China
Checking off Beijing top-10 in 8 hours

Johan Kruseman
Updated on 26 August 2024

The following days, I checked off the tourist top 10 in no time. There‘s just too much to see within walking distance of each other. While I would spend 12 hours on a bus just to see one individual temple, here they are thrown at you in dozens, side by side.

Since this update is not intended to compete with Beijing travel guides, I will skip the full descriptions of each temple but provide a short bullet list for completeness: Jingshan Park, Beihai Lake (complete with water lilies and Chinese boats), Hutong, Summer Palace, Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City (wow, so many Chinese people; according to the speaker, they only allow 80,000 visitors per day to preserve the tranquility of this sacred place, so I was pushed from temple to temple in a stream of 79,999 Chinese people, and it was only my height that allowed me to see more than the hairstyle in front of me), Drum Tower, Business Center, Temple of Heaven, 798 Art District.

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Traveled route: Trans Mongolie Express,Beijing, Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace, Tian'anmen Square, Great Wall of China, Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge, Qingdao

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Checking off Beijing top-10 in 8 hours

China
Did this story inspire you to go to China? Read more on what China has to offer, what the best months are for visiting and check the handy links for backpacking there.