Things to Do in Beijing

In just a few years since Beijing hosted the 2008 Olympic Games, the structures built within the Olympic Green (Olympic Park) have become just as representative of the Chinese capital as the Forbidden City or the Great Wall. While the Olympic Green houses half a dozen different venues, most visitors come to see the two most iconic, the Beijing National Stadium (more popularly known as the Bird’s Nest) and the Beijing National Aquatics Center (Water Cube).

Today, the Bird’s Nest is used mostly for concerts and other high-profile sporting events, while the Water Cube has been transformed into a recreational swimming facility open to the public. You can visit the interiors of either for an extra fee, but both are arguably more impressive from the outside, and it doesn’t cost anything to walk the grounds of the Olympic Green.

If you want to see the Olympic Green at its most beautiful, plan your visit for the evening hours with both the stadium and the Water Cube are lit up.

Nanlouguxiang, an alleyway in Beijing lined with traditional hutong courtyard houses, has a history spanning more than 800 years. One of Beijing’s oldest hutongs, Nanluoguxiang was built during the Yuan Dynasty and today houses a collection of bars, restaurants, boutiques and galleries.

Located near the Drum and Bell Tower, Nanluoguxiang makes a convenient shopping stop if you’re looking for a way to spend an afternoon. Many of the shops in the area cater to foreign visitors with postcards, Communist-era propaganda posters, T-shirts and kitschy souvenirs to take back home with you. You’ll also find several boutiques selling high-quality Chinese handicrafts. While the neighborhood gets crowded, it’s quieter than the hutong near the Back Lakes.

For a uniquely local shopping experience, plan to spend a few hours at Beijing’s Pearl Market (Hongqiao Market). The market is famous for its three floors of dealers selling pearl strands from around the world and is the largest pearl market in the country, where you'll find freshwater and salt water items in nearly every shape, size, color and price point imaginable. If you’re planning to purchase higher quality pearls, know what you’re looking for before you go, since quality varies widely.

Contrary to the name, the Pearl Market does offer more than just pearls. The three basement floors house a massive seafood market where many of Beijing’s major hotels and restaurants come to bid on fresh seafood. On the ground floor, you’ll find electronics and watches, and the second floor houses silks, brand name clothing, shoes, handbags and luggage. Haggling is expected throughout the market.

Jingshan Park (Yingshan Gongyuan), a green space in the heart of Beijing and home to one of the city’s few hills, was made from the earth dug out to make the Forbidden City’s moat. Covering about 57 acres (230,000 square meters), Jingshan Park once served as an imperial garden during the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties.  

In the early morning hours, the park fills up with elderly locals who gather in groups to since or practice tai chi. Come early and climb to the top of the park’s central peak -- once Beijing’s highest point -- for views of the Forbidden City to the south, Drum and Bell Towers to the north and Beihai Park to the west.

Each spring, the park’s flowers put on a colorful display, particularly in May when the 200 varieties of peonies begin to bloom. With around 20,000 peony plants, Jingshan Park is home to the largest peony garden in Beijing.

During a 1773 renovation of a northeastern section of the Forbidden City, a Nine Dragon Screen was added to provide privacy for Emperor Qianlong’s retirement villa. Such screens can be found throughout China in palaces and gardens, each depicting nine different Chinese dragons in their carved reliefs. It is thought that evil sprits must travel in straight lines, so the Nine Dragon Screen is believed to serve the additional purpose of denying entry to evil spirits.

Each of the nine dragons on the wall are depicted playing with a pearl in the ocean. If you look carefully at the white dragons, one of them has a piece of wood on its stomach. According to local legend, the artisan responsible for the wall added the wood to replace a piece of broken glazed tile to meet his deadline. The gold dragon in the center of the screen is meant to represent the emperor.

The Meridian Gate of the Palace Museum is perhaps the most recognizable landmark of the Forbidden City. Built in 1420 and renovated in 1801, the Meridian Gate is the largest and southernmost of the Palace Museum’s gates; currently, it’s the sole entrance into the Forbidden City. When the imperial family occupied the palace, the emperor would sit at the top of the Meridian Gate to proclaim sentences on prisoners of war brought before him.

The structure is made up of five towers, meant to resemble a phoenix in flight when viewed from above. The doorway through the central tower was for the Ming and Qing Dynasty emperors exclusively, though the empress was allowed to pass through this central gate on her wedding day. The door directly to the west was for the royal family, while the one to the east was for imperial officials. The final two doors were only used during ceremonies at the palace.