Tiananmen Square was originally designed and built in 1651. It was enlarged to four times its original size and cemented over in 1958. It covers an area of 100 acres , and each flagstone is numbered for ease in assembly of parades. The square derives its name from the massive stone Tiananmen —once the main gate to the Forbidden City—situated at its northern end. On a two-tiered marble terrace in the centre of the square is the Monument to the People’s Heroes. A monumental museum complex on the east side of the square is the National Museum of China, created in 2003 by combining into one institution the former Museum of the Chinese Revolution and National Museum of Chinese History . To the south of the Monument to the People’s Heroes is the Mao Zedong Memorial Hall, in which the body of Mao Zedong lies in state. Lying on the western side of the square is the Great Hall of the People, the site of the annual meetings of the National People’s Congress.

Palace Museum, in Beijing, museum housed in the main buildings of the former Imperial Palaces. It exhibits valuable objects from Chinese history. The palace consists of many separate halls and courtyards. The outer buildings of the palace became a museum in 1914, although the imperial family continued to live in the private apartments until 1924. In 1925, after the former emperor Puyi of the Qing dynasty was moved out, the Palace Museum was formally established. Many of the halls surrounding the museum are presented as they would have appeared in dynastic times. Today, there are over a million rare and valuable works of art in the permanent collection of the Palace Museum, including paintings, ceramics, seals, steles, sculptures, inscribed wares, bronze wares, enamel objects, etc. The collections of the Palace Museum are based on the Qing imperial collection. According to the results of a 1925 audit, some 1.17 million pieces of art were stored in the Forbidden City.

The Great Wall of China describes an over 6,000-kilometer path through the Middle Kingdom. The wall stretches from the Pacific Ocean to the deserts of northwestern China. Built originally as a border fortification to protect the Chinese empire against the nomadic horse-riding peoples to the north, the first wall-like border fortifications were most likely built during the fifth century B.C. The Wall was constructed over the course of 2,000 years. Badaling is the site of the most visited section of the Great Wall of China, approximately 80 kilometers (50 mi) northwest of Beijing's city center, in Badaling Town, Yanqing District, Beijing municipality. Badaling Great Wall was built in the Ming Dynasty (1505) to occupy a commanding and strategic position for protecting the Juyongguan Pass to its south, further protecting the city of Beijing.