Touristic attractions in Beijing

There is plenty of places that can be visited in Beijing as a tourist, all easily reachable by public transportation. Possible places we suggests are:

• Great Wall at Badaling. This section of the great wall is reachable by train from downtown Beijing; see e.g. this page for more details.
• Palace Museum (also known as the Forbidden City). Located at the very center of Beijing, it is just to the north of Tian’anmen square. We suggest to get off at Qianmen station on subway line 2, then walk to the north along Tian’anmen square, visit the Palace museum and once you leave from its north gate, enter the Jingshan park to have a look of the whole Palace museum from the top of the hill. Palace Museum tickets need to be booked online in advance; we can help for this.
• Lama Temple, a Tibetan Buddhist temple in Beijing. It is located near the homonym “Yonghe gong - Lama temple” station on subway line 5.
• Confucius Temple, a nice garden and temple very close to the Lama Temple. It is worth combining the two temples in a single visit.
• Temple of Heaven, a park and once the most important temple in the south of the city. The temple is accessible through either the subway line 8 (Tianqiao station) or the subway line 5 (Tiantan dongmen - East gate of the Temple of Heaven). We suggest to buy the combined ticket, since it allows to access the Temple of Heaven park and the scenic spots (Circular Mound Altar, the Imperial Vault of Heaven, and the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests), without having to buy additional tickets for the latter.
• Boat trip from the Beijing Zoo to the Summer Palace; see e.g. this page for details.
• Summer Palace, the imperial garden in Beijing. It can be reached by getting off at the Beigongmen station on subway line 4. We suggest to buy a combined ticket if you plan to visit the scenic spots (Suzhou street, Tower of the Fragrance of Buddha, …) besides the park.
• Central TV Tower, an opportunity to have dinner and look over Beijing. It can be reached by walking to the north from the Gongzhufen station on subway line 1.
• National Library of China, located near the homonym station at the intersection of the subway lines 4 and 9.
• National Museum of China and China Railway Museum, located on the east side of Tian’anmen square.