"...the city remains an epicenter of tradition with the treasures of nearly 2,000 years as the imperial capital still on view—in the famed Forbidden City and in the city's lush pavilions and gardens..." －National Geographic Beijing is one of the most visited cities in the world. There are hundreds of attractions in Beijing waiting for you to explore! The Forbidden City (the Palace Museum) was the home of the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1911). The Temple of Heaven (Tiantan), also a UNESCO World Heritage Site was where emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties made visits for annual ceremonies of prayer to Heaven for good harvest. The Summer Palace, a UNESCO World Heritage Site shows a comprehensive collection of imperial gardens and palaces that used as the summer resort for the Qing Dynasty emperors. Located at the outskirts of urban Beijing are the Thirteen Tomnbs of the Ming Dynasty, the burial sites of thirteen Ming emperors, also part of the World Heritage Site. There are five sections of the Great Wall of China that are on the outskirts of Beijing, namely Badaling, Juyongguan, Mutianyu, Simatai, Jinshanling. Besides, Beijing boasts of many historical sites, theme museums, parks and gardens. Also the Olympic sites are big magnets both for international and domestic tourists. Welcome to Beijing! Tian'anmen or the Gate of Heavenly Peace is the symbol of China, located in the center of Beijing and stands on the northern end of the Tian’anmen Square. It was first built in 1417 and was originally called the Gate of Heavenly Succession, which served as the main entrance to the former Imperial City. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, it was seriously damaged in a war, when it was rebuilt in 1651 in the Qing Dynasty, the name changed to Tian’anmen. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Tian'anmen was the place where the important state ceremonies took place. The most famous "Imperial Edict Issued by Golden Phoenix" was held on the tower. Another big event was on October 1st 1949, Chairman Mao Zedong proclaimed to the whole world the founding of the People’s Republic of China also held on the rostrum. If you on the Tian'anmen Rostrum, you can see the whole Tian'anmen Square, which is 880 meters long from north to south and 500 meters wide from east to west, with a total area of 44 hectares, which made it the largest city center square in the world. The Forbidden City is located in the center of Beijing. It used to be the former imperial palace for the Ming and Qing emperors. During the third Ming emperor Yongle's reign, large-scale construction of the Forbidden City started in 1406.The construction took 14 years and was completed in 1420. Starting from the third emperor of the Ming Dynasty Zhudi to the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty Puyi, altogether 24 emperors of the Ming and Qing Dynasties lived here for a total of 491 years. 14 of them were Ming emperors and 10 were Qing emperors. In 1925，the whole complex was converted into a museum and opened to the public, and then it was called the Palace Museum. The Forbidden City is rectangular in shape, 960 meters long from north to south and 750 meters wide from east to west，covers an area of 72 hectares. Most of the buildings in the Forbidden City were made of wood with white marble, stone or brick foundations. The building materials were from many parts of our country, and there were 100,000 artisans and one million civilians involved in building the Forbidden City. The layout of the Forbidden City generally designed to the principles of a "Front Court, Rear Market, Ancestral Temple on the left and Alter of Land and Grain on the right". It is the best-preserved imperial palace in China and the largest ancient palatial structure in the world. In 1987 it was listed as the world cultural heritage by UNESCO. The Temple of Heaven is situated in the southern part of Beijing. It was first built in 1420 in the Ming Dynasty. Originally the Temple of Heaven was built according to the Temple of Heaven and Earth in Nanjing. So at that time, both heaven and earth were worshipped here. In 1530, another structure, Temple of Earth was built in the northern part of Beijing, and then, heaven and earth were worshipped separately, since only heaven was worshipped here, it was renamed the Temple of Heaven. The Temple of Heaven is not only the largest group of temple building in China, but also the largest Heaven-Worshipping architecture in the world. As a site for worshipping heaven, the Temple of Heaven is different from any other imperial structures. Architecturally speaking, the Temple of Heaven has two themes: in the heaven and on the earth. The surrounding walls of the Temple of Heaven are 6 meters high with a semicircular wall to the north and square shaped wall to the south. This represents an ancient belief that the heaven is round and the earth square. The north wall is high while the south is low, this layout indicated that the heaven is high and the earth is low. And the main buildings in the Temple of Heaven are circular shaped, and each building with a round and a square wall around. The Summer Palace or Yihe yuan is a palace in Beijing, China. The Summer Palace is mainly dominated by Longevity Hill (60 meters high) and the Kunming Lake. It covers an expanse of 2.9 square kilometers, three quarters of which is water. The central Kunming Lake covering 2.2 square kilometers was entirely man made and the excavated soil was used to build Longevity Hill. In its compact 70,000 square meters of building space, one finds a variety of palaces, gardens, and other classical-style architectural structures. The Summer Palace started out life as the Garden of Clear Ripples in 1750 (Reign Year 15 of Emperor Qianlong). Artisans reproduced the garden architecture styles of various palaces in China. Kunming Lake was created by extending an existing body of water to imitate the West Lake in Hangzhou. The palace complex suffered two major attacks--during the Anglo-French allied invasion of 1860 (with the Old Summer Palace also ransacked at the same time), and during the Boxer Rebellion, in an attack by the eight allied powers in 1900. The garden survived and was rebuilt in 1886 and 1902. In 1888, it was given the current name, Yihe Yuan. It served as a summer resort for Empress Dowager Cixi, who diverted 30 million taels of silver, said to be originally designated for the Chinese navy (Beiyang Fleet), into the reconstruction and enlargement of the Summer Palace. In December 1998, UNESCO included the Summer Palace on its World Heritage List. It declared the Summer Palace "a masterpiece of Chinese landscape garden design. The natural landscape of hills and open water is combined with artificial features such as pavilions, halls, palaces, temples and bridges to form a harmonious ensemble of outstanding aesthetic value." It is a popular tourist destination but also serves as a recreational park. The Great Wall, symbolizing China’s ancient civilization, is one of famous, grand and splendid ancient construction wonders in the world. For many centuries, the Great Wall, as a military defensive project, kept out the invading troops of northern nomadic tribes. Baptized by nature for thousands of years, the Great Wall witnessed the rise and fall of many dynasties and changes on the earth. Yet it is still standing proudly in the east of the world. Now the Great Wall has became a famous historical scenic spot for tourists, and it plays a role in bridging up the friendship between the Chinese people and peoples in different parts of the world. Construction of the Great Wall first began in the 7th century BC, and therefore, it had a history of more than 2,500 years. At that time, it was the Warring States Period, many dukedoms built walls in central China to protect themselves from each other and from the "Barbarians". The first wall that appeared in China was built by Kingdom Qi and Kingdom Chu. In Chinese history, large-scale construction of the Great Wall was concentrated in three Dynasties: they were Qin, Han and Ming dynasties. Badaling Great Wall is about 75 kilometers northwest of Beijing. Bada means "convenient transportation to all directions" in English. It is an important place in the defense of Beijing. An old saying can be the best description: it needs only one man to block ten thousand troops. The Great Wall at Badaling averages 7.8 meters high, 6.5 meters wide at its base, and 5.8 meters on the top, wide enough for five horses or ten soldiers walking abreast on the wall. The highest point at Badaling Great Wall is about 800 meters above the sea level. The Badaling Great Wall is the best-preserved and the strongest with 827 watch-towers and 71 passes. Now the Great Wall has become a historical site for both Chinese and foreign tourists, and it is a great creation of the ancient Chinese people. It was listed by UNESCO as one of the world cultural heritage in 1987. The Ming Tombs are located in Changping District, about 50 kilometers northwest of Beijing. This imperial cemetery covers an area of 40 square kilometers with 13 Ming emperors, 23 empresses, many imperial concubines and princesses buried there. There tombs are the best-preserved of all Chinese imperial tombs. The Ming Dynasty started from 1368 to 1644, lasting 276 years. Altogether 16 emperors ruled in the Ming Dynasty. But out of the 16 emperors, 13 emperors were buried in Beijing Ming Tombs area. And here you may ask: why just 13 emperors buried here? Where are the other three emperors? Next, I'll tell you the detail. The first Ming Emperor Zhuyuanzhang had his tomb built in Nanjing, so after his death in 1398, he was buried in Xiaoling of Nanjing. The second emperor of the Ming Dynasty who was Emperor Zhuyuanzhang’s grandson named Emperor Jianwen. In order to centralize the power, he wanted to weaken the power of the regional garrison commander who was actually his uncle, the son of the first emperor. But these measures met with strong resistance from his uncle Zhudi, the prince of Yan, finally Zhudi usurped the power from his nephew and became the 3rd emperor of the Ming Dynasty and adopted the reign title "Yongle" in 1403. Emperor Jianwen, the dethroned emperor disappeared with nowhere to be found. Some people said that he died in a big fire; another saying is that he had escaped to a temple and became a Buddhist monk. Anyway his whereabouts remained unknown till now in spite of Yongle's search for him all over the country. So there is no tomb for the second emperor of the Ming Dynasty. The seventh emperor Jingtai was buried at Jinshan Mountain in the western suburbs of Beijing. Jingtai was the brother of the 6th Ming Emperor Yingzong, and Yingzong refused to honor him a imperial burial, so he was buried as a prince in Jinshan Mountain. That is why there are 13 tombs in is imperial burial ground, commonly known as the "Thirteen Ming Tombs" in Chinese. One of the unique features of Beijing is its numerous Hutongs, which means small back streets or lanes. The life of ordinary people in these lanes contributes greatly to the charm of this ancient capital. In these small lanes, you will find many Siheyuan ( 四合院 ) or quadrangles, that are the living quarters of ordinary people ( Beijingers ). No one knows exactly how many lanes there are in Beijing, but one thing is certain, if we connected all these Hutongs, their total length would be longer than the famous Great Wall, which is more than 6.000 kilometers long. Why Beijing lanes called Hutong? According to historical records, the word "Hutong"originates from the word "Hottog", which means "Well" in Mongolian. Villagers dig out a well and inhabited around there. Hutong means a lane or alley, in fact the passage formed by lines of siheyuan (a compound with houses around a courtyard) where old Beijing residents live. Small streets in Beijing began to be called "Hutong" after NuZhen people from the northeast, who founded the Jin Dynasty, captured the city in 1127 and made it their capital. The custom became more widespread when the city was the capital of the Yuan Dynasty after the Mongol conquest. It was recorded that in the Yuan Dynasty, a 36-meter-wide road was called a standard street, a 18-meter-wide one was a small street and a 9-meter-wide lane was named a Hutong. With the development of the city, many Hutongs have been demolished to make way for the high buildings. Without these Hutongs, the memory of the traditional life and culture in Beijing will disappear. In order to that the urban renovation is not to break the traditional fabric of the city, the government has designated parts of downtown Beijing as off-limits to urban renovation. Beijing National Stadium, also known as the National Stadium (国家体育场), or colloquially as the "Bird's Nest" (鸟巢), is a stadium in Beijing, China. The stadium was designed for use throughout the 2008 Summer Olympics and Paralympics. Located in the Olympic Green, the US$423 million stadium is the world's largest steel structure. The design was awarded to a submission from the Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron in April 2003, after a bidding process that included 13 final submissions. The Beijing National Aquatics Center, also known as the National Aquatics Center, better known as the Water Cube (水立方), is an aquatics center that was built alongside Beijing National Stadium in the Olympic Green for the swimming competitions of the 2008 Summer Olympics. Despite its nickname, the building is a cuboid (rectangular box), not a cube. Now both the Beijing National Stadium and National Aquatics become the new highlight in Beijing especially their night view. CBD The Beijing Central Business District, or Beijing CBD is the primary area of finance, media, and business services in Beijing, China. Beijing CBD occupies 3.99 sq km of the Chaoyang District on the east side of the city. Geographically situated to the east of the city center, sandwiched between the 3rd Ring Road and the 4th Ring Road, the Beijing CBD is currently undergoing large-scale development. As Beijing is becoming one of the most important international financial centers in China, Beijing CBD was recently positioned as the secondary core area in Beijing’s International Financial Center Development strategic plan published in May, 2008. Beijing CBD is also emerging as China’s media center as Beijing Television Station (BTV) just moved in its new headquarters (Beijing TV Centre) in this area and the new CCTV Headquarters is soon to be completed by the end of 2008. Wángfǔjǐng street, located in the Dongcheng District of Beijing, is one of the Chinese capital's most famous shopping streets. Much of the road is off-limits to cars and other motor vehicles, and it is not rare to see the entire street full of people. Since the middle of the Ming Dynasty there have been commercial activities in this place. In the Qing Dynasty, eight aristocratic estates and princess residence were built here, soon after when a well full of sweet water was discovered, thereby giving the street its name "Wang Fu" (aristocratic residence), "Jing" (well). The Beijing Zoo, lies west of Xizhimen and is in the western part of Beijing, China. Like many of Beijing's parks, areas of the zoo have the distinctive look of classical Chinese gardens. The grounds combine cultivated flower gardens with stretches of natural scenery, including dense groves of trees, stretches of grassland, a small stream, lotus pools and small hills dotted with pavilions and halls. The Beijing Zoo mainly exhibits wild and rare animals of China. The Giant Pandas are one of the most popular exhibits, but other popular exhibits include the Sichuan golden snub-nosed monkey, Manchurian tigers, white-lipped deer, yaks from Tibet, enormous sea turtles, polar bears from the North Pole, kangaroo from Australia, and zebras from Africa. The zoo is also a center of zoological research that studies and breeds rare animals from various continents.