Stepping through the portal
Stepping through the portal
By PORTALTO Editor
26 September 2025
China isn’t just a country; it’s a journey through millennia. Every dynasty has left behind its own monuments, temples, gardens, and philosophies—woven into landscapes that still feel alive today. To travel here is to move between eras: one moment you’re standing at the foot of an emperor’s palace, the next you’re sipping tea beside a lake immortalized by poets. As seasoned travel experts, we present a curated list of China's most significant cultural and natural landmarks.
From the awe of the Great Wall winding across Beijing’s mountains, to the serene reflections of West Lake in Hangzhou – each one carries a story: of emperors who shaped entire eras, artisans who carved faith into stone, or communities who built homes designed to last centuries.
Think of this as your compass. If you’re planning your first deep dive into China, this list offers a balanced mix: history in the capital, poetry by the lakeside, spirituality in the mountains, and timeless charm in small towns. Whether you walk the ramparts at dawn, sip some tea while looking over lotus-filled waters, or wander alleys lit with lanterns in Yunnan, these eight UNESCO World Heritage Sites in China will anchor your journey in a sense of wonder and give you reasons to return.
Snaking across deserts, hills, and valleys, the Great Wall is China’s most iconic symbol. Officially inscribed on the UNESCO list in 1987 as a cultural site, it stretches over 20,000 kilometers in its various sections and incarnations. It stands as the largest of all historical sites in China.
Standing at a watchtower, with the wind carrying dust, silence, and distance, one feels both infinitesimal and part of something epic. Built originally from early fortifications from the 7th century BC to its most famous form under the Ming Dynasty, the Wall was designed to protect, to impress, and to endure. Walk at Jinshanling or Mutianyu at sunrise, and you’ll see how each brick is both history and canvas — the aged stone colored by time, the towers spaced for staggered defense, the path itself an act of perseverance.
At the heart of Beijing lies a palace that was once off-limits to ordinary citizens: the Forbidden City. Declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in China in 1987, it was built by the Ming Dynasty in 1406 and completed by 1420. Its architecture represents the pinnacle of Chinese imperial power.
Walking through its massive Meridian Gates, across the grand courtyards, into the Hall of Supreme Harmony, there’s a sense of structure so rigid it becomes poetic. Every hall, roof-tile, dragon motif, and courtyard pond reflect imperial power and philosophy: symmetry, ritual, and harmony. Today, as the Palace Museum, it holds nearly a million artifacts, each telling stories of emperors, intrigue, cultural exchange, and change.
A counterbalance to the rigid formalism of the Forbidden City is the Summer Palace. Listed by UNESCO in 1998, it is a vast ensemble of lakes, gardens, pavilions, and temples that artfully merge nature and architecture. It is an essential component of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites China list.
Kunming Lake, artificial yet serene, and Longevity Hill, with its sweeping views and quiet temples, combine to create a landscape drawn from garden idealism. The Long Corridor, dotted with painted scenes, opens onto bridges and islands, revealing views framed like scroll paintings. It was built as a place of retreat, evoking ease in contrast to the austere walls of Beijing’s Forbidden City.
If there’s a site in China that feels like poetry given physical form, it is West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou. Designated in 2011, this site weaves water, hills, pavilions, boats, tea fragrance, willow trees, causeways, and legends into a panorama beloved for centuries. It is a powerful example of the country's celebrated historical sites in China.
From the broken bridge at sunrise to the moonlight reflected in Three Pools Mirroring the Moon, West Lake embodies the Chinese aesthetic ideal: that nature and human design should be inseparable. Poets, painters, emperors, and everyday people have all tried to capture its essence in calligraphy, painting, and verse. Visiting it feels like entering a living scroll.
Carved into a cliff at the confluence of three rivers in Sichuan province, the Leshan Giant Buddha watches over the landscape with serene majesty. Together with Mount Emei, it was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Sites China list in 1996.
Standing 71 meters tall, it is the largest stone Buddha in the world carved before the modern era. The craftsmanship is stunning: thousands of curls in the Buddha’s hair, each toe nail big enough to shelter a person, the shoulders broad, and eyes gazing outward as if to see both rivers and time. Below, boats drift; around it, temples cling to steep slopes; above, forests climb the hills. It’s a place of pilgrimage, contemplation, and awe.
Perhaps nothing else captures ancient China’s ambition and scale like the Terracotta Army. Discovered in 1974, this vast funerary complex was built to accompany Emperor Qin Shi Huang in the afterlife. Since 1987, it has been recognized as one of the key UNESCO World Heritage Sites in China.
Thousands of life-sized figures—warriors, archers, horses, chariots—each with unique faces and armor, stand in long pits as though awaiting orders. The artistry is astonishing: no two figures identical, yet each part of a coherent vision of power and afterlife. To walk among them is to step into history’s shadow: the Qin era’s desire for immortality, human creativity bound with the cosmos.
High in Yunnan’s hills lies Lijiang, whose ancient town was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage Sites China list in 1997. Its ingenious water system demonstrates ancient ecological expertise.
Here streets curve around mountain bases, canals thread through stone bridges, and houses with timber frames and black tiles echo with Naxi culture. There is an old water-supply system, still working, that shows real ingenuity: a network of canals and springs, feeding the town with fresh water, yet doing so in harmony with its mountainous terrain. Markets burst with color. In the evening, lanterns glow beside narrow alleys. Lijiang feels alive with memory.
The Fujian Tulou are earthen, circular (and other shapes) fortress-like communal dwellings built by the Hakka people. Recognized by UNESCO in 2008, these structures are architectural marvels both for design and social innovation. They are among the most distinct historical sites in China.
They are built from earth, wood, and bamboo—massive, fortified homes often housing dozens of families under one roof, arranged around a central courtyard. The thick outer walls protect from weather, and sometimes raids; the interiors open into communal spaces. Walk into Yongding or Nanjing Tulou clusters, and you’ll feel the logic of community, architecture, and environment intertwine: small doors, tall walls, circular halls, winding passages—all part of daily life that centuries ago became poetry in earth and wood.
What unites these eight historical sites in China is not just their age or UNESCO label, but the ways they continue to live. The Great Wall still draws pilgrims of both local and international travelers. The Forbidden City remains a museum and monument, holding artifacts, exhibitions, and memories. West Lake still inspires poets, painters, and Instagram poets alike.
Each site reflects a story of China: the dynastic power, philosophical traditions, regional diversity, relationship with nature, architecture, communal life. They show how humans shape landscapes and are shaped in return.
China’s UNESCO heritage is not a static walk through relics. It’s living history, whispered by wind through ancient temples, reflected on still lakes, and echoed in communal walls. Visiting these eight sites doesn’t just show you what China was—it reveals what it can teach us: about endurance, beauty, harmony, innovation, and belonging.
These are not merely places to see. They are places to feel. And by preserving them, appreciating them, we keep alive human stories, artistry, and nature’s breath.
