Beijing wears three thousand years lightly. The imperial city — the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven, the Great Wall beyond the western hills — sits inside a modern metropolis of ring roads and metro lines, and the two halves converse constantly: breakfast stalls in hutong alleys, office towers rising over Ming-era lakes. For a first-time visitor to China this is the natural opening chapter, and it rewards a plan: reserve the headline sights ahead, walk the central axis end to end, and keep one unhurried evening for the lakes and lanes of the old town.
The full handbook is part of the paid series
You have read the free preview — the introduction and the route map. The complete handbook adds the day-by-day plan, tickets and transport, culture and etiquette, food, useful Chinese, and the dated source list.