The Beijing–Xi’an high-speed rail pairing is the easiest China city-link for a first-timer: an early train out of the capital, a Bell Tower hotel awaiting you in Xi’an the same morning. This plan is built around those two bases and the booking notes the train-and-hotel handoff creates.
A foreign passport holder’s Beijing–Shanghai high-speed plan is two bases, three nights each: Beijing inside the 2nd Ring (Dongcheng/Xicheng) and Shanghai in central Huangpu. The 1,318 km bullet train between them takes about 4.5 hours, and both cities have dense clusters of licensed hotels that register foreigners without drama — so you check in twice and ride once.
A foreign passport holder’s Beijing–Chengde plan is two bases: three nights in Beijing (Dongcheng) and two in Chengde, the former imperial summer capital with its vast Mountain Resort. The rail to Chengde takes about an hour, so you ride once and check in twice; both cities have licensed hotels that register foreigners cleanly.
Base in Dongcheng, steps from the Forbidden City, for six of your seven Beijing nights, then take one overnight at the Simatai Great Wall (Gubei Water Town) as a finale. Every sight pairs with a short metro hop back to the same bed, so you pack light and sleep well.
For a foreign passport holder, the smart 4-day Beijing plan is to sleep all four nights in Dongcheng or Xicheng — the core inside the 2nd Ring Road — within easy Metro reach of the Forbidden City, the lakes, and the Hutongs. Licensed hotels here register foreigners routinely; relocate only if you add a Great Wall overnight.
Three days in Beijing fit the imperial core, the Great Wall and the hutongs from a single Dongcheng base if you sleep near the Forbidden City and treat the wall as a day loop. This short plan is built around where you rest each night, not a race through sights.
Tiananmen Square sits at the centre of Beijing just south of the Forbidden City, and a hotel in Qianmen or Wangfujing puts you within a short walk of both. A licensed hotel that lets you arrive on foot beats fighting a car cordon at this secured square.
The Summer Palace sits in northwest Beijing’s Haidian district, well away from the central hutongs, so staying near it trades city buzz for a calm lakeside base and an easy morning. The trade-off is distance: you are 40 to 50 minutes by Metro from the Forbidden City.
The Forbidden City sits in the dead centre of Beijing, just north of Tiananmen Square, and staying within walking distance puts you next to the city’s single biggest sight plus some of its best Metro links. The trade-off is price: central Beijing commands a premium, and the blocks immediately around the palace are among the most expensive in the country. This guide covers the neighbourhoods worth considering near the Forbidden City, real transfer times, and which foreigner-friendly hotels make sense for the money.
For foreign visitors, the best Beijing base is inside the Second Ring Road — Chaoyang around Sanlitun, or Dongcheng near the Forbidden City and Houhai. These zones put you on clean metro lines, near English-speaking hotels, and within easy reach of the sights, avoiding suburban commutes.