Beijing Travel: Dodging the Tourist Traps!

[Stacey Kulas]

Travel Tips for Visiting Beijing (Share My Experience with Foreign Friends)

Hi there! I recently returned from a trip to Beijing with the family, and it was during the third day of Chinese New Year (Spring Festival). Although I made an incredibly detailed itinerary a week in advance, thinking it was perfect, I still have some tips that I would like to share, especially for those visiting Beijing for the first time, so you can avoid common pitfalls! (Only personal anecdotes, skip over if not interested, please don't get mad at me!)

• Tips on Crowds and Sightseeing:

  • Beijing's so-called "off-peak season" (typically October to April) is still packed during Chinese New Year! We thought we could avoid the busiest days by visiting on the fourth day of the Spring Festival, but popular tourist attractions were still swarmed with visitors. Larger crowds can significantly reduce the enjoyment of visits at historical-cultural sites.
  • Tip: The Forbidden City (the Palace Museum where the Emperor used to live)
    • We visited the Forbidden City on the sixth day of the Spring Festival. Although we only had a thirty-minute wait, it was packed inside! Basically, one followed the flow of people and listened to tour guides. Many famous palaces, such as Jingyang Palace, Yanyi Palace (you might know from cultural TV shows), and Cining Palace (residence of emperors' mothers-in-law), were too crowded to enter, which was quite a pity!
    • Some say the number of tourists drops in the afternoon, but personal experience: don't recommend it! Why? Those who enter in the morning are often guided tours that disperse around noon. If you plan to visit later in the afternoon, you will collide with these groups. By the time you enter the palace at 2 pm, many areas will not have enough time for exploration. Thus, if possible, try visiting during weekdays!

• Tips on Eating Out:

  • It usually takes at least one to two hours to sit down and enjoy meals at popular restaurants! Even a renowned hot pot restaurant called Nang Men Suo Ruo gave me at least four-hour waiting time when I checked the status through a call—it was shocking!
  • Strong Recommendation: Stay around the "Second Ring Road" area. This second belt road of Beijing makes transportation and living very convenient while staying within its reach.
  • Benefit: you can enjoy numerous food delicacies via takeaway! Much more convenient and faster! For example, why does someone endure cold weather and spend up to two hours lining up outside for just a bowl of Zha Jiang Mian, a well-known Beijing-style noodle dish, when takeaways taste just as delicious and save valuable time? We ordered some mouthwatering takeouts including right-side door alley Dalian Fire Cake, a long-shaped pan-fried bread with fillings made by Chen Family, century-old cooked beans stuffed with boiled pig organs and crispy tofu made by Old Gate Frame Alley, bean sauce yogurt roll and double-skinnly milk served by San Yuan Mei Yuan, and specialty yogurt of Guiguang Garden. These delectables can all be ordered quickly and conveniently via takeaway services without standing in long queues—what a pleasure! Additionally, we ate roast duck dishes at Beijing's well-known chain restaurant Si Ji Min Fu by reserving a number before picking it up in taxi using Meituan App. (Be aware not all branches support pre-booking and try choosing less busy ones.)

• Tips on museum reservations and alternatives:

  • My son adores visiting museums. If you didn't manage a ticket reservation for the Palace Museum (popularly known as Forbidden City), maybe try to buy service tickets that also include guided tours on some online platforms provided by third-party travel agencies.
  • However, for National Museum of China (also called the “Guo Bo”, located right beside Tiananmen Square), I couldn’t find this type of ticket-and-guided-tour combo. It’s better not to visit this place during the busy season. Our friends said entering when there were many people around was generally not enjoyable because visitors would obscure your view. I laughed at this!
  • Don't worry too much about missing out popular museums. We toured a more laid-back spot like the Summer Palace, a huge and pretty royal garden from ancient emperors’ days, as well as relatively lesser-known ones like a traditional architecture museum, arts and crafts art gallery, and gift museum. All provided delightful surprises! Most notably, the Arts and Crafts Museum, where children stand staring in wonderment at the exquisiteness of traditional Chinese crafts on display—no tour guide is necessary! This itself can be incredibly insightful!

• Tips on watching flag-raising ceremony:

  • Point of caution: Watching flag-raising ceremony at Tiananmen Square takes both physical and mental preparations!
    • I used to wonder why some people would wake up early in the morning to watch a flag-raising! Now I know! If you leave at 5 am, you may still see nothing but the heads of crowd that have already gathered when the ceremony starts around 6 in the morning.
    • Even going to watch the evening flag-lowering event requires at least two-hour lead time to secure a good position in advance (by arriving earlier than two hours before the ceremony).
    • Hence, no matter which option you choose, if your energy isn't that good or you bring kids along (as kids may struggle), I don’t recommend waking up that early just for something of such short duration and high-traffic, you will be better off skipping it.

• Travel tips for transportation:

  • Beijing's public transport is quite convenient. You can go almost anywhere across the city using the subway system alone for merely five RMB (roughly US$0.74) per single trip!
  • Suggestion: Download “Alipay” App and register “Travel Code.” Once activated, all public transports including subways and buses can be boarded by scanning the QR code, which is super convenient. (Alipay app is one common electronic payment solution for Chinese and other foreigners need to go through a registration process first.)

[Benjamin Dooley]

For Beijing travel, check out @YiyiShowsYouAroundBeijing.

[Robyn Reilly]

It was only crowded on the specific days you were here.