there’s no ticket window at all. Give it three to four solid hours, watch for the bronze fire vats in every courtyard and the glazed roofline figures marking each hall’s rank, and remember it’s closed Mondays outside holiday weeks. Close the day at Jingshan Park just behind the walls for the best rooftop view in the city, then find a Peking duck dinner nearby to open the trip properly.

Day 2: The Great Wall at Mutianyu

Give the whole day to this one, roughly ninety minutes each way by car. Mutianyu is the pick for a first Great Wall day: 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 more fun than any transport option has a right to be. Badaling sits closer to the city but pays for it in tour-bus traffic, easily the most crowded section of wall anywhere near Beijing. Budget three to four hours actually walking the stones, get there early for the light and the lighter crowds, and head back for dinner on Ghost Street (Gui Jie), a single lantern-lit strip of restaurants that stays loud well past midnight.

Day 3: Temple, Hutongs, and Old Streets

The Temple of Heaven opens the morning, its round Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests set on tiered marble terraces unlike anything else in the city. Locals fill the surrounding park practicing tai chi, playing cards, and running through slow fan routines, worth ten minutes on a bench just to watch.

Spend the afternoon in the hutongs, either the famous but commercialized Nanluoguxiang or the quieter lanes around Wudaoying and Houhai for grey-brick courtyard homes without the coffee-shop crowd. Close the day at Qianmen and the Dashilan alleys, a restored pedestrian street lined with century-old shops selling silk and handmade shoes, polished for visitors but genuinely old underneath.

Day 4: Summer Palace and Lama Temple

Spend the morning and early afternoon at the Summer Palace , the sprawling lake-and-pavilion retreat where Qing emperors escaped the summer heat. Climb Longevity Hill for the view over Kunming Lake, then walk the painted Long Corridor along the shore, a half-day-plus stop on its own.

Head to the Lama Temple (Yonghegong) in the late afternoon, a working Tibetan Buddhist monastery thick with incense smoke and striking statuary, including a towering Buddha carved from a single piece of sandalwood. Book the now-mandatory timed entry online or via WeChat the night before, this applies to every visitor. Close the day in Sanlitun, where Taikoo Li’s glass towers and the bar street nearby make for an easy dinner and a drink.

Day 5: Ming Tombs and 798 Art District

Give the Ming Tombs a proper half-day instead of the rushed stop most tour buses turn it into. Walk the Sacred Way first, lined with stone animals and officials guarding the approach, then visit Changling, the largest tomb in the complex. No reservation needed, just buy on-site.

Spend the afternoon at 798 Art District , a former 1950s weapons factory now packed with contemporary galleries and street art across its old brick walls, free to walk around, with UCCA worth a ticket if you want one real gallery stop. Ride the metro to Wangjing South on Line 14 and finish with a short taxi or walk.

Day 6: A Second Great Wall Day at Jinshanling

Is a Second Great Wall Day Actually Worth It on a Six-Day Trip?

Yes, if you liked Mutianyu and want the wall without any crowd at all. Jinshanling runs a longer drive, two to two and a half hours each way, and the restoration is rougher, but that trade buys you three to four hours of hiking with a fraction of the visitors anywhere near the city.

Here’s my one real opinion for a trip this long: don’t waste your sixth day on more shopping, spend it at Jinshanling instead. You get three to four hours of hiking with a fraction of the crowds, watchtowers crumbling at the edges in a way Mutianyu’s don’t, and a version of the wall that feels genuinely remote rather than staged for photos. Bring more water than you think you need and proper shoes, the footing gets uneven fast. Head back into the city for a final dinner, and use whatever’s left of the evening for any souvenir shopping you’ve been putting off, Wangfujing stays open late enough to handle it. Weaving in more of China beyond Beijing? Our Beijing-and-beyond guide covers the visa and payment setup this in-city plan leaves out.