Beijing, China, is a huge city – bursting with character.
These five activities give a snapshot view of Chinese culture and history.
If you get the chance to visit Beijing, you shouldn’t miss these five.
Facts:
Beijing is the capital of China.
Home to 22.1 million people (2024 census).
1. Walk through town
We stayed in a large business hotel in Beijing. This gave us easy access to the streets. We walked quite a bit.
If you plan to visit this city, I suggest wearing comfortable walking shoes. There are taxis and buses, but we decided walking through the streets would be a great way to see more people and immerse ourselves in the culture.
This was a great experience because we got to go to a shopping center and explore the treats section.
We got an assortment of what we assumed to be Chinese candy to take home to our families for a cultural night of taste testing. We wandered around, gawking at the strange candy as the store clerks gawked at us from their stations.
One of the women tried to explain something to us about the packages we were putting in our basket, but we couldn’t understand her words or her gestures, and she couldn’t understand ours. Eventually, she shrugged and gave up.
We also had an interesting experience at a US fast food place in a foreign country.
Fast food is not usually something I would suggest when traveling in a foreign country. I think experiencing as much of the culture as possible is super valuable.
However, there comes a time when you get ‘traveler’s fatigue,’ and something familiar is nice. We ordered chicken sandwiches from a Chinese menu at Kentucky Fried Chicken.
How much more American can you get?
Amusingly, our KFC chicken sandwiches tasted like Chinese food. I couldn’t tell you the distinction or flavor precisely, but it wasn’t your typical fried chicken.
Note to those from the United States: If you go to China expecting American Chinese food, you will be shocked.
The food is very good, but it’s not all sweet and sour chicken and kung pao pork. We did have the latter, and it was amazing!
2. Summer Palace
This multi-acre property is dotted with palace buildings, temples, and a central lake. An empress in the past used money from the national treasury to build this magnificent place for herself and other important government officials.
The Summer Palace is a beautiful spot to explore.
There is a lot of ground to cover; we weren’t prepared for the sheer size of the palace grounds.
There are ticket booths at the entrance.
Once you pass through the entrance, the palace unfolds in layers. You climb steps up to a bridge overlooking a canal.
Boats float along this canal, carrying patrons.
After another set of stairs, a large space resembles a city square, with palace and temple buildings looming above.
You continue to climb and explore some of the buildings.
Eventually, the climb ends and you descend into a valley. At the heart of the valley is a lake with small boats of tourists dotting the surface.
A paved walkway meanders around the lake, with more buildings and shops along the way.
We walked along the paved path towards a bridge that crossed from the lake’s bank to an island.
Take the time to get close to the buildings. There are intricate paintings all over the doorways and in the eaves.
Also, the Chinese style of architecture is represented throughout the Summer Palace grounds.
One of my favorite parts of the Summer Palace is the water gardens of lilies that grace the lake’s edge. Willow trees dip their branches from the shore.
3. Shopping block
Several shopping strips dot Beijing. These have little food carts, pastry or candy shops, restaurants, and a variety of gift shops.
More than the shopping, exploring a shopping block is an excellent glimpse into Chinese tourists.
Like American tourists flood state parks, National monuments, and other famous attractions, Chinese tourists visit their great cities and sights.
It was fascinating to observe people as travelers in their own country.
I love cultural diversity. As an artist, I find the infinite variety of facial structures, coloring, and physical characteristics of a nation fascinating.
4. Forbidden City / Tiananmen Square
Tiananmen Square is an open square dotted with memorial statues.
This is open to the public and free to enter.
There is a checkpoint for a quick bag check.
There are many official “public safety people” positioned around the square in full uniform, which might feel intimidating, but there is nothing to worry about.
The public space is huge, and while we were there in August, it was packed with people.
If you want to see the inside of the Forbidden City, you need to arrive very early. Only 80,000 visitors are allowed in each day. This seems like a lot of tickets until you see the line of people.
Travel China Guide has a resource guide to the Forbidden City.
According to the site, if you don’t have a friend in China or an agency you are working with that can get your tickets from inside the country, you can try to get tickets at the ticket booth near the Meridian Gate.
The Meridian Gate is located through the Tiananmen Tower and then through the Duanmen Gate.
You will need your passport to buy a ticket.
We walked around Tiananmen Square, right outside the Forbidden City on the southern side.
There were few Westerners in the Square, which got us a lot of looks from Chinese tourists.
The men in our group were very popular. People would approach us, point at their cameras, ask something in Chinese, and then point at the guys.
Somewhere in China, there are photos of my husband and friends amongst the photos of several Chinese families on their annual vacation.
Visit PlanetD’s Tiananmen Square: Monuments to the People’s Heroes. This is an excellent article on being culturally aware when visiting China and Tiananmen Square.
5. The Great Wall
I saved my favorite for last.
This was an incredible experience – and not only because of the wall’s history and magnitude.
We hired a tour guide to take us to the Wall.
China Travel Guide has some options and helpful suggestions for visiting the Wall.
Having a guide was invaluable.
Not only did she translate for us, but she also shared loads of history.
She also shared about her life and what it’s like to live in China.
Our guide took us to a less touristy part of the Wall; we were the only group!
It was an incredible experience to climb a ladder to the top of the Great Wall of China, miles and miles of it stretching in either direction and not a soul in sight.
I don’t have words to describe how incredible it was to be on this impressive feat of ancient engineering.
It’s just cool!
We discovered that the steep rolling hills of China create very steep sections of the wall. There were sections so steep we had to hoist ourselves up the incline by holding onto the edge of the wall.
The stones were wet and slick in many places.
The Great Wall of China is definitely a good location for good walking shoes.
There are so many picturesque spots, beautiful views, and incredible things to experience in Beijing.
Due to extenuating circumstances, we had to pack all of these things in two days.
We would have loved to stay longer – isn’t that always the case?
Beijing is a memorable place.
If you have the opportunity to visit this enormous city, take it.
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