BEIJING

Beijing is a large, busy city located in northern China, and it is the capital city of China. 21.5 million people are living in Beijing. The official language is Mandarin. It is an ancient city that is full of sites from its long history. The most famous sites are the Forbidden City and the Great Wall, but there are also other well-known places like Tian Tan Park and the Summer Palace. A trip to China wouldn’t be complete without visiting at least some of these places. Even though Beijing has a lot of history, it is not a big museum; it’s a modern 21st-century city. There are large shopping centres like Xi Dan, and beautiful new buildings line the streets. A modern subway system and many buses carry people to and from work. People in Beijing are very proud that their great city was chosen to host the 2008 Olympics, and many people worked hard to plan the event. Seven hundred years ago, amazed by his unbelievable description of China, people asked Marco Polo whether his stories were true. He answered: ‘What I have told you was not even half of what I saw’. This is still true today; the amazing sites mentioned above are only a fraction of what awaits visitors to this city.