3-Day Beijing Islamic Heritage: the Niujie Mosque & the Hui Quarter

Morning - Temple of Heaven park before the crowds (start 08:00 AM)
The Temple of Heaven was completed in 1420 as the place where emperors asked heaven for a good harvest, and it joined the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1998. Come early and the park belongs to the city: groups practising tai chi, ballroom dancing and the flute, and retired men writing calligraphy on the paving with water and a long brush. You then walk the north-south axis that puts the Circular Mound Altar, the Imperial Vault of Heaven and the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests in a single line. The hall is 38 metres high and is built on a three-tiered marble terrace, its blue roof tiles standing for the sky.

Lunch
Noodles or dumplings in a neighbourhood restaurant south of the park.

Afternoon - Qianmen, Dashilan and Liulichang
Walk out of the park and along Qianmen, the old commercial street that leads to the Tiananmen gate, rebuilt in its 1920s style in 2008. Behind it lie the lanes of Dashilan, trading for about 600 years and once known for silk, tobacco and medicine shops, and Liulichang, the street of calligraphy brushes, inkstones, seals and antique books that served the imperial bureaucracy.

Evening - Snack street and free time
The walk ends near Qianmen, where you can stay for grilled snacks and Beijing yoghurt or be returned to your hotel.

Meals
Lunch

Accommodation
Day tour - no hotel night included.

Morning - Drum Tower and Bell Tower (start 09:00 AM)
Begin where the Yuan dynasty planned its capital: the Drum Tower, first built in 1272 and rebuilt several times since, and the Bell Tower beside it. Climb the steep wooden stairs for the drum performance and a view straight down the city's central axis, and hear how the towers kept official time for a walled city of a million people before clocks were common.

Late morning - Shichahai and Yandai Xiejie
Walk down to the Shichahai lakes - Qianhai, Houhai and Xihai - which form the water axis of old Beijing. The lane known as Yandai Xiejie, once lined with shops selling tobacco pipes and hanging bags, is one of the few streets in the city that kept its Qing-era shopfronts. Cross the Silver Ingot Bridge and look for the goldfish sellers and the retired men who bring their songbirds out in cages.

Lunch
A family-run courtyard restaurant near the lakes, with northern dishes and dumplings.

Afternoon - Prince Gong's Mansion and Nanluoguxiang
Prince Gong's Mansion was laid out in 1777 and is the most complete surviving Qing princely residence in Beijing, with a garden of rockeries, pavilions and a hall built as a private theatre. From there follow Nanluoguxiang, a hutong of about 786 metres that has kept its Yuan-dynasty line, and continue on foot along lanes of grey brick courtyard houses.

Evening - Free time by the lake
The walk ends at Houhai, where you are free to stay for dinner or return to the hotel with your guide.

Meals
Lunch

Accommodation
Day tour - no hotel night included.

Morning - Breakfast the Beijing way
Beijing breakfast is a street business. At a corner stall your guide orders jianbing, the savoury crepe spread with egg and brushed with fermented bean sauce, wrapped around a sheet of crisp fried dough; then baozi steamed in bamboo tiers, and a bowl of warm soy milk. You eat standing, as the neighbourhood does, and learn what each stall is known for.

Mid-morning - Hutong snack crawl
Walk a stretch of old lanes and taste your way through the morning: candied haws (tanghulu) strung on bamboo, sesame balls, sweet pea-flour cakes, and luzhu - a slow-braised stew of pork, tofu and offal that has been a Beijing breakfast staple for generations. Your guide explains which snacks came from the imperial kitchens and which began as cheap food for carters and workers.

Lunch - Noodles and dumplings in a family restaurant
Zhajiangmian, the thick wheat noodles with fermented soybean sauce, is the northern answer to a bowl of pasta. It is served with shredded cucumber and radish and eaten after a brisk mix at the table.

Afternoon - Markets, tea and douzhi
Continue to a food market where you compare dried goods, sauces and preserved vegetables, and try douzhi - fermented mung-bean milk, sour and slightly fizzy, which locals either love or cannot finish.

Evening - Dinner on a snack street
Finish along a night food street with grilled skewers, griddled dumplings and Beijing-style yoghurt, choosing your own dishes with the guide's help.

Meals
Lunch, Dinner

Accommodation
Day tour - no hotel night included.