What Beijing Is — and What Kind of Place You're Visiting

Beijing is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the country's four direct-administered municipalities, sitting in the north of the country on the edge of the North China Plain. It is not a single attraction but a city of roughly 16,000 square kilometres made up of 16 districts, from the dense historic core inside the Second Ring Road out to the mountains of Mentougou and Yanqing. For a visitor, that means the "sights" are spread across a large, flat, traffic-heavy city, and how you group them matters as much as what you choose to see.

The city's headline sites carry real weight: the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven are UNESCO World Heritage Sites, as is the Summer Palace and the Ming Tombs. The Great Wall sections north of the city are World Heritage listed too. These are not small neighbourhood museums — the Forbidden City alone covers 72 hectares and receives tens of thousands of visitors on a busy day.

Where Things Are and How to Reach Them

Most of what you came for sits inside or just outside the Third Ring Road, and the subway is the fastest way to move between them. Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK) is in Shunyi District, northeast of the centre, and connects to the city by the Airport Express train and by taxi. Beijing Daxing International Airport (PKX) opened in 2019 south of the city in Daxing District and links to the centre by the Daxing Airport Express.

  • Forbidden City — Dongcheng District, at the north end of Tiananmen Square. Enter from the Meridian Gate (south) only; exit north into Jingshan Park. Nearest subway: Tian'anmen East or Tian'anmen West (Line 1).
  • Tiananmen Square — Dongcheng District, immediately south of the Forbidden City. Subway Line 1, Tian'anmen East or West.
  • Temple of Heaven — Dongcheng District, Tiantan Road. Subway Line 5, Tiantan Dongmen station, exits A and C.
  • Summer Palace — Haidian District, in the northwest. Subway Line 4, Beigongmen station, exit D, puts you at the north gate.
  • Ming Tombs — Changping District, about 45 km north of the centre. Reached by road; there is no direct subway.
  • Mutianyu Great Wall — Huairou District, roughly 70 km northeast of central Beijing, reached by car or coach on a day trip.

How the City Took Shape

Beijing has been a capital on and off for more than 800 years. The Yuan dynasty built its capital, Dadu, here in the 13th century; the Ming moved the capital north from Nanjing in 1421 and laid out the Forbidden City and the axial grid that still defines the old city. The Qing kept the same plan. After 1949 the city expanded well beyond its walls, and the last decades have added ring roads, a subway network of more than two dozen lines, and the two large airports. The result is a city where a 15th-century palace complex and a 21st-century transport system sit a few hundred metres apart.

The Main Sites, One by One

The Forbidden City is the imperial palace of the Ming and Qing dynasties, a walled rectangle of halls, courtyards and side palaces running north from the Meridian Gate to the Gate of Divine Prowess. You walk the central axis — the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the Hall of Preserving Harmony, the inner court — and can branch into the