Beijing Tour Introductions

Beijing is packed with sights, ancient and modern, and it is China's most popular city for tourists, the majority of them from China itself. If your time is quite short, it is wise to book a day tour of the highlights through your hotel's tour desk, since getting around on your own, even by taxi or on the subway, can be time-consuming at first. There are 2,666 temples, 551 cultural relics, and 189 cultural sites under national protection in Beijing now .

Historical sites of Beijing:
Long history has left numerous famous historical sites in Beijing, which possess great aesthetic and cultural values.

Great Wall, a huge project begun more than 2,000 years ago, meanders through mountains and valleys for hundreds of kilometers in the region of Beijing.

The Shijing Mountain, there are more than 340 volumes of 15,000 stone tablets carved with Buddhist scriptures.

The big Yongle Bell, cast at one go with over 230,000 characters on it, weighs 46.5 tons and shows the exquisite casting technology of ancient China.
 
The Forbidden City, the largest ancient architectural complex extant today, is splendid crystallization of ancient Chinese architectural art.

Summer palace, lies 20 kilometers northwest of the center of Beijing. It is the largest imperial garden in existence in China. The whole Summer Palace covers an area of over 290 hectares including more than 3,000 buildings, such as halls, pavilions, towers and so on. Summer Palace used to be called the Garden of Clear Ripples.

Ming Tombs
Ming Tombs consist of mausoleums of 13 Ming emperors. So it is also called Thirteen Ming Tombs. Located on the southern side of the Tianshou Mountain in Changping County about 50 Kilometers north of Beijing.

Among the 13 mausoleums, the most famous ones are the Changling and Dingling. Construction of the first tomb, Changling, was started in 1409 and completed in 1427. The whole construction of the 13 Ming Tombs took more than 200 years. A Sacred Way stretches 7 Kilometers from south to north through the center of the site.

Ming Tombs cover 40 square kilometers. Each tomb was built alongside a mountain, and a river runs through the whole area. They are the best-preserved part of all Chinese imperial tombs.

Confucius Temple
The Temple of Confucius, the present site of the Capital Museum, is located in Guozijian Street inside the north second ring road. This temple is situated hundreds meters west of Lama Temple. It is here that Confucius was worshipped during the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties (1271-1911).

The Temple of Confucius was first built by Kublai Khan in the Yuan Dynasty, and was restored and rebuilt on several occasions during the Ming and Qing dynasties. In 1737, during the reign of Qing Emperor Qianlong, the major hall was renovated and was recovered with magnificent yellow glazed roof tiles. In 1960, when the worship of Confucius was further emphasized by the Qing Government, the temple under went extensive restoration which lasted until 1916.

Beihai Park
The main scenery of Beihai park is composed of: Beihai lake, Jade Islet, Jinxinhai, Nine Dragon Screen, Round City, White Pagoda, Suhavatigarden, Yong'an Temple and many other interesting ones.

Morden sites of Beijing:
The Water Cube
The National Aquatic Centre, or Water Cube, sets next to Beijing National Stadium in the Olympic Green. The cube-shaped Aquatic Centre is a steel frame covered with a membrane composed of energy-efficient ETFE, a plastic-like material.

The design of the Water Cube is based on the patterns of cells and soap bubbles. ETFE pillows create a bubble effect. The bubbles collect solar energy and help heat the swimming pools.

The Bird's Nest
Beijing National Stadium, also known as the National Stadium or colloquially as the Bird's Nest, 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 $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 design, which originated from the study of Chinese ceramics, implemented steel beams in order to hide supports for the retractable roof; giving the stadium the appearance of a "Bird's nest".

Edited By Athena Lee