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Beijing Destination GuideTourist TipsMany tourist areas in Beijing are under renovation for the 2008 Olympics. The Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, and Summer Palace all had sections under renovation as of the middle of March 2006. Sources say some of the renovations have been completed and moved onto other sections.
Despite the turmoil of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries — including damage caused by European military intervention, the Japanese invasion of WWII and the Cultural Revolution — and the recent intense urbanisation and transformation, including the demolition of hutongs, Beijing still maintains tourist attractions that are rich in history. Although more known for its political significance in the West, the Tian'anmen (Gate of Heavenly Peace) has long been one of the most important tourist sites of Beijing, both by itself and as the main entrance to the Forbidden City. Other world-renowned sites include the Badaling section of the Great Wall of China, the Summer Palace, and the Temple of Heaven.
Tiananmen Square:
The square is 880 metres south to north and 500 metres east to west, a total area of 440,000 square metres, which makes it the largest open-urban square in the world – considerably larger than Red Square in Moscow. The Tiananmen was built in 1417. In 1699 (early Qing Dynasty), the Tiananmen was renovated and renamed to its present form. During the Ming and Qing eras, there was no public square at Tiananmen, and instead the area was filled with offices for imperial ministries. These were badly damaged during the Boxer Rebellion and the area was cleared to produce the beginning of Tiananmen Square. Near the centre of today's square, close to the site of the Mao Zedong Mausoleum, once stood one of the most important gates of Beijing. This gate was known as the "Great Ming Gate" during the Ming Dynasty, "Great Qing Gate" during the Qing Dynasty, and "Gate of China" during the Republic of China era. Unlike the other gates in Beijing, such as the Tiananmen and the Qianmen, this was a purely ceremonial gateway, with three arches but no ramparts, similar in style to the ceremonial gateways found in the Ming Dynasty Tombs.
The Square is lit with huge lampposts which also sport video cameras. It is heavily monitored by uniformed and plain clothes policemen.
The Great Wall:
Several walls were built since the 3rd century BC, the most famous being the Great Wall built between 220 BC and 200 BC by the First Emperor, Qin Shi Huangdi (this was located much further north than the current Great Wall of China built during the Ming Dynasty, and little of it remains). The Wall stretches over a formidable 6,352 km (3,948 miles), from Shanhai Pass on the Bohai Sea in the east, at the limit between China proper and Manchuria, to Lop Nur in the southeastern portion of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The Great Wall which tourists visit today was built during the Ming Dynasty, starting around the year 1368 and lasting until around 1640. Work on the wall started as soon as the Ming took control of China but initially, walls were not the Ming's preferred response to raids out of the north. That attitude began to change in response to the Ming's inablilty to defeat the Oirat war leader Esen Taiji in the period 1449 to 1454. A huge Ming army with the Zhengtong Emperor at its head was anihilated in battle and the emperor himself held hostage in 1449.
The Ming Dynasty Great Wall starts on the eastern end at Shanhai Pass, near Qinhuangdao, in Hebei Province, next to Bohai Gulf. Spanning nine provinces and 100 counties, the final 500 kilometres have all but turned to rubble, and today it ends on the western end at the historic site of Jiayuguan Pass (also called Jiayu Pass), located in northwest Gansu Province at the limit of the Gobi Desert and the oases of the Silk Road. Jiayuguan Pass was intended to greet travellers along the Silk Road. Even though The Great Wall ends at Jiayu Pass, there are many watchtowers extending beyond Jiayu Pass along the Silk Road. These towers communicated by smoke to signal invasion.
The materials used are those available near the site of construction. Near Beijing the wall is constructed from quarried limestone blocks. In other locations it may be quarried granite or fired brick. Where such materials are used, two finished walls are erected with packed earth and rubble fill placed in between with a final paving to form a single unit. In some areas the blocks were cemented with a mixture of sticky rice and egg whites. In the extreme western desert locations, where good materials are scarce, the wall was constructed from dirt rammed between rough wood tied together with woven mats. The Wall was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987.
The Forbidden City:
As such, it is listed by UNESCO as the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world, and was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987 as the "Imperial Palace of the Ming and Qing Dynasties". The imperial palace grounds are located directly to the north of Tiananmen Square and are accessible from the square via Tiananmen Gate. It is surrounded by a large area called the Imperial City. Although no longer occupied by royalty, the Forbidden City remains a symbol of Chinese sovereignty and the image of its entrance gate appears on the seal of the People's Republic of China. The Palace Museum is now one of the most popular tourist attractions in the world. Recently, the site has been under much renovation which has limited visitors to the main courtyards and a few gardens. The construction of the Forbidden City started in 1406 and took 14 years and an estimated 200,000 men. The principal axis of the new palace sits to the east of the Yuan dynasty palace, a design intended to place the Yuan palace in the western or "kill" position. Soil excavated during construction of the moat was piled up to the north of the palace to create an artificial hill, the Jingshan hill. From its completion in 1420 to 1644, when a peasant revolt led by Li Zicheng invaded it, the Forbidden City served as the seat of the Ming Dynasty. The following Qing Dynasty also occupied the Forbidden City. In 1860, during the Second Anglo-Chinese Opium War, British forces managed to penetrate to the heart of the Forbidden City and occupied it until the end of the war, being the only foreign power to do so.
The Forbidden City is surrounded by royal gardens. To the west lies Zhongnanhai, the complex of buildings centred on two lakes which serves as the central headquarters for the Communist Party of China. To the north-west lies Beihai Park, which also centres on a lake and is a popular park. To the north lies Jingshan Park, also known as Jing Shan or Coal Hill, where the last Ming emperor hanged himself as the rebel army overran his palace.
Summer Palace:
The Summer Palace started out life as the Garden of Clear Ripples in 1750 (Reign Year 15 of Emperor Qianlong). Artisans reproduced the garden architecture styles of various palaces in China. Kunming Lake was created by extending an existing body of water to imitate the West Lake in Hangzhou. The palace complex suffered two major attacks -- during the Anglo-French allied invasion of 1860 (with the Old Summer Palace also ransacked at the same time), and during the Boxer Rebellion, in an attack by the eight allied powers in 1900. The garden survived and was rebuilt in 1886 and 1902. In 1888, it was given the current name, Yihe Yuan. It served as a summer resort for Empress Dowager Cixi, who diverted 30 million taels of silver, said to be originally designated for the Chinese navy (Beiyang Fleet), into the reconstruction and enlargement of the Summer Palace.
Temple of Heaven:
The Temple grounds covers 2.73 square kilometres of parkland, and comprises three main groups of constructions, all built according to strict philosophical requirements:
In ancient China, the Emperor of China was regarded as the "Son of Heaven", who administered earthly matters on behalf of, and representing, heavenly authority. To be seen to be showing respect to the source of his authority, in the form of sacrifices to heaven, was extremely important. The temple was built for these ceremonies, mostly comprised of prayers for good harvests.
The Temple of Heaven is the grandest of the four great temples located in Beijing. The other prominent temples include the Temple of Sun in the east, the Temple of Earth in the north, and the Temple of Moon in the west. According to Xinhua, in early 2005, the Temple of Heaven underwent a 47 million yuan (5.9 million US Dollar) face-lift in preparation for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics and the restoration was completed on May 1st, 2006. The Temple of Heaven was registered on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1998.
Central Business District:
The Wangfujing and Xidan areas are major shopping districts. Zhongguancun, dubbed "China's Silicon Valley", continues to be a major centre in electronics- and computer-related industries, as well as pharmaceuticals-related research. Meanwhile, Yizhuang, located to the southeast of the urban area, is becoming a new centre in pharmaceuticals, IT, and materials engineering. Urban Beijing is also known for being a centre of pirated goods and anything from the latest designer clothing to the latest DVDs can be found in markets all over the city, often marketed to expatriates and international visitors.
Orange County China:
All 143 units were sold within a month of going on sale, in a phenomenon the Beijing media called "The Orange Storm." Designed by architect Aram Bassenian, who authentically hails from Newport Beach, California in Orange County, California, the Orange County development is an example of wealthy Chinese literally adopting the suburban American lifestyle.
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As a plus ticket prices were reduced for these exhibits because of the closed off sections. Just be aware before the Olympics there may be continued renovations. 
Tiananmen Square is the large plaza near the centre of Beijing, named after the Tiananmen (literally, Gate of Heavenly Peace) which sits to its north, separating it from the Forbidden City. It has great cultural significance as a symbol because it was the site of several key events in Chinese history. Outside of China, the square is best known for the Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989.
This gate had a special status as the "Gate of the Nation", as can be seen from its successive names. It normally remained closed, except when the Emperor passed through. Enlarged in 1949 to the current size, its flatness is broken only by the 38 metre high Monument to the People's Heroes and the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong. The square lies between two ancient, massive gates: the Tian'anmen to the north and the Zhengyangmen, better known as Qianmen; literally "Front Gate" to the south. Along the west side of the Square is the Great Hall of the People. Along the east side is the National Museum of China. Chang'an Avenue, which is used for parades, lies between the Tian'anmen and the Square. Trees line the east and west edges of the Square, but the square itself is open, with neither trees nor benches.
The Great Wall of China is a fortification built from 3rd century BC until the beginning of the 17th century, in order to protect the various dynasties from raids by Mongol, Turkic, and other nomadic tribes coming from areas in modern-day Mongolia and Manchuria. 
Apparently the real focus on wall building started as a result of Altan Khan's siege of Beijing which took place one hundred years later in 1550. The Ming, faced with the choice of trying to defeat the Mongols with direct military force, choose instead to build a massive defensive barrier to protect China. As a result, most of the Ming Great Wall was built in the period 1560 to 1640. This new wall was built on a grand scale with longer lasting materials (solid stone used for the sides and the top of the Wall) than any wall built before.
The last great wall of the Ming really was a military fortification of some strength. However, military historians are generally dismissive of the net value of this great wall. It was astonishingly expensive to build, maintain and garrison. The money the Ming spent on the wall could have been spent on other military capabilities such as European style artillery or muskets. The fact remains that the great wall was of no help at all in preventing the Ming Dynasty's fall.
The Forbidden City or Forbidden Palace literally "Purple Forbidden City", located at the exact centre of the ancient city of Beijing, was the imperial palace during the mid-Ming and the Qing dynasties. Known now as the Palace Museum, its extensive grounds cover 720,000 square metres, 800 buildings and more than 8,000 rooms.
After being the home of 24 emperors—fourteen of the Ming Dynasty and ten of the Qing Dynasty—the Forbidden City ceased being the political centre of China in 1912 with the abdication of Pu Yi, the last Emperor of China. He was, however, allowed and in fact required to live within the walls of the Forbidden City, until a coup launched by a local general in 1924. Having been the imperial palace for some five centuries, the Forbidden City houses numerous rare treasures and curiosities. In 1947, after they had been moved from one location to another inside mainland China for many years (most recently to hide from the Japanese in the war), Chiang Kai-shek ordered many of the artifacts within the Forbidden City to be moved to Taiwan where they formed the core of the National Palace Museum in Taipei. This action has been extremely controversial, with some regarding it as looting while others regarding it as safekeeping, especially with the events of the Cultural Revolution on the mainland.
The Summer Palace or Yiheyuan literally translates to "Garden of Nurtured Harmony"), and is mainly dominated by Longevity Hill (60 metres high) and the Kunming Lake. It covers an expanse of 2.9 square kilometers -- three quarters of which is water. In its compact 70,000 square metres of building space, one finds a variety of palaces, gardens, and other classical-style architectural structures.
The Temple of Heaven, literally the Altar of Heaven is a complex of Taoist buildings situated in southeastern urban Beijing, in Xuanwu District. Construction of the complex began in 1420, and was thereafter visited by all subsequent Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties. It is regarded as a Taoist temple, although the worship of Heaven, especially by the reigning monarch of the day, pre-dates Taoism.
Each winter solstice the Emperor and all his retinue would move through the city to encamp within the complex, wearing special robes and abstaining from eating meat; there the Emperor would personally pray to Heaven for good harvests. The ceremony had to be perfectly completed; it was widely held that the smallest of mistakes would constitute a bad omen for the whole nation in the coming year.
The Beijing CBD, centred at the Guomao area, has been identified as the city's new central business district, and is home to a variety of corporate regional headquarters, shopping malls, and high-end housing. The Beijing Financial Street, in the Fuxingmen and Fuchengmen area, is a traditional financial centre. 
Orange County, China refers to a 60 million dollar, 143-unit housing development situated about one hour north of Beijing, China, comprised entirely of expensive American-style townhouses and tract homes, decorated and furnished with American products. The Chinese developer Zhang Bo built the community to anticipate the 2008 Olympics to be held in Beijing.
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