The pleasure of a Beijing rooftop is not height. The old city is low, capped by planning rules that keep the centre close to its historic scale, so a terrace only four or five storeys up sits above a sea of grey tiled roofs with the Drum and Bell Towers and the yellow glazed ridges of the Forbidden City breaking the line. That view is the one worth paying for, and it is best in the hour before sunset and the hour after.
Where the rooftops are
Most of them cluster in two areas. Around Shichahai and Houhai, on the north side of the old city, terraces look out over the lakes and the hutongs, with the Drum Tower standing to the east. Near the Forbidden City and Jingshan, roofs and terrace bars look down onto the palace moat and the trees of the imperial parks. There are also terraces in the hutong lanes of Dongcheng and in the hotel roofs of the Sanlitun and CBD districts to the east, but those look at office towers rather than at the old city, which defeats the purpose.
What an evening is like
Most places open in the late afternoon and run until midnight or later, and most serve a short list of cocktails, imported beer and wine plus a few snacks rather than a full dinner. Prices at the recognised rooftops are hotel-level, and the ones with the best views charge accordingly; a table usually needs booking on a warm weekend. In spring and autumn, terraces fill early and the evening is comfortable; in summer the air is heavy and the tops of the roofs shimmer; in winter almost all of them close, though a few glassed-in roofs keep going with heat lamps and blankets.
Practical notes
Dress is casual but not beachwear, and most terraces are no-smoking inside with smoking allowed on the open side. Sunsets come early in winter and around half past seven in midsummer, so plan to arrive an hour before. The lanes around Houhai and the Drum Tower are narrow and congested at night; a taxi will drop you at the nearest main road and you walk the rest. Combine a rooftop with dinner at one of the hutong restaurants below, which is how most people do it.
