Beijing: what to see in 1 day

Tiananmen Square is the stop from which to start, one of the world's largest public squares, bounded by the Great Hall of the People, the National Museum of China and, on the north side, the Gate of Heavenly Peace with the large portrait of Mao that introduces the Imperial City. Arriving early in the morning allows you to cross it with calm before heat and visitor numbers increase in the central hours.

Beyond the Gate of Heavenly Peace you enter the Forbidden City, the imperial residence that for nearly five hundred years hosted the Ming and Qing dynasties and remains the largest preserved complex of wooden architecture in the world. The route follows the central axis through the major ceremonial halls, including the Hall of Supreme Harmony, before reaching the imperial gardens on the northern side, with their centuries-old pines and ornamental rocks arranged according to the canons of classical Chinese gardens.

Exiting from the northern gate of the complex, a short climb leads to Jingshan Park, the artificial hill built with earth excavated for the palace moats: from the Wanchun pavilion at the top, you dominate the entire expanse of gilded roofs of the Forbidden City just traversed, with the modern skyline of the city as backdrop in the distance.

Toward the south you find the Temple of Heaven, the complex where emperors celebrated propitious rites for the harvest: the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest, with its three-level circular roof in blue tiles, and the Circular Altar, built according to precise numerical symbolism linked to the sky, remain among the finest examples of Chinese ceremonial architecture.

Toward the northwest, the hutongs around Houhai Lake preserve instead the network of narrow alleys and traditional courtyards that survived the city's urban transformations: walking along the lake shores, among low gray brick houses and small shops, gives a very different image of Beijing from that of the monumental morning, and is also the most natural area in which to stop for dinner, among traditional restaurants and places overlooking the water.

Traveling Beijing's imperial axis, from Tiananmen Square to the Forbidden City all the way to Jingshan Park, already tells the most representative part of the historic city, then leaving the afternoon choice between the solemnity of the Temple of Heaven and the more intimate atmosphere of the hutongs of Houhai. Left out of this itinerary are the Great Wall and the Summer Palace, both outside the center and more suited to a separate outing, but from the Forbidden City to the hutongs of Houhai you already touch the historic heart of the Chinese capital.