Beijing

The Forbidden City is the world's largest palace complex, spanning 72 hectares with 980 surviving buildings and 8,728 rooms. Built between 1406 and 1420, it served as the imperial residence for 24 emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties over nearly 500 years.

Tiananmen Square is one of the world's largest public squares, measuring 440,000 square meters — large enough to hold 600,000 people. Flanked by major institutions and monuments, it is the symbolic heart of the People's Republic of China.

The Liyuan Theatre inside the Qianmen Jianguo Hotel offers nightly performances of Beijing Opera (Jingju), one of China's most important performing arts traditions combining singing, acting, acrobatics, and elaborate costumes.

The Legend of Kung Fu show at the Red Theatre is a spectacular martial arts stage production blending martial arts, acrobatics, dance, and drama. It tells the story of a young boy's journey to become a kung fu master.

The Temple of Heaven is a masterpiece of Ming-dynasty architecture and landscape design, set within a 273-hectare park that is nearly four times larger than the Forbidden City. Emperors came here to perform elaborate rituals praying for good harvests and divine favor.

The Summer Palace is China's largest and best-preserved imperial garden, covering 297 hectares of which three-quarters is Kunming Lake. It was the preferred summer retreat of the Qing court and represents a masterpiece of Chinese landscape garden design.

The Old Summer Palace (Yuanmingyuan) was once considered the greatest imperial garden in the world — the 'Garden of Gardens.' Today its hauntingly beautiful ruins stand as a powerful reminder of 19th-century colonial destruction.

The Beijing Botanical Garden covers 400 hectares at the foot of the Western Hills, housing over 6,000 plant species in themed gardens, a tropical conservatory, and the historic Sleeping Buddha Temple.

The Mausoleum of Mao Zedong sits at the center of Tiananmen Square, where the embalmed body of Chairman Mao lies in a crystal coffin. It is one of the most visited memorial halls in the world.

The National Museum of China is one of the world's largest museums, covering 200,000 square meters on the east side of Tiananmen Square. Its permanent collection spans 5,000 years of Chinese civilization with over 1.4 million artifacts.

The Ming Tombs are the burial grounds of 13 of the 16 Ming-dynasty emperors, set in a feng shui-perfect valley ringed by mountains about 50 km northwest of central Beijing. The UNESCO-listed complex spans 120 square kilometers.

The Beijing Museum of Natural History is a popular family-friendly museum housing one of China's best collections of dinosaur fossils and natural specimens. Located south of Tiananmen Square, it covers paleontology, zoology, botany, and anthropology.

The CCTV Headquarters is a 234-meter architectural icon designed by Rem Koolhaas and Ole Scheeren, featuring a gravity-defying loop form that has become one of the defining images of 21st-century Beijing. Locals affectionately call it the 'Big Underpants.'

The National Aquatics Center, known as the Water Cube, is a shimmering cube of translucent blue bubbles that hosted swimming events at the 2008 Olympics. Part of the building has been converted into a vibrant indoor water park.

The Yonghe Temple (Lama Temple) is Beijing's most spectacular Tibetan Buddhist temple, renowned for its towering sandalwood Buddha and vibrant religious atmosphere. It is one of the few active Tibetan Buddhist monasteries outside Tibet and draws both worshippers and tourists.

The National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), nicknamed 'The Egg,' is a titanium-and-glass dome designed by French architect Paul Andreu, rising dramatically from an artificial lake just west of Tiananmen Square.

The Palace Museum refers to the museum collection housed within the Forbidden City, containing nearly 1.9 million objects — one of the largest collections of art and historical artifacts in the world. Together with the Forbidden City architecture, it forms an unparalleled cultural experience.

Yonghegong Art Street is a short commercial lane south of the Lama Temple selling Buddhist religious supplies, incense, prayer beads, Tibetan crafts, and spiritual art. It provides a colorful, aromatic prelude or postscript to a Lama Temple visit.

Badaling is the most famous and most visited section of the Great Wall, located about 70 km northwest of central Beijing. Fully restored with modern walkways and facilities, it offers an accessible introduction to the wall for visitors of all fitness levels.

798 Art District is Beijing's premier contemporary art zone, a sprawling complex of repurposed 1950s East German-designed military factories transformed into galleries, studios, and creative spaces. It is China's answer to New York's SoHo or Berlin's Kreuzberg.