Beijing Trip Preparation Checklist: What to Do Before You Go

This is a realistic preparation checklist for a first Beijing trip, organized from 2–3 weeks out all the way down to your first hour on the ground. Follow it in order and you'll land with the Forbidden City booked, payments working, and a plan for getting from the airport to your hotel without panicking.

2–3 weeks before your trip

1. Check visa and entry rules

China's visa situation has changed a lot recently, so don't rely on older blog posts or outdated travel guides — go to the source.

• Start here: the official 240-hour transit visa-free policy page on english.www.gov.cn. This replaced the old 144-hour policy in December 2024 and covers most major entry points including both Beijing airports.
• Also check whether your passport country has a direct 30-day visa-free agreement — these have expanded quickly in 2024–2026 and now cover many European, Southeast Asian, and Latin American countries.
• Apply for a full tourist visa (L) only if your country is not on the visa-free or transit-exempt list, and only if you're staying longer than the transit policy allows.

Do this first — everything else is easier once you know whether you need a consulate visit.

2. Book your Forbidden City ticket

This is the single step most first-time Beijing trips get wrong. The Forbidden City does not sell walk-in tickets — you must book online, with the passport you'll travel with, and the site sells out.

• Official booking site: ticket.dpm.org.cn. Not Trip.com, not a third-party — book directly on the official Palace Museum portal.
• Tickets release 7 days in advance at 20:00 Beijing time. Log in slightly before 20:00 on the release day for your preferred date. Summer weekends and Chinese holidays sell out within minutes.
• Closed every Monday except on Chinese public holidays. If your planned visit lands on a Monday, put the Forbidden City on another day.
• Prices: ¥60 peak (April 1 – October 31), ¥40 off-peak (November 1 – March 31). The optional Treasure Gallery (珍宝馆) adds ¥10 and is worth it for first-time visitors.
• Use your passport number exactly as it appears on the passport you will travel with. A single-character mismatch and the gate will turn you away.
• Entry is one-way: Meridian Gate (午门) in the south, Shenwumen (神武门) out the north. You cannot loop back through.

Do this step before booking hotels — if your preferred date is sold out, you may need to shift your whole itinerary around it.

3. Reserve major hotels

• Central locations near Wangfujing, Qianmen, or the hutong districts save hours of transit over four days. Pick a hotel within a 10-minute walk of a Line 1, Line 2, or Line 5 metro station.
• Any hotel you can book on Trip.com can accept international guests — the old restriction on which hotels could host foreigners has largely been phased out, and Trip.com listings are filtered on your behalf.
• If you're booking outside Trip.com or Booking.com, confirm with the hotel directly that they accept international passports before paying.

1 week before your trip

4. Set up payment apps

Install both Alipay and WeChat Pay before you fly. Don't wait to do this on arrival — SMS verification from foreign carriers is unreliable, and you don't want your first afternoon eaten by app onboarding.

• Both apps now accept direct international card binding (Visa, Mastercard, JCB) in the main app — no separate "Tour Pass" workaround needed.
• Recent traveler reports describe the binding and payment experience as smooth. Per-transaction and daily limits exist but are rarely a problem for normal tourist spending.
• Install both. They don't take up much space, and different merchants prefer different apps — having both means you never have to ask.

Without these, daily life in Beijing — restaurants, metro top-ups, ride-hail, convenience stores — becomes frustrating. Cash is increasingly awkward; many small vendors no longer take it.

5. Install essential apps

• DiDi — the dominant ride-hail app in China. English interface is available in settings.
• Amap (高德地图) or Baidu Maps — Google Maps works poorly inside China even with a VPN. Download Amap with English toggle enabled, or have Baidu Maps for Chinese-only coverage.
• Google Translate — download the Chinese offline pack so you can translate menus and signs without internet.
• WeChat — for communicating with hotels, tour guides, and occasionally for booking services that only exist as WeChat mini-programs.
• Trip.com or 12306 — for train tickets if you're continuing to Xi'an, Shanghai, or other cities. Trip.com is easier for foreigners; 12306 is the official Chinese rail app.

6. Arrange Great Wall logistics

Pick your section and transport before you land — don't leave this for the day-of.

• Mutianyu (慕田峪) is the recommended first-timer section. The easiest way to get there is a round-trip taxi or private car arranged through your hotel, typically ¥500–800 shared between travelers. Simple, door-to-door, and you don't spend the morning figuring out transfers.
• A small-group tour via Trip.com or Klook (~¥300–500 per person including transport, ticket, and cable car) is a reasonable alternative if you don't want to organize your own car.
• The tourist bus from Beijing Tourist Distribution Center also runs to Mutianyu with tickets sold via a WeChat mini-program — cheaper but harder to navigate if you don't read Chinese.

Don't plan to pick a section the morning of. The decision affects your wake-up time, your transport, and your ticket booking.

2–3 days before your trip

7. Confirm all bookings

• Forbidden City ticket confirmation saved to phone (screenshot, not just email)
• Great Wall transport arranged and confirmed with driver or tour
• Hotel confirmation screenshotted
• Passport number matches all bookings

8. Organize your first-day arrival

This is where tired travelers lose 2–3 hours. Sort it before you fly.

• Check which airport you're arriving at. Beijing Capital (PEK) is closer to the city and has a direct Airport Express metro line to Line 2 / Line 10. Beijing Daxing (PKX) is the newer airport far south of the city — most travelers take the Daxing Airport Express metro line, which is cheapest and most predictable.
• If you land at PKX late at night, the metro may have stopped running. Your only option becomes a taxi or ride-hail from the airport. Follow the English signs inside the terminal to the official taxi queue — don't accept street pickups from drivers approaching you inside the building. Some drivers will take a longer route and pad the fare, so have your hotel's Chinese-character address on your phone ready to show them. Taking the official queue is safer than trusting anyone who grabs your attention first.
• Save your hotel address in Chinese characters — copy the Chinese name from Trip.com and screenshot it. Most non-English-speaking drivers need the address in Chinese, not pinyin, to navigate.
• Keep your first meal simple — pick something within a 5-minute walk of your hotel. Day 1 is not the night to hunt down a famous restaurant.

The day before departure

9. Pack the essentials

• Passport + a copy saved to phone (separate from your physical passport)
• Chinese yuan cash — a small amount (¥200–500) for hutong vendors, some taxis, and the rare place that doesn't accept mobile pay
• Comfortable walking shoes — Beijing days are walking-heavy, especially around the Forbidden City and the Great Wall
• Layers — temperatures on the Great Wall are noticeably colder than in the city, and the wind on the ridge is no joke outside of summer
• Portable battery — translation, maps, QR codes, and payment apps will drain your phone faster than you expect
• Universal adapter for Chinese outlets (Type A, C, and I are common)
• Small daypack for water, a layer, and a portable battery

10. Screenshot everything

Offline access matters. Many apps freeze or refuse to load without internet.

• Forbidden City ticket QR code
• Hotel confirmations (in Chinese, if possible)
• First-day itinerary and key addresses
• Emergency contacts and your embassy's Beijing address
• Passport photo page

First day in Beijing

11. Get a local SIM, eSIM, and a working VPN

You'll need both data and a way to reach blocked services.

• SIM card at the airport — China Mobile, China Unicom, or China Telecom desks in the arrivals hall. Tourist SIMs are typically ¥100–200 and come with data + a local number.
• eSIM alternative — Airalo, Holafly, and similar services let you activate a China plan before departure. Simpler than finding a carrier desk after a long flight.
• You'll need a VPN to access Google, Gmail, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, X, WhatsApp, and most Western news sites. This applies whether you're on a Chinese SIM, a local Wi-Fi, or most hotel networks — the block is at the network level, not the device. Install and test your VPN before you land. Most VPN provider websites are themselves blocked from inside China, so if you arrive without a working client you can't download one. Research current options before your trip — stability changes, so pick one based on recent reviews rather than whatever ranked first two years ago.

12. Test your apps before you need them

Do a small test run on your first afternoon, before you're tired and trying to get to dinner:

• Order a short DiDi ride from the airport to the hotel (or hotel to a nearby landmark) — this confirms your ride-hail works
• Pay with Alipay or WeChat at a convenience store — confirms card binding is working
• Connect to your VPN and load Gmail or Google Maps — confirms VPN is working

Sorting these out when you're rested and near your hotel is much easier than discovering them broken at 9 PM when you're hungry.

Your "day zero" status check

Before you fly, you should have:

• ✅ Visa or visa-free / 240-hour transit entry confirmed
• ✅ Forbidden City ticket booked with the passport you're traveling with
• ✅ Alipay and WeChat Pay installed, with cards bound and tested
• ✅ DiDi, Amap, and Google Translate installed
• ✅ VPN installed and tested at home
• ✅ Great Wall transport arranged
• ✅ Hotel confirmation saved offline in Chinese
• ✅ Packing complete

Get this far and you can actually enjoy Day 1, instead of burning your first afternoon on admin.

Continue planning

• For the trip structure: The Perfect 4-Day Beijing Itinerary
• For mistakes to avoid: 7 Common Mistakes First-Time Visitors Make in Beijing
• Not sure how long to stay? How Many Days in Beijing?
• Back to the Beijing destination overview