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Home to Beijing’s most striking pagoda, the temple (Tianning Si) was built during the 5th century AD, making it one of the city’s oldest. The 196-ft (60-m) octagonal pagoda was added in the early 12th century. The bottom of the pagoda is in the form of a huge pedestal decorated with carved arch patterns, symbolizing Sumeru, the mountain of the gods. Above are thirteen levels of eaves, very close together, with no doors or windows – the pagoda is with-out stairs inside or outside and is, in fact, solid.

The first temple on this site was founded in AD 739 and burnt down in 1166. Since that time, it has been repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt. It even survived being used as a factory during the Cultural Revolution. The shrines, pavilions, and courtyards that make up the compound today date mainly from the Ming and Qing dynasties. Monks here are followers of Daoism and sport distinctive top-knots. Each Chinese New Year this is the venue for one of the city’s most popular temple fairs, with performers, artisans, and traders.

Vast halls of Cold War-era hardware including lots of silvery fighter planes and tanks fill the ground floor. Upstairs has exhibitions on historic conflicts, including the Opium Wars and Boxer Rebellion. Unfortunately, there is little labeling in English. What is not mentioned is that the museum is close to the Muxidi intersection, scene of a massacre of civilians by the Chinese army during the 1989 democracy protests.

Built to welcome the year 2000, Beijing’s millennial structure is a curious bit of concrete constructivism that looks like something that might have adorned Moscow back in the 1920s. It is fashioned to resemble a giant tilted sundial. Inside is a plaza with the “Holy Fire of China” (a flame fed on natural gas), plus several exhibition halls.

Celebrated for its Tibetan-styled, 167-ft (51-m) white dagoba (stupa), said to have been designed by a Nepalese architect, the temple dates to 1271, when Beijing was under Mongol rule. The temple is also noted for its fascinating collection of thousands of Tibetan Buddhist statues.

Lu Xun is regarded as the father of modern Chinese literature, responsible for ground-breaking works such as “Diary of a Madman” and “The True Story of Ah Q”. This is the house in which he lived from 1924 to 1926. The rooms display artifacts relating to his life and there’s also an adjacent exhibition hall with more than 10,000 letters, journals, photographs, and other personal objects.

A monument to the one-time ideological union between China and the USSR, the hall is a Muscovite-styled period piece (built 1954) fronted by a red-star-topped spire. Although not generally open to the public you can usually access the entrance lobby, which is festooned with massive crystal chandeliers.

Visit for the pandas, the famously rare bears that are native to China and nowhere else. The zoo has several, housed in a new “panda house.” However, most of the other 2,000 animals here are not so lucky; their cages are tiny.

Located in the northeastern corner of the zoo is this new and very impressive addition. It’s reputedly the largest inland aquarium in the world, with massive tanks containing thousands of weird and wonderful fish, plus a shark tank, coral reefs and an “Amazon rainforest.” There are also several dolphin and seal shows held throughout the day.

Beijing Aquarium

Just north of the zoo, this temple displays obvious Indian influences. It was built in the early 15th century in honor of an Indian monk who came to China and presented the emperor with five golden Buddhas. The pagodas sport elaborate carvings of curvaceous females, as well as the customary Buddhas. Also here is the Beijing Art Museum of Stone Carvings, with 2,000 decorative stelae.

Temple of the Five Pagodas