Where to Stay in Beijing, Beijing Shi

What is Beijing known for?

Beijing is the capital of China, once written Peking, a city of imperial palaces, temples, and grey courtyard lanes. Power and history sit at its heart. The Forbidden City and The Palace Museum hold the old dynastic seat, while the Temple of Heaven and the Temple of Agriculture mark its ritual grounds.

The National Museum of China and the National Art Museum of China gather the country's past and its art. Centuries stack up here.

What are the main landmarks in Beijing?

Beijing carries more landmarks than almost any capital. The Forbidden City and The Palace Museum hold the imperial throne rooms, while the Temple of Heaven crowns the old ritual parks. The National Museum of China and the National Art Museum of China line the central squares, near the Monument to the People's Heroes and the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong.

Yongdingmen and the Beijing Ming City Wall Ruins Park trace the line of the vanished ramparts. History fills every axis.

What is the history of Beijing?

Beijing has served as a seat of power for many centuries, a capital of successive dynasties on the northern edge of the great plain. Emperors made it the centre of the realm. The Ming and Qing courts built the Forbidden City as the walled heart of the empire, ringed it with ramparts and gates like Yongdingmen, and raised the Temple of Heaven for the great state rituals.

The Temple of Agriculture answered it across the axis. Faith came from abroad as well, leaving the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception among the courtyard lanes. Known to the West as Peking, the city opened slowly to foreign trade and mission.

War and revolution reshaped it again. The old ramparts came down in the modern era, remembered only at the Beijing Ming City Wall Ruins Park. Around them the central squares grew into the ceremonial stage of a new state, lined by the National Museum of China, the Monument to the People's Heroes, and the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong.

The Palace Museum later opened the old halls to the public as a museum. Layer upon layer, the old capital endured.

Where is Beijing?

Beijing sits at the northern edge of the great plain, where the flat farmland runs up against a rim of mountains. Hebei Province wraps the municipality on almost every side, and Tianjin lies off to the southeast, the three forming a single cluster of cities. Old canals and dry riverbeds thread the built-up land. Beijing Shi, the municipality itself, reaches from the plain into the hills.

Mountains close the north.

What is the climate of Beijing?

Beijing has a dry, continental climate with sharp seasons, exposed on the plain that Hebei Province wraps around it. Winters bite. Cold, dry air sweeps down from the mountains of Beijing Shi for months, while summers turn hot and humid under the monsoon rains.

Spring is brief and often dusty, when winds carry grit off the plains. Autumn brings the clearest skies.

How do you get to Beijing?

Beijing is reached by air, high-speed rail, and road from every direction. Trains fan out across the country from its great stations, tying it to Tianjin and the wider Jing-Jin-Ji cluster of cities. Ring roads circle the old core again and again.

A vast subway threads beneath the grid of Beijing Shi. All routes point to the centre.