Beijing is China's Capital and the political, cultural and educational center of the country. China's two final dynasties (1368-1911) and 26 emperors have bestowed Beijing with the richest dynastic heritage in the world. Beijing is also home to an incredible Cultural display of artistic and historical artifacts in more than 50 museums, while folk traditions flourish in theaters, delicious dining can be found in exotic settings, and cultural centers offer fascinating demonstrations of centuries old art and craft making.

With the winning of the big for 2008 Olympics, a new wave of large-scale city expansion and construction were triggered. Roads are being widened, subway lines are being extended, new financial and commercial centers are being established, sky-scrapers, Gymnasiums, big gardens are being built, more hotels are opening up. A new Beijing will be ready for the new Olympics by 2008.

1．The Forbidden City
The Forbidden City is actually a city-within-a-city. Built between 1406 and 1420 with 999 rooms spread over 250 acres. During the Ming and Qing dynasty, 24 emperors made their home in the Forbidden City and forbade commoners from entering. Puyi, the last Emperor, occupied the Inner Palace as a royal residence until 1924. Now it is the largest and best preserved palace complexes in the world. Here are collected around a million rare and valuable objects.

2．The Great Wall
“ you are not a hero if not mounting the Great Wall”
Construction started in the 7th century BC, with additions and rebuilding continuing until the 16th century AD, the Great Wall was built to keep out the warring invaders of the north, but additional sections were extended eastward for nearly 6,700 kilometers.

The well-preserved sections of the Great Wall in Beijing are China's most famous tourist site. These sections are mainly the remains from the Ming Dynasty, an era of tremendous construction. The wall runs across the northern part of Beijing for over six hundred kilometers with various passes and towers. The mainly sections include Badaling, Simatai, Jinshanling, Mutianyu, etc. You really have to see this fantastic, amazing and breath-taking scenery once in your life.

3．Temple of Heaven
China’s largest temple and altar complex, the Temple of Heaven in the southern part of Beijing occupies an area of 270 hectares. Started to be built in 1420 , it was the place where the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties worshipped heaven and prayed for abundant harvests.

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'.

4．Peking Opera
Peking opera is a national treasure with a history of 200 years. In the 55th year of the reign of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty(1790) ,the four big Huiban opera Troupes entered the capital and combined with Kunqu opera and Hanju opera. Through a period of more than half a century of combination and integration of various kinds of opera there evolved the present Peking opera, the biggest kind of opera in China, whose richness of repertoire, great number of artists of performance and of audiences, and profound influence are incomparable in China.

Peking opera is a synthesis of stylized action, singing, dialogue and mime, acrobatic fighting and dancing to represent a story or depict different characters and their feelings of gladness, anger, sorrow, happiness, surprise, fear and sadness. In Peking opera there are four main types of roles: sheng (male) dan (young female), jing( painted face, male), and chou (clown, male or female). The characters may be loyal or treacherous, beautiful or ugly, good or bad, their images being vividly manifested.

5．Peking Roast Duck
Peking Roast Duck has the reputation of being the most delicious food Beijing has to offer. Eating Peking Duck is seen to be one of the two things you are absolutely supposed to do while in Beijing. The other one is climbing the Great Wall.

The place that offers the best Peking Duck is the Quan Ju De Restaurant, which was established 130 years ago. At Quan Ju De, ducks are roasted directly over flames stoked by fruit tree wood. The best roasted duck is date-red, shining with oil, but with a crisp skin and tender meat. The chef cuts the meat into 108 pieces of thin slices at table. Then the meat is served with Chinese onions and special sauce.

Another famous restaurant offering Peking duck is the Bian Yi Fan, which opened in 1855, nine years earlier than Quan Ju De. At Bian Yi Fang, roasting is done in an enclosed container fueled with crop stalks.