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. Mao Tse Tung announced the founding of Communist China here in 1949, and 40 years later student protests against the excesses of that government led to the massacres that unfortunately remain the square's foremost association in the minds of most visitors. 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. Think that's grand? The 700 acres of the Summer Palace, a seasonal retreat for the emperors, include a half-mile hallway painted with scenes from China's history, the most beautiful gardens in the country, and a 118ft. carved marble boat decked out with stained-glass windows so that the empress could enjoy her palace lakes in private.

Stretching from Korea to the Gobi Desert, the Great Wall of China reaches 1,500 miles along old imperial borders. The wall was built mainly by millions of slaves, repairing and lengthening existing defensive walls throughout the centuries (the oldest dating back to the 5th century BC), until the massive structure was complete. Sentries posted at the stone watchtowers along its length could use smoke to signal an imminent attack.

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.

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.

Built during the Qing dynasty, this Tibetan Buddhist temple—which originally housed court eunuchs—is split up into five main halls. Don’t miss the Hall of Harmony and Peace, which houses three bronze statues of the Buddha, one each for the past, present, and future.