Imperial palaces and hutong lanes
Beijing has been China's capital for most of the last 700 years, and its imperial heart is still the Forbidden City, the vast palace of the Ming and Qing emperors, facing Tiananmen Square. The Temple of Heaven, where emperors prayed for good harvests, sits in a park full of early-morning tai chi, and the Summer Palace spreads around Kunming Lake. Between the ring roads survive hutongs, grey-brick alleys of courtyard homes around Shichahai and Nanluoguxiang. Eat Peking duck, and leave a day for the Great Wall.