Beijing is the capital city of People's Republic of China. As the capital city of several past dynasties for several hundred years, Beijing is a city full of historical places. Many palaces of former emperors and princes are now museums or parks open to the public. Among them, the most interesting places may be the Museum of the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace. The Forbidden City was the living and administrative place for former emperors and now is one of the biggest museums in the world. The Summer Palace, occupying around three square-kilometers, was the royal garden of the Qing Dynasty and now is a public park for tourists. Besides, the famous Great Wall is also cutting through the suburb of Beijing. Each year, more than five million visitors around the world visit the Great Wall through several places in Beijing.

Beijing is now also a modern city because of the rapid growth of economy in the past twenty years. Numerous modern skyscrapers serving as office buildings can be found all over the city. Especially there will be quite a few modern sports stadiums built for the Olympic Games 2008 in Beijing. By the time of ICSR 2008 all the stadiums will be open to the public. Among them is the National Stadium, which can hold more than 80,000 people and will serve as the main stadium of the Games.

For more information on Beijing, please visit the web site: http://english.bjta.gov.cn/.