Top 10 Cool Things to Do in Beijing for Youngsters

798 Art District, also called Dashanzi Art District, is located about 20 kilometers (12 miles) away from downtown Beijing. It was an abandoned factories area before, which has been transformed into a new landmark of Urban Culture and one of the cool places in Beijing. The factories have been redesigned and used as arts and cultural institutions including galleries, design rooms, art exhibition halls, artist studios, fashion shops, restaurants and bars. Beijing 798 Art District often hosts important international art exhibitions, art events and fashion activities, which attract many film stars and celebrities. Nowadays, 798 Art District can be regarded as an exhibition center of Chinese contemporary arts and a gathering area of influential cultural and creative industries from all over the world. 

Located around 85 kilometers (53 miles) away from Beijing center, Jiankou is one of the most dangerous sections of the Great Wall of China. The wild Jiankou Wild Great Wall has not been repaired for many years and many bricks and stones are loose. Besides, some parts of it, like Eagle Flies Facing Upward and Sky Stair, are particularly steep, almost vertical to the ground and one needs to climb with both hands and feet. Requiring both braveness and carefulness to challenge one’s life to hike it, it is no doubt one of the crazy things to do in Beijing. Jiankou Great Wall is also honored as a paradise of photography. 

 Recommended Tour: Jiankou Great Wall Hiking

Red Brick Art Museum is located about 26 kilometers (16 miles) northeast to Beijing downtown. It mainly uses red bricks as building materials, instead of the concrete and steel, hence the name. And these red bricks are piled up as complete as possible, without being divided, more like into a classical Chinese garden with various creative designs and patterns. Nowadays, permanent collections indoor include representative works of important artists at home and abroad like Christain Lemmerz, Olafur Eliasson, Michael Kvium, Tony Oursler, Huang Yongli and Wushanzhuan. Here, literary feelings can be captured with any shutter and visitors can get a totally new aesthetic experience. So visiting Red Brick Art Museum has been one of the cool things to do in Beijing among young people and artists. 

Extending in the east-west direction, Wudaoying Hutong is located at the east side of Andingmen Flyover (north section of Dongcheng District). It starts from Yonghegong Street in the east and ends in Andingmennei Street in the west with the total length of 630 meters (680 yards). Wudaoying Hutong is one of the cool things to see in Beijing because it is not only a good place to know more about Hutong Culture, but also a paradise to shop for creative and cultural handicrafts as well as a good site for a leisurely walk. 

With the length of around 1 kilometer (0.6 mile), Guijie Street is the most popular snack street in Beijing, stretching from Dongzhimen Flyover in the east to East Jiaodaokou Street in the west.  Among more than 150 commercial stores on this street, 90% are restaurants, selling popular local snacks, such as roasted meat, Fried-pouch Roll, Cream Fried Cake, Cooked Beef or Sheep Tripe, Fried Liver, Yellow Pea Cake, Steamed Pork Dumplings, Glutinous Rice Roll with Sweet Bean Flour. This street is even busy and lively at midnight. What a cool place in Beijing! 

Houhai Bar Street is one of the cool places in Beijing for colorful nightlife. After touring around Old Beijing Hutongs and traditional Courtyards in the day time, you can appreciate the night view of the city and take some rest in these bars hidden inside the traditional style buildings. On this street, each bar has its distinctive features, dynamic or quiet, modern or classic, live music or heavy music. Thus going to the bars in Houhai is one of cool things to do in Beijing with friends.

Beijing Happy Valley is a famous theme park with abundant entertainment facilities, regarded as an entertainment pioneer place of youngsters and one of the crazy things to do in Beijing. In order to fully satisfy young people’s desire, Beijing Happy Valley contains totally 7 thematic parks: Wild Fjord (Firth Forest), Atlantis, Aegean Harbor, Lost Maya, Shangri-La, Dessert Kingdom and Happy Time, which are equipped with roller coaster, merry-go-round, bumper car, Turbo Drop, ghost house, water slide, and mini-train, etc, for you to get relaxed either by happy laughing or loud screaming.

Going for a drink in popular bars on Worker’s Stadium Bar Street is one of cool things to do in Beijing. This place wins high popularity among local youngsters, having kinds of clubs for meet peoples’ different needs. People can also taste local Beijing and western foods here. Some bars open for 24 hours, thus people obtain enough time to spend with their friends. Club MIX, VICS and Trinity Club are popular ones, which have live music bands performance and Hip-Hop DJs performance. This street is located to the southwest side of Worker's Stadium. Besides, tourists can find many other interesting bars surrounding the stadium. 

On the list of Cool Things to Do in Beijing, having leisure time in bars on Sanlitun Bar Street is highly recommended. Located on the east side of North Sanlitun Road, Chaoyang District, this place is famous for its bars and unique features. It is adjacent to 79 embassies and 7 other foreign offices, thus it attracts many foreigners to relax here. In general, most bars on the street open from every afternoon until the next early morning. The busiest time is after night, when people would come in groups. Lan Kwai Fong and D Lounge are popular bars on Sanlitun Street.

Located northwest to Chaoyang Park, SOLANA is not only a fashion vane leading international trends, but also a good place to enjoy western style buildings and sunshine. SOLANA combines commercial area with beautiful surrounding environment, having a Flowering Sky Garden and a Brand Forest composed of more than 300 trees. It houses more than 1,000 well-known brands, 600 famous retail stores, 30 food and beverage outlets, 20 waterfront bars, as well as SAGA Cinema, All Star Ice Skating Club and BHG Boutique Supermarket. Thus, it is definitely a cool place in Beijing. Besides, tourists can also have a look during SOLANA Light Festival which starts from mid-December to next late February.