Popular Beijing Attractions
Can't decide how to spend your time in Beijing, the capital City of China? Start with this list of Beijing City's most popular attractions to get started planning your trip to Beijing, China.
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Longqingxia Ice and Snow Festival
TimeUsually from mid-Jan to mid-Feb. The 2014 Longqingxia Ice Festival will open in January 10. VenueNorth of Gucheng Village, Yanqing County, 80 km north of Beijing City centerEntrance TicketRMB 100 (50% off for students or children under 1.2m). OriginThe precursor of the annual Longqingxia Ice and Snow Festival was called Longqingxia Ice Lantern Fair, which was firstly held in 1987. For developping the local touris...
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Summer Palace
Situated in western outskirts of Beijing, the Summer Palace is 10 km from the central city. It is China's leading classical garden which enjoys a worldwide reputation. The Summer Palace was opened to the public in 1924 and included in the UNESCO world heritage list in 1998. A whole day is needed to view it in detail.The Summer Palace was first built in 1153 and served as an imperial palace for short stays away from the...
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Forbidden City
The former Imperial Palace, known to Westerners as the Forbidden City, rectangular in shape and 720, 000 square meters in size, is surrounded by walls 10 meters high and a moat 52 meters wide. The 980 buildings with 8,707 rooms are more than 570 years old and constitute the largest and most complete existing ensemble of traditional Chinese architecture.Construction of the palace begins in 1406 during the reign of the...
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Temple of Heaven
The Temple of Heaven is situated in the southern part of Beijing, about 6 km away from the center of the city. Traditionally, this temple was for imperial use only. It was built in 1420, covering an area of 237 hectares, it is the one of the largest parks in Beijing. The Temple of Heaven was the palace where the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties worshipped heaven and prayed for good harvest. The emperors visited...
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The Great Wall
The Great Wall is 6,700 km in length, running east to west and crossing five provinces. Appearing as a long, serpentine dragon, it winds across lands including deserts, grasslands and even mountains. Every type of material available at the time was used, from mud and reeds, to the finest mortar bricks ever made. The history of the Great Wall spans more than 2000 years, and it is now considered to be one of the greatest...
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Hutongs
Hutong, the unique street design to Beijing, was created to reflect the imperial ruling of the emperors from within the Forbidden City. One of the explanations of Hutong has it that "Hu" is the name Han people called the other small Chinese tribes and "Tong" means "same" or "together", so Hutong means a harmony of living together between different ethnic tribes in China.
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Sacred Way
A Sacred Way is always found in an imperial cemetery in China. The sacred way of the Thirteen Ming Tombs is 7 kilometers long from the Memorial Stone Archway to the gate of Changling Tomb. It was built for Changling Tomb, Emperor Zhu Di's tomb, but since the other 12 tombs were also built in this area, the Sacred Way became the main passage for all the thirteen tombs. Although they were from one group, each tomb is indepe...
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Tiananmen Square
Like the Red Square in Moscow, the Arc De Triomphe in Paris and the Washington Monument, Tiananmen Square is the symbolic architecture of Beijing. It was named “the largest public square in the world” evaluated at the “World Top Tourism in Beijing” in 1992. Millions of tourists are attracted to the square by its long history and splendid appearance, and it has become the very image of Beijing’s charm to its...