6 Hour layover in Beijing. Any suggestions on what to do?

I have a 6 hour stop (plane to plane) in Beijing. I'll be switching carriers so will get a 72 hour visa free transit to check in to the next flight. Any suggestions on what to do for a few hours land-side?

What time of day do you land? Just want to be conscience of taking traffic into consideration. I suppose if you are going to the great wall it would be away from the city but could be a bit rushed in the timeframe. Could go downtown, maybe just to Tiananmen, Jinshan park and Houhai, I wouldn't do the forbidden city on a timeframe. If weather is nice Summer Palace is a option and avoid the inner city traffic.

The 72 hr visa process could take a while too.

More likely than not you'll get a 24-hr airport only TWOV. Big thread on FlyerTalk but basically unlikely to give you permission to leave the airport on such a short transit, seemingly only possible on 12+ hr transits.

Agree with the above comments, I had a work visa so not familiar with the intricacies of transit visas. Just be aware at peak times at PEK the security line can almost go past passport control so give yourself as much time as possible. Having said that some days I've been from my home to the boarding gate within an hour!

Depending on how keen you are to leave the airport, you would avoid the transit visa line if you organised a tourist visa beforehand. However, you would need to weight up the cost and hassle of obtaining this before you left. Also no guarantees it will be that much quicker depending on your arrival time, it can be very busy if a couple of fully loaded A380s arrive together.

ok thanks everyone. I'll do a bit more research. Might be pushing my luck, but an hour or 2 at T Square or 798 to stretch my legs and have a bite might be worth it if I can get out of the airport quick enough.