Shanghai &
Beijing

Miju checkout is 13:00 but the train wants a morning slot — leave by 08:00. Hongqiao is enormous; give yourself 45 min before departure and have the passport out, it's scanned at the gate. G-train Shanghai Hongqiao → Beijing South, 2nd class ~¥555.

Handy: the hotel is a short hop from the station you arrive into (nearest metro Heyi). Check-in from 14:00, so the timing lands almost perfectly. Dump bags, then head into the centre.

Register entry to the square in advance on the Beijing tourism app — passport number required, and they do check. Security is airport-grade, no liquids. Then walk south into Qianmen and the Dashilan lanes for a relaxed first evening. The portrait of Mao hits differently in person.

Book weeks ahead on the Palace Museum site — 80,000 timed tickets a day and a Saturday sells out first. Passport at the gate. Enter south (Meridian Gate / 午门), exit north (Shenwu Gate). Three to four hours minimum, and the courtyards are wide open to the wind — wear everything.

A hill built from the soil dug out of the palace moat. Climb to Wanchun Pavilion — the view straight down the Forbidden City's golden roofs is the best photograph in Beijing. Get up there before 14:30 while the sun is still south. ~¥2.

Beijing's most famous old alley. Commercialised down the middle, but duck into the side hutongs off the main drag and it's still the real thing. Snacks, ceramics, and craft beer at Great Leap nearby.

Conveniently close to Baiman, so do it on the way out. Mornings are the point — locals fill the outer park with tai chi, fan dancing and group singing before 10:00. The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests is the icon. ~¥34 for park + hall, allow 2 hours.

It's a long way across the city and out — roughly 2 hrs from Beijing South, ¥400–500 by private car. Book the driver ahead through the hotel or Klook; DiDi will do it but is harder to arrange with luggage. Public bus 867 from Dongzhimen exists but eats the afternoon.

Check-in 15:00–22:00. This is the whole trick of the trip: sleeping at the Wall means you're at the gate when it opens tomorrow, ahead of every day-tour bus out of Beijing. Hot spring in the evening, dinner at the hotel, early night.

You're already here — walk or shuttle to the gate for opening and have the wall to yourself for an hour before the Beijing buses land. Cable car up (¥100 return), walk east toward towers 14–20 for the most dramatic winter stretch. DRESS SERIOUSLY: it's exposed, windswept, and several degrees below the city. Gloves and a hat, not optional.

The Schoolhouse at Mutianyu is the nice option (Western, good setting); the base stalls are fine and cheap. Hotel checkout is 08:00–12:00, so settle up and leave the bags with them before you go up.

New base for the rest of the trip, at Dajiaoting metro next to the Heshenghui mall. The Wall is tiring in the cold — take the evening flat. Hot pot is the correct recovery meal.

Beijing's most atmospheric working temple — Tibetan Buddhist, thick with incense. Free sticks at the gate. Wanfu Pavilion holds an 18m Buddha carved from a single sandalwood trunk. A genuinely sacred space, so dress for it. ~¥25.

The pair of Yuan-dynasty towers that kept time for the whole city. Climb the Drum Tower for the drumming demonstration and a rooftop view over grey hutong tiles — the best sense you'll get of old Beijing's grid. ~¥20 each.

Lake ringed by alleyways and bars. Hire a pedicab for the 45-min hutong circuit — negotiate to ¥100–150. In December the lake often freezes hard enough that locals skate on it. Bar street along the south shore comes alive after dark.

Imperial lakeside retreat — 2.9 km² of gardens, pavilions and corridors. Kunming Lake usually freezes solid in December, and walking out onto the silent white sheet of it is the memory people keep. Enter East Gate, walk the 728m Long Corridor, climb Longevity Hill. ~¥30, allow 3 hours.

Bauhaus-era military electronics factories turned into Beijing's contemporary art district — and crucially, indoors and warm after a frozen morning. UCCA is the anchor gallery; the rest is studios, design shops and good coffee.

Jingli is only prepaid through the 15th, so tonight and tomorrow night are unbooked. Easiest fix is extending Jingli by two nights so you never move — otherwise book something near the airport line for the 18th's early flight.

The imperial pleasure garden just northwest of the Forbidden City, built around a lake with the White Dagoba on its island. Quieter than everything else you've done, frozen and pale in December, and a gentle way to spend a last morning. ~¥10.

The main pedestrian shopping street, and the right place to spend whatever's left. Tea, silk, Beijing-brand snacks. The Donghuamen snack street is more spectacle than dinner — scorpions on sticks — but worth a walk through.

Make it count. Peking duck is the one meal you cannot skip, and Dadong does the lean, crisp-skinned version — book well ahead, it's always full. Afterwards: confirm the morning airport transfer, check the terminal on the ticket, and get to bed.