Beijing & the Great Wall
China
An imperial city, and a wall that runs off into the mountains
Photo by William Olivieri on Unsplash
Photos by BoHang Lee, Hanson Lu, Hanson Lu and William Christen on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of China
September to October, April to May
Climate month by month
The next sixteen daysOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 180mm in Aug
Where it is
39.90°N, 116.41°E Open in Google Maps
Things to do
Weeks of it- Walk an unrestored stretch of wall at Jinshanling
- Book the Forbidden City days ahead and go at opening
- Wander the hutongs on foot or by bicycle
- See the Temple of Heaven early, when locals are exercising in the park
- Take the high-speed train to Xi’an for the terracotta army
Beijing & the Great Wall travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget China
Good valueChina is close to cashless and runs on Alipay and WeChat Pay, both of which now accept foreign cards — set one up before you fly, because it changes the trip completely. Bank of China branches exchange cash if you want a reserve, and you will need a passport to do it.
ATMs & cards
Bank of China, ICBC and China Construction Bank accept foreign cards; many others do not. Keep some cash for small vendors and temple tickets, but expect to pay for nearly everything by phone.
Avoid these
- smaller bank machines, which frequently reject foreign cards
Use these instead
- Bank of China
- ICBC
- China Construction Bank
Set up Alipay or WeChat Pay with a foreign card before flying. China is close to cashless and doing this changes the entire trip.
Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.
Safety all of China
Very safeExtremely safe for street crime, and comfortable to walk at night. The friction is bureaucratic and digital: you need a visa arranged in advance for most nationalities, the internet is filtered so plan for Google, WhatsApp and Instagram not working, and Forbidden City tickets sell out days ahead and require passport registration. Air quality is genuinely poor on some winter days.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (4 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
- Beijing — most of the city, which has very little street crime
Worth more attention
- The tea-house scam near Wangfujing and Tiananmen: an art student invites you to a ceremony and the bill is enormous
- Unlicensed taxis at the airport
- Jiankou Great Wall — the unrestored sections, where people fall every year
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa China visa rules
No visa neededup to 30 days
China has been running a unilateral visa-free trial for these nationalities and has repeatedly extended and widened it — tourism, business and family visits, up to 30 days. It is a trial with an end date that keeps moving (currently the end of 2026); confirm on the official site before booking anything.
Other passports
No visa neededup to 10 days
A 240-hour visa-free transit is available at many entry points if you hold an onward ticket to a third country. It is not a tourist visa and the rules on where you may travel are specific.
Visa required in advance€126 for most, more for US passports
An L tourist visa, applied for at a visa centre in person with biometrics.
How to get it: If you need the visa, book the appointment at a Chinese Visa Application Service Centre early — slots run weeks out in peak season and the application asks for a full day-by-day itinerary with bookings.
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Before you fly: the arrival card
Exit/Entry Health DeclarationRequired
In the 24 hours before you arrive, and again when you leave.
Have these in front of you before you start:
- passport
- flight number
- your address in China
Produces a QR code scanned at the border. The form states that a false declaration is a criminal matter, not a formality.
Use the official link above. Sites that charge a "service fee" to submit one of these for you are not the government, and they want the same passport details the real form does.
Health & emergencies all of China
Good but costlyRequired to enter
- Yellow fever certificate, but only if you are arriving from a country where yellow fever is present
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
Worth having
- Hepatitis A
- Typhoid
- Tetanus up to date
- Rabies for longer stays
- Japanese encephalitis for rural summer stays
Getting treated
International clinics and the VIP wings of major hospitals in Beijing are good, English-speaking and expensive; ordinary public hospitals are crowded and require payment before treatment, in advance, at a cashier. Insurance and a translation app are both genuinely necessary.
Do not drink the tap water. Air quality in Beijing is poor on some winter days and worth checking if you have any respiratory condition. Pharmacies stock both Western and traditional medicine — be clear which you are asking for.
Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.
Food tip
OutstandingPeking duck once, properly, at a place that has been doing it for a century. Otherwise jianbing from a street cart for breakfast and hand-pulled noodles for lunch. Have the name of anywhere you want to go written in Chinese.
Nightlife
Hutong courtyard bars, a rock scene with real history, and lake-side strips that are pure tourism.
- Sanlitun — the mainstream night, and the expat one
- Gulou — the hutong bars, and the good ones
- Houhai — the lakeside, touristy and loud
Closing: 02:00.
A beer in a bar: ¥25–60
Getting around
Easy and cheap- DiDiWorks here
- AmapWorks here
- UberNot here
- BoltNot here
- GrabNot here
DiDi inside Alipay as well, which is the easier route for a visitor · Amap aggregates several fleets
- Against a taxi
- Level with the meter, and far easier than explaining a destination in a taxi.
Set up Alipay or WeChat Pay before you fly — both now take foreign cards, and DiDi inside Alipay needs no separate account.
Time zone and your working day
Asia/Shanghai — 12 hours ahead of you
0 hours of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — — your time, — theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 21:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 21:00–05:00 on yours.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
Internet speedall of China
What these numbers mean
Home broadband — Fast. Several people on calls at once, large uploads, 4K. Broadband here runs at 1.9× the global median of 130 Mbps.
Mobile data — Fast. Enough to work from a cafe or a beach on a hotspot all day. Mobile runs at 2× the global median of 109 Mbps.
A median is the middle of every connection tested there, old copper and new fibre together — so in a country part-way through laying fibre it sits well below what a fibre line actually delivers, and a rental on one can run several times this number. Half of the connections are slower; a fibre flat is rarely one of them. It says what a place can do, not what your rental does, so every listing on Holistay carries its own measured speed and the date it was tested.
Getting online: Airalo or Holafly — a data eSIM for China, installed before you fly and working the moment you land.
Source: Ookla Speedtest Global Index · measured June 2026
Must-see
Nearby day trips
Say a few words
Mandarin
- Hello你好 — Nǐ hǎonee HOW
- Please请 — Qǐngching
- Thank you谢谢 — XièxieSHYEH-shyeh
- Yes / No是 / 不是 — Shì / Bù shìshrr / boo shrr
4 more phrases
- Excuse me不好意思 — Bù hǎoyìsiboo how-EE-srr
- How much is it?多少钱 — Duōshao qiánDWOR-shaow chyen
- I do not understand我不懂 — Wǒ bù dǒngwor boo DONG
- Too expensive太贵了 — Tài guì letie GWAY luh
English is far less common than visitors expect once you leave a hotel. A translation app and the name of your destination written in characters are worth more than any phrase here.
Religion
Officially atheist, with Buddhist and folk traditions
The state is officially atheist and religious organisation is tightly regulated, but Buddhist, Taoist and folk practice is widespread and visible at temples. Do not discuss religious policy, particularly regarding Tibet or Xinjiang.
Do's and don'ts
Do
- Set up Alipay or WeChat Pay before arriving; almost nothing takes cash comfortably
- Offer and receive anything, especially business cards, with both hands
- Carry the name of your destination written in Chinese characters
- Accept tea when offered, and tap two fingers on the table to say thank you while it is being poured
Don't
- Do not tip; it is not the custom and can cause confusion
- Do not stick chopsticks upright in a bowl of rice
- Do not discuss Taiwan, Tibet, Xinjiang or the Party with people you have just met — it can create problems for them
- Do not expect Google, WhatsApp, Instagram or most Western services to work without a VPN arranged in advance
Where to stay in Beijing & the Great Wall
No Holistay rentals in Beijing & the Great Wall yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is Beijing & the Great Wall on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into Capital PEK
25 minfrom the airport· 25 km as the crow flies
Airport Express to Dongzhimen, 25 min.
Also worth pricing: Daxing PKX — newer and further out, an hour by express rail.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
