Must see attractions in Beijing

The hall where emperors worshipped their ancestors (under restoration at time of research). Once held the spirit tablets of deceased Qing emperors.

Shattered ruins are all that remain of the 'Garden of Perfection and Light', once known as the 'Versailles of the East' for its profound beauty, even…

Formerly known as Beitang, this gothic church (c 1897) is Beijing's most exemplary, with a pair of 31m-high bell towers looking resplendent (read: gaudy)…

The sprawling residence of Prince Gong (1833–1898), half-brother of the Xianfeng emperor, is most notable for its marvellous gardens, which feature…

White Cloud Temple is an active, vast and fascinating maze of halls, shrines and brightly painted immortals, tended by Taoist monks with their hair…

Dedicated to the Eastern Peak (Tài Shān) of China’s five Taoist mountains, this morbid Taoist shrine is an unsettling, albeit entertaining, place of…

Vast and energy-sapping, China's showpiece museum is housed in an immense 1950s Soviet-style building on the eastern side of Tian'anmen Sq, and claims to…

Following the Second Opium War in 1860, one of Britain's treaty demands was for permanent diplomatic digs in Beijing, hence the Legation Quarter, a three…

This wistful stretch of brick and stone is all that remains (besides a couple of other denuded nubs) of Beijing's once formidable city walls, girding the…

Despite being stranded along the North 3rd Ring Rd, this Qing-era temple is well worth a diversion to marvel at its centrepiece, the humongous Yongle Bell…

Infused with an air of sleepy reverence, this working Buddhist temple is one of Beijing's most evocative. Perhaps it's the ancient Song dynasty pines,…

Known locally as Da Kucha (大裤衩, Big Pants), the 234m-tall CCTV Tower is an architectural fantasy that appears to defy gravity. Designed by Rem Koolhaas…

This tranquil, little-visited temple was originally consecrated for the storage of Buddhist texts. Its name echoes the Summer Palace’s Longevity Hill …

Set in well-tended gardens on the north shore of Houhai Lake, this is the mansion of Madam Song, venerated by the Chinese as the wife of Sun Yatsen, first…

The restrained, grey-stone edifice of the Bell Tower (Zhonglou) is arguably even more charming than its resplendent other half, the Drum Tower (Gulou),…

Monolithic and intimidating, the Stalinist Great Hall of the People (1959) houses the highest organ of state power, the National People’s Congress (NPC)…

Qianmen, aka 'Front Gate', consists of a pair of gate-like structures: the northernmost is the 40m-high Zhengyang Gate, which dates from the Ming dynasty…

Of all the Ming tombs, this is the only one to have been excavated, and visitors can descend into the enormous burial chambers of the Wanli Emperor (1563…

This cathedral-like Bauhaus space, ceilings emblazoned with red Maoist slogans, makes for the quintessential 798 photograph whether or not an exhibition…

Dating back to the Mongol Yuan dynasty but partially rebuilt in the 1980s, this nine-tiered brick pagoda sits in a lovely walled garden of pomegranate…