All of the major sights around Beijing are crowded with tourists. However, most of these are Chinese tourists rather than from overseas. Some of the taxi drivers have complained that there are loads of foreigners here, but really that is not the case. There are a small number of Japanese and Koreans and a handful of Westerners. For the most part, Chinese tourism does not seem to be about looking at the sights. Rather the aim seems to be to take a photo of your wife or daughter in front of them. They queue (or push in) to take photos, but rarely glance at the object itself. Another difference is that postcards are rarely available - that's my excuse! When I explained to Da Ping about sending postcards to each other, she was really surprised.
One of the nice things about being a tourist here is that even at the main sights, there is very little hassle. Unlike most places in Asia, people selling things take "No" for an answer. And the Chinese never touch you, so there is no arm-grabbing to force you to look at their stalls.
In general, I would say that China is not really set up for overseas tourists. Some of the most famous sights have sign boards in English as well as Chinese. However these are usually so badly translated that even I have problems understanding them. I pity the French, Italians, Germans who are also trying to make sense of them. Apart from on the subway, it would be really difficult to make your way around without some knowledge of Chinese.
I've now finally got round the major tourist sights.
The Great Wall was far more dramatic than I had expected, despite bus loads of tourists. The scenery and the construction are both deeply impressive. At the parts we visited the land was incredibly steep. I'm reasonably fit but after half an hour my legs were aching and everyone else had given up. There were steps in most parts, but some sections were just smooth slopes of stone. These were really difficult to climb - when someone dropped a plastic water bottle, it just slid all the way down to the bottom.
The Forbidden City covers a vast area in the centre of Beijing. When China was ruled by emperors, the common people were indeed forbidden to come here. Nowadays they can wander all over the courtyards, but the halls are still closed off so the dingy interiors can only be seen through the doorways. I liked the inner courtyard of private dwellings much more than the state reception rooms of the outer courtyard. In the inner courtyard there are miles of small alleyways and halls to explore. The outer courtyard has large open areas - designed to impress rather than to be friendly. A lot of the buildings are being renovated and are therefore closed to the public. Overall I would say that it is impressive because of its size and what it represents, but there is nothing specific that sticks in my mind as particularly memorable.
Tian'anmen Square is just south of the Forbidden City. It is vast. And there are crowds of people. Really that is all one can say. It is historically very significant for the Chinese people, for example, Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Republic from the top of Tian'anmen Gate. And so the Chinese visit it in their thousands. It shows just how many of them there are, and yet the square is so large that they do not swamp it.
Tiantan is the old ritual site of the emperor where he offered sacrifices on behalf of the Chinese people. The Park itself is atmospheric because of the many ordinary Chinese people using it for their leisure activities. The three ritual buildings are in good repair and give an idea of the spiritual importance attached to the emperor. Also, with relatively few buildings to look round, it doesn't defeat you in the way that the Forbidden City does.
The Summer Palace was another of the Emperor's Palaces, located just outside the city. For me this is far more memorable than the Forbidden City. As well as the buildings, there is a huge artificial lake, a high artificial hill and acres of landscaped grounds. The lake has a long, covered walkway along one side, painted with several hundred different scenes. The hill has a series of temples leading up to the highest point. Behind this are a fake shopping street for the Emperor and Empress to play in, and gardens based on the famous Southern Chinese ones at Suzhou.
Finally, I would highly recommend Beijing Opera. I found the whole performance fascinating. The performance which we saw was actually 2 pieces. The first comprised a man with an amazing, complex costume; a woman in a very plain dress with ridiculously long sleeves; pantomime movements; opera-style singing and declamation in a falsetto voice. This was fascinating precisely because it was so bizarre. The second piece was good entertainment. It was about a rebellion by a village somewhere in China. Parts of it were much closer to what we would think of as acting. It also included impressive acrobatics, dance formations and a few bits of that bizarre singing.