Landmarks in China

Do you want to know about the most famous landmarks in China? China is a huge country that has its own beautiful culture and its beautiful landmarks. Today let me introduce Chinese landmarks to you!

Top Landmarks in China

1 | Forbidden City in Beijing - Landmarks in China

The Forbidden City is in Beijing, the capital of China. In ancient times, this was the place where the emperor lived and worked.

Forbidden City in Beijing

The area of the Forbidden City is about 720,000 square kilometres/ almost 8 million square feet! This is the world’s largest palace complex. It is so huge! I can’t think about how the people in ancient times walked so long! There are over 90 palaces in this complex and the Forbidden City is surrounded by a wide moat.

2 | West Lake in Hangzhou - Landmarks in China

The West Lake is in Hangzhou, which is the capital city of the Zhejiang province in Eastern China. The West Lake is a freshwater lake.

Hangzhou Westlake

This lake also has a beautiful story about it! The story is about a white snake and a green snake who went to the human world, where the two snakes transformed into beautiful women. Then they meet Xuxian and the white snake fell in love with him. The white snake and Xuxian got married but an evil man imprisoned the lady, who sadly failed to escape.

Hangzhou is the fourth largest metropolitan city in China and built along the northern and eastern side of the huge lake.

3 | Dujiang Dam in Sichuan - Landmarks in China

Dujiang Dam is located in west of Dujiangyan City or Chengdu City in Sichuan Province. The dam is on the Minjiang River in the western part of the Chengdu Plain.

Dujiang Dam

The Dujiang Dam was built in the last year of King Zhao of Qin Dynasty and constructed about in the years 256-261 B.C. The dam is large scale water conservancy project that has been first organized and built by LiBing who was the governor of the then called 'Shu' country. He started the project together with his son on the grounds of previous BeiLing excavation.

The dam has been playing the role of flood control and irrigation for more than 2000 years, making the Chengdu Plain, which is referred to now as a "land of abundance" with thousands of miles of water.

4 | Potala Palace in Lhasa - Landmarks in China

The Potala Palace is the beautiful fortress in Lhasa. Lhasa is the capital city in the autonomous region of Xizhang or Tibet. Tibet is called Xizang by its Chinese name and is a region in Southwestern China. Lhasa means ‘place of gods’ in the Tibetan Language.

Potala Palace

Potala Palace was the winter palace for the Dalai Lama over three hundred years and is only a museum since 1959. On the palace grounds there are eight stupas, which are tombs of eight Dalai Lama mummies. It’s a good place for you to see beautiful Lhasa culture.

5 | Panda Base in Chengdu - Landmarks in China

China is famous for the Panda. In Chengdu's Longquan City there is a huge panda base.

Three Panda chewing on bamboo in Chengdu

Panda in Chengdu

Here you could see cute pandas living, playing and eating. Also if you were lucky, you could have a chance to touch them and also maybe feed them. This is a good place for you to face to face meet with cute and lovely Panda.

6 | Shanghai Tower - Landmarks in China

The Shanghai Tower is the tallest structure in China. The tower is 632 m/ 2,073 ft high and thus the second tallest tower in the world - after Burj Khalifa, which stands in the UAE.

Shanghai at the Huangpu river with Shanghai Tower

Did you know that China has the most skyscrapers in any country in the world? Over 1,400 buildings are taller than 150 m/ 492 ft.

Shanghai is the most populous city in China with about 25 million inhabitants. The metropolitan city is located at the Huangpu river, a tributary of the Yangtze River.

7 | Snow and Ice Festival in Harbin - Landmarks in China

The ice sculptures in Harbin are an amazing sight u also should not miss - especially when travelling to China in winter. The huge snow and ice structures are one of the main seasonal landmarks of China.

Harbin snow and ice festival

Every winter, snow palaces, fantasy buildings and castles are built in the city by artists and this is an amazing family attraction. Harbin is located in China’s northernmost province called Heilongjiang.

8 | Karst Mountains in Guilin - Landmarks in China

The scenic limestone karst hills of Guilin are a famous sight. Guilin is situated on the banks of the Li River in Northeastern China.

Guilin

The highest peak of the Guilin mountains is called Kitten Mountain, which is about 80 km from the city. This mountain peak is 2,142 m/ 7,028 ft high. The landscape is picturesque and there are many scenic spots with beautiful caves, rice terraces and lovely river villages.

9 | Three Gorges Dam - China Landmarks

The Yangtze River is China’s longest river and major tourist attractions along the river are the big cities and the world’s largest hydroelectric power plant of the Three Gorges Dam.

Three Gorges Dam

This dam creates three times more electricity than the largest dam in the United States, The Grand Coulee Dam in Washington State.

10 - Yellow Mountains in Huangshan

The Huangshan Yellow Mountains are tall granite peaks which are often more than 1,000 m/ 3,250 ft high. The mountain range is more than 100 million years old and located in eastern China.

Lotus Peak in the Yellow Mountains

The most famous peak and highest peak of Mount Huangshan in the National Park is called 'Lotus Peak' because it looks like a lotus flower. Mount Huangshan is 1,734 m/ 5,689 ft high.

11 | Bird's Nest Stadium in Beijing

The national stadium in Beijing was built for the Summer Olympics in 2008 and attracts many visitors. Over 90,000 people can attend sports matches and events in this gigantic stadium.

Bird's Nest Stadium in Beijing 2020 - image by cowardlion/ shutterstock.com

Bird's Nest Stadium in Beijing - image by cowardlion

The stadium looks like a bird’s nest and the structure is the world’s largest steel structure. This structure was designed to withstand even very strong earthquakes.

12 |Great Wall - Landmarks in Asia

The Great Wall of China is a series of walls in Northern China. The whole wall is more than 21,000 km/ 13,000 miles long and was built over many centuries. The major parts of the Great Wall were built around the 14th to the 16th century with various materials.

Great Wall of China

For the construction of the wall not only bricks and gravel were used but also limestone and other rock material, tiles, earth, chalk and wood.

Do you know all these amazing landmarks in Asia?

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Landmarks in China | Resources

The first five attractions of this article were researched and compiled by Lucy Kang, age 12, from UP Ultra Phonics Reading Center in Chengdu/ China.

Thank you for you lovely work, Lucy and for helping us by researching and sending through information on these landmarks in China. A huge thank you goes also to Lucy’s amazing teacher Lisa Yeo for her support in growing and expanding our China pages for young readers.

Resources used for Landmarks in China:

Lubwa Leonhard. "Top 10 Tallest Buildings in China." Construction Review Online. Last updated 14 August 2021. Last accessed 20 December 2021
Dr. Ying-chen Peng. "The Forbidden City." Khan Academy. Last updated 9 August 2015. Last accessed 20 December 2021
Sunny Xi. "Beijing National Stadium." ChinaHighlights. Last updated 2 November 2021. Last accessed 21 December 2021.
BBC Travel. "Building frozen castles at China's Harbin Ice Festival." BBC. 8 January 2021. Last accessed 21 December 2021
Water Science School. "Three Gorges Dam." USGS. Last updated 6 June 2018. Last accessed 20 December 2021.

Images on Landmarks in China: Shutterstock.com - Bird's Nest image by cowardlion/shutterstock.com

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