Where to stay in Beijing: the 4 neighborhoods to know in 2026
In Beijing, start by picking a side of the Second Ring Road. It follows the line of the old city walls: inside, the Forbidden City, the hutongs and distances you can walk; outside, the towers, the embassies and the bars of Sanlitun. The metro links the two, but every journey is counted in half-hours.
Prices follow the same border: a dorm bed between $23 and $40*, a well-placed 3-star room between $62 and $96*, and from around $340* the palaces of Wangfujing and the business district. Four neighbourhoods, each with its places, three addresses whose booking page has been opened, and what our members wrote on the spot.
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At a glance: our picks by traveller type
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The neighborhood map in Beijing
Get your bearings on the neighborhoods and must-see sights before choosing where to drop your bags. Click a name to jump to its description.
The Forbidden City and Wangfujing Dongcheng: Tian'anmen, Wangfujing, Dengshikou
for a first visit, on foot to the essentials
Everything that brings people to Beijing fits in this rectangle: the Forbidden City, Tian'anmen Square and its museums, and Wangfujing street with its department stores. Sleeping here means walking through the square's checkpoints and entering the City as the gates open, ahead of the groups. The downside: the streets are wide and shadeless, big hotels dominate, and the area empties as soon as the shops close.
If you are visiting Beijing, it is clearly not to be missed, just plan on getting there early.
What to see & do in the neighborhood
Where to stay in this neighborhood
The Peninsula Beijing Luxury
An all-suite hotel in the heart of Wangfujing, two hundred metres from Dengshikou station: heated indoor pool, spa, and a breakfast that mixes buffet and à la carte.
Novotel Beijing Peace Mid-range
In Jinyu Hutong, five minutes from Dengshikou (line 5): indoor pool, two restaurants, and rooms of a generation waiting for its refurbishment, at a price that admits it.
Jinjiang Inn Beijing Wangfujing Budget
A Chinese budget-chain hotel at 75 Dengshikou Avenue, ten minutes' walk from Wangfujing: simple, clean rooms with no surprises, at the lowest price in the area for a private room.
Pros
- The Forbidden City and Tian'anmen on foot, from opening time
- Lines 1 and 5 within reach, towards Sanlitun as well as the Temple of Heaven
Cons
- Eight-lane avenues, long to cross and with no shade
- The area switches off around nine in the evening
The hutongs, from Beihai to the Drum Tower Dongcheng and Xicheng: Houhai, Nanluoguxiang, Gulou, the Lama Temple
for sleeping in a courtyard, by bicycle
North of the Forbidden City, the city keeps its grey lanes, its square courtyards and its lakes. From Jingshan hill, Megane Odyzea found what the bottom does not offer: "Not many people around, it is way quieter than down below!" The courtyard hotels hide in the hutongs around Houhai and the Drum Tower, a bike ride from everything; the Lama Temple and the Confucius Temple close the area to the east. Nanluoguxiang, the best-known lane, is also the most crowded: the quiet courtyards are in the side lanes.
Where to stay in this neighborhood
The Orchid Hotel Luxury
An old residence in Baochao Hutong, ten minutes from Guloudajie station: rooms onto the courtyard and the garden, three restaurants, and bicycles lent to reach Houhai.
Beijing Downtown Travelotel Mid-range
The former hostel at 85 Nanluoguxiang, entirely remade as a boutique hotel: courtyard rooms, a terrace, and the liveliest lane of the hutongs at the door.
Peking Garden Youth Hostel Budget
A traditional house at 113 Nanluoguxiang, with a garden and a bar, a few hundred metres from the metro (lines 6 and 8) and five minutes from the bars of Houhai.
Pros
- The courtyards, the lakes and the lanes: the Beijing people come looking for
- The Forbidden City twenty minutes' walk away via Jingshan
Cons
- Courtyard houses have small rooms, sometimes with no window onto the street
- Nanluoguxiang and the shores of Houhai are noisy at weekends
Qianmen, Dashilan and the Temple of Heaven South of Tian'anmen: Qianmen, Dashilan, Liulichang, Tiantan
for low prices and the old merchants' Beijing
South of the square, the Qianmen gate opens onto the old merchants' quarter: the rebuilt pedestrian street, the hutongs of Dashilan with their century-old shop signs, the calligraphy shops of Liulichang. Further south, the Temple of Heaven is visited at dawn, when the retirees do their exercises there. This is the area of hostels and small courtyard hotels, twenty minutes' walk from the Forbidden City. The downside: the hutongs here are poorer than those in the north, and the evening ends early.
Where to stay in this neighborhood
Capital Hotel Beijing Luxury
A big state-run hotel at 3 Qianmen East Street, with a garden, a spa and a currency exchange desk, a quarter of an hour's walk from Wangfujing and twenty-five minutes from Tian'anmen.
Qianmen Courtyard Hotel Mid-range
A two-century-old courtyard house in Shijia Hutong, ten minutes' walk from Tian'anmen: simple rooms around the courtyard, and a late check-out until two in the afternoon.
Leo Hostel Budget
The historic hostel of Dashilan, at 52 on the west street: a big common lounge, a bar, a small library and English-speaking staff, ten minutes from Qianmen station (line 2).
Pros
- The cheapest dorms and courtyard hotels in the centre
- Tian'anmen ten minutes' walk away, the Temple of Heaven twenty
Cons
- Qianmen street is a reconstruction for visitors, with no residents
- Few restaurants open after ten in the evening
Sanlitun and the business district Chaoyang: Sanlitun, the embassies, Guomao, the CCTV headquarters
for the bars, the restaurants and the towers
Outside the ring road, to the east, Beijing becomes a city of towers and shopping malls. Sanlitun concentrates the bars, the terraces and the boutiques of Taikoo Li; further south, the business district lines up the CCTV headquarters, the China World and the Silk Market. You eat everything here, at any hour, and the hotels are new. The downside: nothing old within reach, and the Forbidden City is six metro stops or half an hour by taxi in the jams.
Where to stay in this neighborhood
Rosewood Beijing Luxury
Facing the CCTV headquarters, in the business district: indoor pool, spa, and restaurants including a Michelin-starred Cantonese table.
Holiday Inn Express Beijing Dongzhimen Mid-range
In the embassy district, a quarter of an hour's walk from Sanlitun: modern rooms, a breakfast the reviews praise, and thousands of them saying the same thing about cleanliness.
wohkoon Youth Hostel Sanlitun Budget
The hostel of Taikoo Li, a stone's throw from the bars: air-conditioned rooms, a common lounge and luggage storage. It only takes travellers aged 18 to 50, worth knowing before you book.
Pros
- The best restaurants and the nights out, on foot from the hotel
- Recent hotels, from dorm to palace, and the airport thirty minutes away
Cons
- Not a single monument: everything you visit is to the west, on the other side of the ring road
- The noise of Sanlitun on Friday and Saturday nights
Our tips for booking the right place
- Book the Forbidden City before the hotel: Entry is booked online, with your passport number, and tickets for the Forbidden City sell out several days ahead in season; it is closed on Mondays. Fix your date, then choose a hotel in Dongcheng to be at the Meridian Gate at opening time, as Megane advises.
- Count in stations, not in kilometres: A journey that looks short on the map takes half an hour: the avenues are crossed through underpasses, and a taxi freezes in the jams. Line 2 follows the ring road, lines 1 and 5 cut across the city; the last metro leaves around eleven at night.
- Before you land: Install the two mobile payment apps before you leave: they accept a foreign card, and many taxis and canteens no longer take cash. Your passport is asked for at every check-in, and a few cheap hotels are not licensed to host foreigners: read the listing's conditions.
- A hotel near the airport or the Great Wall "to save time": the Wall is done as a day trip from the city, and you would sleep an hour from everything.
- The towers of the Olympic Park: the Bird's Nest is visited in an hour, and the area is empty in the evening.
- A room looking onto Nanluoguxiang itself: the lane is packed from morning to night, the quiet courtyards are in the side hutongs.
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