Thnx for your suggestions, Robert. I'll add some more attractions that I think are worth visiting in Beijing to this thread and I will start other threads for specific cities/areas:
So another place I'd recommend is the place called in English, the old Summer Palace, or in Chinese, Yuanminyuan (The Gardens of Perfect Brightness. It was (is) a palace garden with some (the main) buildings designed in an European style, and designed by Jesuit missionaries - Giuseppe Castiglione and Michel Benoist, and others in Chinese style. The Kangxi Emperor ordered construction quite early in the eighteenth century. He intended it as a gift for one of his sons. Later Emperors added to it.
In 1860 in an orgy of Imperialistic hubris, French and British troops (on instructions from the chief British vandal, Lord Elgin, of Elgin marbles fame) looted and burned the palaces. Another orgy of western vandalism took place during the so-called Boxer rebellion in 1900. (And, some damage was also done during the military turbulence in China between 1911 and 1949. The remains, including some pavilions that remained untouched, serve today as a constant reminder to the Chinese people of the destructive power of western Imperialism. And the Chinese government is rather unsure of how to conserve the ruins. Nonetheless, the gardens, as you'll see are quite beautiful.
Here's someone's virtual reconstruction of what it may have looked like, before the British/French looting and burning.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mI3dcCJ0FU
and, another virtual reconstruction.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZE36WI9CSLA
and, what you'll see now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NDX_N3clH_M
And, the existing Gardens
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wNXtLLI3sgA