Jingshan, Beihai, Houhai & the Drum Tower

The imperial lake garden west of the Forbidden City — a lake with a white Tibetan-style dagoba on its island, in use as a palace garden since the 1100s, a public park since 1925. It is where Beijing families actually go: rowing boats, the Nine-Dragon Screen, the walled courtyard gardens on the north shore. Big (the water alone is over half the park), cheap, and open from 6:30 to 21:00 in summer. The courtyards inside need a combined ticket and close Mondays; the park itself does not.

The artificial hill directly north of the Forbidden City, piled up from the moat spoil in the 1400s. Its top pavilion is the one place in Beijing where you look straight down the palace's golden roofs to the south — a ¥2 ticket for the best-value view in the city. Five pavilions along the ridge, a peony show in spring, and the tree where the last Ming emperor hanged himself in 1644. Most visitors do it in an hour straight after the palace's north gate.

Three linked lakes northwest of the Forbidden City with the last big stretch of lived-in hutong around them — the open-air heart of old Beijing. Free, unfenced, and busy from dawn (swimmers, tai chi) to midnight (the Houhai bar strip). Rowing boats from March to autumn, ice skating when the lake freezes, and the hutong pedicab touts everywhere in between. Use it as the walking spine between Prince Gong's Mansion, the Drum Tower and the former residences on the north bank.

The grey-brick tower 100 m north of the Drum Tower, rebuilt in stone in 1745 after fires, holding a 63-tonne Ming bronze bell that opened Beijing's gates every morning until 1924. Shut in 2026 while the bell frame was reinforced, it has since reopened (Beijing Central Axis official platform, Aug 2026) — the ¥30 combined ticket climbs both towers again. No bell-ringing show: come for the structure and the view over the Drum Tower's roof.

The red-walled tower that closed Beijing's day for 600 years — drums here set the city's time from 1272 (rebuilt 1420 and 1745), and its axis with the Bell Tower 100 m north marks the top of the UNESCO-listed Central Axis. Today: a steep climb to a drum hall with hourly drumming shows, an immersive film downstairs, and the best rooftop view over the grey hutong sea around Shichahai. ¥30 combined ticket with the Bell Tower.

A small imperial Taoist temple on the east bank of Qianhai, 300 m from the Drum Tower, founded (by tradition) in 632 and rebuilt under the Yuan, Ming and Qing; the yellow glazed roofs were added in 1610 after a run of Forbidden City fires. Vacated and restored in 2001-2005 and now run by the China Taoist Association as a working temple (district government). Free, three courtyards, ten minutes — the district's one place to see live incense and a Taoist altar rather than a museum.

A big garden courtyard on Qianhai's west bank where Guo Moruo — poet, archaeologist, and the first president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences — lived from 1963 until his death in 1978. Originally a pharmacy family's private residence, then a Mongolian prince's, it is the roomiest of the three residences around the lakes and the only one with an actual lawn. ¥20, closed Mondays and for the winter from 25 December until after Chinese New Year.

The garden of a Qing prince's mansion on Houhai's north bank — the last emperor Puyi was born in this compound — where Soong Ching-ling, Sun Yat-sen's widow and later Honorary President of the PRC, lived from 1963 until her death in 1981. Her rooms are kept as she left them, and the garden is the best-preserved princely garden you can walk into for ¥20. Closed Mondays; it is the quiet counterweight to the Houhai crowds across the water.

The courtyard house where Mei Lanfang, the Peking-opera star who played female roles and toured the US and USSR in the 1930s, lived his last decade (1951-1961). A small, calm siheyuan on Huguosi St with his costumes, stage photographs and the rooms kept as they were — the one place in the district that explains Peking opera through a single life. Closed for renovation since June 2023 with no reopening notice found; when open, ¥10 and an hour at most.

The largest and best-preserved Qing prince's mansion in Beijing — half formal residence, half garden — built in the 1770s for Heshen, the emperor's favourite who was executed for corruption, and later the home of Prince Gong, the man who negotiated with the Western powers in 1860. It is the one place in the city to see how the imperial family actually lived outside the Forbidden City. ¥40, real-name online tickets released ten days ahead, passports accepted, closed Mondays.

A 232-metre pedestrian lane that runs diagonally from the Drum Tower down to Silver Ingot Bridge — the shortest, prettiest link between the towers and the lakes, lined with Ming-Qing-style shopfronts that once sold pipes and tobacco and now sell snacks, souvenirs and photos in period costume. Free, open all hours, and one of the most crowded 200 metres in the city after dark. Walk it once, early.