China is a country famous for history exploration for most overseas travelers, but you may have not known most of the amazing sites Chinese people have been to. This is a list of the 15 most importanthistorical sitesfound in China for overseas travelers. Attention! Most of them are on the World Heritage list.

1. The Great Wall sections

One of the most famous Great Wall sections is Badaling, located in Beijing’s Yanqing County, suitable for hikers traveling to Beijing. Other renowned sections include Jiayuguan Pass,Juyong Passand Shanhaiguan Pass, some of which are not for average hikers, for some sections have been seriously damaged.

[Photo potalapalace.cn]

[Photo potalapalace.cn]

9. The Potala Palace

The Potala Palace is situated in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region and is now a museum and World Heritage Site. The palace was named after Mount Potalaka, the mythical abode of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara. The site on which the Potala Palace rises was built over a palace erected by Songtsän Gampo on the Red Hill. The Potala contains two chapels on its northwest corner that conserve parts of the original building. One is the Phakpa Lhakhang, the other the Chogyel Drupuk, a recessed cavern identified as Songtsän Gampo's meditation cave.

Source: Wikipedia

12. Qing Tombs

The Qing Tombs can be divided into the Eastern and Western Qing Tombs, situated in Zunhua, and Yi County respectively in Hebei Province. Apart from the last emperor Pu Yi, other nine emperors had tombs in two areas. Among the Eastern Qing Tombs, the tombs of Emperor Kangxi and Qianlong and Empress Dowager Cixi were robbed before the People’s Republic of China was founded. Now visitors can enter some of the underground palaces to view them. In contrast, the Western Qing Tombs were hardly touched by tomb robbers.

15. The Classical Gardens of Suzhou

The Classical Gardens of Suzhou are a group of gardens in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province which have been added to the UNESCO World Heritage List. Spanning a period of almost one thousand years, from the Northern Song to the late Qing Dynasties (11th-19th century), these gardens, most of them built by scholars, standardized many of the key features of classical Chinese garden design with constructed landscapes mimicking natural scenery of rocks, hills and rivers with strategically located pavilions and pagodas. Zhuozheng Garden and Liuyuan Garden are the most prominent gardens among the many.

Source: Wikipedia

14.Zhoukoudian Peking Man Site

Zhoukoudian Peking Man Site is a Pleistocene hominid site on the North China Plain. This site lies about 42 km southwest of Beijing and is at the juncture of the North China Plain and Yanshan Mountains. Adequate water supplies and natural limestone caves in this area provided an optimal survival environment for early humans. Scientific work at the site is still under way. So far, ancient human fossils, cultural remains and animal fossils from 23 localities within the property dating from 5 million years ago to 10,000 years ago have been discovered by scientists.

[Photo/Xinhua]

7. The Terracotta Army

The Terracotta Army is a collection of terracotta sculptures depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China. It is a form of funerary art buried with the emperor in 210 - 209 BC and whose mission was to protect the emperor in his afterlife. It was discovered in 1974 by local farmers in Lintong District, Xi'an, Shaanxi province. The terracotta figures include warriors, chariots and horses.

Source: Wikipedia

10. Mogao Grottoes

The Mogao Grottoes are also known as the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas, with a system of 492 temples, about 25 km southeast of downtown Dunhuang, China’s northern Gansu Province. It is located at a religious and cultural crossroad on the Silk Road in Gansu province. These caves contain some of the finest examples of Buddhist art spanning a period of 1,000 years. The first caves were dug out in 366 AD as places of Buddhist meditation and worship. It is a place worth visiting for Buddhism lovers and researchers.

Source: baike.baidu.com

8. The Temple of Heaven

The Temple of Heaven is located to the southeast of Forbidden City, used to be a complex of sacrificial buildings for the Ming and Qing emperors. It is the largest existing temple in Beijing among several other royal altars to Heaven, Earth, the Sun, the Moon and other deities or symbolic forces of Nature.

5. The Summer Palace

The Summer Palace was the back garden of the emperors fleeing the suffocating summer torpor of the old imperial city during the Qing Dynasty. A marvel of design, the palace offers a pastoral escape into the landscapes of traditional Chinese painting. It merits an entire day’s exploration, although a (high-paced) morning or afternoon exploring the temples, gardens, pavilions, bridges and corridors may suffice. It mainly consists of the Longevity Hill, Kunming Lake and Suzhou Street. Tourists visiting the park usually aim to experience its beautiful hill-and-water view and to explore its flourishing and desolate stories.

6.Ming Tombs

The Ming Tombs are at the foot of Tianshou Mountain, about 50 kilometers away from downtown Beijing, where thirteen emperors of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) were buried. Since 1409 when the third emperor Zhu Di of the Ming Dynasty built his Changling Mausoleum here, the twelve successors had their tombs built around Changling in the next 230 years, covering a total area of over 120 square kilometers (46.3 square miles). Now only Changling, Dingling, Zhaoling and Shenlu (Sacred Way) are open to the public.

3. The Mukden Palace

The Mukden Palace was the imperial palace of the early Manchu-led Qing Dynasty. It was built in 1625 and the first three Qing emperors lived there from 1625 to 1644. Since the collapse of imperial rule in China, the palace has been converted to a museum that now lies in the center of Shenyang in Liaoning Province. Its early construction began in 1625 under the order of Nurhaci, the founder of the Qing Dynasty. By 1631, additional structures were added during the reign of Nurhaci's successor, Huangtaiji. Building the Mukden Palace aimed to resemble the Forbidden City in Beijing, but it also exposes the Manchu and Tibetan styles.

Source: Wikipedia

2. The Forbidden City in Beijing

The Forbidden City in Beijing is the most famous and important one among all the Forbidden Cities in China, initially built from 1406, the fourth year of Emperor Yongle’s reign (Emperor Yongle’s name is Zhu Di, the fourth son of the first emperor Zhu Yuanzhang of the Ming Dynasty and the third emperor of the dynasty), with reference to the Palace Museum of Nanjing built during Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang’s reign, and was finally accomplished in 1420, the 18th year of Emperor Yongle’s reign. The Forbidden City has more than 70 palaces and over 9,000 rooms.

4. The Forbidden City of Nanjing

The Forbidden City of Nanjing is also known as the Ming Palace, which was built under the order of the first emperor Zhu Yuanzhang of the Ming Dynasty and also served as the reference on building the Forbidden City in Beijing. It is located in Nanjing and was built in the 14th century. Unfortunately, no building within the palace survives today.

11. Longmen Grottoes

The Longmen Grottoes were carved during Emperor Xiaowendi’s reign in the North Wei Dynasty. After that, it had been expanded for 400 years and now stretches as long as one km from the south to the north. Now tourists can see 2,345 Buddhist shrines, over 100,000 statues and over 2,800 steles. Outstanding Chinese calligraphic works are one of their most-cherished treasures. They are situated in Luoyang, Henan Province.

Source: baike.baidu.com

13. Chengde Mountain Resort

The Chengde Mountain Resort served as a summer resort and work studio for the emperors of the Qing Dynasty, situated in the north of Chengde, Hebei Province and built by Emperor Kangxi. It was later rebuilt by Emperor Qianlong. After 89 years, it was finally finished. The best time to visit the resort is between April and October.