There’s actually quite a lot of things to do in Beijing, but none of them are particularly that exciting. It’s also a shame the air is so poor and there’s so many people there to spoil the experience, otherwise they might be slightly worth visiting.

Okay so admittedly, a few days isn’t really enough time to form a fair opinion of a city and we didn’t do many of the typical things to do in Beijing but here’s what we did do.  Headed to Summer Palace, (which by the way is right outside the Aman at Summer Palace, the hotel we stayed in) one of the so called “top attractions” on TripAdvisor.  To be fair, if this was in say, well anywhere other than Beijing, it would be ok, some ok temples, a lake and that’s really about it.

But the thing is, it’s so polluted, there are so many people, it’s impossible to relax, sit back and appreciate anything.  Some reviewers have suggested the Summer Palace is a thing of quiet beauty. That’s like saying Piers Morgan would be a good mate to share a beer with, and we all know what a load of bollocks that is.  Other reviewers have said “such a nice place to enjoy the fresh air”.  That’s even more bollocks. To be fair, I have heard that occasionally Beijing does get clear skies, but it’s such a rare occurrence that pigs also start to cliff jump thinking they can take to the air like a graceful albatross.

Next day we popped over to Tiananmen Square.  Popped a couple of photos of some guards and that was the highlight of that. Move on, nothing to see here. That should be Beijing’s motto “Beijing – Move On, Nothing to See Here”, which, now that I come to think of, is actually bloody clever because even if they did have any monuments or buildings or places of interest worth seeing, you wouldn’t be able to see shit because of the pollution.

If you’re looking for things to do in Beijing, one thing you do need to do is eat Peking Duck, there’s loads of good Peking duck restaurants around and the one we ate at was bloody excellent. I think I scoffed down almost a whole duck. You usually need to get out of the tourist areas and find something local, ask the hotel concierge and they should be able to point you in the right direction.

Peking Duck

Even the Beijing airport is a dull eye-sore. Well perhaps not an eye-sore, but it’s one of the most boring airports I’ve been to.  So there we have it, basically there’s not a lot of spectacular, tell-your-friends-about, must return, things to do in Beijing, and even if you can find things to do in Beijing, good luck surviving in the pollution and trying to enjoy anything.  For a perhaps less scathing review of Beijing, you can head to this page.

If you’re still here, and still thinking about going to Beijing, send us any questions or comments you have about things to do in Beijing via email or ask us on twitter.