Weary traveller of the south, welcome to historic Beijing! City of culture,
government, duck and Wall, Beijing is whatever you ask of it.
7-7.30am: Wake up early for the flag-raising ceremony
Morning! We had you going to Tiananmen
Square anyway, and you’ll be thankful that
you’re up and at ’em early once you’ve
clocked the rest of this list. So here we
are then, it’s sunrise, and we’re watching
the flag climb its pole, the sun climbing
its… deep space? The anthem is playing,
soldiers are brooding – it’s all very moving.
Long live the People. Moving on then.
7.30-8am: Grab a Jianbing breakfast
Beijing’s most famous breakfast food is a
thin wheat flour pancake fried on a flat iron
dish, bulked up with a freshly cracked egg,
fermented soybean sauce, chilli paste,
sesame seeds and sliced scallions, all
folded up around a thin fried cracker for
some structure and texture. One does
not eat a jianbing, one pounds a jianbing,
and you will find plenty of carts from
which to purchase and pound one around
the Square.
8-9.30am: Whizz through the Forbidden City and up Jingshan Park
Here’s the twist: you have just over one
hour. The Forbidden City is impossibly
enormous and requires several visits to
even get close to seeing everything, so on
this occasion we’re just sending you up the
central axis for maximum enchantment
per second. Honestly, the whole thing is
mind-blowing and you’ll still have a great
time. Save a bit of time to climb the hill at
Jingshan Park at the north end of the city
for stunning views of the whole palace and
Beijing beyond.
9.30am-6.30pm Hitch a ride in a vintage motorcycle sidecar to the Great Wall
So cool! You’re hitching a lift with Beijing
Sideways, a fabulously alternative Great
Wall tour company, riding in the sidecar of
one of their vintage Chang Jiang 750s (a
copy of the BMW R71). You’ll be cruising
through tree-studded villages and
mountain-backed countryside, wind in
your hair, the cool expression on your face
like ‘what even is a Shanghai?’ There’s a
manageable hike up to the Wall, before a
lunch of French picnic is unfurled before
a stunning lakeside vista. ‘The Great Wall
rules!’, the whole world hears you shout,
before hopping back in your steezcart
and making your way gently down the
mountain to the city.
6.30-8pm: Get a hutong haircut
This might not happen, and you might not
want a haircut anyway. But if you’re lucky,
the hutongs around Houhai and Qianhai
lakes are often home to a pop-up barber
or two. For a handful of kuai, you shall be
shorn to buggery – publically – before hitting
Houhai in promenade mode for some ice-skating
or boating, depending on the time
of year. Careful in the bars, for they are bars
of sin and swindle, and your money can be
better spent elsewhere.
8-10pm: Feast on Beijing roast duck
Naturally! There are an astonishing number
of Beijing duck restaurants in the capital
but for the quacktacular experience at a
price point you can get around, it’s Sijiminfu.
There will be a waiting time of up to an
hour, but fetch yourself a Yanjing and a jin
of sunflower seeds and ponder which part
of Beijing you’ll be apartment hunting in
tomorrow while your duck sweats in the
oven. Not in it for the wait? You also can’t go
wrong at The Opposite House hotel’s high-end
regional cuisine restaurant Jing Yaa
Tang. The price point is a little higher, but
you won’t be sorry, for the duck is excellent.
10pm -midnight: See a gig at School Live Bar
You’ve heard about Beijing’s music scene,
now it’s time to be spit-soaked by it. School
Live Bar, incidentally Time Out Beijing’s Live
Music Venue of 2016, doubled in size last
year, and despite its new bar and toilet, it’s
still an authentically clammy experience
– perfect for catching one of Beijing’s
premier guitar-led outfits live. There’s live
music here most nights, and a School show
supplies you with the adrenaline required to
carry on through the club portion of our high-culture
tour.
Midnight-4am: Head for the clubs
We know Shanghai rates its clubbing
scene, and rightly so, but we hold our own
up north, and a slightly less militant, shall
we say, attitude towards clubbing tends to
guarantee a fun and inclusive night out for
all that step to the rug. We’re going to let
you decide which way to go flavour-wise, but
between alternative caves like DADA and
Lantern and DJ Mag-ranked mega-clubs like
Modo and Elements, there are crunk times
ahead for all concerned.
4-5.30am: Get some food in ya
Re-up on that energy you just spent by
hitting the 24-hour dim sum hard. Jin Ding
Xuan has several outlets around town, but
the multi-storied flagship near Ditan Park is
a perennial favourite of half-drunk Beijingers
just before daybreak. The quality won’t wow
you, but the price is right and the 4am vibe
is banging.
5.30-7am: Chill out. It’s free time
Beijing is a very safe city. Go make friends
with an early-rising tai chi wizard in a park
or something.
