This post is about a quite unusual but quite amazing city-trip: 4 Days in Beijing!
The Great Wall of China being on the top of my bucket list, I decided to book 4 days in the Chinese capital to cross the Wall off it! I flew Brussels to Beijing with a layover in Istanbul (~420€ for the return flight with Turkish) together with my brother, who quite liked the idea of an Asian city-trip after making some fun of me :).
We arrived in Beijing around 4Pm, and few hours later we were in our hostel (19€/night per person for a private room). The hostel was very well located in a Hutong surrounded by dozens of restaurants! As we’re both excited about food, we decided to spend the first evening eating as much as we could! And here’s what we got! While the chicken feet do definitely look scary, it was surprising but tasty!
Day 1 – Summer Palace & Hutongs
After a (too) long sleep, we started our first day in Beijing at the Summer Palace. Contrary to the Great Wall and the Forbidden city, we did not really know what to expect from this place and it was the good surprise of the trip, as the whole place is stunning! Many temples, a huge man-made lake as it was dug by the Chinese themselves, and a beautiful hilltop (artificial as well as build with what they dug from the lake..!!) from where you can enjoy a panoramic view. Here are (some) of our picture from the Summer Palace, which I definitely recommend to visit if you have a few days in the capital.
We then spent the rest of the day exploring some Hutongs around the Lama temple, where we got the best dumplings ever!
Day 2 – Forbidden City & Tiananmen Square
We started our second day in Beijing at the Forbidden City, which easily took us 3 to 4 hours. It’s quite difficult to describe the Forbidden City,the only word I can find is… Huge! But it’s definitely worth the visit! Here are some of the pictures we took.
After the Forbidden City and some delicious Chinese food in a small local restaurant, we headed towards Tiananmen Square. After 15 mins queuing and going through security check, we were on this famous place where Mao himself is “resting” and where the famous “Tank Man” bravely stood up in front of military tanks (see picture for reference).
After Tiananmen Square, we went to Yingshan Gongyuan at sunset time to enjoy a magnificent view on the Forbidden City.
At dinner time, we headed to Donghuamen Snack Night Market, where we had some strange (but not especially tasty) starters! We then decided to try Little Yunan which was recommended by our guide (Routard) and is one of the top Beijing restaurant on Tripadvisor. It was definitely worth it as the food was incredible (and really spicy!) even if a bit expensive (but still very cheap for most tourists).
Day 3 – Great Wall of China
On our third day in Beijing, we booked a tour organised by our Hostel to visit the Great Wall of China, the main reason of our Chinese trip! We booked a “wild” tour, which is located 3-hour drive from Beijing and is not crowded by tourists. We had the chance to see both a renovated part of the wall as well as a old and authentic section of the latter, which is was a great mix. I had a lot of expectation from this tour, and the least I can say it that I’ve been blown away. The landscapes around the Wall are stunning, and the Wall itself leaves no one indifferent. While photographs cannot really describe the feeling you have when walking on the Wall, thy’re still pretty nice!
After c.8kms walking on the wall and the 3-hour drive back to Beijing, we definitely needed some food and it seemed like the perfect time to try the roasted duck! We decided to try Hua’s Restaurant which had great review online. We also took some (very fat) pork and some starters. Food was very good, although the duck was a bit cold!
Day 4 – Temple of Heaven
After a long night in one of the biggest Beijing’s club (and a though Sunday morning recovering) and a much needed lunch, we spent the afternoon in the Temple of Heaven. As we were there over the weekend, there were a lot of local people playing cards, dancing, etc. which was quite interesting to see. The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests is the main building and is definitely worth the visit.
We enjoyed one last Chinese dinner at Dali Courtyard, which is a more “gastronomic” restaurant. The restaurant only propose one menu (4-5 courses), and the least I can say is that the food was amazing! The food was very refreshing, which is not very frequent in Chinese restaurants! It’s a bit expensive, but it was definitely the best dinner we had in terms of quality. The only negative point was that they serve the 5 courses in like 30 minutes, which is way to fast and you don’t really have the time to enjoy each dish separately.
Enjoy Your Flight! 