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Details: Beijing guided sightseeing tour
Explore the landmark sights of ancient and modern China with a licensed local guide. Covering the area of 90 football fields, Tiananmen Square can hold over 300,000 people and has always been the site for public proclamations and demonstrations. It has been China’s historic heart of celebration and also turbulence for almost a century. The gate at the southern end of the square marks the old city walls, not removed until 1958. See the nerve center of modern China in the adjoining People's Hall, the legislative building, where each of the 32 reception rooms is lavishly decorated in the style of a different province or city. In the main hall, 500 light bulbs illuminate the enormous red star on the ceiling. Move into ancient China in the Forbidden City, the formidable 9,000-room palace complex -- protected by a 170ft.-wide moat -- that housed China's emperors from 1421 until 1923. Think that's grand? The 700 acres of the Summer Palace, a seasonal retreat for the emperors, include a half-mile hallway painted with scenes from China's history, the most beautiful gardens in the country, and a 118ft. carved marble boat decked out with stained-glass windows so that the empress could enjoy her palace lakes in private.
Details: Tiananmen Square visit
Explore Tiananmen Square, the world's largest public square and equivalent to the size of 90 American football fields. In the centre of the square stands the Monument to the People's Heroes (Renmin Yingxiong Jinian Bei), a 38m granite obelisk erected in 1958 and engraved with scenes from famous popular Chinese uprisings.
Details: Forbidden City visit
Discover the Forbidden City, a massive complex of red-walled buildings and pavilions topped by a sea of glazed vermilion tile. Visit the Inner Court, where only the emperor, his family, his concubines, and the palace eunuchs were allowed; the Hall of Mental Cultivation, where emperors lived after Yongzheng moved out of the Qianqing Gong and the Nine Dragon Screen, an 11½ft high wall covered in glazed tile dragons frolicking above a frothing sea, built to protect the Qianlong emperor from prying eyes and malevolent spirits.
Details: National Stadium (Bird's Nest)
View the sites created for the 2008 Olympic Games, including the Beijing National Stadium, where the opening and closing ceremonies and the athletic track and field events took place. The Stadium is a stunning landmark building located at the south of the centrepiece Olympic Green. It is considered to be the world's biggest enclosed space, and is also the world's largest steel structure.
Details: National Aquatic Center (Water Cube)
View the Beijing National Aquatics Center, also known as the Water Cube. The Aquatics Center was built alongside the Beijing National Stadium in the Olympic Green for the swimming competitions of the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Details: Peking duck dinner
A favorite dish of the emperors during the Ming Dynasty, Peking duck became available to the masses when a later dynasty collapsed and court chefs took their recipes to the streets. Indulge in spiced, crispy duck carved into strips and eaten on thin pancakes with cucumber, shallot, and plum sauce.