With its 3,000-year history, Beijing boasts some of the most renowned historic attractions in the world.

The following are the highlights of a visit to the ancient city:

The Forbidden City, or Gu Gong.

As the imperial palace of the Ming and Qing dynasties for five centuries, the 72-hectare Forbidden City is the world's largest palace complex with 9,999 rooms. It lies at the heart of Beijing, just to the north of the Tian'anmen Square.

The palace, which used to be off-limits to the common people, is surrounded by a 10-meter high wall, which measures 960 meters from south to north and 750 meters from east to west. Outside the wall is a 52-meter-wide moat. It is indeed a city within a city.

Until 1924 when Emperor Pu Yi -- as portrayed in Bernardo Bertolucci's Oscar-sweeping masterpiece "The Last Emperor" -- was driven out of the palace, 24 emperors had reigned there.

Historical data show that a million workers were involved in the 14-year building of the palace, starting in 1407. To transfer the stones quarried from outside the city, it is said that a well was dug every 50 meters along the road in order to pour water on the road in winter to slide large stones on the ice. Building materials included glutinous rice and egg whites, making the wall extraordinarily strong.

Listed by UNESCO as a World Cultural Heritage Site in 1987, it features numerous architectural wonders, rare ancient treasures and painted decorations. Amble through the seemingly endless courtyards and halls and you can almost smell the history.

Service: Tour guides are able to speak Chinese, English and Japanese, and audio guide machines offer services in most foreign languages, including French, German, Korean, Russian, Thai, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic and Italian.

Cost: Entrance costs 40 yuan during autumn and winter, but 60 yuan (8.8 U.S. dollars) from April 1 to October 31 as a result of higher maintenance costs. A foreign-language audio guide device costs 40 yuan along with a deposit of 100 yuan.

Opening hours: 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (October 15 to March 31) / 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (April 1 to October 14). Ticket sales stop an hour before closing time.

Three hours might just be enough to appreciate its beauty, but of course you might need more than half a day to see most of the details. Transport: take the No. 1 subway line and get off at Tian'anmen East. Walk through the Tian'anmen Gate under the huge Chairman Mao portrait, to find the ticket office.

More information is available on www.dpm.org.cn.