Ancient Sites

Living proof of five thousand years of Chinese civilization — a great city paired with a monumental water system.

Proof of China’s five-thousand-year civilization: the Mojiaoshan terrace, city walls and vast waterworks survive — an early East Asian city-state.

Called "the earliest China" — a Xia capital and the starting point of wide-territory royal power.

A late-Xia capital whose great palace foundations survive: the earliest territorial royal state of Huaxia.

Where oracle bones were unearthed — the Shang capital, ground zero of the civilization of Chinese characters.

Late Shang capital with palaces, royal tombs and moats surviving — the documented dawn of Huaxia.

Bronze figures beyond imagination: the mysterious, brilliant kingdom of ancient Shu on the upper Yangtze.

The royal city of ancient Shu, with rammed-earth walls and sacrificial terraces — a singular civilization of the upper Yangtze.

Royal Buddhas of the Northern Wei: a colossal Buddhist realm cut by a steppe people newly ruling the Central Plains.

The imperial caves of Pingcheng, fusing Chinese and Western art — the giant niches still astonish.

Cliffs on both banks of the Yi River, niches beyond counting: royal statuary from the Northern Dynasties to the Tang.

An imperial cave complex; Wei-to-Tang sculpture lines both banks, carrying the faith and taste of the ancients.

The capital of the Western Han and the eastern starting point of the Silk Road, witnessing the might of Han.

The Western Han capital: the rammed-earth terrace of Weiyang Palace and city walls survive — the seat of Han power.

Ruins of the High Tang imperial palace, where one can still imagine the courts of all nations coming to pay tribute.

The Tang imperial palace; the high rammed-earth platform of Hanyuan Hall still stands — a grand legacy of the Tang zenith.

The steppe capital where Kublai Khan took the throne, where steppe and Central Plains civilizations met.

The Yuan summer capital: palace walls and gardens survive — the eastern capital in Marco Polo’s telling.