Munich Layover at the Chinesischer Turm
Part of the full Munich Layover Guide: Marienplatz From MUC
The Chinesischer Turm, a five-tier wooden pagoda from 1790, stands over Munich’s second-largest beer garden, 7,000 seats under the trees, reachable by bus, tram or a short walk without ever crossing the city centre.
Bus, tram, or ten minutes from the U-Bahn
This is one of the few stops on this site not reached by S-Bahn. A bus stops right at Chinesischer Turm; a tram to Tivolistraße leaves about a 3-minute walk; the U-Bahn to Giselastraße leaves about 10. Whichever way in, the park’s paths from there on are gravel and packed earth rather than paving, and the beer garden’s long wooden benches don’t leave room for anything beside them, which is exactly the combination small suitcase wheels handle worst.
Seven thousand seats under a five-tier roof
The tower itself was built in 1789-90 by Baptist Lechner to a design by Joseph Frey, copying the Great Pagoda at Kew Gardens in London rather than anything Chinese directly, a copy twice removed from its actual source. Wartime bombing destroyed it in 1944; the version standing now is a 1952 rebuild to the same plan.
Underneath it is the second-largest beer garden in Munich after the Hirschgarten: about 7,000 self-service seats plus a smaller, roughly 500-seat table-service section. On weekends and public holidays, a brass band plays from a platform built into the tower rather than from the ground, which is the detail that actually makes this beer garden distinct from any other.
Once a year, on the third Sunday in July, the tower is also the site of the Kocherlball: a dawn dance that started around 1880 among Munich’s household staff and cooks, who only had the hours before sunrise free before returning to work, ran until it was banned in 1904, and was revived in 1989 for the park’s bicentennial. It runs 6am to 10am and it’s free. The 2026 date has already passed; the next one falls in July 2027.
A few steps to the Monopteros
Leave the beer garden to the northeast and the ground rises into a low grass hill within a couple of minutes. On top is the Monopteros, a small open rotunda of white columns under a green dome, built in 1836 by Leo von Klenze. It has no door and nothing inside; the point of it is standing under the dome and looking back out over the park and the beer garden below.
Not the same walk as the wave
The Englischer Garten’s other well-known fixed point, the Eisbach standing wave, is about 15 minutes further south on Prinzregentenstraße, and it’s already covered from the Odeonsplatz-Hofgarten side in the main Munich layover guide. Treat this as the northern half of the same park rather than an extension of that walk: there’s no need to do both in one window, and the tower alone, with the Monopteros a few steps beyond it, is enough to fill two to four hours on its own before heading back to the U-Bahn, tram or bus that brought you in.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Chinesischer Turm actually based on something in China?
No, and this trips people up. Baptist Lechner built it in 1789-90 copying a design by Joseph Frey, itself modelled on the Great Pagoda at Kew Gardens in London, which is twice as tall. It burned down in a 1944 air raid and was rebuilt to the same design in 1952, so what stands now is a copy of a copy, and the closest real connection to China is the shape.
Do I need to reserve a table or buy a ticket?
Neither. The self-service side, about 7,000 seats, is first-come, and Bavarian beer garden rules apply: you can bring your own food and just buy the beer. The smaller table-service section, around 500 seats, works like a normal restaurant with a server and a menu.
What's the brass band about?
On weekends and public holidays, a traditional Bavarian brass band plays from a platform partway up the tower itself, not from ground level. It's unamplified and it carries a long way across the beer garden. There's no set schedule published in advance; it's a weekend and holiday thing, not a daily one.
Is the Eisbach wave part of this, or a separate walk?
Separate. It's the same park, but the wave on Prinzregentenstraße is at the park's southern edge, about 15 minutes on foot from the Chinesischer Turm. The Munich layover guide covers it as part of the Odeonsplatz-Hofgarten route from Marienplatz; this page starts further north, at the tower, rather than working up to it.
How do I get from here back to the airport?
None of the routes in reach it directly. Bus 54 or 154, tram 16 or 18 to Tivolistraße, or the U3 or U6 to Giselastraße all connect back toward Marienplatz or Hauptbahnhof, where the S1 or S8 covers the roughly 40-minute run out to MUC. Add the connection time on top of that 40 minutes rather than treating it as the whole journey.