Explore the landmark sights of ancient and modern China with a licensed local guide. Covering the area of 90 football fields, Tiananmen Square can hold over 300,000 people and has always been the site for public proclamations and demonstrations. It has been China’s historic heart of celebration and also turbulence for almost a century. The gate at the southern end of the square marks the old city walls, not removed until 1958. See the nerve center of modern China in the adjoining People's Hall, the legislative building, where each of the 32 reception rooms is lavishly decorated in the style of a different province or city. In the main hall, 500 light bulbs illuminate the enormous red star on the ceiling. Move into ancient China in the Forbidden City, the formidable 9,000-room palace complex -- protected by a 170ft.-wide moat -- that housed China's emperors from 1421 until 1923.

Explore Tiananmen Square, the world's largest public square and equivalent to the size of 90 American football fields. In the centre of the square stands the Monument to the People's Heroes (Renmin Yingxiong Jinian Bei), a 38m granite obelisk erected in 1958 and engraved with scenes from famous popular Chinese uprisings.

Discover the Forbidden City, a massive complex of red-walled buildings and pavilions topped by a sea of glazed vermilion tile. Visit the Inner Court, where only the emperor, his family, his concubines, and the palace eunuchs were allowed; the Hall of Mental Cultivation, where emperors lived after Yongzheng moved out of the Qianqing Gong and the Nine Dragon Screen, an 11½ft high wall covered in glazed tile dragons frolicking above a frothing sea, built to protect the Qianlong emperor from prying eyes and malevolent spirits.

Visit the Temple of Heaven, an enormous park and altar directly to the south of the Forbidden City. Each winter solstice, the Ming and Qing emperors would lead a procession here to perform rites and make sacrifices designed to promote the next year’s crops and curry favor with Heaven for the general health of the empire.

Discover the history of the Chinese martial art, Tai Chi. Learn the moves from an experienced instructor, then practice what you've been taught.

The Great Wall of China, one of the greatest wonders of the world, was listed as a World Heritage by UNESCO in 1987. Just like a gigantic dragon, it winds up and down across deserts, grasslands, mountains and plateaus, stretching approximately 21,196 kilometers (13,170 miles) from east to west of China. With a history of about 2,700 years, some of the Great Wall sections are now in ruins or have disappeared. However, the Great Wall of China is still one of the most appealing attractions all around the world owing to its architectural grandeur and historical significance.

An emperor with a home as elaborate as the Imperial Palace needs an equally elaborate final resting place, and the Ming Tombs fit the bill quite nicely. Overseen by the same emperor, Yongle, who constructed the Forbidden City, the Ming Tombs are an enormous complex of pavilions, gardens, hallways, and tombs designed to provide everything an emperor, empress, or favored concubine would need in the afterlife. Check out the Avenue of Stone Animals, where a dozen pairs of carved animals, some dating back to the 1400s, and half a dozen pairs of carved officials and soldiers wait to escort their leaders to heaven.

A favorite dish of the emperors during the Ming Dynasty, Peking duck became available to the masses when a later dynasty collapsed and court chefs took their recipes to the streets. Indulge in spiced, crispy duck carved into strips and eaten on thin pancakes with cucumber, shallot, and plum sauce.

Explore the fantastic Summer Palace, an expanse of elaborate Qing-style pavilions, bridges, walkways, and gardens scattered along the shores of immense Kunming Lake. We will enjoy a tour of the park, which covers roughly 716 acres, with Kunming Lake to the south and Longevity Hill to the north.

A hutong is a unique form of traditional Beijing living quarters with a small street or a lane between two courtyards. Get a first-hand look as you cruise down the narrow alleys in a rickshaw.

It is the largest Buddhist temple of the Yellow-sect in Beijing and has been completely preserved. Built in 1694 as the residence of Count Yin Zhen, the fourth son of the Emperor Kangxi, it was called "the Palace of Count Yong." After Yin Zhen became the Emperor, he continued to use it as an imperial palace for short stays away from the capital. In 1744, it was converted into a lamasery. Yonghegong is the most renowned Tibetan Buddhist temple in China outside Tibet and holds treasures of both the Han and Tibetan cultures.