Beijing 3-Day Itinerary: Great Wall, Forbidden City & Hutong

Three days is enough for Beijing's big three — the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, and the old-city temples and hutongs — if you book the right things ahead. The single thing that will make or ruin your trip is not budget, it's the Forbidden City ticket: it sells out in a few minutes, only releases 7 days ahead, and there are no walk-up tickets. Get that sorted before you land and the rest is easy. Expect to spend about ¥900–1,400 per person per day (roughly $125–195 USD) for a comfortable mid-range stay, including hotels, transport, tickets and food.

The order below is deliberately chosen to save you time and sore feet: indoors on day one (palaces, lots of walking but no mountain), the Great Wall as a full day out on day two, and a lighter mix of temples and neighbourhood wandering on day three. It also keeps you near the subway for the whole time, so you never waste a morning figuring out transport.

1. Day 1 — Forbidden City & Tiananmen Square

Start early. The Palace Museum (the formal name for the Forbidden City) opens at 8:30 and stops admitting visitors at 16:00, and the northern exit dumps you straight into Jingshan Park — climb the hill there for the single best photo of the palace roofs, worth every step. You can easily spend four to five hours inside, so arrive by 9:00 and take the central axis first, then loop the six western palaces if you have energy.

Booking is the whole game here. Tickets go on sale at 20:00 (8 p.m.) seven days in advance through the official "Palace Museum" (故宫博物院) WeChat mini program. Real-name only — you book with your passport number, and foreign passports work fine in the system. There are no same-day, on-the-gate tickets in peak season. The main gate is about ¥60 in peak season (April–October) and ¥40 off-season (November–March); add the Treasure Gallery and the Clock Gallery (¥10 each) because they're the best-curated rooms and easy to miss if you don't book them at the same time.

Tiananmen Square itself is free, but it also needs its own separate real-name reservation (1–7 days ahead) via the "Tiananmen Square Reservation" mini program. Note that booking the Forbidden City does not automatically get you into the square — they are two different systems. Allow an hour of security screening around the square and palace entrance on busy days; it's slow but it moves. Do this in the morning, then walk south to Qianmen for Peking duck or noodles for lunch.

2. Day 2 — The Great Wall

This is your biggest logistics day, so don't overplan anything else. For most first-timers the choice comes down to Mutianyu vs Badaling, and the honest short version is: Badaling is the most famous, most restored, and by far the busiest; Mutianyu is greener, quieter, better preserved, and has a fun toboggan slide down. Badaling has direct high-speed rail from central Beijing; Mutianyu needs a longer transfer but feels far less crowded. We break the full comparison, transport and cable-car choices down in our dedicated Great Wall day-tour guide, so go read that before you commit.

If you go DIY, set off by 7:30–8:00. The Wall is an hour-plus from the city, and arriving before the tour buses (which roll in after 10:30) means you have empty watchtowers to yourself for an hour. Budget roughly ¥45 entrance at Mutianyu plus a ¥15 shuttle bus and ¥140 for a round-trip cable car, or ¥40 entrance at Badaling plus about ¥140 for the cable car. If DIY logistics sound like a headache, an organised day tour that includes transport, entrance and the cable car runs about ¥300–600 per person — we cover how to pick a good one in the day-tour article.

3. Day 3 — Temple of Heaven, then hutongs & Houhai

Take a slower morning at the Temple of Heaven, a vast Ming-era complex where emperors prayed for harvests. The combo ticket (¥34 peak / ¥28 off-season) gets you into the actual temples — the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests is the circular blue-roofed building on every China poster. The park-only ticket (¥15) only lets you wander the grounds, which is lovely for watching locals do tai chi, but you'll miss the building itself. Go early to see the morning exercise, then take a taxi or subway north into the hutong neighbourhoods.

Spend the late afternoon wandering the nanluoguxiang or Dongsi hutongs — the grid of grey alleyways where Beijing actually still lives — and finish at Houhai (Shichahai) lake for sunset. You'll find teahouses, bars and street snacks around the water. This is the gentler end of the trip: no fixed tickets, no timed slots, just walking, coffee and people-watching. It's also where you can try Jianbing (the Chinese savoury crepe) for ¥10–15 if you haven't already.

4. What three days really cost (2026)

Numbers below are per person in 2026 yuan (¥), with USD at roughly ¥7.2 = $1. Prices move with season — peak is April–October — so treat these as real ranges, not quotes. Confirm exact figures on official mini programs when you book.

5. Where to base yourself

Stay near a subway line and you've solved 90% of Beijing. The three most useful bases are Qianmen (walking distance to Tiananmen and the Forbidden City, good food street at the door), Wangfujing (central, tourist-friendly, pricier), and Dongsi / Beixinqiao (local hutong vibe, half the price, two subway lines). Avoid staying way out in the suburbs just to save ¥150 a night — an hour each way on the subway is an hour of your trip you won't get back.

Getting around and paying is easier than it sounds. Beijing's subway covers almost everything on this itinerary at ¥3–7 a ride; scan a QR code to enter, no paper ticket needed. Alipay and WeChat Pay now accept foreign bank cards, so once you've linked a card you can pay for the metro, taxis and street food by phone. Keep ¥200 in cash as backup for tiny stalls and old shops that still prefer it. Didi (the local Uber) works with an English app and is cheap for a group splitting a fare — a cross-town ride is usually under ¥50.

6. Pitfalls that actually catch people

Scalpers and "free tour" pitches. Around the Great Wall and major stations, people offering cheap tickets or a "friend's tour" are almost always resellers who will either oversell you or deliver you to a shopping stop. Buy tickets in official mini programs and book tours through rated platforms, not someone who flags you down on the street.

What if the Forbidden City is sold out? It genuinely sells out, especially on weekends and Chinese holidays. Set an alarm for 20:00 seven days out and book exactly then. If you miss it, you can still see the outside from Jingshan and Tiananmen, and swap the afternoon for the National Museum or Beihai Park — but try not to be that person. Also budget time for security queues at Tiananmen and remember that peak-season crowds at the Great Wall mean you may queue 30–60 minutes just for the cable car.

Bottom line

Three days gives you the icons, not the whole city — and that's the right scope. Lock the Forbidden City ticket seven days out, commit to one Great Wall section and go early, and keep the third day loose. Do that, and Beijing delivers exactly what you hoped: the palace, the wall, and a slow evening by a lake without the burnout.