Top 10 Things to Do in Beijing 2026

The Shichahai hutong network stretches 3.5 kilometers of narrow alleyways, housing over 200 courtyard homes dating from the Yuan dynasty. Unlike the Forbidden City (rank #1), this area offers an intimate peek into daily life, with 85% of residents still living in traditional siheyuan houses.

Peking Duck at a traditional restaurant is Beijing's greatest culinary contribution — a centuries-old dish of lacquered duck carved tableside and wrapped in thin pancakes with hoisin and spring onion. The experience is best at Quanjude or Da Dong, both of which have perfected the ritual over generations; a single duck at Da Dong costs around ¥298 and serves 2-3 people.

The Summer Palace is a vast imperial garden complex on the shores of Kunming Lake — featuring a marble boat, the Long Corridor painted with 14,000 scenes, and Longevity Hill crowned by an octagonal tower — and was the Empress Dowager Cixi's preferred residence over the Forbidden City.

Tiananmen Square, the world's largest public square at 440,000 square meters, is flanked by the Great Hall of the People, the National Museum, and Mao's Mausoleum — carrying the full weight of modern Chinese history and seeing its most moving moment at dawn during the daily flag-raising ceremony. Compared to 798 Art District's concentrated gallery space, the square's open expanse offers a more direct encounter with national identity.

The 798 Art District, converted from a 1950s Soviet-era electronics factory complex in Dashanzi, hosts hundreds of galleries, studios, and design shops in brutalist Bauhaus buildings — representing Beijing's most compelling argument for its contemporary creative vitality.

Beihai Park is the most historically layered imperial garden in Beijing—a 1,000-year-old sanctuary of pavilions, willows, and lotus ponds centered on an island crowned by a white Tibetan stupa. Archaeological records confirm its origins in the Liao dynasty (907–1125), and Kublai Khan later constructed his personal paradise here. It also hosted Mao Zedong for swimming sessions well into his 70s.

As the largest Tibetan Buddhist monastery outside Tibet, Lama Temple operates as a vibrant working monastery with active monks performing daily rituals. Its centerpiece is the world's largest carved Maitreya Buddha statue—26 meters of sandalwood piercing through three floors of a single pavilion. The temple's butter-lamp shrines burn through 5 kg of yak butter weekly, creating an immersive aromatic experience.