The Temple of Heaven glowing at golden hour beside imperial walls, Beijing
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Beijing · North China

Imperial China

Six hundred years of empire, a wild stretch of the Wall to yourselves — and golf played in its shadow.

Ideal Length
4–5 nights
as part of a longer journey
Golf
2–3 rounds
incl. Reignwood Pine Valley
Best Season
Apr–Oct
clear skies, golden autumn light
Pairs With
Hangzhou · Shanghai
45 min by air · 4.5 h by rail
The Journey

Begin where China began.

Every empire leaves a capital, and none left one like Beijing. The Forbidden City still sits at the centre of the city's grid like a held breath; the Great Wall still rides the ridgelines an hour to the north. This is where a first journey through China should open — among the icons, before the country starts surprising you.

Our Beijing is quieter than the one most visitors see. You enter the Forbidden City as the gates open and the courtyards are still empty. You walk a wild, unrestored stretch of the Wall with no one else on it. And between the monuments you slip into the hutongs — the low, grey-brick lanes where the city actually lives — for noodles, courtyard cafés and the best roast duck of your life.

The golf belongs to the same landscape. At Reignwood Pine Valley, Jack Nicklaus laid fairways through the Jundu Mountains with the Wall tracing the skyline above the back nine. Few rounds anywhere carry a sense of place like it.

The Golf

Fairways in the shadow of the Wall.

Beijing's best golf hides in the mountains north of the city — private, immaculate and all but unknown to international golfers.

Golfers on a Reignwood Pine Valley fairway with the Great Wall snaking across the mountains behind Caddies and players walking a Reignwood fairway beneath the jagged Jundu peaks An autumn green at Reignwood Pine Valley with a mountain rising behind The white château clubhouse of Reignwood Pine Valley beneath the Jundu Mountains
Signature round
Jundu Mountains · Changping

Reignwood Pine Valley

Set beneath the Great Wall near Badaling, Reignwood Pine Valley is one of China's most private and prestigious golf clubs — a Nicklaus mountain-parkland layout where elevated tees, sculpted bunkering and fast, guarded greens unfold below the Jundu Mountains, the Wall tracing the ridgeline above. Membership is closely held; we arrange guest play on your behalf, with caddies, forecaddies and a quiet clubhouse lunch to follow.

Designer
Jack Nicklaus / Nicklaus Design
Setting
Great Wall mountain parkland
Best season
Apr–Oct
Pair with
Great Wall, Forbidden City, private Beijing dining
Autumn fairways at Topwin Golf & Country Club, with the Yanqi Lake pagoda and the Yanshan mountains beyond A bunkered lakeside green jutting into Yanqi Lake, framed by autumn leaves The Yanqi Lake pagoda mirrored in still water beside the course Rolling fairways and autumn grasses beneath the Yanshan range at Topwin A stone bridge arching over a still stream on the course, golden willows reflected in the water
A presidential round
Yanqi Lake · Huairou

Topwin Country Club

Lakeside fairways beneath the Yanshan range, beside the waters where the world's leaders gathered for the 2014 APEC summit — President Obama among those to have played a round here. In autumn the course turns gold and crimson, the pagoda rising over the back nine.

Designer
Ian Woosnam
Setting
Lakeside parkland, Yanqi Lake
Claim to fame
Obama's Beijing round, APEC 2014
Pair with
The Great Wall at Mutianyu, 20 minutes away

A third round is easily woven in — parkland and lakeside courses across the Jundu foothills and the city's north, chosen for your dates and the season. We'll recommend the right pairing when we design your journey.

Lacquered slices of Peking duck served in a tiered wooden presentation box, condiments in its drawers
After the Round

The day does not end at the 18th.

Beijing's best evenings are built around private tables: crisp-skinned Peking duck, quiet courtyard dining, old-city wine rooms, and seasonal northern Chinese menus arranged away from the obvious tourist circuit.

For golfers, it moves instead into the kind of dinner that makes Beijing feel personal — booked, briefed and waiting by the time you've putted out.

Journeys Featuring Beijing

Where Beijing fits in a journey.

Beijing rarely travels alone — it opens a longer route. Two of our sample journeys begin here; the full day-by-day shape of each lives on its own page.

A palace-style clubhouse above bunkered fairways, misty hills behind
6–7 Nights · 3 Rounds

First-Time Golf China

Beijing + Hangzhou
Imperial China, Great Wall golf and the quiet elegance of West Lake — the natural first journey.
Tailor This Journey →
The Complete Route An oceanfront golf hole on the cliffs of Shanqin Bay, Hainan
14 Nights / 15 Days · 7–9 Rounds

The Grand China Golf Journey

Beijing + Hangzhou + Yunnan + Hainan
Open in the capital, finish on a tropical coast — the most complete way to experience Golf China.
Tailor This Journey →

Or build Beijing into your own.

Add days, swap rounds for culture, bring non-golfers — every journey is designed from scratch. Tell us about your party and we'll shape the route around you.

Request a Private Proposal
Signature Experiences

Beijing, arranged privately.

Built on relationships on the ground, set up for your party alone — never an excursion from a brochure.

The Great Wall snaking over ridgelines at golden hour
Beijing · The Wall

The Great Wall, after hours

A wild, unrestored stretch with a private guide — and a table set on the ramparts as the light goes gold.

The Forbidden City at golden hour, Beijing
Beijing · Forbidden City

First through the Meridian Gate

The palace courtyards before the city wakes, with a historian who reads the architecture like a text.

Golden roofs and vermilion walls of the Forbidden City, Beijing
Beijing · Hutongs

The hutong chef's table

Into the morning markets with a chef, then lunch cooked and poured in a private courtyard house.

These are a beginning, not a menu — tell us what your party loves and we'll find its Beijing equivalent.

Where You Stay

Sleep inside the old city.

Not a tower by the ring road — an address that is part of the journey itself.

Golden imperial rooftops in central Beijing
In the City · Hutong Courtyards

Sleep where the city is oldest

Our Beijing favourites sit in the hutongs, a few lanes from the Forbidden City — the likes of the Waldorf Astoria's courtyard houses, where grey brick and bronze doors give way to deep baths and very good martinis. Step out of the gate and the oldest streets in the capital are yours before breakfast.

For travelers who prefer glass and skyline to grey brick, the city's modern landmarks along the central axis make an equally good base — we'll match the address to your taste.

The Great Wall riding mountain ridgelines at golden hour, north of Beijing
In the Mountains · Near the Wall

A night at the foot of the Wall

With both rounds played out in Huairou's mountains, a night in the countryside earns its place — a quiet retreat below the ridgeline, where the Wall is visible from the terrace and the first tee is minutes away rather than an hour through traffic.

It pairs naturally with the after-hours Wall evening: dinner on the ramparts, a short drive down, and mountain silence instead of the ring road.

Specific hotels, room categories and the level of comfort you choose are set out in your private proposal — every address booked entirely on your behalf.

Extend the Journey

Beijing is the beginning.

Most of our guests open in the capital, then let the country change around them. Two natural next chapters:

A stone bridge over misty West Lake with the Leifeng Pagoda beyond, Hangzhou
4.5 h by high-speed rail

Jiangnan & Modern China

West Lake calm, garden resort golf and the Bund — the classic counterpoint to the capital.

Explore →
Naxi rooftops with Jade Dragon Snow Mountain glowing at sunset, Yunnan
3.5 h by air

South of the Clouds

Snow-mountain fairways, the Tea Horse Road and China at its most distinctive.

Explore →
Start Planning

Begin your journey in Imperial China.

Tell us a little about your trip and a travel designer will reply within one business day — with no obligation.

Request a Private Proposal