Beijing
Beijing was home to the Mongol invader Genghis Khan in 1215 AD, and his grandson Kublai Khan. Overrun, burned and rebuilt by Mongolians, Koreans, Japanese, the French and English, not to mention Chairman Mao, the city now faces it's final challenge to hold onto some shred of cultural heritage as entire neighborhoods are flattened to make way for skyscrapers.
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The Forbidden City
For 500 years, the penalty for entering the Forbidden City without express permission, was death. This was a complete city, with over 800 buildings covering some 720,000 square meters.
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Tiananmen Square
Mao Zedong announced the creation of the 'People's Republic' in 1949 from here and is now buried on the opposite side of the world's largest square from where he started.
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Beihai Park
As if the enormous Forbidden City weren't enough, China's emperor's had another huge lake dug and a garden created just a half kilometer from home.
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Summer Palace
Because Beijing can get terribly hot and muggy in summer, Chinese emperors and empresses, along with the entire imperial court would spend summer here.
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Temple of Heaven
This 660 acre park was carefully constructed to represent a rectangular earth and a circular heaven, and was used by emperors for seasonal rituals. The buildings and park have been carefully thought out with the rules of fengshui, numerology, cosmology and religion all in mind. This place should be the setting of the next DaVinci Code!
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Lama Temple
Beijing's largest temple and the faithful still come here to worship. The main building and entire complex was constructed around a 60ft high sandalwood statue of the Maitreya (future) Buddha, which was carved from a single tree.
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Jan & Steve Filipiak
China > The Great Wall | Beijing | Xi-an & Terracotta Warriors | Guilin | Li River | Shanghai | Zhouzhuang