"What to do in Beijing" Beijing by Waxbag

There are several things to occupy your time in China's sprawling capital of 14 million. The obvious ones are a visit to:
Tiananmen Square, the symbol of communist China

the Forbidden City, symbol of the great Ming Dynasty and Chinas 500 year seclusion

the hutong, Beijing’s traditional streets and houses that are being bulldozed to make room for fancy hotels in preparation for the Olympics

the Temple of Heaven, a marvelous Ming Dynasty temple on the cover of every ‘Go to China’ brochure.

the Lama temple, a beautiful and colorful Tibetan temple that is the largest outside Tibet.

Walk the 10km section of the Great wall from Jinshinling to Simatai.

Other lower ranked activities include:
Riding around on the Beijing metro for kicks, it’s incredible cheap and people watching is fun.

Check out Wangfujing Snack street and grab a fried starfish or a scorpion that is still moving on a kebab.

Grab some flapjacks at one of the many McDonalds and feel really guilty for it but immediately forget it when you pop that pancake in your mouth and chase it down with a hot coffee.

Speaking of coffee, grab a Starbucks coffee inside the Forbidden City despite all the protest and hype over one of the biggest Western symbols of Capitalism hocking a 25cent beverage for $4 bucks in the most important symbol of China and it's communist regime.

Taking photos of the Chinglish on the back of your guesthouse door.