Beijing’s Embarrassing “World No. 1”: Rated the Worst City, 93% of Travelers Regret Visiting

Sweat up front, farts in the rear, need a bathroom? None are near. Climb the Great Wall, prove you're tough, then sweat so much you've had enough. Legs like jelly, wallet drained, head back home with aches and pains. That is how visitors describe Ba Daling, the famous section of the Great Wall near Beijing. A vlogger travelled a long way to Beijing with their young daughter. They visited the Forbidden City on China's National Day, only to find renovation work underway inside. After China's men's soccer team repeatedly fell to new record lows in the rankings, Beijing earned another unwelcome global first for the country, the top worst city to visit. A travel survey found that 93% of travelers had regretted a trip at least once. Nearly a third had felt that way more than twice. Using an analysis of travel reviews from 2025, media outlets listed the five countries most likely to disappoint visitors. China was the only country in Asia on the list, dragged down by its capital and showcase city, Beijing. The data came from two analyses of 2025 reviews by Luggage Storage Company, Radical Storage, covered by Yahoo and AOL. One examined more than 97,000 reviews of 100 popular tourist cities worldwide. The other covered more than 95,000 reviews of 200 major attractions in 34 countries. The Citi study collected nearly 100,000 Google reviews of the 10 most reviewed attractions in each of the 100 cities worldwide. It then measured how often negative words appeared. Beijing's negative review rate was 11.2%, the fourth highest among the cities. Another measure stood out. In 2025, Beijing had the highest share of reviews using the word bad at 4.4%. Orlando followed at 3.7%. Then Cancun in Mexico at 3.6%. The three cities ahead of Beijing in the broader negative review rankings were described as disappointing. One person said Beijing was unsuitable for tourism or work and better left as a capital that people admire from for many are now posting goodbye Beijing, many subway stations have no escalators, transfers can mean walking more than half a mile, taxis get stuck in terrible traffic, without reservations you cannot get into attractions, sites look closer together but take exhausting walks to reach, the user spent five days there walking from the moment they wake up each day meant leaving early, returning late and taking 30,000 steps, security checks were everywhere with constant demands to show ID for this visitor, Beijing was a place to visit once with no desire to return, someone listed common pitfalls for visitors to Beijing, number one: hotels inside the second ring road are expensive and dated, prices can rise several fold during peak seasons, cheaper hotels beyond the fifth ring road are so inconvenient that travel alone can take up half the day. Number two, if you buy tickets to enter the Forbidden City from Tiananmen Square, expect extremely long security lines. Number three, at the Temple of Heaven, you need a combined ticket to enter the main attraction, the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest. Otherwise, you are left outside watching older women do group dances. Number four, the Summer Palace is four times the size of the Forbidden City, Even with a combined ticket, you cannot see it all in one day, and staff never warn you. Number five, you cannot even enter Tiananmen Square wearing traditional Han Chinese robes or Qing princess costumes. Number six, well-known dining areas such as Wangfu Jing and Nanluo serve expensive, disappointing food. The person described them as tourist traps that overcharge out-of-town visitors. Someone who works in tourism said, 没钱就不要来北京了。 If you don't have the money, don't come to Beijing. That sounds harsh, but Beijing just isn't suited to travel on a shoestring. Lots of people online say you can visit for just a few hundred yuan with no shopping stops. I'm telling you, that simply is impossible. The vlogger broke down a five-day trip in Beijing. A budget hotel at 200 yuan a night costs 800 yuan for four nights. Food at 80 yuan a day adds 400 yuan over five days. that is before admission fees 60 yuan for the Forbidden City 40 yuan for the Badaling Great Wall and 140 yuan for a round trip cable car ride the Summer Palace cost 30 yuan a combined Temple of Heaven ticket 34 yuan the Old Summer Palace 25 yuan and Prince Gong's Mansion 40 yuan lodging and these must-see attractions alone exceed 1000 yuan daily transportation and other small expenses are extra. Add transportation, a guide and other services, and a sightseeing-only tour with no hidden catches cost more than 2,000 yuan. Even in the off-season, she said tours priced at 700 or 800 yuan are an option, but travelers need to know what to expect. There will be plenty of extra charges, and the experience will be much worse. A Chinese visitor who had just toured Beijing posted i booked a tour a few days ago and took my daughter to Beijing we had three different guides in three days when the tour ended yesterday they left us by the roadside the guide would no longer respond to us i felt so mistreated that i posted a video 400 000 people have watched it many in the comments said they had similar experiences she said Beijing had always felt like a sacred place to her she wanted to take her child and parents there during her lifetime to watch the flag raising ceremony she hoped to visit Tiananmen Square the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace and climb the Great Wall instead the trip left her deeply disappointed she said she rarely traveled far knew little about tour prices and did not want to do the research the agency's online travel guides, live streams and video drew her in. After she booked, its so-called personal assistant were full of enthusiasm and promises. They used friendly names like Qingqing and Yuanyuan but they were just salespeople collecting money with no responsibility for the trip. Right away, they demanded a 100 yuan deposit and her ID details to reserve attractions. The promises of good food and comfortable lodging came to nothing. The breakfast buffet was one bread roll and one bottle of water, which guests had to collect at reception. The roast duck feast at lunch was tofu and cabbage shared by 10 people at a table. The best dish was scrambled eggs with tomatoes. She said nothing was edible and even the guide would not touch it. They stayed in a small hotel beyond the Fifth Ring Road with a two to three hour ride each way. Of each 12 hour day, six hours were spent in the vehicle, leaving passengers dizzy and nauseated. Things got worse as soon as they arrived the guide pushed them to buy insurance for 60 or 80 yuan she said it cost only six yuan and should have been included in the tour prices at the attraction visitors can pay extra for sites within the old summer palace sightseeing shuttles and other items these had been described as optional when they booked and the visitors did not want them but when they refused to pay the vehicle would not stop and they were not allowed off they were driven around for more than three hours. In the end, each was charged 600 or 700 yuan. They had been promised the same guide for all three days. Instead, a new guide arrived on the second day and another on the third. The original female guide had moved on to the next group. The vlogger felt she was ruthless about extracting money and assumed the company valued her sales skills, including travel cost. The three-day trip came to more than 6,000 yuan. It was far from cheap, yet left her feeling deeply mistreated beijing has appeared on lists of disappointing destinations before in a 2022 study based on reviews from travel booking sites trip advisor radical storage ranked it among the 10 most disappointing cities with a nine percent negative review rate that rate has continued to rise in the years since many users complain that beijing's food is repetitive bland and expensive. Its best known dish is Peking duck. One visitor said, we ordered a roast duck set meal in Jianguan Yuan in Beijing. Don't come. It's not good. It really isn't. The duck is so greasy that you've had enough after a couple of bites. The soup made from the duck bones isn't good either. My partner makes better soup at home. That tells you something then there's the kung pao chicken i don't understand why so many visitors to Beijing order it it's not good the cold starch noodles are okay i like sour food and those noodles are pretty sour as for the rest it feels like they spend heavily on advertising but the food just isn't good one visitor went to Liqun Roast Duck in Beijing because of its reputation only to leave disappointed many tables were empty in the cold weather the duck cooled down soon after arrived the pancakes were already cold and stuck together their server pulled them apart by hand and the sight of the server's fingernails disgusted the visitors staff barely responded to complaints and refused to replace the food the vlogger said the restaurant took advantage of out-of-town tourists and advised others against going a restaurant reviewer vlogger once saw a chef leave this restaurant and enter a public restroom he went into and saw the chef urinate pull up his pants and leave without washing his hands The sight put him off eating there. Looking up the restaurant on his own phone, he found that it opened in 1991 and was China's first privately operated roast duck restaurant. Another visitor tried Quanjude, Beijing's world-famous roast duck restaurant, feeling it was a must during the trip. But he said it tasted a little different duck bought at a food market Dipping it in sugar at home would be much the same. Each member of the group found it too rich after a bite. The three of them could not even finish half a duck. By the end, the richness made them feel sick. He said it was not worth a special trip. Here is what other visitors said about Beijing. On my second day in Beijing, the prices shocked me. I thought Mixue ice cream cost 2 yuan everywhere in the country Here it's 3 yuan Sha Xian style tossed noodles cost 5 yuan in cheaper places I paid 6 yuan in Hangzhou, but they're 10 yuan in Beijing The biggest surprise was a bowl of hot oil noodles for 18 yuan, with no meat at all. Senior travelers often want to visit Beijing. People say seeing Tiananmen is a lifelong dream for them, especially those born before 1960. But Beijing really isn't a great tourist city. First, there isn't much good food. I worked there for 3 years. Most people running breakfast shops and restaurants were from Anhui. Quanjude roast duck is one of the better-known dishes. But I honestly think roast duck in Nanjing tastes better. This has no braising sauce, and it's really expensive. Only that copper pot lamb hot pot place, Dongnanshun, comes close to suiting visitors' tastes. Accommodation is expensive too. My family visited a couple years ago and stayed in Fengtai by the South Third Ring Road. A standard room costs more than 400 yuan. We got up early every day, took the subway, and stayed out sightseeing until night. It was exhausting. One good thing about Beijing is that admission tickets are fairly cheap, but there are just too many people. Crowds at the Forbidden City, crowds at Prince Gong's Mansion. Beijing is huge, and the attractions are scattered all over. The Great Wall is even farther away. We went to the Muzhenyu Great Wall. The bus from Tianmen took more than an hour. After that visit, I don't want to go back. There really isn't much fun to be had in Beijing. Visiting Beijing's main attractions also come with restrictions. Many visitors know that carrying a bag can be a real problem. Bring one and you worry security won't let you in, leave it behind and you'll have nowhere to keep your things. Here are the rules of bringing and storing bags at Beijing's major attractions. First, Tiananmen Square. Backpacks are allowed, but lighters and power banks over 20,000 mAh are not. There is no bag storage inside the square. You need to arrange storage for large luggage in advance. Second, the Tiananmen Gate Tower, you can bring only your phone and ID, no bags of any size. Free storage is available far to the north of the tower. Even water, power banks, and snacks are banned. Third, the Mao Zedong Memorial Hall. No bags, drinking cups, power banks, or tissues. Storage is across the road and you must show proof of your reservation to use it. fourth the palace museum inside the forbidden city backpacks and crossbody bags are allowed but suitcases larger than 20 inches must be checked drop bags off west of the meridian gate then collect them at the Gate of Divine Prowess drop off and pick up are at different gates fifth the national museum of china regular backpacks are allowed large luggage must be stored one level below ground at the north gate for 2 to 10 yuan no eating or drinking in the galleries tripods and extra long selfie sticks are also prohibited there six the great hall of the people backpacks are allowed but high capacity power banks bottled water and snacks are not seventh the summer palace old summer palace temple of heaven jingshan park prince gong's mansion llama temple and bala ding Great Wall. These side screens for dangerous items, only small everyday bags and personal belongings are allowed. Many people also criticize Beijing's budget hotels, bad service, poor conditions and terrible hygiene. Slippers are reused, there are bugs in the rooms, hair under the sheets and even maggots. Another wrote, cockroaches and mice in the rooms, leaking ceilings, no hair dryer or toiletries. They still demand a deposit and the staff are rude. As Beijing received this unwelcome tourist ranking another survey challenged Shanghai's reputation the CCP regime has long promoted it as a leading international metropolis and a model city British magazine Time Out released its 2026 global public transportation survey founded in London in 1968 it is an established guide to city dining entertainment and quality of life worldwide international travelers and media outlets often refer to its city rankings this survey asked more than 24 000 urban residents about their daily experience of crowded rides, wait times and paying fares Taipei Taiwan took first place with 95 percent positive ratings giving it the survey's highest rated public transportation Time Out said the Taipei Metro stood out from subway systems in most major cities writer Ro Sing Teeling wrote spotless stations clearly marked lines for boarding and trains that arrive on time earned Taipei nearly perfect ratings from local residents. The system also carried more than 767 million passenger trips in 2025, averaging about 2.1 million a day. Teeling also praised the EasyCard. The same card works on the metro, buses and U-Bike rentals and can even pay for snacks at 7-Eleven. The Taipei Metropolitan Transit Network continues to expand. New Taipei's light rail and circular line recorded a combined 30 million passenger trips last year, a new record. Second through fifth were Singapore, Hong Kong, Edinburgh in the United Kingdom, and Seoul in South Korea. Sixth through tenth were Zurich, Switzerland, Vienna, Austria, Tallinn, Estonia, Helsinki, Finland, and Medellín, Colombia. Shanghai ranked 11th. China frequently promotes its infrastructure building achievements. Nationalist supporters say Shanghai's infrastructure far outclasses New York's, but Residence Rating put it behind Taipei, which Beijing repeatedly says it wants to bring under its control through unification. Tallinn, Estonia, and Medellin, Colombia, also ranked higher. Beijing has spent enormous sums on subways and high-speed rail. The Chinese capital promotes itself as a world leader and ranks near the top on several measures, including the scale of its rail network. Yet it did not even appear among Asia's top 20 in this ranking of positive public transportation ratings.