# Roots Earth in Beijing: audio stories about 55 places Canonical: https://rootsearth.com/cities/beijing Published: 16 September 2026 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. ## 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 Roots Earth for Android is available on Google Play: [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rootsearth.app](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rootsearth.app). ## More from Roots Earth - [Asia in the Roots Earth catalogue](https://rootsearth.com/cities#asia): every city in Asia with its number of places and its languages. - [What Roots Earth is](https://rootsearth.com/app): the app in one page, how it works and what is in it. - [Questions travellers ask](https://rootsearth.com/faq): the cities, the languages, the account, listening without a connection. - [The 7 languages](https://rootsearth.com/languages): the seven languages with their codes and how many cities each one covers. - [Hangzhou](https://rootsearth.com/cities/hangzhou): 46 places in China with audio stories. - [Shanghai](https://rootsearth.com/cities/shanghai): 50 places in China with audio stories. - [Suzhou](https://rootsearth.com/cities/suzhou): 44 places in China with audio stories. - [Xian](https://rootsearth.com/cities/xian): 48 places in China with audio stories. 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