Top 10 Things to do in Beijing at Night

Beijing is an interesting place to take a tour, and for visitors with an interest in a great time, the nightlife is an attraction in itself. There are many attractions and things to do in Beijing at night, with numerous opportunities to explore, learn, and experience the city. If you plan to visit Beijing, take the time to experience its nightlife. The top options you should definitely include are as follows:

#1: Visit Tiananmen Square and Chang’an Avenue

Chang’an Avenue is one of the world’s grandest ceremonial boulevards, wide enough to march an army down and long enough that most visitors only ever see the central stretch. It runs east to west through the heart of the city, past Tiananmen and the Forbidden City’s south gate. At sunset, the square lights up along with all the surrounding buildings. This makes it eye candy with multi-colors all around. It is one of the most wonderful places to experience after sunset.

#2: Guomao Area and the CBD

The CBD is the central business center, where international and domestic firms have set up shop. This is the center for media, the creative industry, finance, and trade in Beijing, where you can find all sorts of modern architecture. The CBD is on the east side of Beijing, where the China World Hotel is located as the most outstanding feature of the area. There is also the World Trade Center Tower, which used to be the highest skyscraper in this vicinity. This region is one of the best places to enjoy the skyline at night.

#3: Houhai / Shichahai Area

The literal meaning is “ten temples lake.” Once a lake called Haizi during the Yuan Dynasty, surrounded by ten temples, it was named after them. The lake was later narrowed and divided into three connected lakes, Xihai, Houhai, and Qianhai. Since then, the area has become a great place for leisure and a cooling spot during summer, dating back to the Qing dynasty. Today, many restaurants and bars around it provide the perfect nightlife experience.

#4: Qianmen Street

The name’s literal meaning is “the front gate.” This street is situated south of the Qianmen Tower. It runs along the central axis of Beijing and is one of the remaining business centers standing in old Beijing. The street was transformed into a commercial pedestrian street and is quite modern too, a walking street, just like Wangfujing Street found in downtown Beijing. This is one of the places with the best night views in Beijing.

#5: Sanlitun Bar Street

This is the bar street most visitors have heard of, reportedly running since the early 1980s. It sits near the embassy district, west of the Workers’ Stadium, and it is one of the neighborhoods where you will still see people out well past midnight. This is an area popular with young people and expats looking for a way to drink, party, or just blow off some steam.

#6: The Place

The main draw here is the big screen placed between two high-end buildings. This is a place where people walk under the screen to enjoy the lighting, the technique, and the space art. It’s also a place where you can enjoy a great gourmet and luxury shopping experience. If you prefer to spend some time here, you can enjoy one of the open-air bars. It is near Guiyou Mansion in the center of the CBD. This is one of the best things to do in Beijing at night for most tourists.

#7: Solana

This is a lifestyle shopping park. It feels like a unique European town and is a perfect blend of the natural setting and civilization. There is much innovation here and you may find a couple of surprises too. The environment is highly waterside on three sides, supplied by Landmark Lake and Chaoyang Park, which is Asia’s largest city park. This is one of the most beautiful places to be. Many international brands have set up shop here, and you’ll find even more retail shops, bars, clubs, and restaurants.

#8: The broadcast tower (Central Radio and TV Tower)

Often just called the CCTV Tower because it carries China Central Television’s signals, the Central Radio and TV Tower stands at 405 meters and was finished in 1992. It is no longer the tallest thing on the skyline. That title went to CITIC Tower, the 528-meter “China Zun” that opened in the CBD in 2018, so the broadcast tower is now one of the city’s tallest free-standing towers rather than its tallest structure. It is still the better night stop, though: after dark it lights up red and reads like a giant lantern over the west of the city. The revolving restaurant near the 221-meter mark is one of the highest places to eat in Beijing, and the observation deck above it is where the skyline photos happen.

#9: Bird’s Nest and Water Cube

The city’s national stadium is called the Bird’s Nest and is near the Beijing Olympic Park. This is where the 2008 Olympic Games were held, also where Usain Bolt broke the world record when he won the 200m and 100m medals. The Water Cube is an aquatics center with semitransparent bubbles spread over its surface, spectacular when lit at night.

More things to do in Beijing at night, away from the skyline

The squares and towers are the obvious after-dark stops. The city has a quieter set of night activities that most first-timers miss, and they are where an evening actually gets memorable.

Eat your way down a night food street

Beijing’s most famous late-night food street is Guijie, better known as Ghost Street, in the Dongzhimen area. More than 150 storefronts line it and around nine in ten are restaurants, many of them serving crayfish and hotpot until roughly 4 a.m. It is loud, red-lantern-lit, and packed with locals rather than tour groups. For something smaller and more old-Beijing in character, Huguosi Snack Street runs about 600 meters and packs in traditional snacks.

One correction worth making before you go: the Donghuamen night market off Wangfujing, the one with the scorpion skewers in every old guidebook, closed permanently years ago. The daytime Wangfujing Snack Street still trades, but for a proper night market meal head to Guijie instead.

Walk the hutongs after dark

The old alleyways, the hutongs, are calmer at night than in the daytime crush and far more atmospheric. Nanluoguxiang is the best known: a roughly 700-year-old lane, Yuan-dynasty in origin, where courtyard homes now share the street with bars, cafes, and small shops. A few minutes north, the Gulou district around the Drum and Bell Towers has the city’s most rewarding low-key night scene, with jazz clubs, craft breweries, and small bars tucked into the alleys. The Bell Tower and Drum Tower are floodlit gold after dark and make a good photo before you disappear into the lanes for a drink.

Ride the Liangma River night cruise

The newest fixture on the Beijing night circuit is the Liangma River, a landscaped waterway locals have taken to calling the “Little Seine of Beijing.” Open-top boats run the roughly six-kilometer stretch between Solana Pier and Yansha Pier, with departures around 19:00 and 20:00 and a journey of about 45 minutes. The draw is the bridge light shows and the mirrored reflections of the CBD skyline on the water. It sits right beside the Solana park mentioned above, so the two make an easy single evening. Buy tickets ahead in summer, when the sailings sell out.

Catch an evening show

If you would rather sit down, Beijing runs nightly performances aimed squarely at visitors: Peking opera in a teahouse setting, a kung fu show at the Red Theater, and Chinese acrobatics. None of them demand any Mandarin, and most wrap up by around 9 p.m., which leaves the rest of the night for a food street or a hutong bar.

Is it safe to explore Beijing at night?

Yes. Beijing is one of the safer big cities in the world after dark. It is well lit, heavily monitored by cameras, and it is normal to see people, women included, walking and jogging alone late in Sanlitun, the CBD, and along the Liangma River. Violent crime against visitors is rare, and China’s national homicide rate is among the lowest anywhere.

The real risks are the dull ones. Pickpockets work crowded subway cars and busy markets, so keep a hand on your bag. Skip unlicensed taxis and use DiDi or an official cab, especially late. And be ready for the “tea house” scam, where a friendly stranger, often a young woman practicing English, steers you to a teahouse or gallery that ends in a bill for hundreds of dollars. Decline invitations from strangers who insist on choosing the venue and you have closed almost every real problem the city presents at night.

Conclusion

There are many things to do in Beijing at night, each with its own character. You can simply take a stroll for some nighttime sightseeing, since walking is one of the best ways to experience the city. Or you can build the whole evening around eating, because there are so many interesting foods to try in Beijing. Knowing what is on offer is what lets you plan a night that actually suits you.

Let someone else drive the evening

Beijing at night is a lot easier when you are not the one reading maps and negotiating taxi fares in the dark. A private Beijing tour with a local who knows the city can string the night food streets, the hutong bars, and the lit-up towers into one evening, and handle the scams and the language so you do not have to.

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