As the capital and the second largest city of China as well as the political, cultural and international exchange center of China, Beijing is located in the north of North China Plain with Tianjin to the southeast, and it has a long history of over 3,000 years and has functioned as the capital of China for over 850 years, which boasts “One of the Four Ancient China’s Capitals” in addition to Xi’an, Luoyang and Nanjing. The essence of Chinese culture has been assembled in Beijing since the Yuan dynasty, and Beijing boasts a number of natural scenic spots and human heritages as well as the most “World Cultural Heritages” in the world.
Beijing covers an area of 16,410.54 square kilometers, including the urban area of 1,368.32 square kilometers, of which the mountain area and the plain area take up 10,317.5 square kilometers and 6,390.3 square kilometers respectively, and its average altitude is 43.5 meters. There are 56 ethnic groups of 201,860,000 people living harmoniously in Beijing, 95.69{e62c403cac7b8cc681803c2c1698f145e7e75e28c1e1f16a71410c7fc8558a25} of whom are the Han ethnic people, and the number of ethnic minority people has reached 480,384 by the end of 2011, including the Mongolian ethnic people, the Manchu ethnic people, the Hui ethnic people and the Yao ethnic people. The main religions in Beijing include Buddhism, Taoism, Islamism, Catholics and Christianity, of which the first three ones have substantial influences on the history, culture and art of Beijing, and the number of believers of religion has reached over 500,000 and over 100 venues for religious activities are available in Beijing
Beijing has a sub-humid continental monsoon climate featuring four distinct seasons, where the summer is hot and rainy and the winter is the cold and dry, and the annual average temperature is 14 with the highest temperature of 42 and the lowest temperature of -27.4. The frost-free period lasts for 180 to 200 days and the annual average precipitation is 483.9 millimeters in Beijing, 80{e62c403cac7b8cc681803c2c1698f145e7e75e28c1e1f16a71410c7fc8558a25} of which is concentrated in June, July and August.
As a famous tourist city in China, Beijing is very rich in tourism resources and it boasts 7,309 attractions, 99 of which are the Key Cultural Relics under China’s State Protection, 326 ones are under municipal-level protection, 5 ones are national geological parks, 15 ones are national forest parks and 6 ones are world heritage sites.
The six world heritage sites in Beijing are the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, Perking Man Site at Zhoukoudian, Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace (Yiheyuan) and the Imperial Tombs of the Ming Dynasty. Besides, the main human heritages in Beijing are the Shachahai, the Old Summer Palace (Yuanmingyuan), Juyongguan Great Wall, Simatai Great Wall, Lugou Bridge, Prince Gong’s Mansion, Beihai Park, Tian’anmen Square, the Memorial Hall of Chairman Mao and the Fragrant Hill.
For the visitors who plan for a Beijing travel and prefer the ancient Chinese culture, the following museum are fine choices for you: National Museum, the Capital Museum, Beijing Planetarium, National Art Gallery, Anti-Japanese War Memorial Hall and Aviation Museum. For those visitors who plan a Beijing travel and are interested in natural sceneries, the following attractions are first choices for you: Beijing Botanical Garden, Shidu, Green Dragon Gorge, Longqing Gorge, Deep Jade Pool Park and Huairou. For those visitor who plan a Beijing travel and are interested in religions in China, Temple of Confucius, Dongyue Temple and Tanzhe Temple are your fine choices. For those who plan a Beijing travel and are fond of the modern Chinese art, 798 Art Area and Sanlitun Bar Street are best choices for you, and I am sure your Beijing travel will be unforgotten for the rest of your life.
