Beijing in 5 days: complete itinerary with map

Houhai Park

Shichahai is a historic scenic area consisting of three lakes in the north of central Beijing. They are located directly northwest of the Forbidden City and north of the Beihai Lake. Shichahai consists of the following three lakes: Qianhai (前海), Xihai (西海) and Houhai (后海). In imperial times it was called the Riverbank.

Qianhai Lake

Beihai Park

Beihai Park is a public park and former imperial garden immediately northwest of the Forbidden City in Beijing, China.

Jingshan Park

Jingshan Park is an imperial park covering 23 hectares immediately north of the Forbidden City in the Imperial City area of Beijing, China. The focal point is the artificial hill Jingshan. Formerly a private imperial garden attached to the grounds of the Forbidden City, the grounds were opened to the public in 1928. The park was formally established in 1949.

Gate Of Divine Might

The Gate of Divine Might or Gate of Divine Prowess is the northern gate of the Forbidden City in Beijing, China.

Palace Of Earthly Tranquility

The Palace of Earthly Tranquility is the northernmost of the three main halls of the Inner Court of the Forbidden City in Beijing, China. The other two halls are the Palace of Heavenly Purity and Hall of Union.

Palace Of Heavenly Purity

The Palace of Heavenly Purity, or Qianqing Palace is a palace in the Forbidden City in Beijing, China. It is the largest of the three halls of the Inner Court, located at the northern end of the Forbidden City. During the Qing dynasty, the palace often served as the Emperor's audience hall, where he held council with the Grand Council.

Yanxi Palace

The Palace of Prolonging Happiness, also known as Yanxi Palace, is one of the Six Eastern Palaces in the inner court of the Forbidden City. It is situated behind the Hall for Ancestral Worship.

Palace Of Tranquil Longevity

The Palace of Tranquil Longevity, literally, "peaceful old age palace", also called the Qianlong Garden, Qianlong Palace, Qianlong District or the Palace of Tranquility and Longevity, is a palace in Beijing, China, located in the northeast corner of the Inner Court of the Forbidden City.

Forbidden City

The Forbidden City is the imperial palace complex in the center of the Imperial City in Beijing, China. It was the residence of 24 Ming and Qing dynasty Emperors, and the center of political power in China for over 500 years from 1420 to 1924. The palace is now administered by the Palace Museum and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987.

The Palace Museum

The Palace Museum, also known as the Beijing Palace Museum, is a large national museum complex housed in the Forbidden City at the core of Beijing, China. With 720,000 square metres, the museum inherited the imperial royal palaces from the Ming and Qing dynasties of China and opened to the public in 1925 after the last Emperor of China, the Xuantong Emperor (Puyi), was evicted in 1924.

Tiananmen Square

Tiananmen Square or Tian'anmen Square is a city square in the city centre of Beijing, China, named after the Tiananmen located to its north, which separates it from the Forbidden City imperial palace complex. The square holds the Monument to the People's Heroes, the Great Hall of the People, the National Museum of China, and the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall.

Zhengyangmen

Qianmen is the colloquial name for Zhengyangmen, a gate in Beijing's historic city wall. The gate is situated to the south of Tiananmen Square and once guarded the southern entry into the Inner City. Although much of Beijing's city walls were demolished, Zhengyangmen remains an important geographical marker of the city. The city's central north–south axis passes through Zhengyangmen's main gate.

Mausoleum Of Mao Zedong

The Chairman Mao Memorial Hall, also known as the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong, is the final resting place of Mao Zedong, who was the Founding Father of the People's Republic of China and chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) until his death in 1976. Mao's embalmed body is publicly displayed inside.

Monument To The People's Heroes

The Monument to the People's Heroes is a ten-story obelisk that was erected as a national monument of China to the martyrs of revolutionary struggle during the 19th and 20th centuries. It is located in the southern part of Tiananmen Square in Beijing, in front of the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong.

National Museum Of China

The National Museum of China is an art and history museum located on the eastern side of Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The National Museum of China has a total construction area of about 200,000 square meters, a collection of more than 1.4 million items, and 48 exhibition halls. It is the museum with the largest single building area in the world and the museum with the richest collection of Chinese cultural relics.

Pudu Temple

Old Summer Palace Park

Summer Palace

The Summer Palace or Yihe Garden was built by the Chinese Empress Cixi as a pavilion for quiet retreat. It is a vast ensemble of lakes, gardens and palaces in Beijing. An imperial garden during the Qing dynasty, it includes Longevity Hill, Kunming Lake, and Seventeen Hole Bridge. It covers an expanse of 2.9 square kilometres (1.1 sq mi), three-quarters of which is water.

Marble Boat

The Marble Boat, also known as the Boat of Purity and Ease, is a lakeside pavilion on the grounds of the Summer Palace in Beijing, China.

Seventeen Arch Bridge

Chongwenmen

Chongwenmen was a gate that was part of Beijing's city wall in what is now Dongcheng District. The gate stood in the southeastern part of Beijing's inner city, immediately south of the old Beijing Legation Quarter. In the 1960s, the gate and much of the wall was torn down to make room for Beijing's second ring road.

Temple of Heaven

The Temple of Heaven is a complex of imperial religious Confucian buildings situated in the southeastern part of central Beijing. The complex was visited by the Emperors of the Ming and then later restored by the Qing dynasties for annual ceremonies of prayer to Heaven for a good harvest and other seasonal rites.

Yongdingmen

Yongdingmen was the former front gate of the outer city of Beijing's old city wall. Originally built in 1553 during Ming Dynasty, it was torn down in the 1950s to make way for the new road system in Beijing. In 2005, the Yongdingmen was reconstructed at the site of the old city gate. This new gate is disconnected from the original road leading towards the gate and into the city.

Temple Of Agriculture

Temple of Agriculture or Altar of the God of Agriculture is a historic site in Xicheng District of Beijing, China, and located near the Temple of Heaven.

Taoranting Park

Taoranting Park is a major city park located in Xicheng District to the north of Beijing South railway station, in the southern part of the city. A former location for literati to get together, while most of Beijing's gardens were reserved only for imperial families during the Qing dynasty, it gained its name from a poem by the Tang dynasty poet Bai Juyi, "Wait till the chrysanthemums are yellow and home-made wine…

Mutianyu Great Wall

Mutianyu is a section of the Great Wall of China located in Huairou District within the city limits of Beijing 70 kilometers (43 mi) northeast of the center of the city. The Mutianyu section of the Great Wall is connected with Jiankou in the west and Lianhuachi in the east.

Ming Tombs

The Ming tombs are a collection of mausoleums built by the emperors of the Ming dynasty of China. The tomb of the first Ming ruler, the Hongwu Emperor, is located near his capital Nanjing. However, the majority of the Ming tombs are located in a cluster near Beijing and collectively known as the Thirteen Tombs of the Ming dynasty.

Olympic Forest Park

The Olympic Forest Park is a large, man-made forest park situated at the north end of the Olympic Green in Beijing. Built for the 2008 Summer Olympics, the park has two parts: the southern part is oval in shape and features Aohai lake in the center, and the northern side has a mountain that gives an excellent view of this part of the city. The northern part is outside of the 5th Ring Road.

Beijing Olympic Tower

The Beijing Olympic Tower is located on Kehui South Road, part of the Olympic Green in the Chaoyang District of Beijing, China. Construction began in 2011, three years after the 2008 Summer Olympics; it was completed in 2014, and opened on August 8, 2015. It is used strictly for observation; there is no provision for offices or apartments.

Olympic Park

The Olympic Green is an Olympic Park in Chaoyang, Beijing, China. The three main facilities there include the National Stadium, Water Cube, and National Indoor Stadium.

Tongjiao Temple

Tongjiao Temple is a Buddhist temple located in Dongcheng District of Beijing. It covers an area of 700 square metres (7,500 sq ft). Currently it is the only Bhikkhuni temple in Beijing. It was inscribed to the National Key Buddhist Temples in Han Chinese Area's list in 1983.

Bailin Temple

The Bailin Temple (Chinese: 柏林寺; pinyin: Bǎilín Sì; lit. 'Monastery of the Cypress Grove' is a 14th-century Tibetan Buddhist temple and monastery located in Beijing, China.

Yonghe Temple

The Yonghe Temple is a temple and monastery of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism located on 12 Yonghegong Street, Dongcheng District, Beijing, China. The building and artwork of the temple is a combination of Han Chinese and Tibetan styles. This building is one of the largest Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in China proper. The current abbot is Lama Hu Xuefeng.

Temple of Earth Park

The Temple of the Earth in Beijing, China, is located in the northern part of central Beijing, around the Andingmen area and just outside Beijing's second ring road. It is also located just a few hundred yards north of Yonghe Temple. At 42.7 hectares, it is the second largest of the five Temples of Beijing behind only the Temple of Heaven.

Andingmen

Andingmen was a gate in Beijing's Ming-era city wall, which were built to protect the emperor and people against northern invaders. Like so many others, the gate was torn down in the 1950s.

Guanghua Temple

Guanghua Temple is a Buddhist temple located at 31 Ya'er Hutong, north of Shichahai in the Xicheng District of Beijing, China. Founded during the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), it is one of Beijing's most renowned Buddhist temples.

Gulou And Zhonglou

The Drum Tower of Beijing, or Gulou, is situated at the northern end of the central axis of the Inner City to the north of Di'anmen Street. Originally built for musical reasons, it was later used to announce the time and is now a tourist attraction.