798 Art Factory

Beijing

　　This cathedral-like Bauhaus space, ceilings emblazoned with red Maoist slogans, makes for the quintessential 798 photograph whether or not an exhibition is in place. Built in the 1950s and established as a gallery by artist Huang Rui in 2003, several pieces of the old East German–built machinery have been left...

National Art Museum of China

Beijing

　　Opened in 1963 with the personal endorsement of Mao Zedong, this gallery complex was conceived as the PRC's national nerve centre for artistic expression. In recent years the museum has shaken off its reputation for stodgy, state-supervised exhibitions by inviting galleries from abroad to exhibit, while at the same time...

National Museum of China

Beijing

　　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 be the world's largest by display space. Dozens of galleries present a party-line portrayal of Chinese civilisation – you could lose hours in the Ancient China...

Zhengyang Gate Arrow Tower

Beijing

　　This is the forward-defensive structure of Zhengyang Gate, which sits behind it. The imposing building is a jiànlóu (arrow tower), which would have been joined to the gate by a moon-shaped enceinte (enclosing wall), demolished last century along with the city walls. All told, it would have formed an awe-inspiring...

Great Hall of the People

Beijing

　　Monolithic and intimidating, the Stalinist Great Hall of the People (1959) houses the highest organ of state power, the National People’s Congress (NPC). While few travellers go inside, it's worth the diversion to marvel at the 10,000-seat auditorium with a red star embedded in a galaxy of ceiling lights. The...

Galaxy Soho

Beijing

　　After the CCTV Tower and the Bird's Nest Stadium, Beijing's Galaxy Soho trumpeted itself as the capital's next modern architectural landmark when it opened in 2012. Zaha Hadid's creation looks astonishing in photographs, the retail and office complex writhing futuristically like a Star Wars city (never mind that the adjoining...

Chairman Mao Memorial Hall

Beijing

　　One of Beijing's more surreal spectacles is the sight of Mao Zedong's embalmed corpse on public display within his mausoleum. The Soviet-inspired memorial hall was constructed just 10 months after Mao died in September 1976, and is a prominent landmark in the middle of Tian'anmen Sq. The Chairman is still...

Capital Museum

Beijing

　　It's a case of 'so near and yet so far' for Beijing's flagship museum, which, on architecture alone, promises so much. A neat timeline exhibit charts the history of Beijing from the Jin dynasty to the 20th century via artefacts and diorama rooms, while galleries of porcelain and Buddhist art...

Beijing Natural History Museum

Beijing

　　New York and London needn't fret: Beijing's Natural History Museum isn't going to rival their august institutions any time soon. Not with exhibits that lurch between the silly (juddery animatronic dinos) and the overly scientific (a gallery devoted solely to angiosperms). Collection highlights include a Mamenchisaurus jingyanensis (a 26m-long dino),...

Ming City Wall Ruins Park

Beijing

　　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 capital since the early Ming dynasty. The walls have been dismantled piecemeal since the 1950s, making way for the 2nd Ring Rd and Line...

CCTV Headquarters

Beijing

　　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 and Ole Scheeren, the building has become an icon of the Beijing skyline since being completed in 2008 in time for the Olympics. 　　There's no...

Shijia Hutong Museum

Beijing

　　Shijia Hutong has seen plenty of action over the decades, as this spiffy museum in a rebuilt sìhéyuàn (courtyard residence) explains. English is ample throughout; you'll learn a bit about the disputed etymology of the word 'hutong' (Mongolian or Han?), and be invited to admire scale models of Shijia Hutong,...

Three Great Halls

Beijing

　　Raised on a three-tier marble terrace with balustrades are the Three Great Halls, the glorious ceremonial heart not just of the Forbidden City but of the Chinese empire itself. ...

Drum Tower

Beijing

　　Venerable bastions of time-keeping, the Drum Tower and its counterpart the Bell Tower were for centuries the tallest buildings in Beijing, lording it over the surrounding hutong. Up in the 46m-high tower, the great drums would beat to sound the curfew after nightfall in the Qing dynasty, and thereafter every...

Panjiayuan Market

Beijing

　　A curio hunter's heaven or an Everest of fakery? Panjiayuan is both, and marvellous fun to boot. Picking over the wares of some 4000 dealers, you won't chance upon that priceless dòucǎi stem cup, but you will find Mao busts, Little Red Books, coins, stamps and faded cigarette posters bobbing...

Royal Icehouse

Beijing

　　Serving imperial banquet fare such as Peking duck, braised sea cucumber and sweetmeats incuding sugared crabapples, this intriguing restaurant was once a royal refrigerator, its arched stone cellars built to store oversized ice cubes cut from the lake at Beihai Park. Dining in the cellars themselves is discouraged (which is...

Bell Tower

Beijing

　　The restrained, grey-stone edifice of the Bell Tower (Zhonglou) is arguably even more charming than its resplendent other half, the Drum Tower (Gulou), after which this area of Beijing is casually named. You can mount the steep steps to get a look at the giant copper bell, and peek out...

Palace of Prolonging Happiness

Beijing

　　The most unique of the Forbidden City's six eastern palaces, the Palace of Prolonging Happiness features an unfinished 20th-century Western-style building with intricately carved white marble facade and cast-iron roof. The palace was built in 1420 and was originally similar in style to the other five palaces before burning down...

White Dagoba Temple

Beijing

　　Originally built in 1271 under the reign of Kublai Khan, the serene Miaoying Temple slumbers beneath its astonishing high dagoba, the tallest in China. A glimpse of it rising imperiously above the surrounding hutong is one of the most emotive sights in Beijing. The dagoba was built on the site...

Sìjì Mínfú

Beijing

　　A relative newcomer to the Peking duck scene, this local chain boasts some of the best birds in town, and this branch in particular is a beauty, with a prize perch overlooking the Forbidden City's moat. There is a catch, though: crowds. On summer weekends there might be a four-hour...

798 Art District

Beijing

　　Contemporary art meets communist history at this thrilling enclave of international galleries installed within China's model factory complex of the 1950s. Most of Beijing's best galleries are here, staging shows from the likes of Ai Weiwei and David Hockney in gorgeous Bauhaus workshops that once produced munitions and electronics. Toss...

Gate of Heavenly Peace

Beijing

　　Instantly recognisable by its giant framed portrait of Mao, and guarded by two pairs of Ming dynasty stone lions, the double-eaved Gate of Heavenly Peace (literally 'Tian'anmen') is a potent national symbol. Formerly the largest of the four gates of the Imperial City Wall, it was from here that Mao...

Southeast Corner Watchtower

Beijing

　　This immense fortress, part of the Ming City Wall Ruins Park, guarded the southeast corner of Beijing's city walls. Originally built in 1439 but repaired numerous times over the centuries, the tower is skewered with a formidable grid of 144 archery embrasures, able to rain fire on would-be attackers. Visitors...

Beihai Park

Beijing

　　Beihai Park, inside the old Imperial City, looks much as it would have done in the 18th century when it served as Emperor Qianlong's private gardens. The Tibetan-style White Dagoba soars majestically over the lake (Beihai means ‘northern sea'), around which are found temples, pavilions, imperial stelae and other grand...

Tian'anmen Square

Beijing

　　Flanked by triumphalist Soviet-style buildings, Tian'anmen Sq is an immense void of paved stone (440,000 sq metres, to be precise) at the symbolic centre of the Chinese universe. Watched over by Mao's portrait (and the eyes of hundreds of security personnel), it's an iconic if disquieting place for a stroll....

Summer Palace

Beijing

　　A marvel of Chinese garden design and one of Beijing's must-see attractions, the Summer Palace was the royal retreat for emperors fleeing the suffocating summer torpor of the old imperial city and, most recently, it was the retirement playground of Empress Dowager Cixi. It merits an entire day’s exploration, although...

Temple of Heaven Park

Beijing

　　An oasis of methodical Confucian design, the 267-hectare Temple of Heaven Park is unique. It originally served as a vast stage for solemn rites performed by the emperor (the literal 'Son of Heaven'), who prayed here for good harvests at winter solstice and sought divine clearance and atonement. Since 1918...

Forbidden City

Beijing

　　Enclosed by 3.5km of citadel walls at the very heart of Beijing, the Unesco-listed Forbidden City is China’s largest and best-preserved collection of ancient buildings – large enough to comfortably absorb the 16 million visitors it receives each year. Steeped in stultifying ritual, this otherworldly palace was the reclusive home...