Beijing in 3 Days on a Budget (With Daily Costs)

Three days in Beijing: palace, wall, and the city at street level

Three days is the point where Beijing stops being a two-stop checklist and gives you a slower day too, walking temples and back alleys instead of queuing at gates. Here’s the plan, day by day, with what it costs. Need less time? See the 2-day cut; need more? The 5-day version adds the Lama Temple and a shopping night.

Day Focus Rough spend pp
Day 1 Tiananmen, Forbidden City, Jingshan Park ¥230-330
Day 2 Great Wall at Mutianyu ¥350-550
Day 3 Temple of Heaven, hutongs, Houhai ¥90-190

Book these before you go:

Day 1: Tiananmen and the Forbidden City

Morning: Security and your reserved slot at Tiananmen Square first, no ticket cost beyond the reservation, then through to Meridian Gate for the Forbidden City. ¥60 peak (April-October) / ¥40 low season, morning or afternoon slot fixed at booking, three to four hours minimum.

Early afternoon: Two minutes north of the exit, Jingshan Park is ¥2 and gets you Wanchun Pavilion’s view back over the palace roofline, the best photo angle in the city.

Evening: Peking duck at Siji Minfu near the Forbidden City, ¥154-259 for the full bird, better value than Quanjude or Da Dong (¥300-600pp) without losing quality.

Day 1 runs roughly ¥230-330pp including food and metro.

Day 2: the Great Wall at Mutianyu

Ignore the tour desks pushing Badaling, it’s the nearest section and the most crowded by a wide margin. Mutianyu , about 90 minutes out, is well-restored with far fewer people.

Morning: Depart 7:30-8am. A shared van round trip runs roughly ¥150-300pp. Entrance ¥45, shuttle bus ¥15 return, cable car up plus toboggan down another ¥100-140. Hike down instead of riding and you save on the toboggan.

Lunch: Noodles or a roujiamo near the entrance, ¥30-50.

Evening: Something easy back in the city, jianbing (¥8-15) or zhajiangmian (¥20-35).

Day 2, transport included, runs roughly ¥350-550pp, the most expensive day purely because of the drive.

Day 3: Temple of Heaven, hutongs, and Houhai

Morning: Temple of Heaven, ¥15 for the park alone or ¥34 combined with the halls in peak season. The circular Hall of Prayer is worth the extra ¥19. Locals practice tai chi and fan dancing in the surrounding park before 9am, worth an early arrival just to watch.

Lunch: Zhajiangmian or dumplings near the park, ¥20-35.

Afternoon: Skip Nanluoguxiang, it’s the hutong everyone photographs and it’s now mostly craft beer and souvenir shops. Walk Wudaoying or Fangjia hutong instead for something closer to how people actually live, free, just time.

Evening: Houhai lake at dusk. A paddleboat runs roughly ¥40-80/hour if you want one, or just walk the lakeside bar strip and pay only for what you drink.

Day 3 is the cheapest sightseeing day of the trip, roughly ¥90-190pp depending on the paddleboat and lunch choice.

Which temple is worth the visit on a 3-day trip?

Temple of Heaven over the Lama Temple, if you only have room for one. The architecture and the surrounding park experience are stronger, it needs no advance booking, and you won’t burn a timed slot the way the Lama Temple now requires from every visitor, including foreigners.

How do you get around for three days?

The metro fares run ¥3 for short hops up to ¥5-10 across town. Tap a foreign contactless card straight at the turnstile or use the Alipay/WeChat transport QR code, both skip the need for a physical Yikatong card on a trip this short. DiDi fills the gaps; link a foreign card through Alipay or WeChat rather than inside the DiDi app itself, since direct DiDi card adds get blocked by the card issuer more often than not.

Make Day 3 the slow day it’s meant to be. It’s the cheapest day of the trip precisely because nothing on it needs a ticket booked weeks out, so let the pace match the price.