Living in Beijing: a practical setup guide

Write down the exact office entrance, school campus if relevant, and first accommodation address in Chinese. Keep a second column for anything not yet confirmed. An employer name, a school group or a district name is not a precise destination.

For example, compare a home-to-office journey involving Haidian with one involving Chaoyang using the actual addresses, not a reputation for an “expat area”. Beijing’s official service-centre directory lists distinct locations in Haidian, Chaoyang, Dongcheng and other districts. Those are administrative locations, not a recommendation to live beside them or proof that a particular office handles your case.

Use a small decision sheet before arranging viewings:

Keep school eligibility and work permission separate from this location exercise. Ask the responsible school or employer which official process applies; a convenient address does not settle either question.

Beijing’s municipal portal reported in June 2025 that its urban rail network supported contactless cards from UnionPay, Mastercard, Visa, JCB and American Express, including the airport express lines. See the Beijing rail-payment notice. This is a dated Beijing system announcement, not a promise that every card, phone wallet or Chinese transport system will work identically.

Before relying on it, check the operator’s current instructions and test your own payment method on an ordinary journey. Keep another way to buy a ticket. If a gate rejects the card, ask station staff rather than assuming a wallet screenshot is a valid travel credential.

For arrival, copy the airport name and terminal from your booking. Treat Capital Airport and Daxing Airport as separate destinations in your plan. Record the route from that terminal to your accommodation, the final walk with luggage and a fallback if your arrival time changes. Do not choose a home solely because it looks close to an airport route.

Use the transport guide for the daily-versus-intercity planning checklist. It does not replace current Beijing operator information.

Take each shortlisted home through the same test: a morning work trip, a return at your expected finish time, a school journey if relevant and an ordinary grocery trip. Include station entrances, transfers, walking and building access. Write down the result instead of relying on a district-wide average.

At a viewing, ask how heating and cooling are controlled, which costs are included, how faults are reported and whether the equipment can be demonstrated. Inspect the unit you would rent, including water, appliances, lift access, noise and the route outside the building. These are viewing questions, not claims about every Beijing building.

Keep a separate transaction checklist for the person entitled to let the property, the agreement, all payments, early-exit terms and the handover record. The renting guide helps structure that check. Do not assume an advertised deposit or agent fee is a Beijing-wide legal standard.

For a non-emergency city-service question, Beijing’s official 12345 channel is an available starting point. Describe the service, district and issue without sending unnecessary sensitive documents. For an application already in progress, keep the responsible department’s reference and instructions together.

Before travelling to an exit-entry office, check the official directory, appointment requirements and whether that location accepts your particular service. Accommodation registration, work permits and residence applications are different tasks; the nearest listed office is not automatically the correct one.

For an employer-sponsored move, use the work-permit coordination guide to keep the next action and owner clear. This city page does not supply a new immigration checklist.

• Record the Beijing accommodation-registration outcome and the address it covers.
• Save the confirmed office and campus entrances, plus tested journeys.
• Test phone access and payment on routine purchases before relying on them for a deadline.
• Keep the host, employer, school and healthcare contacts separate so the right person receives each question.
• Revisit any housing assumption that changed after the first journeys.

Use SIM and mobile setup, mobile payments and the first-week checklist for the supporting tasks. Ask a bank directly about a specific account need; this guide does not provide bank-opening instructions.

Return to your first 30 days in China to put these Beijing decisions into the wider sequence. Keep official requirements, provider answers and your personal location preferences in separate notes; they need different kinds of verification.