Two things that decide a short trip and no guide can answer for you: how much daylight there is on the dates you are looking at, and how much free time your inbound and outbound flights really leave you.
The longest day is in June — 14 h 59 min of daylight — and the shortest in December, with 9 h 22 min. That is a 5 h 37 min swing between them.
Tell us when you arrive and when you leave. We will tell you how many hours you really get to enjoy the city, day by day, once the transfers and your own breaks are set aside.
These are free hours, not a list of sights. We do not know your flight, the queues, opening times or how long it takes to get from one place to another.
Sunrise and sunset in Beijing, on its own clock and with the seasonal time change already applied. It is what decides how much fits into a day, and it swings far more than people expect.
4–5 days in May / September / October come to roughly 44 h 52 min to 71 h 45 min of daylight, depending on the month you pick and how long you stay.
| Month | Sunrise | Sunset | Daylight |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 07:34 | 17:12 | 9 h 38 min |
| February | 07:08 | 17:48 | 10 h 41 min |
| March | 06:27 | 18:19 | 11 h 52 min |
| April | 05:37 | 18:51 | 13 h 13 min |
| May | 05:00 | 19:21 | 14 h 21 min |
| June | 04:45 | 19:44 | 14 h 59 min |
| July | 04:57 | 19:42 | 14 h 45 min |
| August | 05:25 | 19:12 | 13 h 48 min |
| September | 05:54 | 18:25 | 12 h 31 min |
| October | 06:23 | 17:36 | 11 h 13 min |
| November | 06:58 | 16:59 | 10 h 1 min |
| December | 07:28 | 16:50 | 9 h 22 min |
Worked out for Beijing from its position and its time zone (Asia/Shanghai). The times are approximate — the sun shifts a couple of minutes from one year to the next — and they leave out twilight, which adds some light before and after. Each month is worked out from its 15th, the day that looks most like the month as a whole.
Rank what matters most to you, from one to three things, and tick anything you want to avoid. We compare the areas the guide describes and explain why each one fits, catch included.
It sorts what the guide says; it does not score neighbourhoods. It does not look at hotels, today’s prices, safety or accessibility, and it only knows the areas the guide describes.
Every rating comes from what the guide’s table says in words, and the sentence is shown next to it. What the guide does not say is not scored.
Who each one is for and what the catch is, in the guide’s own words.
A first visit. The Forbidden City and Tiananmen within walking distance, large hotels, and two subway lines.
The catch: A district of malls and wide roads, priced for its location. The old city is somewhere else.
Courtyard hotels, lanes on a human scale, cafés and bars on the doorstep, and the lakes a walk away.
The catch: No car reaches the door, the address is hard to find, and the bar streets are loud at night.
Budget rooms and hostels just south of Tiananmen, close to the Temple of Heaven.
The catch: The main street is a rebuilt stage set full of tour groups; the real lanes are behind it.
The best concentration of restaurants and bars in the city, and international hotels used to foreign guests.
The catch: A long ride from every major sight, and nothing around it is old.
Modern towers, easy rooms, and a station where the east–west line meets the loop line.
The catch: Offices and ring roads: efficient, anonymous, and far from anything you came to see.
Give it the days you have just worked out and Joru builds the whole trip: what to see each day, in what order, and how long it takes to get between them. With real places and real forecasts, not invented ones.
Free for one destination of up to three days, on Android and iPhone.
