Where to Go for a Self-Driving Trip Around Beijing in Winter

It is said that winter is not suitable for traveling, it is the off-season for tourism. However, there are fewer tourists during the off-season, and it has a very unique charm. There are many scenic spots around Beijing suitable for self-driving trips in winter, which are must-see places for going out. For details, see below.

1、Guan Di Village in Huairou

Guan Di, a place hidden in the valley of Huairou, is located in the west of Yanqi Town, integrated with the Shentangyu Natural Scenic Area. It has beautiful mountains and rivers, strange rocks, ancient Great Wall, rivers, mountains and rivers, making it an ideal leisure place with elegant environment and pleasant scenery.

Guan Di is an ancient village with a long history of hundreds of years. The reason for its name is that the Ming Dynasty garrison troops once opened up wasteland for military settlements here. To distinguish it from the civilian fields, it was thus named.

Guan Di has too many beautiful sights. Since you’re here, you must enjoy them and see enough of them. Walking in the village, you will find that you can see the wild Great Wall here.

The most imposing is the Ming Dynasty Great Wall ruins on the mountaintop west of the village. It extends along the undulating mountain terrain, twists and turns, like a dragon coiling up, appearing more magnificent and vicissitudes under the winter sunshine.

Follow the winding stream in the village to the end of the ditch and you will reach the Shentangyu Scenic Area, which is only a twenty-minute walk away. Along the way, you can see many unique sights. Walking among the mountains and waters of Guan Di, you can’t help but feel, what a nostalgic and imaginative little village this is!

Address: Yanqi Town, Huairou District, Beijing

Self-driving route: Take the Jingcheng Expressway, take Exit 3 at the Huairou station and go north, turn left at the original Yanqi roundabout and see the signpost for Yanqi Night Valley and go west, then follow the road, see the fork and turn right, follow the “Shentangyu” direction, see the sign for Guan Di Village and you will arrive.

2、Huang Hua Cheng Water Great Wall

Originally called “Xishuiyu”, now renamed “Huang Hua Cheng Water Great Wall”. Here there is both a reservoir and the Great Wall, which is a rare combination of mountains and waters within Beijing.

Located in Jiudaduhe Town, Huairou District, Beijing, it is 70 kilometers away from downtown Beijing and has beautiful scenery.

Here, there is the grandeur of the Great Wall of North China and the gentleness of the water towns of the south of the Yangtze River. It is known as “the scenery of the north, the style of the south, all in the Water Great Wall”. The three wonders here are famous throughout the world: “the first wonder” built in the Yongle period of Ming Dynasty, the Great Wall meanders on the mountain ridge, surrounding the Haoming Lake, the scenery is beautiful and magnificent; “the second wonder” the lake water naturally cuts off the Great Wall, forming a unique landscape of the Great Wall playing with water and the ancient city wall being submerged;

“the third wonder” the Ming Dynasty chestnut orchard, ancient trees with twisted roots, each with different shapes.

Address: Jiudaduhe Town, Huairou District, Beijing

Self-driving route: Take the Jingzang Expressway to the Shisanling exit – go to Changling – turn right at Changling – there are signposts (Huang Hua Cheng Water Great Wall) – direct access.

3、Western Hills Reclining Buddha Temple

In early December 2020, the early blooming wax plum by the release pond in the Western Hills Reclining Buddha Temple in Beijing bloomed against the cold, becoming a beautiful sight in the winter of the thousand-year-old temple. The Reclining Buddha Temple in Beijing Botanical Garden has always been a famous place for viewing plums in Beijing. Wax plum generally blooms in early spring in Beijing. In order to extend the viewing period of wax plum and allow the general public to enjoy the blooming scenery of wax plum in early winter, Beijing Botanical Garden specially introduced two varieties of early blooming wax plum from the south.

These two wax plum trees have been completely acclimatized to the Beijing climate after technical personnel’s introduction and domestication. Every year from mid to late November, they become the earliest blooming wax plum trees in Beijing. In addition to these two most luxuriant wax plum trees, walk along the eastern half of the release pond, and careful friends will find that in places where the sun is strong, a few wax plum trees are also blooming with small flowers, and many more wax plum trees have borne small flower buds all over the branches, waiting to bloom.

Those wax plum trees that have already bloomed are very popular with tourists, with “long guns and short cannons” surrounding them. Wax plum is not only beautiful, but also particularly fragrant. In the garden, everyone, besides admiring and taking pictures, can’t help but call out, “Come and smell it!” When you come to the Reclining Buddha Temple. Enter the glazed archway, the bright yellow wax plum flowers are in full bloom. Looking at the little yellow flowers shining golden in the sun, a faint fragrance comes over you, feeling refreshed and relaxed!

Address: Beijing Botanical Garden, Wofosi Road, Haidian District, Beijing

Self-driving route: Simply navigate to “Reclining Buddha Temple”.

4、Qingxi Mausoleum in Southern Beijing

Qingxi Mausoleum, a dreamy place made of mountains and water, has reached the beauty and auspiciousness required by geomancy in terms of both landform and atmospheric potential. Compared with the hustle and bustle of Qingdong Mausoleum, Qingxi Mausoleum is closer to the peace and tranquility that touches people’s hearts. In fact, all the mausoleums of the Qing Dynasty, from the North Mausoleum in Shenyang, to the Qingdong Mausoleum in Zunhua, and then to the Qingxi Mausoleum in Yixian, all maintained a high degree of consistency in their design.

Qingxi Mausoleum was built in 1730 (the eighth year of Yongzheng) and completed in 1915, a total of 185 years, covering an area of more than 800 square kilometers of land, among the 14 mausoleums, there are 4 emperors, 9 empresses, 57 concubines, 2 princes, 2 princesses, 6 princes, a total of 80 people buried. It is the most complete, closest to the present, most original, and largest collection of imperial mausoleums in China with its architectural styles of the Qing Dynasty. The Qingxi Mausoleum after snow is a little cold and desolate. The river surrounding the park seems to have fallen into a tranquil sleep, only showing its icy coldness to people. The winter of Qingxi Mausoleum, although it does not have the charming bee-dancing and butterfly-fluttering of spring, nor the magnificent torrential rain of summer, nor the intoxicating fragrance of sweet-scented osmanthus in autumn, but it also has its own implicit beauty dedicated to nature.

Address: 15 kilometers west of Lianggezhuang, Yixian County, Baoding City, Hebei Province

Self-driving route: From Beijing to Qingxi Mausoleum, you can take the Jing Shi Expressway plus National Highway 112, or you can take the Jing Shi Expressway plus the Jing Kun Expressway. The former is slightly shorter; the latter has better road conditions, less traffic, and less time.

5、Guanting

In the early winter of beautiful Beijing, migratory birds have come to the Guanting Reservoir’s reservoir shore in Yanqing, where they are resting. After a short stay, they will continue their flight to the warm south for the winter.

In recent years, the improvement of the surrounding ecological environment and the improvement of people’s environmental awareness, there are more and more migratory birds staying here in spring and autumn, and it has become a warm home for these birds.

Of course, in addition to the increasingly beautiful environment and biodiversity, safety factors are also indispensable in the process of bird migration.

In the winter, there are more and more bird watching and bird photography enthusiasts, and everyone carries “long guns and short cannons” of all kinds of equipment. It is recommended that everyone should watch birds civilly, not shout loudly, and not disturb the flocks for the sake of pursuing visual effects, so that migratory birds can stay more safely in Beijing during their transfer.

Address: Within the boundaries of Huailai County, Zhangjiakou City, Hebei Province and Yanqing District, Beijing

Self-driving route: From Beijing, take the Jingzang Expressway – Jingli Expressway – Jingyin Road – Guanting Reservoir.

6、Badaling Ruins of the Great Wall

The ruins of the Badaling Great Wall, also known as the Shixia Pass Great Wall, is located about 5 kilometers southwest of the Badaling Great Wall, and is the west gate of the Badaling Great Wall defense system.

Here, the mountains are towering, the ravines are steep, the Great Wall is connected to the city gate, the watchtowers are facing each other, and because it is preserved in its original state, although it is incomplete, its majestic spirit remains. The ruined walls, in the midst of the changing seasons and the alternation of day and night, silently tell the vicissitudes of history and the battlefield of yesterday.

Although the Badaling Great Wall is overgrown with weeds on the wall, in the dilapidated towers, one can still hear the shouts of the soldiers of the past. The battlefield where the smoke and fire were rising, the ruined walls, leaning against the towering mountains, add a touch of vigor, it constitutes the incomplete beauty of ancient culture.

Every brick and stone, every grass and tree of the ruined Great Wall, makes every visitor enter the scenic area as if entering the history of yesterday, wandering and pondering in it.

Here is the site of the brickyard where the Badaling section of the Great Wall was built, here is the site of the quarry where the Badaling section of the Great Wall was built, and here is the place where the Dashing King broke through the gate. The Badaling Ruins of the Great Wall Scenic Area not only has the incomplete beauty of ancient culture, but also its natural scenery and environment are more beautiful.

Address: Donggou Village, Badaling, Yanqing District, Beijing

Self-driving route: Take the Jingzang Expressway to the Badaling Great Wall exit, follow the scenic spot signposts.