The Great Wall
 

The Great Wall of China, one of the greatest wonders of the world, was enlisted in the World Heritage by UNESCO in 1987. Just like a gigantic dragon, the Great Wall winds up and down across deserts, grasslands, mountains and plateaus, stretching approximately 6,700 kilometers (4,163 miles ) from east to west of China. With a history of more than 2000 years, some of the sections of the great wall are now in ruins or even entirely disappeared. However, it is still one of the most appealing attractions all around the world owing to its architectural grandeur and historical significance.
 
Mount Taishan
 

Mount Taishan, with its main peak rising 1,545 meters above sea level, in central Shandong Province, has, since ancient times, been a mountain held in high esteem by the Chinese people. It is known as the “First of the Five Sacred Mountains”, all situated on the Central Plains of the country. It ranks third among the five mountains in terms of height. Its reputation comes mostly from its cultural position. According to historical records, Mount Taishan became a sacred place haunted by emperors to offer sacrifices and meditate in the Zhou Dynasty over 1,000 years before the Christian era. A total of 72 emperors were recorded as visiting it. Men of letters also came to acquire inspiration, to compose poems, write essays, paint and take pictures. Hence, a great many cultural relics were left on the mountain. Mount Taishan became part of the world cultural heritage list in 1987.
 
Imperial Palace of the Ming and Qing Dynasties
 

Seat of supreme power for over five centuries (1416-1911), the Forbidden City in Beijing, with its landscaped gardens and many buildings (whose nearly 10,000 rooms contain furniture and works of art), constitutes a priceless testimony to Chinese civilization during the Ming and Qing dynasties. The Imperial Palace of the Qing Dynasty in Shenyang consists of 114 buildings constructed between 1625–26 and 1783. It contains an important library and testifies to the foundation of the last dynasty that ruled China, before it expanded its power to the centre of the country and moved the capital to Beijing. This palace then became auxiliary to the Imperial Palace in Beijing. This remarkable architectural edifice offers important historical testimony to the history of the Qing Dynasty and to the cultural traditions of the Manchu and other tribes in the north of China.
 

The Mogao Caves, or Mogao Grottoes form a system of 492 temples 25km (15.5 miles) southeast of the center of Dunhuang, an oasis strategically located at a religious and cultural crossroads on the Silk Road, in Gansu province, China. The caves contain some of the finest examples of Buddhist art spanning a period of 1,000 years. Construction of the Buddhist cave shrines began in 366 CE as places to store scriptures and art. The Mogao Caves are the best known of the Chinese Buddhist grottoes and, along with Longmen Grottoes and Yungang Grottoes, are one of the three famous ancient sculptural sites of China.
 
Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor
 

No doubt thousands of statues still remain to be unearthed at this archaeological site, which was not discovered until 1974. Qin (d. 210 B.C.), the first unifier of China, is buried, surrounded by the famous terracotta warriors, at the centre of a complex designed to mirror the urban plan of the capital, Xianyan. The small figures are all different; with their horses, chariots and weapons, they are masterpieces of realism and also of great historical interest. The mausoleum along with the underground army entered the list of world cultural heritage sites in 1987.
 
Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian
 

Zhoukoudian, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) southwest of Beijing, was a natural habitat of human ancestors about 700,000 years ago. Here multiplied descendents, from age to age, created the splendid Paleolithic Age. To some extent, this is the cradle of Chinese civilization. In this charming and mystical land, Peking man left its footprints. Today, the remains and site provides a good opportunity for tourists to explore the primitive life of our human ancestors. The site was inscribed in UNESCO World Heritage List in 1987.
 

Huangshan, known as "the loveliest mountain of China", was acclaimed through art and literature during a good part of Chinese history (the Shanshui "mountain and water" style of the mid-16th century). Today it holds the same fascination for visitors, poets, painters and photographers who come in pilgrimage to this enchanting site, renowned for its magnificent scenery made up of many granite peaks and rocks emerging out of a sea of clouds.
 
Jiuzhaigou Valley
 

Jiuzhaigou Valley is a nature reserve in the north of Sichuan, a province in south western China. It is known for its many multi-level waterfalls and colorful lakes, and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992. It belongs to the category V (Protected Landscape)in the IUCN system of protected area categorization.
 
Huanglong Scenic and Historic Interest Area
 

Situated in the north-west of Sichaun Province, the Huanglong valley is made up of snow-capped peaks and the easternmost of all the Chinese glaciers. In addition to its mountain landscape, diverse forest ecosystems can be found, as well as spectacular limestone formations, waterfalls and hot springs. The area also has a population of endangered animals, including the giant panda and the Sichuan golden snub-nosed monkey.
 

Wulingyuan is a scenic and historic interest area in Hunan Province, China, famous for its approximately 3,100 tall quartzite sandstone pillars, some over 800 meters in height, which are a kind of karst formation. It is part of Zhangjiajie city, about 270km from the capital of Hunan Province, Changsha.It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992.
 
Mountain Resort and Outlying Temples in Chengde
 

The Mountain Resort in Chengde, one of the four most famous Chinese gardens and one of the largest and best-preserved imperial palaces outside Beijing, used to be a summer resort and hunting ground for emperors of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). They also used the palace to organize martial art competitions and receive the elite of ethnic minority groups from around China.
The summer resort and the surrounding temples were placed on the world cultural heritage list in 1994.
 
Temple and Cemetery of Confucius and the Kong Family Mansion in Qufu
 

The Temple, Cemetery and Family mansion of Confucius, the great philosopher, politician and educator of the 6th-5th century B.C., is located at Qufu, in Shandong Province. The Temple built in his commemoration in 478 B.C., destroyed and reconstructed over the centuries, today comprises more than 100 buildings. The Cemetery contains Confucius' tomb, and the remains of more than 100,000 of his descendants. The small house of the Kong Family has become a gigantic aristocratic residence, of which 152 buildings remain. This complex of monuments at Qufu has maintained its outstanding artistic and historic character due to the devotion of successive Chinese emperors over more than 2,000 years.
 

As a famous Taoist shrine, Wudang Mountain is located in Shiyan City, Hubei Province. Also called Taihe and Xuanyue Mountain, it is renowned for its magnificent ancient building complex and appealing natural landscape. In 1994, the Ancient Building Complex in the Wudang Mountains was included on the World Heritage List by UNESCO.
 
The Potala Palace in Lhasa
 

The Potala Palace, winter palace of the Dalai Lama since the 7th century, symbolizes Tibetan Buddhism and its central role in the traditional administration of Tibet. The complex, comprising the White and Red Palaces with their ancillary buildings, is built on Red Mountain in the centre of Lhasa Valley, at an altitude of 3,700m. Also founded in the 7th century, the Jokhang Temple Monastery is an exceptional Buddhist religious complex. Norbulingka, the Dalai Lama's former summer palace, constructed in the 18th century, is a masterpiece of Tibetan art. The beauty and originality of the architecture of these three sites, their rich ornamentation and harmonious integration in a striking landscape, add to their historic and religious interests
 
Lushan National Park
 

Lushan National Park is a well-known tourist attraction both in China and abroad. It has appealed to innumerable visitors on account of its natural sceneries and cultural heritages.
 
Mt. Emei and Leshan Giant Buddha
 

The first Buddhist temple in China was built here in Sichuan province in the first century in very beautiful surroundings atop Mt. Emei. The addition of other temples turned the site into one of the main holy places of Buddhism. Over the centuries, the cultural treasures grew in number. The most remarkable was the Giant Buddha of Leshan, carved out of a hillside in the eighth century and looking down on the junction of three rivers. At 71 metres high, it is the largest Buddha in the world. Mt. Emei is also notable for it very diverse vegetation, ranging from sub- tropical to subalpine pine forests. Some of the trees are more than a thousand years old.
 

The Old Town of Lijiang, a well-preserved old city of ethnic minorities with brilliant culture, is a central town of the Lijiang Autonomous County of the Naxi Ethnic Minority in Yunnan Province. Located on the plateau which is 2,400 meters (7,874 feet) above the sea level and embraced by the tree-covered Lion Mountain in the west, Elephant and Golden Row Mountains in the north, vast fertile fields in the southeast and crystal clear water running through, the old town looks like a big jade ink slab, therefore got the alias the Town of Big Ink Slab (Dayanzhen).
 
The Ancient City of Ping Yao
 

Ping Yao is an exceptionally well preserved example of a traditional Han Chinese city, founded in the 14th century. Its urban fabric is an epitome of the evolution of architectural styles and town planning in Imperial China over five centuries. Of special interest are the imposing buildings associated with banking, for which Ping Yao was the centre for the whole of China in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
 
The Classical Gardens of Suzhou
 

Classical Chinese garden design, which seeks to recreate natural landscapes in miniature, is nowhere better illustrated than in the four gardens in the historic city of Suzhou. They are universally acknowledged to be masterpieces of the genre. Dating from the 16th- 18th centuries, the gardens reflect the profound metaphysical importance of natural beauty in Chinese culture in their meticulous design.
 
Summer Palace, an Imperial Garden in Beijing
 

The Summer Palace in Beijing, which was first built in 1750, largely destroyed in the war of 1860, and restored on its original foundation in 1886, is a masterpiece of Chinese landscape garden design, integrating the natural landscape of hills and open water with manmade features such as pavilions, halls, palaces, temples and bridges into a harmonious and aesthetically exceptional whole.
 

The Temple of Heaven, founded in the first half of the 15th century, is a dignified complex of fine cult buildings set in gardens and surrounded by historic pine woods. In its overall layout and in that of its individual buildings, it symbolizes the relationship between earth and heaven which stands at the heart of Chinese cosmogony, and also the special role played by the emperors within that relationship.
 
Mount Wuyi
 

Mount Wuyi is the most outstanding area for biodiversity conservation in south-east China and a refuge for a large number of ancient, relict species, many of them endemic to China. The serene beauty of the dramatic gorges of the Nine Bend River, with its numerous temples and monasteries, many now in ruins, provided the setting for the development and spread of Neo-Confucianism, which has been very influential in the cultures of East Asia since the 11th century. In the 1st century BC a large administrative capital was built at nearby Chengcun by the Han Dynasty rulers. Its massive walls enclose an archaeological site of great significance.
 
The Dazu Rock Carvings
 

The steep hillsides in the Dazu area contain an exceptional series of rock carvings dating from the 9th to 13th centuries. They are remarkable for their high aesthetic qualities, for their rich diversity of subject matter, both secular and religious, and for the light that they shed on everyday life in China during this period. They provide outstanding evidence of the coming together of Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism in a harmonious synthesis.