What should I avoid in Beijing?

The tea ceremony scam still works because it feels so friendly. Two or three young people approach you near Tiananmen Square or along Qianmen Dajie, speaking decent English, asking to practice conversation. The chat drifts to Chinese culture, then tea. They walk you to a second-floor teahouse you'd never find on your own, and the bill arrives at ¥500 to ¥800 per person (roughly $74-118 USD) for tea that costs ¥20 at any supermarket. The staff and the "students" split the take. A close cousin is the art student scam near the Lama Temple or 798 Art District. Someone invites you to "my exhibition," and you end up in a cramped gallery with ¥3,000 prints of mediocre calligraphy and heavy pressure to buy. The tell for both is identical. A stranger who approaches you speaking English and steers you toward a specific location is working a script. Polite locals in Beijing tend not to approach foreign visitors unprompted. A firm "bu yong, xie xie" ends it.

Wangfujing Snack Street sells ¥40 deep-fried scorpions and ¥30 starfish-on-a-stick to tourists filming each other. No Beijinger eats this. The real street food is 2 km south at Niujie, where Hui Muslim vendors sell ¥8 yangrou chuan dusted with cumin and chili flake, the fat sizzling and popping over charcoal. You'll smell the smoke from half a block away. The Badaling section of the Great Wall is the default tour-bus stop, and on weekends between May and October it feels like a subway platform at rush hour. Mutianyu, 70 km northeast of central Beijing, has a cable car, fewer crowds, and restored watchtowers where you can hear wind instead of megaphones. Entry costs about ¥40. The Silk Market near Yonganli Station sells counterfeit bags at "first price" marks of 10× what the vendor will accept. The goods fall apart within weeks. For legitimate souvenirs, Panjiayuan Antique Market on Saturday mornings has vintage propaganda posters and ceramics from ¥50, and the sellers expect to negotiate but start honest.

Black taxis at Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK) and Beijing Daxing (PKX) quote ¥400-500 flat fares to central hotels. The metered ride from PEK Terminal 3 to Dongcheng district runs about ¥100-120 including the ¥10 highway toll. The Airport Express from PEK costs ¥25 and reaches Dongzhimen Station in 25 minutes. At Daxing, the metro line gets you to central Beijing in about 40 minutes for ¥35. Download Didi before you arrive for ride-hailing, though it needs a Chinese phone number or international card setup. WeChat Pay and Alipay now accept some foreign cards, but many small restaurants and street vendors still only take Chinese-linked accounts. Carry ¥200-300 in cash for the first two days. Worth noting, Google Maps does not work in China without a VPN, and VPNs are unreliable even on good days. Download Amap or Baidu Maps before your flight. Both work in English, though the translations are sometimes rough.

Beijing's air quality can turn a clear morning into grey haze by noon. Check the AQI on IQAir before planning outdoor days. Anything above 150 means the Forbidden City's golden roof tiles will look flat brown through the murk, and your throat will feel dry and scratchy by mid-afternoon. Pack N95 masks. June through August regularly hits 35°C with 80-90% humidity. That wet heat makes the 2-hour walk through the Summer Palace grounds feel twice as long. March and April bring yellow dust storms from the Gobi that coat everything in fine grit and sting your eyes. Your best window is likely September through early November, when temperatures sit around 15-25°C and the sky is the clearest it gets all year. The Forbidden City and Temple of Heaven both open by 8:30am. Get there at opening. By 10:30am the organized tours arrive and the courtyards fill shoulder to shoulder. The Palace Museum currently caps daily visitors at 30,000, and peak-season weekend tickets sell out days ahead on the official booking site.