Famous landmarks in China
61 landmarks · 8 animals · 7 places to discover
China on My Earth Toy, the free 3D toy globe for kids: 61 landmarks, 8 animals, 7 places to discover. Here you can see its flag, capital and size, then fly to every place on the globe.
The flag of China is red with five yellow stars in the top corner: one large star and four smaller ones in an arc beside it.
Read about this flag →China at a glance
- Capital
- Beijing
- Continent
- Asia
- Area
- 9,596,961 km²
- Population
- 1.42 billion
China is a huge country in East Asia, one of the largest in the world by area and home to about 1.4 billion people. Its capital is Beijing, and its biggest city is Shanghai. China has one of the world's oldest continuous civilisations, and it is famous for the Great Wall, giant pandas, inventions such as paper and printing, and landscapes ranging from the Himalayas to tropical beaches.
On My Earth Toy China has more landmarks than almost any other country, including the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, the Terracotta Army, Shanghai's Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower. Its animals on the globe include the giant panda, wild yak, Chinese giant salamander, golden snub-nosed monkey and Yangtze finless porpoise.
Geography and nature
China's land steps down from the high Tibetan Plateau and the Himalayas in the west, where Mount Everest stands on the border with Nepal, to fertile plains and coasts in the east. The Gobi and Taklamakan deserts lie in the north and west. Two great rivers, the Yangtze, Asia's longest, and the Yellow River, flow east to the sea. Forests in the southwest shelter giant pandas, which eat almost nothing but bamboo.
People, languages and culture
Most people are Han Chinese, and the country officially recognises 55 other ethnic groups. Mandarin is the national language, written with Chinese characters, and many regional languages such as Cantonese are also spoken. Chinese New Year, also called the Spring Festival, is the biggest holiday, with family feasts, red decorations and dragon dances. Chinese food varies by region, from Sichuan's spicy dishes to Cantonese dim sum. Table tennis is a hugely popular sport.
History in a nutshell
Chinese civilisation grew along the Yellow River thousands of years ago. In 221 BC the Qin dynasty united China, and its first emperor was buried with the Terracotta Army. For over two thousand years dynasties such as the Han, Tang, Song, Ming and Qing ruled. Paper, printing, the compass and gunpowder were invented in China. The last dynasty ended in 1912, and the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949.
Fun facts
- The Terracotta Army has thousands of life-size clay soldiers, and no two faces are exactly alike.
- The Chinese giant salamander is the largest amphibian in the world and can grow to well over a metre long.
- Shanghai Tower is the tallest building in China, at about 632 metres.
- Even though China stretches across about five time zones, the whole country uses Beijing time.
Famous landmarks in China
Great Wall
China · Asia
Fortifications built over many centuries to guard China's northern frontier, stretching thousands of kilometres.
Oriental Pearl Tower
China · Asia
A TV tower strung with pink spheres, the signature of Shanghai's Pudong skyline.
Forbidden City
China · Asia
The imperial palace of the Ming and Qing emperors for nearly 500 years, the largest wooden palace complex in the world.
Terracotta Army
China · Asia
Thousands of life-size clay soldiers, each with a unique face, buried to guard China's first emperor.
Shanghai Tower
China · Asia
A 632 m skyscraper with a twisting, spiralling glass skin, the tallest building in China.
Temple of Heaven
China · Asia
Where Ming and Qing emperors prayed for good harvests; its round, triple-roofed hall is iconic.
Potala Palace
China · Asia
The former winter palace of the Dalai Lamas, rising in white and red tiers up a hillside in Lhasa.
The Bund
China · Asia
A riverfront promenade of colonial-era banks and trading houses facing the Pudong skyline.
Canton Tower
China · Asia
A 604 m TV tower with a slender, twisted lattice "waist", Guangzhou's landmark.
Zhangjiajie
China · Asia
A forest of thousands of sandstone pillars that inspired the floating mountains of the film Avatar.
Summer Palace
China · Asia
The Qing emperors' summer retreat: Longevity Hill crowned by the Tower of Buddhist Incense above the man-made Kunming Lake, China's largest imperial garden.
Goldin Finance 117
China · Asia
A 128-storey, 597 m tower topped out in 2015 and long left unfinished; work resumed in 2025 for completion in 2027.
Beijing National Stadium (Bird's Nest)
China · Asia
The main stadium of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, its saddle-shaped bowl wrapped in a woven lattice of steel like a bird's nest.
Leshan Giant Buddha
China · Asia
A 71 m Buddha carved into a riverside cliff where three rivers meet, the largest stone Buddha in the world.
Shanghai World Financial Center
China · Asia
A 492 m tower nicknamed "the bottle opener" for the trapezoid opening at its top.
Mogao Caves
China · Asia
492 cave temples cut over a millennium into a cliff at the Silk Road oasis of Dunhuang, filled with murals and painted statues.
CITIC Tower (China Zun)
China · Asia
A 528 m skyscraper shaped like an ancient bronze zun vessel, narrowing at the waist and flaring at the top; the tallest building in Beijing.
Jin Mao Tower
China · Asia
A skyscraper whose stepped profile reinterprets a traditional Chinese pagoda, an early icon of Pudong.
New Century Global Center
China · Asia
Opened in 2013, one of the world's largest buildings by floor area (about 1.7 million m²): a 500 by 400 m glass hall, 100 m high, holding malls, hotels, offices and an indoor beach with an artificial sea.
FAST (Tianyan) Radio Telescope
China · Asia
The world's largest single-dish radio telescope, a 500-metre dish of about 4,450 triangular panels set in a natural karst bowl in Pingtang, Guizhou.
Spring Temple Buddha
China · Asia
A 128 m copper-clad Vairocana Buddha on a lotus throne, among the tallest statues on Earth.
West Lake & Leifeng Pagoda, Hangzhou
China · Asia
The lake of countless poems and paintings, with Leifeng Pagoda, the Su Causeway and the Broken Bridge; a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Ping An Finance Centre, Shenzhen
China · Asia
At 599 m, China’s second-tallest building, with eight stainless-steel mega-columns running up its corners.
Giant Wild Goose Pagoda
China · Asia
A seven-storey brick pagoda built in the Tang dynasty to house the sutras the monk Xuanzang brought back from India.
Longmen Grottoes
China · Asia
Over 100,000 Buddhist statues carved into limestone cliffs along the Yi River, crowned by the 17 m Vairocana Buddha of Fengxian Temple.
Fujian Tulou
China · Asia
Rammed-earth round and square communal fortresses of the Hakka, each once home to hundreds; Tianluokeng's cluster is the most famous.
CCTV Headquarters
China · Asia
A 234 m loop of two leaning towers joined by a base and a dramatic cantilevered bridge at the top, nicknamed "Big Pants".
Raffles City Chongqing
China · Asia
Eight sail-shaped towers on the prow where the Jialing meets the Yangtze; a 300 m horizontal glass skybridge, "The Crystal", lies across four of them.
Guangzhou Opera House
China · Asia
Zaha Hadid's opera house, shaped like two smooth pebbles on the bank of the Pearl River.
Li River, Guilin
China · Asia
A river winding between karst peaks, a landscape so famous it appears on China's 20-yuan note.
Hongyadong, Chongqing
China · Asia
An 11-storey complex of stilted, traditional-style halls clinging to the cliff over the Jialing River, famous for its golden night lights.
Yellow Crane Tower, Wuhan
China · Asia
A tower on Snake Hill above the Yangtze, one of the Three Great Towers of southern China, celebrated in Tang poetry.
Yungang Grottoes
China · Asia
Northern Wei cave temples in a sandstone cliff; the seated Buddha of Cave 20, exposed when its front wall fell, is the icon.
Saint Sophia Cathedral, Harbin
China · Asia
A red-brick Russian-Byzantine church with a great green onion dome, symbol of Harbin’s Russian heritage.
National Centre for the Performing Arts
China · Asia
A titanium-and-glass ellipsoid dome that seems to float on a reflecting lake, housing an opera house and concert halls; known as "the Giant Egg".
Bell Tower of Xi'an
China · Asia
A Ming-dynasty tower at the heart of Xi’an: triple green-glazed eaves on a brick base pierced by four arched tunnels.
Chengdu IFS (climbing panda)
China · Asia
A shopping and office complex in central Chengdu, famous for the 15 m giant panda climbing over its rooftop parapet.
Guanyin of the South Sea of Sanya
China · Asia
A 108 m white statue of Guanyin with three faces, standing on an islet facing the sea.
Guangzhou CTF Finance Centre
China · Asia
At 530 m the tallest building in Guangzhou (2016), designed by KPF: a square tower whose corners step back in stages, faced in white terracotta fins that rise past the roof as an open crown.
Zifeng Tower, Nanjing
China · Asia
Nanjing’s tallest building at 450 m, with a gently twisting, tapering triangular plan clad in green-tinted glass.
Gate to the East, Suzhou
China · Asia
A 302 m arch of two towers joined at the top, standing by Jinji Lake.
Tianjin CTF Finance Centre
China · Asia
SOM's 530 m tower in Tianjin's Binhai district: a rounded-square shaft that tapers in a smooth curve, traced by eight curving mega-columns that meet in a petal-like open crown.
KK100 (Kingkey 100)
China · Asia
A 100-storey, 442 m tower by TFP Farrells (2011), Shenzhen's tallest until 2017; the slim slab's sides curve inward at the top into a glazed crown holding a sky garden.
China World Trade Center Tower III
China · Asia
A slim, tapering 330 m glass tower in Beijing's CBD, the city's tallest building until China Zun was completed.
Guangzhou Circle
China · Asia
A 138 m, 33-storey office building by Joseph di Pasquale (2013) beside the Pearl River: a golden disc standing on edge with a 47 m hole through its middle, recalling an ancient jade bi disc.
Wuhan Greenland Center
China · Asia
Wuhan's tallest building at 475.6 m (completed 2022), designed by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill: a tapering tower on a three-lobed plan, cut short of its planned 636 m by air-traffic limits.
Tianjin Eye
China · Asia
A 120 m Ferris wheel built on the Yongle Bridge over the Hai River, the only one in the world standing on a bridge.
China Art Museum (Expo China Pavilion)
China · Asia
The China Pavilion of Expo 2010, designed by He Jingtang and now the China Art Museum: an inverted pyramid of interlocking red beams inspired by the dougong bracket, 63 m tall and lifted on four giant pillars.
Jiefangbei (People's Liberation Monument)
China · Asia
The 27.5 m octagonal clock tower at the heart of Chongqing, built in 1947 as the memorial to victory in the War of Resistance against Japan and renamed the People's Liberation Monument in 1950.
Tsinghua University
China · Asia
Founded in 1911 in the former imperial garden of Tsinghua Yuan, it is one of China's most prestigious universities, alma mater of leaders such as Xi Jinping and Hu Jintao.
Guangzhou International Finance Center
China · Asia
The 440 m 'West Tower' of Zhujiang New Town (2010) by Wilkinson Eyre: a rounded-triangle tower that swells slightly and then tapers, its steel diagrid showing through the glass as tall diamonds.
Pearl River Tower
China · Asia
A 310 m office tower by SOM (2011) designed to use little energy: its curved facades funnel the wind into openings at two mechanical floors, where turbines generate power.
Galaxy SOHO
China · Asia
Zaha Hadid's complex at Chaoyangmen: four rounded, dome-topped volumes up to 67 m high, fused by bridges, with continuous white bands flowing round every floor.
China Resources Headquarters ("Spring Bamboo")
China · Asia
The 392.5 m headquarters of China Resources in Houhai (2018), designed by KPF: 56 slender columns wrap the round tower and converge into a pointed crown, earning it the nickname 'Spring Bamboo'.
Wangjing SOHO
China · Asia
Zaha Hadid's three curving towers in Wangjing (200, 127 and 118 m), whose pebble-shaped plans shrink and slide as they rise, like dancing fans or koi fins.
Shanghai IFC
China · Asia
Twin towers by Cesar Pelli in Lujiazui beside the Oriental Pearl Tower (2009–2010), 260 m and 250 m tall with sloping glass roofs; the IFC mall and its glass-cylinder Apple Store lie at their feet.
Shun Hing Square (Diwang Building)
China · Asia
Completed in 1996 at 384 m, Shun Hing Square (the Diwang Building) was the tallest building in Asia when it opened; its slender green-glass slab ends in two round turrets carrying needle masts.
Shenzhen Bay Sports Center ("Spring Cocoon")
China · Asia
Opened in 2011 by Shenzhen Bay: a 20,000-seat stadium, a 13,000-seat arena and a swimming hall share one white steel lattice shell about 500 m long, nicknamed the 'Spring Cocoon'.
Chongqing People's Auditorium
China · Asia
Built in 1951–54 to Zhang Jiade's design in the style of Ming and Qing palaces: a round hall under three tiers of green-glazed eaves, modelled on the Temple of Heaven, flanked by long wings with pavilion towers.
Tomorrow Square
China · Asia
John Portman's 285 m tower on People's Square (2003): the square shaft turns 45 degrees at the 37th floor, where apartments give way to the JW Marriott hotel, and four leaning planes at the top hold a 'pearl'.
Wuhan Center
China · Asia
A 438 m, 88-storey tower in Wuhan's Wangjiadun business district (2019), designed by ECADI; its sleek blue glass sweeps up to a sail-like sloping crown.
Animals in China
Places to discover in China
Questions
What is the capital of China?
The capital of China is Beijing.
Which continent is China in?
China is in Asia.
How big is China?
China covers about 9,596,961 km².
How many people live in China?
About 1.42 billion people live in China.
What are the most famous landmarks in China?
Some of the best-known landmarks in China are Great Wall, Oriental Pearl Tower, Forbidden City, Terracotta Army and Shanghai Tower. My Earth Toy has 61 landmarks from China on its free 3D globe, each with a photo and quick facts.
Which animals can you find in China on My Earth Toy?
On the globe you can find Giant panda, Wild yak, Chinese giant salamander, Golden snub-nosed monkey and Yangtze finless porpoise in China.
Sources
Updated: 2026-10-30