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Things to do
in Beijing.

Get to know Beijing through its food, neighbourhoods and landmarks. Browse guided visits and activities for your trip.

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Beijing
Photo: Tojan76, CC BY-SA 3.0

Find your kind of day.

Experiences and bookings provided by Viator.

Finding experiences in Beijing…

Prices are starting prices in EUR and may vary by date, group size and option. Check availability and full terms on Viator before booking.

Search covers the whole collection for this city, not just the experiences shown. Price, length and sorting are applied before the list is built; when a search is running, price and length are applied to the results on this page. The featured order may reflect reviews, popularity, bookings and payments from operators.

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How to choose

Thirteen of these 24 tours end up on the Wall

Thirteen of the 24 experiences we list for Beijing include a stretch of the Great Wall, and nine of those name Mutianyu; Badaling turns up in four titles, three of which leave the section as an either-or. Between them the thirteen hold 11,855 of the 18,506 reviews gathered on this page. Five sell the Wall on its own, from €68.69 for a chairlift-and-toboggan morning to €130.34 for a private car with a fast pass; the other eight fold it into a longer day or a two-day package. The median listing runs eight hours, and fifteen of the 24 are scheduled for eight hours or more. A day at the Wall is the default booking here, and the drive is most of what you are paying for.

The remainder divides at a price cliff. Three Forbidden City products cost €11.45, €14.09 and €19.37 for two to four and a half hours, and nothing else on the page is under €68.69. Those three carry 3,544 reviews between them, so cheap ticketed entry is a category here, not a stray listing. Eight of the 24 are sold as private and four are multi-day: three two-day packages from €157.64 to €325.30 and a three-day at €343.81. The two dearest, €427.12 and €497.06, are 17- and 18-hour bullet-train runs to the Terracotta Warriors at Xi'an. One food tour appears, a three-and-a-half-hour hutong walk at €70.45 with 1,456 reviews. The Temple of Heaven is named in two titles, both multi-stop days, and the Lama Temple in none.

What a Beijing tour actually buys you

Mutianyu charges CNY 45, needs no reservation and sells tickets on site, open 7:30 to 18:00 from 16 March to 15 November and 8:00 to 17:30 in winter, with sales stopping an hour before closing. A tour there buys the drive and a fixed return, not entry. The subway takes contactless Visa, Mastercard, JCB, American Express and UnionPay at every gate of all 29 lines.

The Forbidden City works the other way round. No same-day tickets exist: everyone books through the museum's website or WeChat mini-program, and places open seven days ahead at 20:00. Entry is CNY 60 in peak season and CNY 40 in low, plus CNY 10 each for the Treasure Gallery and the Gallery of Clocks, and it closes on Mondays except statutory holidays. Tiananmen Square costs nothing but still needs its own reservation, one to nine days ahead.

Full ticket rules and opening days for BeijingBeijing day plans

Quick answers

Do I need a tour to visit the Great Wall from Beijing?

Not for entry. Mutianyu charges CNY 45, takes no reservation and sells tickets on site, opening 7:30 to 18:00 from 16 March to 15 November and 8:00 to 17:30 in winter, with ticket sales stopping an hour before closing and entry half an hour before. Thirteen of our 24 listings reach a Wall section, and five of those sell the Wall alone, from €68.69 to €130.34; what they add is the vehicle, the driver and a fixed return. Those five run five to nine hours, so it is a whole day whichever way you go.

Can I buy Forbidden City tickets on the day?

No. The Palace Museum sells no same-day tickets at all, and everyone books in advance through its official website or WeChat mini-program, with places released seven days ahead at 20:00. Admission is CNY 60 in peak season and CNY 40 in low, the Treasure Gallery and the Gallery of Clocks CNY 10 more each; doors open at 8:30 and last admission is 16:10 from April to October and 15:30 from November to March, closed Mondays except statutory holidays. Three of our 24 listings include the ticket, at €11.45, €14.09 and €19.37, one of them with the guide left optional.

Is the Terracotta Warriors day trip from Beijing worth it?

Two of the 24 listings make the run to Xi'an by bullet train, at 17 and 18 hours, and they are the two most expensive items on this page at €497.06 and €427.12. The dearer of the two is also the only one of the 24 that does not cancel free, and the review counts are thin at 284 and 4. Against a Mutianyu day from €68.69, it is a different order of commitment and it removes a full day from Beijing.

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