Qing, who didn’t stray from this pleasure dome unless they absolutely had to. Allow yourself a full day, or perhaps several trips if you’re an enthusiast.

On the north-south axis of the Forbidden City, from the Gate of Heavenly Peace in the south to Divine Military Genius Gate to the north, lie the palace’s ceremonial buildings. Restored in the 17th century, Meridian Gate is a massive portal that in former times was reserved for the use of the emperor. Across the Golden Stream is Supreme Harmony Gate, overlooking a massive courtyard that could hold an imperial audience of up to 100,000 people.

Raised on a marble terrace with balustrades are the Three Great Halls, the heart of the Forbidden City. The Hall of Supreme Harmony is the most important and the largest structure in the Forbidden City. Built in the 15th century, and restored in the 17th century, it was used for ceremonial occasions, such as the emperor’s birthday, the nomination of military leaders and coronations.

Grand Buddha
Address Leshan
The serenely seated Grand Buddha, carved into a cliff face, is the pride and joy of the city, a spiritual uncle. Qualifying as the largest Buddha in the world he’s 71m (233ft) high, his ears are 7m (23ft) long, his insteps 8.5m (28ft) broad, and you could picnic on the nail of his big toe – the toe itself is 8.5m (28ft) long. Holy smokes!

A Buddhist monk called Haitong started the whole thing in AD 713, hoping that the Buddha would calm the swift currents and protect boatmen from lethal currents in river hollows. Well, the big guy ‘matured’ slowly, finally completed 90 years after Haitong’s death. Surplus rocks from the sculpting filled the river hollow and did the trick, but locals insist it’s really the calming effect of the Buddha.

It’s worth looking at the Grand Buddha from several angles. While the easiest way to see him is to walk along the riverfront on Binhe Lu, you need to get closer to him to really appreciate his magnitude. You can go to the top, opposite the head, and then descend a short stairway to the feet for a Lilliputian perspective.

Great Wall
Great Wall
Phone tel: (010) 6912 1338 (info)
tel: (010) 6912 1520 (info)
tel: (010) 6912 1423 (info) Transport bus: 919 to Badaling from Deshengmen, about 500m E of Beijing’s Jishuitan subway stop Hours summer: 06:00 – 22:00 ; winter: 07:00 – 18:00 Keyword architectural highlight The Great Wall (Changcheng) wriggles fitfully from its scattered remains in Liaoning province to Jiayuguan in the Gobi Desert. The wall was begun over 2000 years ago, required thousands of workers – many of whom were political prisoners – and 10 years of hard labour. Legend has it that one of the building materials used was the bones of deceased workers.

An estimated 180 million cubic metres of rammed earth were used to form the core of the original wall.

The wall never really did perform its function as an impenetrable line of defence. As Genghis Khan supposedly said, ‘The strength of a wall depends on the courage of those who defend it’. Sentries could be bribed.

However, it did work very well as a kind of elevated highway, transporting people and equipment across mountainous terrain. Its beacon tower system, using smoke signals generated by burning wolves’