Beijing

Begun in 1406, finished in 1420. The route runs one way, in at the Meridian Gate and out at the Gate of Divine Prowess, so a hall you skip is a hall you miss. Cross the road outside and the hill in Jingshan Park puts the whole spread of roofs below you.

Watch your feet on the ramparts: no two steps are the same height. It lies seventy kilometres north of the city. The cable car and the chairlift land at different towers, with the toboggan dropping from the chairlift's own tower 6. Quieter than Badaling.

A round timber hall under three tiers of blue tile stands at the park's centre, built without nails for emperors praying over the harvest. Park entry and the through ticket to hall and altar are sold apart. Mornings bring tai chi and choirs under the trees.

Kunming Lake takes up three quarters of the grounds, so it is a long walk. Along its shore runs a covered corridor of 728 metres, every beam painted, and no two paintings are said to repeat. When the lake freezes in winter, people cut straight across it.

The eighteen-metre Maitreya in the Pavilion of Ten Thousand Happinesses was cut from one sandalwood trunk, with no join anywhere in it. This was Prince Yongzheng's residence before it became a temple, which is why imperial yellow tile stays on the roofs.

Lanes run out in every direction from three linked lakes, and a map still tends to bring you back where you began. Ride a pedicab and the driver explains where each lane got its name. Summer evenings, the bars along the water leave their doors open.

A complex of electronics factories built in the 1950s to East German designs. The sawtooth roofs carry north-facing windows, meant to let in even light all day, and the galleries work by it now. Old slogans on the pipework were left where they were.

A white Tibetan stupa caps the island, so it is what you take your bearings from anywhere in the park. This was an imperial garden, and a glazed-tile screen of nine dragons still stands on the north shore. Rowing boats for hire in summer circle the island.

Not all thirteen tombs are open. Only Dingling has had its underground chamber dug out; the rest show surface halls and a mound. The Sacred Way runs some seven kilometres between stone elephants, camels and officials. Without a car this takes a day.

The leaves turn for a fortnight from the last week of October into November, and weekends in that window queue at the gate. A cable car reaches Incense Burner Peak, though the walk takes little over an hour. Once bare in winter, the ridge opens the view back.

A man-made hill facing the palace's north gate. From Wanchun Pavilion on top, the city's north-south axis runs straight beneath you. On the east slope, Chongzhen, last Ming emperor, hanged himself from a locust tree in 1644; today's tree is a later replanting.

Entry needs an advance booking through the official channel, then a passport and bag check. Flag raising follows sunrise, so its time shifts daily, and people queue from dawn for the front rows. Tickets up onto the north gate tower are sold apart.

On the east side of Tiananmen Square. Admission is free, but it needs booking ahead with a passport number. Shut on Mondays. The ancient galleries hold a jade burial suit and Shang bronze cauldrons; the building is so vast that many pick one floor.

A Qing imperial retreat burned by British and French troops in 1860, left in ruins. In the north-east corner, the European Palaces site keeps toppled Baroque marble columns and fountain wreckage. Park and ruins are ticketed apart; ask for the combined ticket.

Two hours north-east of downtown in the Miyun hills, entered via Gubei Water Town. A rare stretch lit and open after dark; the night visit needs its own ticket. Open towers and hours change by season, so check the official notice before you go.

The old shopping street south of Zhengyang Gate. Dashilar, branching west, keeps the Ruifuxiang silk house and Tongrentang pharmacy on the same plots for centuries. The main drag is mostly rebuilt; the lanes behind Dashilar hold the old neighbourhood.

A Yuan-dynasty lane of some eight hundred metres, hutongs branching off like fish bones. The main lane is packed with souvenir and snack shops, but a few steps sideways bring courtyard gates and laundry lines. By weekend afternoons you can barely move.

Built by Heshen, the Qianlong emperor's favourite, later handed to Prince Gong. A rockery cave holds a stele of the character for luck said to be in Kangxi's hand, with an endless queue to stroke it. Just west of Shichahai; entry needs booking.

A Yuan-era Confucius temple and the empire's top academy share one wall. The temple court holds a forest of steles bearing the names of Yuan, Ming and Qing exam graduates. Cross the road from Yonghegong and Guozijian Street begins under its arches.

Beijing was the first city to host both summer and winter Olympics. The 2008 Bird's Nest stadium faces the Water Cube pool across one road, and the Cube became a curling venue in 2022. After sunset both light up, drawing more people than by day.

An eleven-arch stone bridge finished in 1192, named in the West for Marco Polo, who described it. Every post bears a lion with cubs hidden about it, so no one can count them, goes the saying. The 1937 war with Japan began here; Wanping fort has a war museum.

Stalls of antiques and bric-a-brac fill a wide yard. It opens on weekdays too, but the weekend brings the most sellers, and the good pitches have traded by dawn. Most of it is new work aged to look old, so bargaining starts below half the first price.

A mountain temple in Mentougou, some forty kilometres west, founded in the Western Jin by tradition. Locals say Tanzhe came first and Beijing after. The ginkgo behind the main hall is called the Emperor Tree, and autumn carpets the court in yellow.

Head temple of the Quanzhen Longmen school of Taoism. Three palm-sized stone monkeys hide in the grounds; find and stroke all three for luck. Under Wofeng Bridge hangs a coin-shaped bell people pelt, and the Lunar New Year fair leaves no room to stand.