The Mogao Caves, or Mogao Grottoes (Chinese: ???; pinyin: mò g?o k?) (also known as the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas and Dunhuang Caves) form a system of 492 temples 25 km (15.5 miles) southeast of the center of Dunhuang, an oasis strategically located at a religious and cultural crossroads on the Silk Road, in Gansu province, China. The caves contain some of the finest examples of Buddhist art spanning a period of 1,000 years. The first caves were dug out 366 AD as places of Buddhist meditation and worship. The Mogao Caves are the best known of the Chinese Buddhist grottoes and, along with Longmen Grottoes and Yungang Grottoes, are one of the three famous ancient sculptural sites of China. The caves also have famous wall paintings. (based on a wikipedia article / cc by-sa)
The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. It is located in the middle of Beijing, China, and now houses the Palace Museum. For almost five hundred years, it served as the home of the Emperor and his household, as well as the ceremonial and political centre of Chinese government. Since 1925, the Forbidden City has been under the charge of the Palace Museum, whose extensive collection of artwork and artifacts were built upon the imperial collections of the Ming and Qing dynasties. Part of the museum’s former collection is now located in the National Palace Museum in Taipei. Both museums descend from the same institution, but were split after the Chinese Civil War. (based on a wikipedia article / cc by-sa)
The Terracotta Army (simplified Chinese: ???; traditional Chinese: ???; pinyin: b?ngm? y?ng; literally “soldier and horse funerary statues”) is the Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses of Qin Shi Huang the First Emperor of China. The terracotta figures, dating from 210 BC, were discovered in 1974 by some local farmers near Xi’an, Shaanxi province, China near the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor (Chinese: ????; pinyin: Qín Sh?huáng Ling). The figures vary in height (183–195 cm – 6 ft–6 ft 5in), according to their roles, with the tallest being the generals. The figures include warriors, chariots, horses, officials, acrobats, strongmen, and musicians. (based on a wikipedia article / cc by-sa)
Mount Tai (Chinese: ??; pinyin: Tài Sh?n) is a mountain of historical and cultural significance located north of the city of Tai’an, in Shandong Province, China. The tallest peak is Jade Emperor Peak (simplified Chinese: ???; traditional Chinese: ???; pinyin: Yùhuáng D?ng), which is commonly reported as 1545 metres (5069 ft) tall, but is described by the Chinese government as 1532.7 metres (5028.5 ft). Mount Tai is one of the “Five Sacred Mountains”. It is associated with sunrise, birth, and renewal, and is often regarded the foremost of the five. The temples on its slopes have been a destination for pilgrims for 3,000 years. Mount Tai is located just north of the city of Tai’an and to the south of the provincial capital Jinan. (based on a wikipedia article / cc by-sa)
Zhoukoudian or Choukoutien (Chinese: ???; pinyin: Zh?uk?udiàn, IPA: ) is a cave system in Beijing, China. It has yielded many archaeological discoveries, including one of the first specimens of Homo erectus, dubbed Peking Man, and a fine assemblage of bones of the gigantic hyena Pachycrocuta brevirostris. The Peking Man lived in this cave approximately 200,000 to 750,000 years ago. The Peking Man Site was discovered by Johan Gunnar Andersson in 1921 and was first excavated by Otto Zdansky in 1921 and 1923 unearthing two human teeth. These were later identified by Davidson Black as belonging to a previously unknown species and extensive excavations followed. Fissures in the limestone containing middle Pleistocene deposits have yielded the remains of about 45 individuals as well as animal remains and stone flake and chopping tools. (based on a wikipedia article / cc by-sa)
The Great Wall of China (simplified Chinese: ??; traditional Chinese: ??; pinyin: Chángchéng; literally “long fortress” or simplified Chinese: ????; traditional Chinese: ????; pinyin: Wànl? Chángchéng; literally “The long wall of 10,000 Li (?)”) is a series of stone and earthen fortifications in northern China, built originally to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire against intrusions by the Xiongnu from the north and rebuilt and maintained between the 5th century BC and the 16th century. Since the 5th century BC, several walls have been built that were referred to as the Great Wall. One of the most famous is the wall built between 220–206 BC by the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang. (based on a wikipedia article / cc by-sa)
Mount Huang, also known as Huangshan (Chinese: ??; pinyin: Huángsh?n; literally “Yellow Mountain”), is a mountain range in southern Anhui province in eastern China. The area is well known for its scenery, sunsets, peculiarly-shaped granite peaks, Huangshan Pine trees, and views of the clouds from above. Mount Huang is a frequent subject of traditional Chinese paintings and literature, as well as modern photography. Today, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of China’s major tourist destinations. Physical features for which Mount Huang is known include sunrises, pine trees, “strangely jutting granite peaks”, and views of clouds touching the mountainsides on more than 200 days out of the year. (based on a wikipedia article / cc by-sa)
Huanglong (simplified Chinese: ??; traditional Chinese: ??; pinyin: Huánglóng) is a scenic and historic interest area in Songpan County in the northwest part of Sichuan, China. It is located in the southern part of the Minshan mountain range, 150 km north-northwest of the capital Chengdu. This area is known for its colorful pools formed by calcite deposits, especially in Huanglonggou (Yellow Dragon Gully), as well as diverse forest ecosystems, snow-capped peaks, waterfalls and hot springs. Huanglong is also home to many endangered species including the Giant Panda and the Sichuan Golden Snub-nosed Monkey. Huanglong was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1992. Due to thousands of years of geological evolution, Huanglong consists of numerous unique landscapes of geological landforms. (based on a wikipedia article / cc by-sa)
Jiuzhaigou National Park (simplified Chinese: ???; traditional Chinese: ???; pinyin: Ji?zhàig?u; lit. “Valley of Nine Villages”; Tibetan: Zitsa Degu (gzi rtsa sde dgu)) is a nature reserve in the north of Sichuan, a province in south western China. It is known for its many multi-level waterfalls and colorful lakes, and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992. It belongs to the category V (Protected Landscape) in the IUCN system of protected area categorization. The valley covers 720 km², with buffer zones covering an additional 600 km². Its elevation, depending on the area considered, ranges from 1,998 to 2,140 m (at the mouth of Shuzheng Gully) to 4,558 – 4,764 m (on Mount Ganzigonggai at the top of Zechawa Gully). (based on a wikipedia article / cc by-sa)
Wulingyuan (Chinese: ???; pinyin: W?líng Yuán) is a scenic and historic interest area in Hunan Province, China, famous for its approximately 3,100 tall quartzite sandstone pillars, some over 800 meters in height, which are a kind of karst formation. It is part of Zhangjiajie city, about 270km from the capital of Hunan Province, Changsha. It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992. Wulingyuan forms part of the Wuling Range. (based on a wikipedia article / cc by-sa)
The Wudang Mountains (simplified Chinese: ???; traditional Chinese: ???; pinyin: W?d?ng Sh?n), also known as Wu Tang Shan or simply Wudang, are a small mountain range in the northwestern part of Hubei Province of China, just to the south of the manufacturing city of Shiyan. On Chinese maps, the name “Wudangshan” (???) is applied both to the entire mountain range (which runs east-west along the southern edge of the Hanshui River valley, crossing several county-level divisions of Shiyan Prefecture-level city), and to the small group of peaks located within Wudangshan Jiedao of the Danjiangkou County-level City of the Shiyan Prefecture-level city. It is the latter specific area which is known as a Taoist center. (based on a wikipedia article / cc by-sa)
The Potala Palace (Tibetan: ??????; Wylie: Po ta la; simplified Chinese: ????; traditional Chinese: ????) is located in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, China. It was named after Mount Potala, the abode of Chenresig or Avalokitesvara. The Potala Palace was the chief residence of the Dalai Lama until the 14th Dalai Lama fled to Dharamsala, India, after an invasion and failed uprising in 1959. Today the Potala Palace has been converted into a museum by the Chinese government. Tradition has it that the three main hills of Lhasa represent the “Three Protectors of Tibet.” Chokpori, just to the south of the Potala, is the soul-mountain (bla-ri) of Vajrapani, Pongwari that of Manjushri, and Marpori, the hill on which the Potala stands, represents Chenresig or Avalokiteshvara. (based on a wikipedia article / cc by-sa)
The Mountain Resort in Chengde (Chinese: ????; pinyin: Bìsh? Sh?nzhu?ng; literally: Mountain Resort for Avoiding the Heat; Manchu: Halh?n be jailara gurung) or Ligong (Chinese: ??; pinyin: Líg?ng, the Qing Dynasty’s summer palace) situated in the city of Chengde in Hebei Province, China, is the world’s largest existing imperial garden. Built between 1703 and 1792, the Mountain Resort took 89 years to complete. It covers a total area of 5.6 km², almost half of Chengde’s urban area. It is a vast complex of palaces and administrative and ceremonial buildings. Temples of various architectural styles and imperial gardens blend harmoniously into a landscape of lakes, pastureland and forests. (based on a wikipedia article / cc by-sa)
The Leshan Giant Buddha (simplified Chinese: ????; traditional Chinese: ????; pinyin: Lèsh?n Dàfó) was built during the Tang Dynasty (618–907). It is carved out of a cliff face that lies at the confluence of the Minjiang, Dadu and Qingyi rivers in the southern part of Sichuan province in China, near the city of Leshan. The stone sculpture faces Mount Emei, with the rivers flowing below his feet. It is the largest carved stone Buddha in the world and at the time of its construction was the tallest statue in the world. The Mount Emei Scenic Area, including Leshan Giant Buddha Scenic Area has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996. It was not damaged by the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. Construction was started in 713, led by a Chinese monk named Haithong. (based on a wikipedia article / cc by-sa)
Mount Emei (Chinese: ???; pinyin: Éméi Sh?n; Wade-Giles: O2-mei2 Shan1, literally towering Eyebrow Mountain) is a mountain in Sichuan province of Western China. Mount Emei is often written as ??? and occasionally ??? or ??? but all three are translated as Mount Emei or Mount Emeishan. At 3,099 metres (10,167 ft), Mt. Emei is the highest of the Four Sacred Buddhist Mountains of China. The patron bodhisattva of Emei is Samantabhadra, known in Chinese as Puxian (????). 16th and 17th century sources allude to the practice of martial arts in the monasteries of Mount Emei made the earliest extant reference to the Shaolin Monastery as Chinese boxing’s place of origin. (based on a wikipedia article / cc by-sa)
Mount Lu (simplified Chinese: ??; traditional Chinese: ??; pinyin: Lúsh?n, Gan: Lu-san) is a mountain in the People’s Republic of China, situated south of the city of Jiujiang in Jiangxi Province, near Lake Poyang. Its highest point is the Dahanyang Peak (1,474m above sea level). The mountain is a prominent tourist attraction, especially domestically. (based on a wikipedia article / cc by-sa)
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