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Roots Earth in Beijing: audio stories about 55 places

Roots Earth has audio stories about 55 places in Beijing, China, in Asia. The Beijing stories are in all seven Roots Earth languages: English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian. The app needs no account: open Beijing, pick a place on the city's map of places and play. Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection. The stories are written by local people.

The 55 places are listed below in the order the app shows them, and again further down with their coordinates. The lists were taken from the Roots Earth catalogue on 15 September 2026.

Published 16 September 2026. Markdown: beijing.md

The 55 places in Beijing with audio stories

In the order the app shows them.

  1. Forbidden City
  2. Tiananmen Square
  3. Great Wall of China
  4. Temple of Heaven
  5. Summer Palace
  6. Tiananmen
  7. Ming Tombs
  8. Old Summer Palace
  9. Yonghe Temple (Lama Temple)
  10. National Museum of China
  11. Great Hall of the People
  12. Chairman Mao Memorial Hall
  13. Monument to the People's Heroes
  14. Zhengyangmen (Qianmen)
  15. National Centre for the Performing Arts
  16. Jingshan Park
  17. Beihai Park
  18. Drum Tower and Bell Tower of Beijing
  19. Prince Gong Mansion
  20. Capital Museum
  21. Beijing National Stadium
  22. Beijing National Aquatics Center
  23. Olympic Green
  24. Beijing Ancient Observatory
  25. National Art Museum of China
  26. Beijing Temple of Confucius
  27. Beijing Guozijian (Imperial College)
  28. White Cloud Temple
  29. Niujie Mosque
  30. Fayuan Temple
  31. Miaoying Temple (White Pagoda)
  32. Tianning Temple
  33. Zhihua Temple
  34. Wanshou Temple
  35. Temple of Earth (Ditan)
  36. Deshengmen
  37. Yongdingmen
  38. Wangfujing
  39. Dashilan (Dazhalan)
  40. Liulichang
  41. Nanluoguxiang
  42. Shichahai
  43. Houhai
  44. Panjiayuan Market
  45. Sanlitun
  46. Wudaokou
  47. 798 Art Zone
  48. Xidan
  49. Workers' Stadium
  50. Chaoyang Park
  51. Yuyuantan Park
  52. Beijing Zoo
  53. Fragrant Hills
  54. China National Botanical Garden
  55. Zhongnanhai

Is there an audio guide for Forbidden City?

Yes. Forbidden City has its audio stories in the Roots Earth app: a short introduction and a deeper story, in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian.

It is place 1 of the 55 Beijing places in the app, at 39.91583333, 116.39083333. Every one of the other 54 places in the list above has the same two stories.

Roots Earth is not a guided tour: you choose the place on the city's map of places and play its story yourself.

How to use Roots Earth in Beijing

Open Roots Earth and choose Beijing. The city has its own map of places with all 55 of them on it. Tap the place you are standing in front of, or any other, and play its short introduction or its deeper story. You decide what to listen to and in which order.

You can listen in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian, and there is no account. Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection.

In full

All 55 places in Beijing, in the app's order, with their coordinates.

All 55 places in Beijing, with coordinates

Every place below has a short introduction and a deeper story in the Roots Earth app, in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian. The names, the coordinates (latitude, longitude) and the one line descriptions are the app's own catalogue values of 15 September 2026; a place without a line here has none that this page can print.

1. Forbidden City

Coordinates
39.91583333, 116.39083333
In one line
The vast imperial palace at Beijing's heart, built between 1406 and 1420 for the Yongle Emperor. Home to 24 emperors across the Ming and Qing dynasties, its golden-roofed halls and wide moat anchor the city's central axis.

2. Tiananmen Square

Coordinates
39.90333333, 116.39166667
In one line
One of the world's largest public squares, where Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Republic of China in 1949. Greatly enlarged in 1958, it spreads roughly 765 by 282 meters between monumental state buildings at Beijing's symbolic center.

3. Great Wall of China

Coordinates
40.43138889, 116.56444444
In one line
The greatest defensive work ever built, raised and rebuilt across more than two thousand years against northern invaders. Its best-preserved brick ramparts and watchtowers, dating from the Ming dynasty, snake along mountain ridges near Beijing at Badaling and Mutianyu.

4. Temple of Heaven

Coordinates
39.8822, 116.4066
In one line
A Ming ritual complex begun in 1406 for the Yongle Emperor, where rulers prayed to Heaven for good harvests. Its blue-tiled, triple-eaved Hall of Prayer, round altar, and Echo Wall embody an ancient cosmology of round Heaven and square Earth.

5. Summer Palace

Coordinates
39.9975, 116.2689
In one line
A vast Qing imperial garden of lake, hill, and pavilion, first built under the Qianlong Emperor and rebuilt in 1888 by Empress Dowager Cixi. Kunming Lake, the painted Long Corridor, and the Marble Boat make it a masterpiece of Chinese landscape design.

6. Tiananmen

Coordinates
39.90733333, 116.39108333
In one line
The Gate of Heavenly Peace, front gate of the old imperial city, first built in 1420 and rebuilt in 1651. Crowned with a rostrum and Mao Zedong's portrait, it is where the People's Republic was proclaimed in 1949.

7. Ming Tombs

Coordinates
40.25333, 116.2175
In one line
The burial valley of thirteen Ming emperors, set against Tianshou Mountain north of Beijing. A long Sacred Way lined with stone guardians leads to grand mausolea, including the excavated underground palace of Dingling.

8. Old Summer Palace

Coordinates
40.00722222, 116.2925
In one line
The Old Summer Palace, or Yuanmingyuan, was a sprawling 18th-century Qing garden-palace begun in 1707. Once called the Garden of Gardens, it was looted and burned by Anglo-French forces in 1860, leaving haunting ruins among its lakes.

9. Yonghe Temple (Lama Temple)

Coordinates
39.94694444, 116.41111111
In one line
Yonghe Temple, known as the Lama Temple, began in 1694 as a Qing prince's residence and became a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in 1744. Beijing's foremost Gelug temple, it shelters an 18-meter Maitreya Buddha carved from a single sandalwood trunk.

10. National Museum of China

Coordinates
39.9036, 116.395
In one line
The National Museum of China lines the east side of Tiananmen Square. Housed in a 1959 landmark and vastly expanded by 2011, it ranks among the world's largest museums, tracing Chinese civilization from ancient bronzes through the dynasties to the present.

11. Great Hall of the People

Coordinates
39.90333333, 116.3875
In one line
The seat of China's National People's Congress, raised in just ten months in 1959 on the west side of Tiananmen Square. Behind its long colonnaded facade lie a 10,000-seat auditorium, a vast banquet hall, and more than thirty provincial reception rooms.

12. Chairman Mao Memorial Hall

Coordinates
39.901, 116.3915
In one line
A columned mausoleum at the southern center of Tiananmen Square, built in 1977 to hold the embalmed body of Mao Zedong. Visitors file past a seated marble statue and the glass coffin where the founder of the People's Republic lies in state.

13. Monument to the People's Heroes

Coordinates
39.90305556, 116.39166667
In one line
A granite obelisk nearly 38 meters tall at the center of Tiananmen Square, designed by Liang Sicheng and completed in 1958. Eight carved relief panels trace China's revolutionary struggles from the Opium Wars to the founding of the People's Republic.

14. Zhengyangmen (Qianmen)

Coordinates
39.89916667, 116.39147222
In one line
The grandest surviving gate of old Beijing, first built in 1419 and reconstructed in 1914 after war damage. Its tall gatehouse, the highest in the former city wall at 42 meters, faces its detached archery tower across Qianmen Avenue on the central axis.

15. National Centre for the Performing Arts

Coordinates
39.90333333, 116.38361111
In one line
A vast titanium-and-glass dome rising from an artificial lake near Tiananmen Square, the National Centre for the Performing Arts opened in 2007. Designed by Paul Andreu, it holds three grand halls for opera, music, and drama.

16. Jingshan Park

Coordinates
39.92361111, 116.39055556
In one line
An artificial hill rising directly behind the Forbidden City, Jingshan was built in the Ming dynasty from earth dug to form the palace moats.

17. Beihai Park

Coordinates
39.92444444, 116.38305556
In one line
One of China's oldest imperial gardens, Beihai centers on a broad lake and Jade Flower Island, crowned by a white Tibetan-style dagoba from 1651. Its origins reach back to the Jin dynasty in 1179. It opened to the public in 1925.

18. Drum Tower and Bell Tower of Beijing

Coordinates
39.94018889, 116.38963611
In one line
Twin timekeeping towers at the northern end of Beijing's central axis, first raised under the Yuan dynasty in 1272. The Drum Tower once held twenty-five drums and the Bell Tower a great bronze bell, sounding the hours over the imperial capital until 1924.

19. Prince Gong Mansion

Coordinates
39.93653333, 116.37931389
In one line
The grandest surviving princely residence of Qing Beijing, built in 1777 for the official Heshen and later home to Prince Gong. Its courtyards, opera house, and 28,000-square-meter garden of pavilions and rockeries make it one of the city's finest historic estates.

20. Capital Museum

Coordinates
39.905, 116.336
In one line
The Capital Museum gathers Beijing's own history under one vast roof. Opened in 2006 in a stone-clad building near Muxidi, it holds more than 200,000 relics, from imperial bronzes and porcelain to Buddhist statues and city excavations.

21. Beijing National Stadium

Coordinates
39.99166667, 116.39055556
In one line
Beijing National Stadium, nicknamed the Bird's Nest, was built between 2003 and 2008 for the Summer Olympics. Designed by Herzog and de Meuron with Li Xinggang and Ai Weiwei, its lattice of interlocking steel wraps a bowl seating tens of thousands.

22. Beijing National Aquatics Center

Coordinates
39.9917, 116.3842
In one line
The Beijing National Aquatics Center, nicknamed the Water Cube, is a translucent bubble-clad swimming arena built for the 2008 Olympics. Twenty-five world records fell in its pools before it became a curling rink in 2022.

23. Olympic Green

Coordinates
40.00303056, 116.38666944
In one line
Olympic Green is the sprawling park north of central Beijing built for the 2008 Games. Constructed for the 2008 Summer Olympics, it gathers the Bird's Nest stadium, the Water Cube, and a vast forest park along the northern extension of the city's ancient Central Axis.

24. Beijing Ancient Observatory

Coordinates
39.9061, 116.4281
In one line
The Beijing Ancient Observatory, built in 1442, is one of the world's oldest observatories. Bronze astronomical instruments crown its 15-meter brick tower, several designed by Jesuit astronomers who once directed the imperial study of the heavens.

25. National Art Museum of China

Coordinates
39.92361111, 116.40277778
In one line
The National Art Museum of China, completed in 1962 and opened in 1963, occupies a yellow-roofed pavilion designed by Dai Nianci. Its galleries hold over 100,000 works, from traditional ink painting and calligraphy to modern oils, sculpture, and folk New Year prints.

26. Beijing Temple of Confucius

Coordinates
39.94511, 116.40831
In one line
Beijing's Temple of Confucius, built in 1302 under the Yuan dynasty and later enlarged, honored China's great sage. Across roughly 20,000 square meters, 198 stone tablets record more than 51,000 scholars who passed the imperial examinations.

27. Beijing Guozijian (Imperial College)

Coordinates
39.94555556, 116.40694444
In one line
The Guozijian, Beijing's Imperial College, was first built in 1306 under the Yuan dynasty as China's national university. Across more than 10,000 square meters, its central Biyong Hall hosted emperors who lectured on the Confucian classics.

28. White Cloud Temple

Coordinates
39.8989, 116.338
In one line
White Cloud Temple, with roots in the eighth-century Tang dynasty, is one of the great ancestral courts of Quanzhen Taoism and seat of the Chinese Taoist Association. Five halls line its axis, including the shrine over the tomb of the patriarch Qiu Chuji.

29. Niujie Mosque

Coordinates
39.88444444, 116.35805556
In one line
Beijing's oldest mosque, founded in 996 during the Liao dynasty, blends traditional Chinese timber architecture with Islamic worship. Its painted halls, Moon-Observing Tower, and ancient tombs anchor the city's historic Hui Muslim quarter.

30. Fayuan Temple

Coordinates
39.88388889, 116.36361111
In one line
One of Beijing's oldest temples, begun in 645 under the Tang emperor Taizong to honor fallen soldiers. Its tranquil courtyards, ancient Buddhist statuary, and famous spring lilacs now surround China's leading Buddhist seminary.

31. Miaoying Temple (White Pagoda)

Coordinates
39.924, 116.357
In one line
Crowned by the great White Pagoda raised under Kublai Khan in 1279, this temple holds the oldest and largest Tibetan Buddhist stupa in China. Its Nepalese architect Araniko gave Beijing one of its most distinctive medieval landmarks.

32. Tianning Temple

Coordinates
39.8937, 116.34
In one line
A soaring brick pagoda from the Liao dynasty, raised around 1119, dominates this temple. Standing roughly 57. 8 meters tall on an octagonal plan with thirteen dense eaves, it is among Beijing's oldest and most elegant surviving structures.

33. Zhihua Temple

Coordinates
39.9162, 116.4259
In one line
Zhihua Temple, built in 1443 by the powerful eunuch Wang Zhen, is among Beijing's best-preserved Ming complexes, known for its rare black-tiled roofs. Its musicians still perform Buddhist ritual music handed down across 27 generations.

34. Wanshou Temple

Coordinates
39.94583333, 116.30527778
In one line
Wanshou Temple, built in 1577 under the Ming Wanli Emperor to store Buddhist scriptures, today shelters the Beijing Art Museum and its collection of roughly seventy thousand bronzes, jades, paintings, and porcelains.

35. Temple of Earth (Ditan)

Coordinates
39.95142, 116.4097
In one line
Its square altar mirrors the round Temple of Heaven; today it is the popular Ditan Park.

36. Deshengmen

Coordinates
39.94855556, 116.37305556
In one line
Deshengmen, the Gate of Virtuous Triumph, was built in 1437 as a northern gate of Beijing's city wall. Imperial armies marched out through it to war. Its surviving archery tower now houses an ancient coin exhibition.

37. Yongdingmen

Coordinates
39.871, 116.393
In one line
Yongdingmen, the Gate of Perpetual Peace, was built in 1553 as the grand front gate of Beijing's outer city. Demolished in the 1950s, it was faithfully reconstructed in 2004 as the southern anchor of the Central Axis.

38. Wangfujing

Coordinates
39.91115556, 116.405275
In one line
Wangfujing, the Well of the Princely Mansions, is Beijing's most famous shopping street. Once lined with Qing aristocratic estates and a sweet-water well, it is now a pedestrian artery of department stores, snack stalls, and crowds.

39. Dashilan (Dazhalan)

Coordinates
39.90944444, 116.39305556
In one line
Dashilan, a narrow lane south of Qianmen named for a 1488 merchants' fence, is one of Beijing's oldest commercial streets. Time-honored shops, opera theaters, and the first cinema once crowded its bustling length.

40. Liulichang

Coordinates
39.89524167, 116.38636667
In one line
Liulichang, named for the Ming glazed-tile kilns that once supplied the imperial palaces, became a beloved haunt of scholars and artists. Today its restored shops sell books, calligraphy, antiques, and the four treasures of the study.

41. Nanluoguxiang

Coordinates
39.9425, 116.39638889
In one line
Nanluoguxiang is a Yuan-era hutong alley in Dongcheng District, roughly 800 metres long, lined with gray-brick courtyard homes now filled with cafes, bars and souvenir shops near the Drum and Bell Towers.

42. Shichahai

Coordinates
39.93802, 116.38706
In one line
Shichahai is a historic scenic area of three connected lakes northwest of the Forbidden City, covering 147 hectares. Once the northern end of the Grand Canal, it is now ringed by hutongs, princely mansions, bars and boating.

43. Houhai

Coordinates
39.94111111, 116.37888889
In one line
Houhai, the Rear Lake, is the largest of the three Shichahai lakes, covering 35 hectares in Xicheng District. Built under the Yuan dynasty, its hutong shoreline is now famous for bars, cafes and lakeside nightlife.

44. Panjiayuan Market

Coordinates
39.87583, 116.46139
In one line
Panjiayuan is Beijing's largest flea and antique market, sprawling across 48,500 square meters in Chaoyang District. Established in 1992, its roughly 4,000 stalls sell jade, ceramics, calligraphy, furniture and Mao-era curios.

45. Sanlitun

Coordinates
39.93611111, 116.44888889
In one line
Sanlitun is Beijing's best-known nightlife and shopping district in Chaoyang, born from the 1950s embassy quarter. Its 1990s bar street and the 2008 Taikoo Li complex made it the city's hub of bars, brands and dining.

46. Wudaokou

Coordinates
39.99152778, 116.33074722
In one line
Wudaokou is Beijing's student quarter in Haidian District, ringed by top universities including Tsinghua and Peking. Nicknamed the Center of the Universe, it draws international students, especially Koreans, with cheap bars and dining.

47. 798 Art Zone

Coordinates
39.989057, 116.48793
In one line
The 798 Art Zone is Beijing's contemporary art district in Dashanzi, Chaoyang, set in a 1950s Bauhaus-style electronics factory. Artists began moving into the former factory warehouses from the late 1990s into the early 2000s, turning them into galleries, studios and cafes.

48. Xidan

Coordinates
39.90755833, 116.3678
In one line
Xidan is one of Beijing's busiest shopping districts, a dense run of malls and department stores in Xicheng District. Once a Ming-era trading passage, it grew into a youthful, neon-lit retail hub crowded with weekend shoppers.

49. Workers' Stadium

Coordinates
39.92952778, 116.44113889
In one line
Workers' Stadium is Beijing's great football arena in Chaoyang District, rebuilt and reopened in 2023 with seating for 68,000. Home to Beijing Guoan, it carries the name and spirit of the original 1959 stadium it replaced.

50. Chaoyang Park

Coordinates
39.93457222, 116.47628333
In one line
Chaoyang Park is one of Beijing's largest green spaces, spread across roughly 289 hectares in Chaoyang District. Begun in 1984, it blends lakes, gardens, and fairground rides, and hosted Olympic beach volleyball in 2008.

51. Yuyuantan Park

Coordinates
39.9177, 116.3109
In one line
Yuyuantan Park surrounds a large lake in Haidian District, famous as Beijing's premier spot for cherry blossoms. Its lake dates to 1773 under the Qianlong Emperor; the modern park opened in 1960 and now draws huge spring crowds.

52. Beijing Zoo

Coordinates
39.93861111, 116.33333333
In one line
Beijing Zoo is China's oldest zoo, founded in 1906 and opened in 1908 on Qing imperial grounds. Spread over 89 hectares in Xicheng District, it is famous for its giant pandas and rare native Chinese species.

53. Fragrant Hills

Coordinates
39.99099722, 116.17969167
In one line
Fragrant Hills is a forested imperial park in Beijing's Western Hills, first laid out in 1186 under the Jin dynasty. Famous for its blazing autumn foliage and Incense Burner Peak, it covers 160 hectares of pavilions, temples, and trails.

54. China National Botanical Garden

Coordinates
39.992789, 116.20934
In one line
China National Botanical Garden lies in the Western Hills near Fragrant Hills, holding about 6,000 plant species across 400 hectares. Rooted in a 1956 garden, it was chartered as a national garden in 2022 and includes the historic Sleeping Buddha Temple.

55. Zhongnanhai

Coordinates
39.9113, 116.3805
In one line
Zhongnanhai is a walled lakeside compound west of the Forbidden City, once an imperial garden of the Jin and Ming courts. Since 1949 it serves as the closely guarded headquarters of China's Communist Party and State Council.

Roots Earth in short

Roots Earth has audio stories about 5,665 places in 130 cities, 25 countries and 6 regions, written by local people.

  • No account
  • Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection
  • Audio stories in English and German in every city, and in Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian in 126 of the 130 cities

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