Beijing in 4 Days on a Budget (With Daily Costs)
Four days in Beijing: palace, wall, temple, and a free afternoon
Four days is enough to slow down without wasting a day. This builds on the tight two-day core with a temple-and-hutong day and a fourth day that costs almost nothing beyond a single palace ticket. Shorter trip? See the 3-day version; longer, the 6-day plan adds the Ming Tombs and a market afternoon.
| 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 |
| Day 4 | Summer Palace, 798 Art District | ¥45-70 |
Book these before you go:
- Forbidden City tickets : real-name, released 8pm Beijing time exactly 7 days out.
- Mutianyu Great Wall transport or tour : sort the ride before you’re standing outside your hotel at 7:30am.
- Your hotel : Dongcheng or Chaoyang both work for this route.
Day 1: Tiananmen and the Forbidden City
Morning: Reserved slot and security at Tiananmen Square, no ticket cost beyond the booking, then Meridian Gate for the Forbidden City. ¥60 peak / ¥40 low season, morning or afternoon slot locked in at booking, three to four hours.
Early afternoon: Jingshan Park, ¥2, two minutes from the north gate, for the rooftop view from Wanchun Pavilion.
Evening: Peking duck at Siji Minfu near the Forbidden City, ¥154-259 for the full duck, better value than the Quanjude or Da Dong brand-name spots at ¥300-600pp.
Roughly ¥230-330pp for the day.
Day 2: the Great Wall at Mutianyu
Skip Badaling, the closest section and the one every tour bus dumps its passengers at, making it the most crowded stretch of wall in the country. Mutianyu , about 90 minutes out, is well-restored and much quieter.
Morning: Leave by 7:30-8am. Round-trip shared van roughly ¥150-300pp. Entrance ¥45, shuttle ¥15 return, cable car up and toboggan down together ¥100-140. Hike down instead and drop the toboggan cost.
Lunch: Noodles or a roujiamo near the entrance, ¥30-50.
Evening: Jianbing (¥8-15) or zhajiangmian (¥20-35) back in the city.
Roughly ¥350-550pp, the priciest day because of the drive.
Day 3: Temple of Heaven, hutongs, and Houhai
Morning: Temple of Heaven, ¥15 park-only or ¥34 combined (peak), worth the combined ticket for the Hall of Prayer.
Lunch: Dumplings or noodles nearby, ¥20-35.
Afternoon: Wudaoying or Fangjia hutong rather than Nanluoguxiang, which is now mostly coffee and souvenir shops wearing a historic-lane costume. Free, just walking.
Evening: Houhai lakeside, a paddleboat if you want one (roughly ¥40-80/hour) or just the bar strip, paying only for drinks.
Roughly ¥90-190pp, the cheapest sightseeing day of the trip.
Day 4: Summer Palace and 798, the free afternoon
Morning: Summer Palace, ¥30 peak / ¥20 low, an easy half-day around Kunming Lake and the Long Corridor. Go early to beat both the heat and the tour groups.
Lunch: A restaurant near the East Palace Gate, ¥30-50.
Afternoon: 798 Art District, free to walk the galleries (metro Line 14 to Wangjing South, then a short taxi or walk). If your budget’s tight, this beats a Sanlitun evening for value: hours of contemporary art and street murals for the cost of a metro fare, where Sanlitun mostly costs you whatever you spend on drinks.
Evening: Sanlitun if you want a livelier night out, Taikoo Li’s shops and bars, or just an early dinner and rest if three big days have caught up with you.
Day 4 costs roughly ¥45-70pp in tickets and transport, plus whatever you spend at Sanlitun if you go.
Is a free afternoon at 798 better value than a paid one at Sanlitun?
Yes, if you’re counting yuan. 798’s galleries cost nothing beyond the metro fare and fill an afternoon easily. Sanlitun’s Taikoo Li is a real experience too, but the spend there is entirely on drinks and shopping, not tickets, so it’s the one to trade down on a tight budget.
How do you get around for four days?
The metro runs ¥3 short hops up to ¥5-10 across town. Tap a foreign contactless card at the turnstile or use the Alipay/WeChat transport QR code, not both. DiDi for the rest, link a foreign card through Alipay or WeChat first since direct DiDi card sign-ups get blocked by card issuers more often than they work.
Four days is the sweet spot where the free afternoon at 798 outweighs a paid one at Sanlitun. Spend the savings on a better duck dinner instead.