Back in Beijing

11th – 17th September 2026

It had been about eight years since l packed up my things and moved back to the UK after a stint of several years living in China, the majority of which were in Beijing. l have (mostly) very fond memories of Beijing but was a little apprehensive about whether it would still hold the same appeal and if Holly would like it. I’d tried to put together a plan for the week that showcased some of the things l thought made Beijing special, as well as hitting some of the tourist spots. Things were looking good when we arrived to glorious sunshine without the humidity that had been torturing us further south. We headed to Mr. Shi’s, a Chinese restaurant catering more or less exclusively to the international crowd. Very inauthentic but delicious cheese, tomato and basil dumplings were consumed and we strolled through the hutongs, Beijings old (although “renovated” since I was last in Beijing as part of the “Great Brickening”) alleyways, back to our somewhat decrepit but peaceful ibis hotel.

The next day we went to the 798 Art District – “The Friendly Global Art Destination”, apparently. 798 is in what used to be a big industrial complex that has been turned into a vast area for art galleries, shops and places to eat. There are some cool buildings and even if some of the art is questionable, it’s a very chilled place to stroll around. Much to Holly’s delight, it was also the ideal place to buy a genuinely delicious fresh baguette, as it has been tough to buy bread in China that isn’t either a) too sweet, or b) covered in meat floss. Along with a nice coffee, some pastries and fresh orange juice, we really were making the most of being in China…

An early start was in order the next day to visit the most Chinese of Chinese things, the Great Wall. We’d booked to join a tour relatively late on as this seemed the most straightforward way of getting to one of the quieter bits of the wall further out from the more touristy sections closer to Beijing. Fortunately the tour element only consisted of some background info on the coach and we were then free to explore the wall by ourselves for a few hours. l was still struggling with a bug of some sort that just wouldn’t go away and according to Holly I had turned an interesting shade of green. l bravely soldiered on and we were lucky to have long, and at times incredibly steep, sections of the wall almost to ourselves. After a very long coach journey back, we went to one of the closest restaurants to our hotel, which just so happened to be Italian, sort of. Holly’s pizza tasted more like a lasagne as they had seemingly used Bėchamel sauce instead of pesto, but at least we were full. l do really like Chinese food but after nearly two months here the greasiness was getting to us and anything a bit plainer really appealed, even this.

I woke up the next morning still feeling worse for wear, so went to the pharmacy seeking medicine for a sore throat. l was given green pills, of which l was to consume five at a time, three times a day. They tasted pretty foul, but brought back fond memories of when l was unwell before in Beijing and bought little brown pills that didn’t taste great and that l had to consume vast quantities of. Full of pills, we headed to the Summer Palace, somewhere I’m not sure whether I’ve been to before or not, but that we bought tickets to on account of tickets to the Forbidden City seemingly being sold out for the week. It was surprisingly relaxing at the gate we entered, but this didn’t last long as we descended to the lake side with throngs of people bustling around. We decided we’d seen enough and got the subway to a huge multi-floored dim sum restaurant I used to frequent. The restaurant opens 24 hours and used to be an ideal spot for a post-night out feed, sometimes at the same time as families would be coming in for their breakfast; a sobering situation indeed. We finished the day off with a stroll around the Olympic Park, stopping to gawp at the illuminated Bird’s Nest stadium.

The next day’s activities were somewhat less classically touristy, but no less important: a self-guided tour of Beijing’s breweries. It also happened to be my birthday. To say that our whole time in China had been leading to this would be only a slight exaggeration. After receiving a very cool card from Holly featuring a Tile Cat, which can be found on clay roof ridges in Dali, we went to a trendy cafe for a breakfast that consisted of undersized pieces of (delicious) cheese, granola and other such things. It was very good. After another coffee at a rooftop cafe, Holly allowed us to go to the first bar of the day: Great Leap Brewing – the original location. This is a lovely little courtyard bar in the hutongs and whilst the beer wasn’t quite as good as l remember it, it was very nice being back. Next stop was another Great Leap Brewing, this time one that l used to frequent. Their burgers are still as good as l remember (and Holly devoured her veggie option), even if their beer has gone downhill. All the bars were pretty much empty as it was mid-afternoon on a Tuesday, so unsurprisingly they didn’t have the same buzz that l remember when I would go after work or at the weekend. We went to a pretty soulless Slowboat next (but with good beer), followed by a new branch of Jing-A (again good beer) as the original has closed down, where l bought a snazzy t-shirt to add to what my brother endearingly calls my ‘rock uncle’ look, and we consumed yet more pizza – the waitress foolishly trying to dissuade us from getting two normal size pizzas as she thought it would be too much for us (we sheepishly had to ask for boxes to take the remnants away). We finished the day at a bar that didn’t exist when l lived in Beijing – The Factory – but left soon after as l couldn’t finish my beer and a boring Irish man was talking at us. It was a nice trip down memory lane, even with all the changes.

After receiving a severe haircut, we took a stroll through Beihai Park to Jingshan Park where we hoped to have a good sunset view over the rooftops of the Forbidden City, seeing as we had failed to get entrance tickets. As we walked up the hill to the viewing platform we slowly rose above a cacophony of tour groups below and were happy not to be in amongst it. Unfortunately for us the crowds were also gathered at the viewpoints, so after taking some quick snaps we retreated back to the warm embrace of courtyard Great Leap where we had a chat with a nice couple/I was a boring English man talking at them, before heading back to Mr Shi’s for some more dumplings, including some dessert options that didn’t quite work – apple/chocolate and banana/chocolate.

We’d had five days of glorious sunshine and blue skies, but a haze cloaked the sky on the morning of our departure, telling us that we’d had our fun and now it was time to leave. l probably could’ve stayed in Beijing for another week doing nothing in particular, even if it wasn’t quite the same as it used to be when l used to live there, which was obviously when it was at its prime. Dada club, Temple Bar and the small Belgium bar l used to go to were all gone, and in general everything feels a bit more sanitised than it used to, especially with the closure of a lot of the small food stalls in the hutongs, but l have a feeling I’m not the first person who has said that about somewhere they used to live – maybe l have become the rock uncle after all.

China has been both overwhelming at times but also exactly what we needed at others. Some of the places l had previously enjoyed going to were now hyper-commercialised parodies of themselves, with multiple megaphones blaring out competing recorded messages about whatever authentic traditional wares they were selling. The constant stream of electric mopeds, often riding on the pavement and beeping at us to get out of the way did my head in. I’ll never get used to the spitting. But at the same time, it was great to be able to put some weight back on after Central Asia. We saw some spectacular scenery and also discovered that we felt rejuvenated after spending time in many of China’s cities. In particular, it was good to be back in Beijing, which still maintained some of its charm for me despite all of the changes, and felt calmer than other places too; Holly even ranked it as her favourite city in China. l don’t think we realised quite how much we needed some time off the bikes and nearly two months in China did the job – we were keen to start cycling again. All we had to do now was collect our bikes in Yantai and get the ferry over to Korea, what could go wrong?