Tourist Sites

Please read below for information on Beijing`s main tourist attractions...

The Forbidden City (Palace Museum) http://www.dpm.org.cn/

The Palace Museum is housed in the former palace of the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. Popularly called The Forbidden City, the museum covers an area of 720,000 square meters. The collections comprise nearly a million art treasures spanning five thousand years of Chinese history with a rich concentration of art and artifacts from the Qing imperial court.

• Open daily all year.
• April 1st—October 31 8:30—17:00
• Last Entry at 16:10
• Tickets sold until 16:00
• November 1st—March 31 8:30—16:30
• Last Entry at 15:40
• Tickets sold until 15:30

• Ticket
• From November 1 through March 31, admission is 40 rmb
• From April 1 through October 31, admission is 60 rmb

The Summer Palace http://www.summerpalace-china.com/

The Summer Palace landscape, dominated mainly by Longevity hill and Kunming Lake, covers an area of 2.9 square kilometers, three quarters of which is under water. Its 70,000 square meters of building space features a variety of palaces, gardens and other ancient-style architectural structures. Well known for its large and priceless collection of cultural relics, it was among the first group of historical and cultural heritage sites in China to be placed under special state protection.
The Summer Palace, originally named Qingyi Yuan or the Garden of Clear Ripples, was first constructed in 1750. It was razed to the ground by the Anglo-French Allied Forces in 1860. The Government of the Qing Dynasty started to rebuild it in 1886 with funds that it had misappropriated from the Imperial Navy and other sources. Renamed two years later as Yihe Yuan or the Garden of health and harmony, it was supposed to serve as a summer resort for the Empress Dowager Cixi. Known also as the Summer Palace, it was ravaged by the Allied Forces of the Eight Powers that invaded China in 1900.

• Open daily all year.
• April 1st—October 31 6:30—18:00
• November 1st—March 31 7:00—17:00
• Last Entry at 15:40
• Tickets sold until 15:30

• Ticket
• From November 1 through March 31, admission is 20 rmb
• From April 1 through October 31, admission is 30 rmb

The Temple Of heaven http://www.tiantanpark.com/

The Temple of heaven is a worthwhile visiting place in Beijing. It is much bigger than the Forbidden City and smaller than the Summer Palace with an area of about 2,700,000 square meters. The Temple was built in 1420 A.D. during the Ming Dynasty to offer sacrifice to heaven. As Chinese emperors called themselves 'The Son of heaven' ,they dared not to build their own dwelling,'Forbidden City' bigger than a dwelling for heaven.
The Temple of heaven is enclosed with a long wall. The northern part within the wall is semicircular symbolizing the heavens and the southern part is square symbolizing the earth. The northern part is higher than the southern part. This design shows that the heaven is high and the earth is low and the design reflected an ancient Chinese thought of 'The heaven is round and the earth is square'.

• Open daily all year.
• Mar 1st—Jun 30 8:00—17:30
• Tickets sold until 17:00
• Jul 1st—Oct 31 8:00—18:00
• Tickets sold until 17:30
• Nov 1st—Feb 28 8:00—17:00
• Tickets sold until 16:30

• Ticket
• From November 1 through March 31, admission is 30 rmb
• From April 1 through October 31, admission is 35 rmb

The National Museum Of China http://www.nmch.gov.cn/

Temple Of Ancient Monarchs http://www.lddwm.com/

The Great Wall http: //www.badaling.gov.cn/english/history/history.htm

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