Beijing

The currency is the renminbi yuan (CNY, called yuan or kuai), at about 7 to the dollar and 1.3 to the real in 2026. The country runs on QR code payments, and almost everything is paid that way: install Alipay or WeChat Pay and link a Visa or Mastercard before you travel. Since 2023, foreigners can sign up without a Chinese bank account; transactions under 200 CNY usually go through without a fee, and above that the charge is about 3%. Cash is legal tender and no business may refuse it, but many street vendors don't have change for a 100 note, so carry 10 and 20 notes. 2026 price ranges: street breakfast 8–15 CNY, bowl of noodles 20–35, neighborhood dinner 60–120 per person, whole Peking duck 200–400, draft beer 10–25, specialty coffee 25–40, subway 3–8, a 10 km rideshare around 35, hostel bed 100–150, three-star hotel 300–500, five-star 900–1,500. Bank of China and ICBC ATMs accept foreign cards. Nobody tips at restaurants, in taxis or at hotels, and insisting only causes embarrassment.

Capital (PEK) and Daxing (PKX): Beijing's two airports

Beijing has two international airports, and it's worth picking your flight based on the neighborhood where you'll be staying. Capital Airport (PEK), 25km to the northeast, connects to downtown via the Airport Line, 25 CNY and about 20 minutes to Dongzhimen, where you change to lines 2 and 13; by taxi it's 90–130 CNY in 40 to 60 minutes. Daxing Airport (PKX), 46km to the south, has operated since September 2019 in a single 700,000 m² terminal designed by Zaha Hadid: the Daxing Express takes 19 minutes to Caoqiao for 35 CNY, and there's an intercity train to Beijing West in 28 minutes, while a taxi costs 200–250 CNY. High-speed trains leave from Beijing South (Tianjin in half an hour, Shanghai in about 4 hours 30 minutes), Beijing West (Xi'an in about 4 hours 30 minutes), Beijing North, Beijing Chaoyang, and Beijing Fengtai. To board, your passport works as the ticket and is scanned at the gate: buy through the official app or at a ticket window and arrive 40 minutes early. Visa-free entry for South Americans and the 240-hour transit both have expiration dates and change, so confirm the current rule at the consulate before buying your ticket.

Twenty-seven lines and 880 kilometers

The subway has 27 lines, more than 450 stations and about 880 km, and it's the backbone of getting around: it runs roughly from 5am to 11pm, with early last departures, and every entrance has a baggage X-ray, which adds two to five minutes per station. Fares go by distance, 3 CNY up to 6 km, 4 up to 12 km, 5 up to 22 km and 6 up to 32 km, plus 1 CNY for every additional 20 km, and since June 15, 2025, the turnstiles accept foreign contactless cards (Visa, Mastercard, Amex, JCB, UnionPay), the same cards on your phone, Alipay and WeChat QR codes and the local Yikatong card. Buses cost 2 CNY, or 1 CNY with a card; taxis start at 13 CNY for the first 3 km and charge about 2.5 CNY/km, with a night surcharge, and Didi has an English interface. Shared bikes cost 1.5–2.5 CNY per half hour, require Alipay or WeChat and are the most practical way to cover medium distances, because the city is flat and almost every avenue has a bike lane separated by a median. On foot, however, blocks of up to 1 km and eight-lane avenues make any walk longer than the map suggests.

In Beijing, the risks are scams, pickpockets, and traffic, almost never violence. Beijing has very low rates of violent crime and it's a city where you can walk at dawn without worry. The most common scam, repeated for more than twenty years, is the “tea ceremony”: someone approaches in English near Tiananmen, Qianmen, or Wangfujing saying they study art or want to practice the language, leads you to a teahouse or gallery, and at the end presents a bill for thousands of yuan. The rule is simple: refuse invitations from strangers for tea, a bar, or a gallery, and never consume anything without seeing the price written down. Unlicensed taxis outside airports and stations charge several times the fare. Use the official line or the app. Pickpockets show up on crowded train cars and on the pedestrian streets of Dashilan and Nanluoguxiang. In traffic, the biggest danger is silent electric bikes, which ride against the flow of the bike lane and climb onto the sidewalk: look both ways even on a one-way street, because they arrive without a sound. Emergencies: 110 for police, 120 for ambulance, 119 for fire, and 12345 for the city hotline, which answers in English during business hours. Don't photograph military facilities, troops, or security cordons, and don't get close to any protest gathering.

Original passport required; a copy is not accepted

Hotels, trains, museums, entry to Tiananmen, and buying a SIM card all require the original document and registration under your name. Anyone staying at someone's home must register at the neighborhood police station within 24 hours.

Chopsticks never stuck upright in rice

Two chopsticks standing up in a bowl mimic the incense of funeral rites. Leave them lying on the rest or crossed over the rim of the plate.

No tipping

Restaurants, taxis, hotels, and guides don't expect a tip and give back change down to the last jiao. The equivalent gesture is complimenting the owner or coming back another time.

One person pays the whole bill

Whoever invites pays for the whole table, and fighting over the check is part of the ritual. Splitting evenly among strangers is rare outside groups of young people.

Two hands to give and receive

A business card, a gift, money, and a cup all pass with both hands. When toasting, touch the rim of your glass below the rim of the older person's glass.

On the metro, backpack on the belt, food put away

Every entrance has an X-ray, and eating or drinking inside the trains has been banned since 2019. Let people off before boarding, and stand to the right on escalators.

Filtered internet and no Chinese number at the airport

Arriving without Alipay or WeChat Pay installed and without an international card already linked to it. Almost everything is paid by QR code, and setting up the app at the airport, with the filtered network and no Chinese phone number, usually takes hours.

Not booking the Forbidden City ahead

Arriving without the named reservations for the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, and the National Museum, expecting to buy on the spot. There's no sale at the door, and anyone who arrives without a reservation finds out in line that the day's slots are already gone.

Counting on Google Maps and WhatsApp

Counting on Google Maps, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Gmail, which don't open on the Chinese network. Download offline maps and Amap, the local mapping app, before you travel, so you're not left without directions on your first afternoon.

Traveling during Golden Week or Lunar New Year

Traveling during October's Golden Week or Lunar New Year. In both periods trains sell out weeks ahead and the Wall turns into a line.

Badaling on a Saturday and Beijing's urban distances

Choosing Badaling on a Saturday and underestimating the urban distances: from Tiananmen Square to the Temple of Heaven is 3 km on foot, and crossing a main avenue can take five minutes. It's easy to think the map is wrong when the real problem is the pace.

你好: nǐ hǎo (ni rráo)

Hello; works at any time of day

谢谢: xièxie (siê-siê)

Thank you; the reply is 不客气, bú kèqi (bu kê-tchi)

多少钱？: duōshao qián (duô-cháo tchién)

How much does it cost?

买单: mǎidān (mái-dan)

The check, please; in restaurants 结账, jiézhàng (tchié-djang), also works

听不懂: tīng bù dǒng (tíng bu dông)

I don't understand what you're saying

洗手间在哪儿？: xǐshǒujiān zài nǎr (si-chôu-tchien dzai nár)

Where is the bathroom?

The amphitheater of mountains and the plain

Beijing occupies the northwestern tip of the North China Plain, at about 44 m elevation, inside an amphitheater of mountains: the Yan range closes off the north and northeast, the Western Hills, a branch of the Taihang range, close off the west, and the only easy way out is southeast, toward the Bohai Sea, about 150 km away. Roughly 62% of the municipality's 16,410 km² is mountain, and nearly all of the population is packed into the fan of plain to the south and east.

Seasonal rivers and water from far away

The two rivers, the Yongding to the west and the Chaobai to the east, are seasonal and dammed; drinking water comes from the Miyun reservoir and, since December 2014, from the central canal of the South-North Water Transfer, which brings the Han River 1,270 km from its source.

The Kaogongji grid and the ring roads

The urban grid follows the ritual manual Kaogongji: a 7.8 km north-south axis, symmetrical gates, cardinal streets, and enormous blocks, 500 m to 1 km on a side. The walls became ring roads (the Second Ring, at 32.7 km, runs along the line of the Ming wall), and the city grew in concentric shells out to the Sixth Ring, at 188 km, so that addresses still use “nei” and “wai”, inside and outside a gate that no longer exists.

Beijing opera was born here

Beijing opera was born in the city itself: in 1790 troupes from Anhui province came for Qianlong's 80th birthday and never left, and the crossing of their repertoire with the Hubei style produced, around 1840, the form that Mei Lanfang would take abroad in the 1930s. You can still see it at the Chang'an Theater and the Liyuan, in one- to two-hour short versions with English subtitles. The other living stage is xiangsheng, a comic dialogue between two comedians that depends entirely on puns in Mandarin: the Deyunshe troupe, led by Guo Degang, fills houses in Tianqiao every night and is practically impenetrable to anyone who doesn't speak the language.

Chinese rock began in 1986

Chinese rock began in 1986, when Cui Jian sang “Nothing to My Name” in a Beijing gymnasium. Since then the city has concentrated the independent labels (Modern Sky, from 1997, organizes the Strawberry festival) and the small stages of Gulou and Wudaoying. The visual arts organized themselves at 798 and in Caochangdi starting in 2002, with the private museums UCCA and M WOODS; the National Centre for the Performing Arts, Paul Andreu's titanium-and-glass dome opened in 2007 next to the Great Hall of the People, houses opera, theater, and concerts in the same building.

Film: the Beijing academy trained Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige

Beijing is also the country's image factory: the Beijing Film Academy trained Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige and Jia Zhangke, and the Beijing International Film Festival takes over the city in April. Peking University and Tsinghua sustain the Zhongguancun tech ecosystem in Haidian. In sports, Beijing Guo'an plays at the Workers' Stadium, demolished and rebuilt between 2020 and 2023 as a soccer-only stadium. Religion is discreet and visible at once: Buddhist and Taoist temples operate as paid parks, the Niujie Mosque has existed since 996, and Xuanwumen Cathedral was founded by Jesuits in 1605.

“Rickshaw Boy”, by Lao She (1937)

A novel about a rickshaw puller in 1920s Beijing, written by an author born in one of the city's hutongs. It's the most precise portrait of life inside the walls before 1949, street by street.

“The Last Emperor”, by Bernardo Bertolucci (1987)

Filmed inside the Forbidden City, with unprecedented shooting permission granted in 1986. It follows Puyi from his enthronement in 1908 to his expulsion from the palace in 1924 and his life as a gardener in Beijing in the 1960s.

“The Last Days of Old Beijing”, by Michael Meyer (2008)

An account of two years spent teaching in a Dashilan hutong during the Olympic-era demolitions. Not translated into Portuguese, it explains in detail how the historic city shrank and what replaced the alleys.