Beijing Travel Guide

Beijing Universal Studios is a highly anticipated theme park destination, including Universal Theme Park, Beijing Universal CityWalk, and two resort hotels. It features brand new selected Attraction and includes popular entertainment facilities and attractions from Universal Theme Parks around the world.

▲Universal Studios Beijing: Blending Chinese cultural elements to create a unique experience, it has seven theme Attraction, 37 rides and entertainment facilities and landmark attractions, 24 performances, 80 Dining and 30 retail stores.



▲Minion Land: It is a colorful world full of joy! At this moment, these naughty Minions are walking around the streets, ports and city centers, having fun all over the world without restraint! At the same time, Gru is also recruiting soldiers for the Minions Army, so hurry up and sign up at Gru's house!

▲The Wizarding World of Harry Potter™: Here you can leave the ordinary world behind and experience the wonderful rides and endless magical adventures, which will lead you step by step into a thrilling and interesting magical world!

▲Transformers Metrobase: This is a Cybertron-style base, which is transformed by Transformers the size of a city. If you are ready to become an agent, then accept Optimus Prime's recruitment, join the Beijing Nest Force, fight side by side with the Autobots, and fight against the Decepticons to protect the earth!

▲Kung Fu Panda Land of Awesomeness: This is an ancient place like a paradise, and also a legendary place that combines the beauty of nature and craftsmanship. Come here to explore your own Kung Fu!

There's also Jurassic World Isla Nublar, Hollywood, and Waterworld waiting for you to explore!

▲The Universal Studios Grand Hotel

The Universal Studios Grand Hotel is located at the entrance of Universal Studios Beijing and offers Hollywood-themed accommodation and the privilege of Early Park Admission via the Universal Studios Beijing VIP Experience entrance; NUO Resort Hotel is a 5-minute walk from the entrance. Guests can enjoy a well-equipped fitness center, indoor swimming pool, and spa center (NUO SPA). Guests can also enjoy Early Park Admission via the Universal Studios Beijing VIP Experience entrance. Both hotels combine themed features with high-end facilities to create an immersive vacation experience.

The Badaling Great Wall is renowned as one of the Nine Strategic Passes under heaven, combining majestic cliffs with picturesque greenery to form the most spectacular section of the Ming Dynasty fortifications. Living up to the Chinese saying "He who has never been to the Great Wall is not a true hero," this remains the premier choice for most Chinese visitors to experience the Wall.

The fortress gate exhibits a trapezoidal shape, narrower on the east and wider on the west, featuring two gate towers. The eastern arch bears the inscription "Juyong Waizhen" (Frontier Town of Juyong), while the western gate displays "Beimen Suoyue" (Key to the Northern Gate). North of the fortress stretches the 12-tower Northern Wall section, while to the south lies the less crowded Southern Wall with 7 watchtowers. If time permits, we recommend exploring the Southern Wall first before tackling the more popular Northern section.

▲ Walk Through Six Centuries of Golden History: A Visual Feast of Vermilion Foliage Blanketing the Great Wall

▲ As night descends, the Badaling Great Wall transforms into a gilded dragon winding through shadowed peaks, its illuminated battlements whispering tales of millennia - where imperial splendor meets enduring mystery beneath constellations of golden light.

▲ Cloaked in winter's crystalline mantle, the Badaling Great Wall becomes a silver serpent coiled between snow-draped peaks, its ancient stones gilded by dawn's golden rays

The Forbidden City, also known as the Imperial Palace, was the imperial palace of the Ming and Qing dynasties, and is also the symbol of ancient China. When you are in the majestic and orderly high walls and deep courtyards, you can truly feel its former glory.

▲The long history has left behind large-scale precious buildings and countless cultural relics, which have also become the main attraction of visiting the Forbidden City today.

▲Classic attractions: The Forbidden City Corner Tower is a polygonal building with a convex plane on all four sides. It is located in Dongcheng District, Beijing. The roof has three layers. The upper layer is a hip roof with vertical and horizontal intersections. It is composed of a gable roof with flowing water on two slopes and a hip roof with four slopes. Because there are nine main ridges on this roof, it is called the Nine-ridge Hall.

▲Sundials are divided into two types according to their installation principle: equatorial and horizontal. The sundial installed using the equatorial principle is called an equatorial sundial. The key points of its production are that it must have a time plate, a latitude arc and a gnomon. When operating, the time plate must be parallel to the equatorial plane of the earth, the gnomon must be in the same direction as the earth's axis, and the shadow cast by the gnomon on the gnomon is the desired time.

▲The Treasure House is located in the Ningshou Palace area. It has a rich collection of treasures, including Buddhist supplies, ornaments, daily utensils, and treasures for appreciation. Among them, the red coral lion about 14 cm high, the Dongzhu court beads about 130 cm long, and the gold "Fengtianzhibao" seal are all rare treasures.

▲The Clock and Watch Museum is located in the Fengxian Hall in the palace. Most of the clocks on display are British products, but there are also clocks from other countries such as France and Switzerland. In addition to the timing function, these clocks are decorated with figures, birds, beasts, flowers, etc., which can also make various different movements. They are very delicately made. Among them, the copper-plated gilded writing clock, the copper-plated gilded enamel gourd-top fishing and woodcutting farming clock, and the copper-plated gilded rotating flower running man rhinoceros carrying clock are very rare.

The National Museum of China is an institution that, on behalf of the country, collects, studies, displays and interprets representative material evidence that fully reflects China's fine traditional culture and advanced socialist culture. It is a national palace of history, culture and art and a cultural living room.

The National Museum of China currently has more than 1.4 million collections, covering ancient cultural relics, modern and contemporary cultural relics, rare books and ancient books, and artworks. Among them, there are 815,000 pieces (sets) of ancient cultural relics, 340,000 pieces (sets) of modern and contemporary cultural relics, more than 240,000 pieces (volumes) of rare books and ancient books, and a total of nearly 6,000 first-class cultural relics. In recent years, especially since the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the National Museum of China has increased its efforts to collect representative material evidence reflecting contemporary advanced culture, and publicly collected cultural relics collections from the society, collecting an average of about 50 sets of ancient cultural relics and more than 1,000 sets of modern and contemporary cultural relics, physical objects and artworks each year.

The exhibitions of the National Museum of China include three series: basic exhibitions, special exhibitions, and temporary exhibitions, forming a three-dimensional exhibition system covering theme exhibitions, basic exhibitions, special exhibitions, and temporary exhibitions. Among them, "Ancient China", "Road to Rejuvenation" and "Road to Rejuvenation in the New Era" are the basic exhibitions of the National Museum, and are also important positions for promoting Chinese traditional culture, advanced socialist culture, and cultivating and practicing the core socialist values. The special exhibitions are mainly based on the collection of cultural relics, including more than ten special exhibitions such as ancient Chinese bronzes, Buddhist statues, jades, porcelains, modern classic works of art, and African wood carvings. Temporary exhibitions include two categories: self-planned exhibitions and introduced exchange exhibitions, covering historical culture, fine cultural relics, archaeological discoveries, classic works of art, regional culture, international exchanges and other aspects, with an average of more than 40 exhibitions held each year.

The National Museum of China has rich research resources, a solid research foundation and strong research capabilities, and is the industry leader in the development of the domestic museum industry.

Since 2018, in accordance with the principle of "not seeking to collect but to exhibit, open cooperation, mutual benefit and win-win", we have established strategic cooperative relations with many cultural and museum institutions, institutes, universities and colleges at home and abroad, jointly carried out academic research, held high-quality cultural relics exhibitions, convened seminars, launched postdoctoral research workstations, and took the lead in establishing two international organizations, the BRICS Museum Alliance and the Silk Road Museum Alliance, striving to play a greater role and make greater contributions in promoting the core socialist values, enhancing cultural confidence, promoting exchanges and mutual learning between Chinese and foreign civilizations, and building a socialist cultural power.

Prince Kung's Palace Museum is located by the Shichahai lakeside and stands as one of the best-preserved princely mansions from the Qing dynasty in Beijing. It originally served as the residence of Heshen, a powerful official during Emperor Qianlong's reign. After Heshen's downfall, the property was granted to Prince Qing Yonglin, and later to Prince Gong Yixin during the Xianfeng era, hence the name "Prince Kung's Palace." This mansion witnessed the entire decline of the Qing dynasty, earning the saying "One Prince Kung's Palace, half the history of the Qing dynasty." The complex features a mansion in the front and a garden at the rear, both laid out along central, eastern, and western axes with meticulous order and grandeur.

The mansion consists of multiple siheyuan courtyards connected along a central axis: The central Yinan Hall, roofed with green glazed tiles, follows the specifications of a prince's main hall. On the eastern route, the two-courtyard complex of Ledao Hall and Duofu Pavilion once served as the residence of Heshen's son Fengshen Yinde and Princess Hexiao of the Gulun rank, with Ledao Hall later becoming Prince Gong's living quarters. The western route features delicate refinement, with Xijin Study standing out particularly – its partitions are entirely made of exquisitely carved nanmu wood, modeled after the Ning Shou Palace in the Forbidden City. This extravagant construction later became one of Heshen's listed crimes. At the mansion's end stands a two-story elongated building commonly called "Ninety-nine and a half rooms," its rear wall punctuated by a row of variously shaped decorative windows. Legend claims this was the treasure vault and marks the boundary between mansion and garden.

The garden, named Cuijin Garden, was reconstructed by Prince Gong's commissioned artisans, blending the charm of Jiangnan landscapes with northern architectural layouts. Its three marvels are the Western-style gate carved from white marble, the stele inscribed with the character "Fu" (blessing) by Emperor Kangxi, and the grand all-wood theater. Hidden in the Secret Cloud Cave within rockeries, the "Fu" stele conceals wishes for numerous descendants, abundant harvests, talent, longevity, and blessings in its strokes—easily missed if one isn't attentive. The theater, an enclosed wooden structure, reportedly projects vocals throughout without amplification. Bat motifs dominate the garden's "blessing" theme: the Bat Pool, Bat Hall, and painted beams interplay harmoniously. From the Moon-Inviting Platform, visitors overlook the entire garden, while the Winding Stream Pavilion preserves the refined legacy of ancient floating wine cup poetry.

When touring, you may first follow the central axis to see the mansion, then pass through the western gate to enter and appreciate the garden in detail. There are usually more travelers visiting during holidays, so it's advisable to start early and allow enough time to slowly savor the history and details of this princely mansion.

The Temple of Heaven is a unique altar for emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties. Here, people worship the heavens, ask for rain, and pray for a better harvest. It is a famous ancient building in China. The Temple of Heaven is divided into two parts: the Inner Altar and the Outer Altar. Well-known structures such as the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest and the Echo Wall are located in the Inner Altar. While visiting the Temple of Heaven, tourists get to experience the grand praying ceremony of ancient emperors and observe the ingenious designs such as the Echo Wall and the Triple Sound Stones. The wisdom of the ancient craftsmen will not fail to impress you.

Situated in the Haidian District northwest of Beijing, the Summer Palace is a Unesco World Heritage site that used to be the palace and garden of the emperors of the Qing Dynasty. It is the largest and most well preserved royal park in China. Construction of the palace began in 1750 and it served as a residential and entertainment area for the royal members. The palace underwent two major reconstructions after suffering damages during invasions by the Anglo-French Allied Forces and the Eight-Power Allied Forces during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Summer Palace can be divided into three sectors: a political activity area centered at the Hall of Benevolence and Longevity; an empress living area concentrated around the Hall of Jade Billows and Hall of Joy and Longevity; and a tour route concentrated along the long corridor, rear hill, and the west sector.

The Mutianyu Great Wall is nestled among the Yanshan mountain ranges in Huairou, Beijing. It is one of the best-preserved and most picturesque sections of the Ming Dynasty Great Wall, renowned as "the finest segment of the ten-thousand-li Great Wall." Its construction traces back to the Northern Qi Dynasty's wall, with General Xu Da overseeing its reconstruction on the Northern Qi ruins during the early Ming Dynasty. The Mutianyu Pass was established in 1404 (the 2nd year of the Yongle reign), and further renovations were conducted under Tan Lun and Qi Jiguang during the Longqing era. The brick-and-stone walls and watchtowers seen today are largely Ming-era structures. Along the Ming Great Wall defense line, this section connects Juyong Pass to the west and Gubeikou to the east, serving as a vital military stronghold guarding the capital since ancient times.

This section of the Great Wall has distinctive architectural features: the Zhengguan platform uniquely clusters three watchtowers together, with its gate unusually positioned on the eastern side rather than centrally—a rare design in Great Wall construction. Unlike most sections fortified only on the outer side, its crenellations line both flanks, reflecting strategic considerations for dual-front defense. Between the eastern vantage point at Dajiao Tower and Zhengguan platform, watchtowers stand densely within just a few hundred meters. From Dajiao Tower's summit, the wall snakes along mountain ridges amid verdant peaks, offering panoramic views and prime photography spots—a location featured in the film If You Are the One 2.

This area has over 90% forest coverage on its mountains. In spring and summer, lush greenery fills the view; in late fall, red leaves blanket the hills; and in winter, snow drapes the landscape in silver—each season offers unique scenery. You can take a cable car or ropeway uphill, then switch to an open slide through the forest for a fun and effortless descent. Compared to other open sections of the Great Wall in Beijing, this area sees fewer crowds, making it ideal for a half-day visit. Walk leisurely between watchtowers and look back from different vantage points to capture varied perspectives of the wall and surrounding mountains.

Shichahai Scenic Area refers to the front sea,Shichahai Scenic AreaAlong with the three lakes of Xihai and the adjacent areas, this place boasts vast stretches of beautiful lake surfaces and is also a famous historical district in Beijing, where numerous former residences of celebrities, princely mansions, and other historical sites are scattered, along with various delicacies close to the lives of ordinary people,Shichahai Scenic Area pub streetIt is also a long-standing hotspot for nightlife in the capital.

Take a cruise in summer

In summer, the lake is covered with lotus flowers. Cruise docks like the lotus market, wild duck island, and dreamlike Jiangnan line the shore, offering pedal boats and electric boats for self-rowing fun. Traditional punt boats are operated by boatmen in period costumes, who share old Beijing stories along the way.

Ice skating on the lake in winter

In winter when the lake freezes over, cruises stop operating, but you can still come to enjoy the winter scenery. Once the ice is solid, the Qianhai ice rink opens, offering skating and ice biking, a long-standing winter tradition in Beijing.

Visit ancient architecture

The ancient architecture around Shichahai Scenic Area keeps the attraction full of old Beijing characteristics. There areHuitong Temple, Deshengmen Arrow Tower, Prince Chun's Mansion,Guanghua Temple, Yinding Bridge, Bell and Drum Towers, and other attractions.

Among the most famous is the residence of Heshen on Qianhai West Street—the Prince Gong Mansion. In addition to marveling at the lavish home of the corrupt Qing official Heshen, the mansion also houses over 10,000 hidden "fu" characters. The Kangxi Emperor's inscribed fu stele is particularly renowned, drawing travelers to queue for hours just to catch a glimpse.

If interested, you can also detour to Yandai Byway to visit the Great Qing Post Office, which marks the birth of modern postal service in China. You can stamp a few beautifully patterned postmarks as souvenirs at the post office, though you'll need to purchase their postcards first to get the stamps.

Try old Beijing snacks

If you like to casually snack, you can buy a candied hawthorn stick, lean against the white marble railing of Shichahai Scenic Area, and enjoy the cruise boats coming and going on the lake while eating. If you want to specifically seek out Beijing snacks, you can go toJiumen snacks, in the traditional courtyard houses, you can find everything from soy-braised beef, dalian huoshao (a type of pancake), instant-boiled mutton, to tofu pudding; or head to the west side of the Mei Lanfang Memorial HouseHuguo Temple snack street, tube-shaped wings, palace cheese, and shoe sole pancakes, taste the delicious flavors from the hutong; additionally, there's a shop in the Lotus MarketQuanjude roast duck restaurant.

Bars and nightlife

When night falls, the lively time arrives. Around the Shichahai Scenic Area, numerous bars echo with singing, and some bar singers in the Shichahai Scenic Area truly perform well, with stories of the "Beijing drifters" behind the bars. Rock singer Dou Wei performed at the Shichahai Scenic Area for three years, and it is said that the restaurant Qingyunlou (Shichahai branch) in the Shichahai Scenic Area is now owned by him. Other famous bars include Hutong Sketch and Jiadingfang. Sitting in a bar, watching singers perform, you can almost hear the passion for music from the "Beijing drifters" in their songs.

Nearby attractions

Shichahai Scenic Area is adjacent to Nanluoguxiang to the east and Beihai Park to the south, with Jingshan Park, the Palace Museum, and Tiananmen Square a bit further south also within easy reach. Typically, visitors explore the Palace Museum or Tiananmen Square during the day and unwind at the bars in Shichahai Scenic Area in the evening. For those who prefer lakeside views over the Palace Museum or Tiananmen Square, combining a visit to Beihai Park with Shichahai Scenic Area is ideal. If shopping and sampling snacks are more appealing, one can head to nearby Nanluoguxiang after exploring Shichahai Scenic Area.

Tiananmen Square is located in the center of Beijing, with a length of 880 meters from north to south and a width of 500 meters from east to west, covering an area of 440,000 square meters. It can accommodate up to one million people for grand gatherings. Along the central axis of Beijing, there are the national flagpole, the Monument to the People's Heroes, the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall, and the Zhengyang Gate Tower standing from north to south in the square.

On October 1, 1949, the founding ceremony of the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China was held in Tiananmen Square, marking the birth of the People's Republic of China. From then on, a new chapter in Chinese history was opened. On the day of the founding ceremony, 300,000 military and civilian personnel gathered in Tiananmen Square. Since then, Tiananmen Square has become an important venue for the Party and the state to hold major celebrations, grand gatherings, and foreign affairs receptions.

Yonghe Temple was once the residence of Emperor Yongzheng of the Qing Dynasty. At that time, Emperor Yongzheng was the prince and had not yet stepped up to the throne. It is also the place where Emperor Qianlong, the son of Emperor Yongzheng, was born. Nowadays, the temple is a well-known monastery of Tibetan Buddhism in Beijing. The incense often burns brightly. There are also many precious cultural relics in Lama Temple, such as the 500 Arhat Mountain carved out of sandalwood, the giant Buddha niche carved out of silkwood, and the 18-meter-high Buddha carved out of white sandalwood.

Beijing Wildlife Park is located on the banks of the beautiful Yongding River. It raises more than 200 species and more than 5,000 rare wild animals from all over the world on more than 3,600 acres of land. It is a national 4A-level Attraction that integrates wild animal domestication and breeding, scientific research, popular science education, and leisure tourism.



▲Beijing Wildlife Park is 42 kilometers away from the city center and has more than 80 theme animal venues and pavilions. The park is divided into three major animal tourist areas: self-driving tourist area, walking tourist area, and beast experience area.

▲The self-driving tour area covers an area of more than 1,200 mu, with a 10-kilometer tour line and seven animal exhibition areas, exhibiting more than 60 species and more than 800 animals. There are two ways to visit the self-driving tour area, self-driving tour and small train tour.

▲The beast experience area has eight exhibition areas, exhibiting 8 kinds of beasts, totaling more than 100 animals. Each exhibition area is designed based on the animals' wild living environment, and the animals live in an open natural environment.

▲The walking tour area has a total route of 2 kilometers. There are more than 300 animals of more than 20 species that can interact and be fed by tourists. There are more than 30 animal venues, which highlight the open concept and have the characteristics of novel venue design, diverse viewing angles, less visual obstacles, and mutual contact between people and animals.

Yuanmingyuan Park is a royal garden of the Qing dynasty, composed of three gardens: Yuanmingyuan, Changchun garden, and Qichun garden. Once renowned as the "garden of gardens," it was looted and burned by Anglo-French allied forces in 1860, leaving its main structures in ruins. Today, it serves both as a memorial park reflecting on a historical period and as a scenic destination with expansive lakes and lush vegetation.

The garden's landscaping excels in water features. Fuhai Lake's expansive surface, named for the idiom "boundless happiness like the eastern sea," once served as the imperial water recreation center. Three square islands connected by bridges at its heart form the Pengdao Yaotai (Jade Terrace on Penglai Isles). Smaller water bodies meander around, with piled rocks forming hills and gathered earth creating ridges—mountains and waters intertwine as if naturally formed. West of Fuhai, the Rear Lake encircles nine islets symbolizing the "nine provinces," each with distinctive scenery that borrows views from others to create harmonious interplay.

Qichun garden, also known as Wanchun garden, was one of the emperor's main residential gardens during the Jiaqing era. After the Daoguang period, it primarily served as the residence for empress dowagers and imperial concubines. The garden features numerous small scenic spots, making it a collection of miniature water landscapes. It also serves as the main venue for the annual summer lotus festival. In midsummer, when lotuses are in full bloom and the garden is bathed in vibrant red, taking a cruise through the lotus leaves offers a uniquely delightful experience.

Changchun garden features large water landscapes as its main attraction, with its core architectural complex, Hanjing Hall, serving as Emperor Qianlong's retirement residence. The northeast corner replicates Suzhou's Lion Grove garden under the same name. The northern section houses a group of European-style palaces commonly known as the Western mansions, where structures like the Harmonious Wonder, Haiyantang Hall, Yuanyingguan Observatory, Great Fountain, and Water Viewing Fountain were once scattered—now only stone ruins remain. Among them, the arched stone remnants of the Great Fountain have become Yuanmingyuan Park's iconic image. The Huanghua maze, a European-style rectangular labyrinth within the attraction, is said to have hosted imperial festivities where palace maids carried yellow flower lanterns through its paths during mid-fall nights while the emperor watched from its central pavilion. Visitors today can still attempt navigating this historic maze.

To get an intuitive sense of the park's appearance at its peak, visit the Yuanmingyuan Park full-scale model exhibition northeast of the Hanjing Hall in the Eternal Spring Garden. With the guidance of an on-site guide, you can imagine the past through a large sand table. The Yuanmingyuan Park exhibition hall in the Western-style buildings ruins area also screens the documentary "Yuanmingyuan" on loop. Watching it before visiting the ruins will give you a more three-dimensional experience.

The Natural History Museum of China is a large-scale natural history museum built by the People's Republic of China relying on its own strength. Its predecessor is the "Beijing Natural History Museum," which remains in many people's memories, and it houses hundreds of thousands of specimens. The museum's dozen or so permanent exhibition halls follow the thread of biological evolution, telling the story from the ancient oceans all the way to humanity itself; walking through them is like flipping through a three-dimensional history of life on Earth. The "Rise of Vertebrates" exhibition hall in the center of the first floor was upgraded from the original "Ancient Reptiles" hall: a Mamenchisaurus jingyanensis skeleton over 20 meters long almost spans the entire hall, with the Lufengosaurus huenei, independently excavated and researched by Chinese scientists, standing nearby, alongside groups of Szechuanosaurus, Tuojiangosaurus, and others. In the adjacent Ancient Mammals hall, a mammoth skeleton is displayed in the center, while the "Juramaia," an early eutherian mammal the size of a mouse, bears witness to the origins of mammals. The "Plant World" on the second floor brings together thousands of plant fossils and modern plant specimens, with the "Liaoning ancient fruit," an angiosperm fossil from over 100 million years ago, being a star attraction. The "Yellow River elephant" (Stegodon zdanskyi) fossil, which is featured in elementary school textbooks, is also a widely known treasure of the museum's collection. The "Dinosaur Park" on the basement level is now an immersive experience project called "Escape from the Dinosaur's Mouth": centered around characters like Sinoceratops, Tarbosaurus, and Confuciusornis, it brings together over 20 types of native Chinese dinosaurs such as Sinosauropteryx, Microraptor, and Psittacosaurus. With full CG imagery and naked-eye 3D technology as a foundation, 6D motion seats combined with water mist, wind effects, and vibrations, plus a live-action mechanical Tarbosaurus beast, the approximately half-hour Cretaceous adventure is especially popular with children. The Aquatic Life Hall is one of the few live exhibition areas in the museum, where schools of live aquatic creatures swim in the shark pool and underwater tunnel. "Amazing Africa" uses a 360-degree panoramic painting to recreate the African wilderness, with the necks of ancient giraffes and modern giraffes displayed side by side, making the answer to evolution clear at a glance. The "Origin of Humans" exhibition hall, hidden on the basement level, is in an inconspicuous location but is worth seeing as a grand finale: "Lucy," the Australopithecus from over 3 million years ago, the "Nariokotome Boy" from 1.6 million years ago, and Neanderthals from tens of thousands of years ago appear in sequence. Millions of years of human evolutionary history are condensed into hundreds of specimens, and a complete human nervous system specimen is particularly unforgettable. Families with children can stop by "Animals—Friends of Humans" to see specimens of polar animals like polar bears and the lively Insect Hall. The museum's "Discovery Corner" also hosts hands-on experiments and nature-themed craft activities all year round. When visiting, you might want to follow the order of the first-floor paleontology, second-floor plants and African grasslands, and basement-level dinosaur park and "Origin of Humans," viewing the story of life all the way from ancient times to ourselves.

Jingshan Park is situated on the central axis of old Beijing. It was an imperial garden during the Ming and Qing dynasties. The park's central peak was once the highest point of the old city. The building at its summit, called the Wanchun Pavilion, is must-see for visitors to Jingshan Park. From here you can enjoy views of the whole of the center of Beijing, and photograph the whole of the Forbidden City. This is also where the last emperor of the Ming dynasty, the Chongzhen Emperor, committed suicide by hanging.

The Beijing Zoo is huge and includes many rare animals. It is a must-see attraction. The Beijing Zoo enjoys a long history; it was founded over a hundred years ago. The three areas of the Beijing Zoo include the eastern, southern, and northern areas. The main gate is in the east area. The aquarium is in the north area. Rare animals from China include giant pandas, snub-nosed monkeys, Siberian tigers, white-lipped deer, and red-crowned cranes. Rare animals from other parts of the world include chimpanzees from Africa, kangaroos from Australia, leopards from South America, manatees from Mexico, and bison from Europe.