Chinese Geology Museum
15 Yangrou Hutong
Xisi Nandajie
6617-6387
Minerals, gems and fossils of Paleozoic plants and animals. A great place to take the family!
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Temple of Heaven
Tiantan Road and Chongwenmenwai Street
Chongwen District
6702-8866
Located on Tiantan Park, this dazzling temple built in 1420 is said to be the place where emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties would pray to Heaven. As stories tell it, the emperors would perform ceremonies in honor of the god of harvests. The Temple's primary structure has become a well-recognized symbol of Beijing.
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Contemporary Art Gallery
123 Longfusi St
6401-7659
A great place to view the national museum's collection of China's leading contemporary artists.
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China Art Gallery
China's national museum of art offers permanent displays of works by Chinese artists and frequent shows by foreign artists.
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Miraculous Amusement Palace
Chaoyang Park
Chaoyang District
6506-6382
Wax exhibits depict episodes from the famous Chinese story A Journey to the West, featuring the monk, the pig, the monkey and the warrior.
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Coal Hill (Jing Shan Park)
A royal garden of the Ming and Qing dynasties, Jingshan Park was formed from the soil excavated during construction of the moat around the Forbidden City. It is one of the best places for a panoramic view of the city. The Ten Thousand Springs Pavilion is located at its summit.
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Capital Museum (Confucius Temple)
Guozijian Jie, Andingmennei,
Dongcheng
6401-2118
Housed in a former imperial temple and Confucian civil-service university, this was where China's best and brightest came to serve the state.
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Hutongs
A hutong is a kind of street lined on both sides by courtyards containing compound houses and are a special feature of downtown Beijing. The hutongs (alleyways) were created by the traditional Beijing courtyard-style architecture.
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Palace Museum
The Forbidden City - Imperial palaces
6513-1892
Twenty-four emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties lived in this palace city, officially making it the home of China’s emperors for five centuries. The Palace Museum, formerly known as the Forbidden City, lies in the heart of modern Beijing. Built in the early 1400's, the structure is impressive with more than 9,000 rooms and halls containing many precious relics - making it the largest architectural palace in the world. Did we mention it's no longer forbidden?
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Summer Palace - Imperial gardens
Yiheyuan Street
Haidian District
6288-1077
The Summer Palace is known as one of the most tranquil places in the city of Beijing. Lakeside gardens and elegant pavilions adorn this grand imperial palace. It was originally built as a summer home for the emperor. Nowadays the gardens, pavilions, bridges, and towers receive hundreds of thousands of visitors. A curious feature in the Summer Palace is the marble replica of a Mississippi steamboat.
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Beihai Park
Noted as one of the oldest of the Chinese gardens, the Beihai Park was the imperial garden of the Liao, Jin, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties.
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Blue Zoo Beijing
(Gongti Nanlu), Chaoyang District
6593-5263
This international-class aquarium is great for the kids. The main attraction is a moving walkway that swirls around underneath the main tank, with sharks swimming overhead. The museum focuses on such marine issues in China as the damming of the Yangtze River and the slaughter of sharks for shark fin soup.
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Yuanmingyuan
Ruins of an impressive imperial palace built during the Qing Dynasty, the grounds of Yuanmingyuan are well preserved and open to the public.
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Yonghegong Lamasery
Yonghegong Lamasery was built in 1694 and remains one of the largest lamaseries in Beijing. Yonghegong also houses the largest wooden statue in the world, an 18 meter tall Buddha carved from a single sandalwood tree.
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Beijing Recreation Center
Beisihuanzhong Road, Andingmenwai
6499-3434
Family fun including wave pool, simulated river, water slides and a sports complex featuring bowling, squash, tennis, roller-skating, disco dancing, billiards and sauna.
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