Lu
Gou Bridge(卢)
 Lugou
Bridge or "Marco Polo Bridge" as it's
more popularly known, is situated in the southeast
of Beijing, about 15km outside the city center.
First built over 800 years ago in the Jin dynasty,
the bridge is now the oldest in Beijing. Marco
Polo made this magnificent structure famous when
he wrote about it.
Two
stone monuments stand at either side of the bridge,
one states the repairs made on the site during
the Qing dynasty and the other reads "Lugouxiaoyue".
Literally translated, this means that the moon
rises from Lugou Bridge. Chinese couples like
to stand on the bridge at dusk and watch the sunset
and the moon rise from this beautiful construction.
There
are 280 balusters of white marble on the sides
of the bridge. On top of the balusters, finely
carved small stone lions pose in various positions
and expressions. The bridge is perhaps most famous
though, for being the place when the Japanese
invasion of China began in 1937. A small history
and exhibition hall opened here in 1981 detailing
the colorful history of the bridge.
Ming
Dynasty Wall Relics(墙址)
 A
park being built on the one- kilometer-long ruins
of ancient Beijing city walls, it was open to
the public in May 2002. The rebuilding of the
Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) City Wall Relics Park,
with a designed area of 13 hectares, is part of
the Chinese capital's effort to protect its historical
relics.
It is located in the central part of Beijing.
It ranges from the Southeastern Corner Tower in
the east to Chongwen Men (the Gate of Esteeming
Culture) in the west including 3.3 hectares of
city wall site and the southeastern corner tower
and 12.2 hectares of greenery patches.
Niujie
Mosque(牛)
Southwest
of outer Beijing City is the Xuanwu District,
where you will find Niujie Street, formerly called
Liuhe Village. In the past this street was ornated
with vegetable and fruit gardens. Today, its main
attraction is the Niujie Mosque. Built in 996
during the Liao Dynasty, it is the biggest and
oldest mosque in Beijing. In 1442 during the Ming
Dynasty, and in 1696 during the Qing Dynasty,
the Mosque was repaired several times.
The
Niujie Mosque is a famous Islamic temple covering
an area of approximately 6000 square meters. With
the hexagonal Watching Moon Tower that is unique
to Islamic temples, the Niujie Mosque presents
an aesthetic blend of architecture, reflecting
both ancient Chinese palaces and Arabian mosques.
Peking
Man Site(Bei Jing Ren Yi Zhi 址)
 Peking
Man site (Zhoukoudian) is 48 kilometers southwest
of downtown Beijing near Longgushan (dragon skeleton
mountain). Many artifacts related to Peking Man
and Upper Cave Man (10 to 20 thousand years ago)
have been found on the mountain since 1929. 
In
1973, in the southeast corner of Longgushan, another
site of ancient man was discovered. Scientists
have named the ancient men who once lived at the
site New Cave Man. The term comes from the fact
that ancient men are supposed to have lived in
the period between Peking Man and Upper Cave Man.
The
discoveries at Zhoukoudian are of great significance,
for the sites date the cultural history of Beijing
back to 600,000 years ago. It is could be considered
one of the birthplaces of world civilization,
so the people of Beijing are very proud of it.
Zhoukoudian has become a scientific research base
for the study of anthropology and has been named
a key cultural preservation unit by the State
Council of the Chinese government.
Prince Gong's Mansion()
 The
Mansion was first built in front of Lion Alley
in the eastern sector of Di'anmen Dongjie (Street).
But the present Gong Mansion is located at 17
Qianhai Xijie on the east bank of Shicha Lake.
The Mansion is the most exquisitely decorated
and best preserved of the princes' mansions in
the capital city. Besides the residence there
is also a large garden.
The
Mansion is composed of three complexes of buildings-central,
eastern and western-the first of these conforming
to the standard mansion of a prince. Now only
the garden to the north of the rear hall was opened
to public.
The garden was designed on a large scale without
the constraints imposed on the mansion's formal
buildings. The front section of the garden contains
a hill made of piled stones, an ancient wall,
the Liubei Pavilion, the Peak That Has Flown In
and the Green Cloud Mountain Range.
The
rear section of the garden has a multi-leveled
artificial hill built of Lake Tai stones. The
bottom level has tunnels running through it and
contains a stone with the character "fu"
(meaning happiness in Chinese) written on it in
the calligraphy of Qing Emperor Kangxi (1662-1722).
On the second level are two pools where fine lotuses
bloom in late summer and early autumn. A small
pavilion with a terrace stands on the hilltop
and is considered an ideal place for viewing the
moon. A fishing pond stands in front of the hill.
The eastern courtyard of the garden is surrounded
by a low wall and contains a luxuriance of flowers
and trees. Screened by the man-made hill is the
Hall of Happiness built in such a way that sunlight
falls on it from dawn to dusk. The building is
said to be the only one of its kind in Beijing
at the present time
===============================================================================
 The
Mansion is composed of three complexes of buildings-central,
eastern and western-the first of these conforming
to the standard mansion of a prince. In this mansion,
however, the Central Spirit Hall was destroyed.
The rear hall is a two-storey structure more than
180 metres wide. An unusual wooden artificial
hill forms the flight of stairs which gives access
to the building. The buildings to the east are
constructed in typical Ming style. A Chinese wisteria
plant with a history of more than 200 years is
still growing in front of it.
The
main courtyard of the western complex includes
the Xijin Studio as its main hall and is entered
via a gate with the name of "Courtyard of
Heavenly Fragrance" carved above it. Surrounding
the courtyard is a series of elegant rooms separated
by "nanmu" (a kind of cedar tree) partitions.
In the centre of the courtyard are two rare midget
crabapple trees nearly 300 years old.
The
garden to the north of the rear hall was designed
on a large scale without the constraints imposed
on the mansion's formal buildings. The front section
of the garden contains a hill made of piled stones,
an ancient wall, the Liubei Pavilion, the Peak
That Has Flown In and the Green Cloud Mountain
Range. 
The
rear section of the garden has a multi-leveled
artificial hill built of Lake Tai stones. The
bottom level has tunnels running through it and
contains a stone with the character "fu"
(meaning happiness in Chinese) written on it in
the calligraphy of Qing Emperor Kangxi (1662-1722).
On the second level are two pools where fine lotuses
bloom in late summer and early autumn. A small
pavilion with a terrace stands on the hilltop
and is considered an ideal place for viewing the
moon. A fishing pond stands in front of the hill.
The eastern courtyard of the garden is surrounded
by a low wall and contains a luxuriance of flowers
and trees. Screened by the man-made hill is the
Hall of Happiness built in Such a way that sunlight
falls on it from dawn to dusk. The building is
said to be the only one of its kind in Beijing
at the present time.
According
to recent research by literary scholars, it was
at this Mansion that Cao Xueqin, author of "A
Dream of Red Mansions", lived the life he
was to write about in his famous novel.
The
princes' mansions and large-scale private houses
in Beijing were often built with walled flower
gardens laid out either behind or to the sides
of the main buildings. Nowadays, a few such mansions
dating from the Ming Dynasty are still standing.
These gardens are ingeniously constructed with
complementary buildings and terraces, well spaced
vegetation and hill paths that wind their way
around cool and tranquil grottos. They are an
exquisite combination of classical Chinese architecture
and tasteful landscape.
Beginning
from as early as 1421 AD, a lot of princes' mansions
were built in this city. As time went by, few
such mansions have been left so far.
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