Things to Do in Beijing in May

Mutianyu sits about 70 km (43 miles) northeast of central Beijing. In May its section of the Wall drapes across a ridgeline thick with fresh green forest. The restored watchtowers here are connected by walkable stretches of wall wide enough to pass other visitors comfortably. A cable car takes the sting out of the initial ascent to around 600 m (1,970 ft) elevation. The air runs noticeably cooler than the city below. After Labor Day week, the crowds thin enough that you can walk long stretches with nobody in front of you. The light hitting the gray stone runs warm and direct through clear spring air. Budget at least five to six hours door to door from central Beijing. The drive passes through rural villages where old men smoke under walnut trees. The smell of coal smoke gives way to pine as you climb into the mountains. The toboggan slide down is fun. Not just for children.

If Mutianyu is the comfortable, cable-car-accessible introduction, Jinshanling is the Wall for people who came to walk. About 130 km (81 miles) northeast of Beijing, its 10 km (6.2 mile) stretch includes partially unrestored sections where wild grass pushes between crumbling bricks. The only sound is wind through the watchtower windows. May's moderate temperatures and clear air make the three-to-four-hour trek pleasant. In July it becomes an endurance test of heat and haze. The trail rises and falls along the ridgeline with several steep staircases between towers. The views on a clear May morning extend to mountain ranges layered in progressively paler shades of blue. Many tours pair the daytime hike with an evening visit to Gubei Water Town at the base of the mountains. This reconstructed canal village glows with lantern light after dark. It smells of grilled lamb skewers and star anise from the restaurant lanes. Stay for dinner.

The Forbidden City spans 72 hectares (178 acres) of stone courtyards, vermillion walls, and gilded rooftops that held 24 emperors across five centuries. In May you can experience it slowly enough to notice the carved marble dragon ramps, the bronze lion door handles worn smooth by millions of hands, and the way yellow-glazed roof tiles throw warm light across the courtyards in morning sun. Enter from the south through Tiananmen Gate. The scale of the Meridian Gate hitting you for the first time delivers an architectural shock that photographs cannot prepare you for. The complex runs along a central axis north to south, with main ceremonial halls on the spine and quieter palace gardens and residential quarters branching east and west. May's dry air keeps the paving comfortable underfoot. Summer turns it into a rain-slicked obstacle course. Allow three to four hours minimum. Go on a weekday morning after Labor Day week if you can.

Beijing's hutong alleyways form the connective tissue of the old city, narrow lanes of gray brick courtyard houses threaded between the Drum Tower and the lakeshores of Shichahai. In May, the jujube and scholar trees shading the doorways are fully leafed out, dappling the flagstones with green light. Morning air carries the sesame-paste-and-scallion smell of jianbing crepe carts before the day warms up. Walking tours through neighborhoods like Dongcheng move at the pace of residents. Watch elderly men playing xiangqi on stone benches. See a woman hanging laundry across a lane so narrow you turn sideways to pass. Hear the distant clatter of mahjong tiles from behind a cracked-open door. The food dimension earns these tours their reputation. Beijing's street food in the hutong lanes runs from hand-pulled zhajiangmian noodles tossed with fermented soybean paste and raw cucumber to lamb skewers glazed with cumin and chili flakes, eaten standing at a counter that seats four. May's comfortable temperatures make two to three hours on foot enjoyable. High summer turns it into a sweaty trudge.

The Summer Palace spreads across 290 hectares (717 acres) of landscaped grounds and lake northwest of central Beijing. May catches it in the brief window between winter's bare branches and summer's overwhelming green density. Kunming Lake reflects the Western Hills on still mornings before tour buses arrive. The Long Corridor, a 728-meter (2,388-foot) covered walkway painted with over 14,000 individual scenes from Chinese mythology, stays cool and shaded even as the courtyards outside warm toward afternoon. Lotus leaves push through the lake surface in late May, their flat green pads dotting the water before the famous pink blooms open in June and July. The hill behind the Tower of Buddhist Incense is worth the climb. The aerial view over the lake and the rooftop geometry of palace buildings below reward the effort. In May you can make the ascent without arriving drenched in sweat. The boat dock on the south shore runs paddle boats and dragon boats across the lake. On a warm May afternoon with willow branches trailing into the water, this is one of those quiet pleasures that does not make the guidebook highlights. It probably should.

The Temple of Heaven compound covers 273 hectares (675 acres) of cypress-shaded parkland in southern Beijing. The experience splits into two distinct halves depending on when you arrive. Before 8 AM, the park belongs to locals. Paths between ancient cypress trees, some over 600 years old and so gnarled their trunks look like slow-motion whirlpools in wood, fill with retirees doing tai chi, sword practice, ribbon dancing, and synchronized group singing involving fifty people and a portable speaker the size of a suitcase. The smell of the park at dawn is cypress resin and damp earth. The architectural half, the ceremonial buildings along the south-to-north axis, peaks with the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests. This triple-eaved circular temple has a deep blue-tiled roof that catches May's morning light in a way that justifies the reputation it has carried for five centuries. The Echo Wall and Circular Mound Altar, built to amplify sound through geometry alone, work as designed at this hour. Tour group noise drowns out the acoustics later.