🇨🇳 China
Beijing
Beijing (北京 — "Northern Capital" — China's capital since 1420, when the Yongle Emperor moved the Ming court from Nanjing) is the most historically layered city in East Asia: the Forbidden City (紫禁城 — the world's largest palace complex, 180 acres, 980 buildings, 9,999 rooms, home to 24 emperors over 500 years), the Great Wall (北京段 — the most dramatic and accessible sections of the 21,196km wall), and the Temple of Heaven (天坛 — where the emperor performed the ritual that connected Heaven and Earth) are three of the most important monuments in the history of human civilization. Modern Beijing (22 million residents — the political, educational and cultural capital of China) is a city of extraordinary contrasts: the imperial gray of the Forbidden City beside the new CCTV Tower (Rem Koolhaas — the most structurally audacious skyscraper in the world), the hutong (胡同 — the medieval lane network of courtyard houses dating to the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368)) beside the elevated highways. Beijing's food culture is centred on Peking Duck (北京烤鸭 — the dish that requires 65 days of preparation from the specific white Pekin duck breed, inflated, lacquered with maltose syrup and roasted hanging in a wood-fired oven) and the jianbing (煎饼 — the Beijing street breakfast: a crepe with egg, chilli paste, scallion and crispy wonton).