Starting from shanhaiguan in the east and ending at jiayuguan in the west, the Great Wall has an approximate length of 6,700 kilometres and can be seen by astronauts from the moon. The section of the Wall at Badaling is 75 kilometres from Beijing. Tthe earliest part of the Wall was built during the Warring State period (476 - 221 B.C.) and subsequent dynasties continued the project. The Great Wall averages 7.8 metres in height and is 6.5 metres wide at the base and 5.8 metres wide at the top. Awatchtower was built every hundred metres.

Also known as the Purple Forbidden City,this structure served as the palace of the Ming and Qing dynasties. Purple was associated by the Chinese with the North Star and it is used here to infer a heavenly quality about the Palace.It is the largest palace building existing in China. The Palace has a building area of 150,000 square metres with more than 9,000 rooms.The yellow glazed tiles and the red-painted columns show their imperial magnificence.The palace is guarded by a ten-metre-high wall,encircled by a 52-meter-wide moat and has four gates.Today,the entire palace has been turned into a museum with porcelain,paintings and various kinds of treasures on display.