Beijing in 2 Days on a Budget (With Daily Costs)
Two days in Beijing: just the palace and the wall
Two days buys exactly two big things here, the imperial core and the Great Wall, and squeezing in a third stop is how you end up seeing both through a taxi window. This is the version that works, with what everything costs. Want more room to breathe? See the 3-day or 5-day version instead; the full 13 cheap and free things to do guide covers everything this plan has to skip.
| Day | Focus | Rough spend pp |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Tiananmen, Forbidden City, Jingshan Park | ¥230-330 |
| Day 2 | Great Wall at Mutianyu | ¥350-550 |
Book these before you go:
- Forbidden City tickets : real-name, released 8pm Beijing time exactly 7 days out, gone in minutes for weekends.
- Mutianyu Great Wall transport or tour : sorted ahead means one less thing to arrange at 7am.
- Your hotel : a hutong guesthouse near Dongcheng keeps both days walkable or a short metro ride.
Day 1: Tiananmen and the Forbidden City
Morning (8:30am): Clear security at Tiananmen Square first, no ticket cost beyond your reservation and passport, then walk north through to Meridian Gate for your Forbidden City slot. Entry is ¥60 peak season (April-October), ¥40 low season, and you’ll have picked a morning slot (valid to noon) or afternoon slot (from 11am) when you booked. Give it three to four hours minimum.
Early afternoon: Exit the north gate and walk two minutes to Jingshan Park (¥2, essentially free) and climb to Wanchun Pavilion for the view over the palace roofs you just walked through. Skip this and you’ve missed the best photo in the city.
Evening: Peking duck at Siji Minfu, a few minutes from the Forbidden City, ¥154-259 for a full duck and noticeably better value than the tour-bus stops. Quanjude and Da Dong are the famous names, but you’re paying ¥300-600pp for the brand as much as the bird.
Day 1 tickets and food run roughly ¥230-330pp, metro included.
Day 2: the Great Wall at Mutianyu
Skip Badaling. It’s the closest section and every tour desk pushes it because buses can dump thousands of people there daily, which is exactly why it’s the most crowded stretch of wall you can visit. Mutianyu , about 90 minutes out, is well-restored, has a proper cable car, and draws far fewer people.
Morning: Leave by 7:30-8am. A shared tour van or hotel-arranged car round trip runs roughly ¥150-300pp; the public bus route is cheaper but adds real time. Entrance is ¥45, the internal shuttle bus ¥15 return, and the cable car up plus toboggan down together run about ¥100-140 more. Hiking up and down free is the easy way to shave ¥100+ if you’re fit enough for the stairs.
Lunch: Noodles or a roujiamo (a Chinese answer to a pulled-meat sandwich) at one of the small restaurants by the entrance, ¥30-50.
Evening: Back in the city by 5-6pm. Keep it simple: jianbing (¥8-15) from a street cart or a bowl of zhajiangmian (¥20-35) near your hotel.
Day 2, transport included, runs roughly ¥350-550pp, the priciest day of the trip because of the drive, not the sightseeing.
Is 2 days enough time in Beijing?
Barely, and only for these two things. You get the imperial core and the Wall, both done properly, but the Summer Palace, 798 Art District, and any hutong beyond a passing glance all get cut. If any of those matter to you, budget at least 4 days.
How do you get around on a 2-day trip?
The metro covers everything except the Wall itself: ¥3 for short hops, rarely more than ¥5-10 across town. Tap a foreign contactless card directly at the turnstile (rolled out network-wide since September 2024) or set up the Alipay/WeChat transport QR code, either works without needing a physical transit card. DiDi handles the rest; link a foreign card to Alipay or WeChat first rather than adding it inside the DiDi app directly, since bank blocks on direct DiDi charges are common.
Resist the urge to wedge in the Summer Palace or 798 Art District. You’ll arrive at each rushed and tired and enjoy neither. Save them for a longer trip and give these two days fully to the palace and the wall.