Travel to Beijing with Kids - 11 Things to Do

Beijing Zoo, about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) from central Beijing, is quite large with many animal species, including rare animals such as giant panda, golden monkey, manchurian tiger, red crowned crane, as well as animals from all over the world like the chimpanzee, kangaroo, jaguar, and manatee. In addition, there is an amphibious and reptile museum cultivating more than 100 kinds of reptiles. When traveling to Beijing with kids, do not miss this attraction. The kids can have a good time here by observing and learning the living habits of animals and watching animal performances.

Talking about kids activities Beijing, having fun in Happy Valley must be one of the most popular ones. The Happy Valley aims to treat visitors with a mysterious and dreamlike world. The number of themed landscapes, amusement facilities and themed games is more than 100. Here you can experience all kinds of thrilling roller coasters with different track shapes, a gingerbread-themed carousel, a cake-shaped swing, a 60-meter (197 feet) high viewing platform overlooking the whole Happy Valley, a heart beating haunted house, bumper cars and 4D movies... Also, nearly 80 wonderful performances in different forms are provided for tourists to rejoice with wild excitement every day. One of the most famous performance is the Golden Mask Dynasty.

The Badaling Great Wall, 70 kilometers (43 miles) from Beijing downtown embraces beautiful natural scenery. It is the best-preserved Great Wall section and one of the most popular Beijing attractions for kids. If it is too hard for your kids to climb up there, you can take a cable car to get to the highest point at No.8 North Watchtower, where you are able to overlook the Great Wall. When you get down, you can easily walk to the No.4 North Tower, and then take the slideway to the foot of the Great Wall. The slideway is like a super long slide which your kids will like for sure. If your kid is too young for the slideway, just descend the same way by the cable car.

After visiting the Great Wall, you can go to nearby Badaling Wildlife World, China's largest mountain wildlife park to continue the wonderful exploration in Beijing with Children. Along the winding tour route inside the forest, you will see all kinds of animals such as lion, white tiger, brown bear, giant panda, giraffe and wolf in a sightseeing car. You can not only feed the beasts, but also get close to docile animals. Located in the southwest of the park, Ark Square is a place for tourists to have a rest and have a sunbath. Every weekend and holiday, there will be animal performances here.

If you do not know what to do in Beijing with kids, visiting the Forbidden City, where China’s ancient emperors worked and lived, is a wise choice. It has two parts with Gate of Heavenly Purity as the division line. To the south of the Gate of Heavenly Purity is the Outer Court, the area that emperors deal with state fairs and to the north is the residence of the emperors, their concubines, princes and princesses. Magnificent buildings and exquisite historical relics in the Forbidden City will definitely dazzle your eyes. You can rent a princess or prince’s costume for your kid when touring inside, which is a lot of fun. Don't forget to take photos! It takes about 2 hours to visit along the central axis. But if you want to visit the Forbidden City carefully, it needs half of the day or whole day. 

 Recommended Tour:  2 Days Beijing Mini Group Tour from $259

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Tasting Beijing Roast Duck is one of must things to do in Beijing with kids. Beijing Roast Duck is famous for the red and crisp skin and tender and fabulous meat. After being served, the whole roast duck will be cut into very thin slices by the chef. Then, put a little sweet sauce made of fermented flour on the lotus-leaf-like pancake, a few pieces of roast duck, sliced scallions and sliced cucumber and then roll up. Your kids will have fun not only from the delicious food, but also from the process of rolling the food by themselves. The three most famous Roast Duck restaurants in Beijing are Quanjude, Bianyifang and Dadong.

Beijing Museum of Natural History is about 2.5km (1.6 miles) south to the Tiananmen Square in central Beijing. In the museum, the interactive exploration method and the displaying of animal life scenes help children acquire the knowledge easily and deeply. There are 8 permanent exhibitions inside, displaying the collections of paleontology, ornithology, mammals and invertebrates. For visitors who travel to Beijing with kids, the Dinosaur Park is absolutely the most eye-catching exhibition. Dozens of dinosaurs and their living scenes have been restored by using advanced technology. Besides, the audience can see the scene of dinosaur fossil excavation. The Discovery World in the museum is also a fun place to visit in Beijing with Children.

The Waterpark inside the Water Cube is one of the largest indoor waterparks in China with advanced facilities and more than 20 various water slides. Covered by blue and transparent bubble film and decorated with colorful corals, soft jellyfish, green seaweed, beautiful fish and special lights, the waterpark presents a dreamlike underwater fairy tale world. There are 11 water amusement projects in the park: Deep-sea Tornado, Magic Vortex, a 76-meter high speed slide, Rapid Undercurrent, a Children's shallow water park, Magic Cube Castle, Underwater Shuttle, Crazy Tsunami, Bubble Pool, Fairy Rafting, and Water Cube Stage. According to the different seasons, the room temperature in the park will be intelligently adjusted to ensure that tourists can experience the thrilling and exciting water projects any time.

Beijing Shijingshan Amusement Park is 15 kilometers (9 miles) away from Tiananmen Square and covers an area of 350,000 square meters (376,7369 square feet). The whole park is full of exotic elements where you can find the gothic Cinderella Castle standing in the central park, Arabic restaurant and Russian style gatehouses. There are more than 50 entertainment projects distributed in the four theme areas such as the pirate ship, ferris wheel, carousel and roller coaster. Every day, the five beautiful float parades in different cultural themes and performances showing the rich customs of Germany, Britain, Egypt also bring visitors endless fun. There is no doubt Shijingshan Amusement Park is one of the fun things to do in Beijing with kids.

Located in Beijing Zoo, Beijing Aquarium is the largest inland aquarium in the world. It is a fabulous place to visit in Beijing for kids. From a distance, the Aquarium is just like a big blue conch, lying on the beach surrounded by green trees and flowers. In the aquarium, visitors can not only watch all kinds of marine animals, but also see wonderful animal performances. There are seven theme exhibition areas for tourists, including Rainforest Wonder, Bering Strait, Whale and Dolphin Bay, Chinese Sturgeon Hall, Seabed Travel, Feel Pool and Ocean Theater. After entering the aquarium, you can visit one by one along the direction line in order. It takes about 3 hours to visit the whole aquarium.

The Beijing Planetarium has attracted numerous audiences with its unique displaying of the astronomic phenomenon. It consists of Building A and Building B. Building A can vividly restore the spherical screen images of more than 9,000 stars for 400 spectators. There is a cosmos theater, a 4D theater and a 3D theater, as well as various facilities such as astronomy exhibition hall, sun observatory, mass observatory and astronomy classroom in Building B. Among them, the 18-meter radius cosmos theater can present a magnificent three-dimensional sky screen. This is a great place to visit in Beijing with children whose ambitions are to be astronomers.

Known as the most beautiful place in old Beijing, the Shichahai consists of Xihai, Houhai, Qianhai, three open waters. Surrounding it is a residential area for local Beijingers where many traditional Beijing courtyards, Siheyuan are preserved. So while enjoying the beautiful lake views, visitors can know something about Beijing's history, culture, folk customs and ancient buildings. Prince Gong's Mansion and Liuyin Street are two top historical attractions. The Yanxiedai Street which is full of shops selling the cultural and creative products attracts numerous tourists. Besides, tourists can enjoy the most authentic Beijing snacks in the Lotus Market and Huguo Temple Street opposite to Shichahai. In winter, the lake will turn into a large natural skating rink. Children can have fun by skating and riding a skating cart. Besides, if you wonder where to stay in Beijing with kids, surrounding hotels transformed from Siheyuan will bring you and your children a novel accommodation experience.