Located in Xiannong Temple of Xuanwu District, Beijing Ancient Architecture Museum is China's first themed museum that focuses on the collection, study and exhibition of architecture. Through lots of pictures, photos, and elaborate models, the museum shows the technology, development and achievement of Chinese ancient architecture from primitive times to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

After restoration, the buildings have regained their heroic bearing, and form a magnificent open-air ancient architecture museum. Taisui Hall is the most imposing one in the temple with decorative color paintings, and black glazed tiles. Two wing halls are attached to it on either side, each having eleven rooms. The Bai Hall with its seven rooms stands opposite the Taisui Hall.

The underground floor features printing equipment that prevailed from 1865 to the 1990s. There are manually operated iron press, the hot-metal typesetting machine, and the phototypesetter. Displayed are also a lithographic printing press made in Austria in 1892 and a hulky offset press made in America in 1962. The latter weighs 45 tons (99,208 pounds) and is the only surviving one of its kind.

The China Printing Museum is a specialized museum reflecting the history of printing. The museum underscores the close relationship between printing and the advancement of civilization.

Admission Fee:
CNY 20
Opening Hours:
08:30-16:30 (Closed on Mondays)
Bus Route:
410, 456, 610, 631, 937 Zhi 6 (937支6), 954, 968 to Qingyuan Xili (清源西里), and then you could walk to the China Printing Museum (中国印刷博物馆).

On the second floor, the exhibition hall traces the development of printing in modern times. It shows the evolution of four types of printing technology-relief, planographic, intaglio and stencil printing-and displays the achievements of printing after 1949. The hall also includes three specialized exhibition areas: paper currency printing, stamps printing, and printings in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.

The hall of digital technology on the first floor focuses primarily on the historical leap from letterpress to offset printing. It contains a specialized exhibition area to show the excellent products of printing. The exhibition area of the German Gutenberg Museum displays a brief history of printing in Germany and Europe from the 15th century onward. A model of the wooden hand press invented by Gutenberg and the earliest font presswork in Europe-Bible is on display.

The China Printing Museum is situated at No.25, Xinghua Beilu, Huangcun Town, Daxing District. It covers 3,000 square meters (0.74 acre), with a total exhibition area of 4,600 square meters (1.14 acres). It is the biggest printing museum in the world, divided into four exhibition halls and some specialized exhibition areas.

The exhibition hall on the third floor displays the origin of printing and ancient printing methods. With pictures, explanatory notes and articles, it introduces the origin, invention and development of printing and its introduction to other countries from the late New Stone Age to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). The hall shows the well-known diamond sutra of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), the movable type made of certain kind of earth that was invented by Bi Sheng in the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), and the rotary composing plate invented by Wang Zhen in the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368).

With an extensive and colorful history, the museum offers an activity that tourists throw arrows into a pot. It is a kind of amusements often held in the ancient banquet, and the losers drink wine. In addition, visitors can do simulated archaeological work.

Admission Fee:
Free
Opening Hours:
09:00-16:00 (closed on Mondays)
Bus Route:
480, 913, 937 Zhi (937支), 944 Zhi (944支), 967 to Baotailu (葆台路), then you could take a taxi to the Museum of Dabaotai Han Tomb (大葆台西汉墓博物馆).

The Number 1 Tomb is a large underground wooden palace, 23.2 meters (76.1 feet) long, 18 meters (59 feet) wide, and 4.7 meters (15.4 feet) high. The construction takes the highest level funeral system that can only be used by emperors of the Han Dynasty. The palace was built with cypresses which were placed in good order. The tomb of Guangyangqing King totally used 15,880 cypresses of the same standard. The walls are very firm, 3 meters (9.84 feet) high, 0.9 meters (35.4 inches) thick; however, none of a tenon-and-mortise was used, which reflects the excellent technological level of construction. The antechamber and the back room were also built in the tomb. The former symbolizes the living room of master of the tomb when he was alive. The coffin lies in the coffin bed in the back room. In the tomb channels, there are remains of 11 horses and three carriages designed for princes and kings.

The Museum of Dabaotai Han Tomb is located near Beijing World Park, Huangtugang Town, Fengtai District, about 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) to the south of Beijing. The museum, a specialized history museum, was built over the Number 1 Tomb, where Liu Jian, Guangyangqing King (75 BC-45 BC) was buried 2,000 years ago. The Number 2 Tomb (the tomb of his wife) was destructed some time ago.

The excavation of the tomb began in 1974 and ended in 1975. Although the tombs were stolen by some ghouls, as many as 1,000 historical relics of pottery, bronze, steel, jade, agate, lacquer and silk were excavated. At present, the Number 1 Tomb is the only well-preserved tombs of this kind built in the Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD). Therefore, it is of great significance for studying the imperial funeral system of the Han Dynasty.

Beijing Botanical Garden is located at the foot of the Western Hill, in Haidian District, northwest of downtown Beijing. Covering an area of 400 hectares, it is renowned as the largest botanical garden in North China. The garden contains not only a great variety of rare trees and stunning flowers, but also houses a number of historical attractions.

With intriguing rockeries, clear ponds and elegant bridges interspersed throughout, the garden is a place of great natural beauty. A visit to the garden is highly recommended as an instructive and delightful experience.

                                                                         Admission Fee                        Opening Hours
Botanical Garden                                                    CNY 5                                  07:00-17:00

Cao Xueqin Memorial Hall                                        CNY 10                                08:30-16:30

Temple of the Sleeping Buddha                                CNY 5                                  08:30-16:30 

Conservatory                                                          CNY 50                                08:30-16:30


Bus Route:
331, 634, 737, 360, 318, 714, 733 to Beijing Zhiwuyuan (Beijing Botanical Garden, 北京植物园)

The Great Red Gate with three archways is the main gate of the whole imperial cemetery. A stele stands on each side of the gate with an inscription reading 'Officials must dismount from horses', which demonstrates the supremacy of the imperial power.

To the north of these figurines follow the Dragon and Phoenix Gate which marks the end of the Sacred Way.

Admission Fee:
CNY 30
April 1-October 31
CNY 20
November 1-March 31
Opening Hours:
08:30-18:00
Bus Route:
345 Kuai (345快), 914, 919 Zhi 1 (919支1), 925 Qu (925区), 949 to Changping Dongguan (昌平东关), and then transfer to Bus No.314 to Nanxincun (Nanxin Village, 南新村), and then you could walk to the Sacred Way (神路).

Behind the stele pavilion, the road is guarded by eighteen pairs of stone creatures. These creatures includes twelve pairs of different animals like lions, horses, elephants, camels and other fabulous beasts, and six pairs of human beings like generals, officials and meritorious ministers. The figurines signify that the dead emperor still presides over everything. Some of the larger figurines were hauled here with great difficulty. In winter, water was splashed on the roads to form an ice layer over the roads, thus allowing the huge statues to be slid over the slippery ice.