Beijing Travel Guide

Travel guide to Beijing, China with comprehensive information about events, shopping, and major Beijing sporting events to help you enjoy your visit more.

Beijing Overview

The capital of China, Beijing is a huge, sprawling city of more than seven and a half million people. It is a place packed with amazing sights, and breathtaking attractions, and a city where the Chinese economic miracle is planned and gradually executed.

Beijing is a city of truly exceptional contrasts. On the one hand, the beautiful structures of the Forbidden City and imperial temples and palaces, on the other the ugly Stalinist office blocks that stand like rotting teeth in the fast changing skyline. There are two cities in Beijing: the first, public city is a place of modern commerce, of easy money and the revelation of the Chinese industrialisation process; the second Beijing is a very different place, where hidden behind the modern office blocks and billboards, there is dreadful poverty, people living in conditions resembling the third world while around them, filth accumulates.

Beijing is an incredible city, a place that is opening up rapidly and developing into an amazing tourist destination with plenty to mark it out, but for some people, the future is still a long way away.

Top Beijing Attractions

Many of Beijing's most famous and instantly recognisable sights date from the golden age of the country. The Great Wall of China is quite close to the city, and is a must see attraction for any visitor. You can walk along many sections of this impressive structure, and it is a great place to take some photos.

In the city itself, the palaces that make up the forbidden city offer a chance to see the amazing life that the emperor used to enjoy, while in Tiananmen Square - the location of one of the most atrocious human rights abuses in history, you can see the austere mausoleum of Mao Zedong - the late communist leader of China.

Other attractions include the stunning Summer Palace, the Lama Temple where there is a sculpture of Buddha made from a single tree, and the Temple of Heaven - the largest temple complex in the world.

Shopping in Beijing

One of the best things about Beijing from a shopper's point of view is that everything on offer is tax-free! In the main area of Wangfujing Dajie, you can get amazing bargains on silk, clothes, and the latest electronic goods, while for big savings, head for Xidan discount shopping mall, where prices are extremely low.

There are plenty of traditional Chinese markets in Beijing where you can go in order to find everything from works of art to counterfeit watches. A highlight of a trip to Beijing is the chance to visit a Chinese doctor who will prescribe all manner of barks fungus and powdered rhino horn to make you feel better.

Beijing Sporting Events

Sport has always been important in China, and Beijing was chosen to host the 2008 summer Olympics. The city has many football teams and there are top quality facilities for you to enjoy participating too.

The English Premiership and Manchester United (surprise surprise) are popular in Beijing, and you can see almost all matches in one of the city's many sports bars.