The Most Beautiful Medieval Places in the People's Republic of China
5 places · updated 6 October 2026
In short: By our ranking, the most beautiful medieval places in the People's Republic of China are Forbidden City, Potala Palace and Pagoda of Fogong Temple (Yingxian Wooden Pagoda). The list covers 5 medieval places. Last updated 6 October 2026.
Medieval China built for permanence on a scale few civilisations attempted, with wooden halls on stone platforms, cliffside carving and dynastic tombs placed by the rules of geomancy. Dry northern provinces and highland Tibet have preserved some of the oldest timber structures and burial grounds anywhere.
The Forbidden City in Beijing was completed in 1420 under the Yongle Emperor and remained the palace of Ming and Qing emperors for nearly five centuries. The Potala Palace rises in white and red tiers above Lhasa, rebuilt from the 17th century on the site of a 7th-century royal palace. The Wooden Pagoda of Fogong Temple, built in 1056 under the Liao dynasty, is the oldest and tallest fully timber pagoda in China, held together by dozens of types of bracket set. The Leshan Giant Buddha was carved out of a red sandstone cliff over the 8th century, seated where three rivers meet. The Western Xia Imperial Tombs, the burial ground of the Tangut kings, stand as earthen mounds below the Helan Mountains.
In this list
| # | Place | Type | UNESCO |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Forbidden City | Palace | ✓ |
| 2 | Potala Palace | Palace | ✓ |
| 3 | Pagoda of Fogong Temple (Yingxian Wooden Pagoda) | Pagoda | |
| 4 | Leshan Giant Buddha | Sculpture | ✓ |
| 5 | Western Xia Imperial Tombs | Necropolis | ✓ |
01 Forbidden City
People's Republic of China · 1.6 km from Beijing39.916° N 116.391° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
N509FZ · CC BY-SA 4.0 For almost five centuries the Forbidden City was the physical centre of the Chinese state. The Yongle Emperor of the Ming dynasty began it in 1406, after moving the capital from Nanjing to Beijing, and the complex was ready by 1420; from then until 1912 twenty-four emperors, fourteen Ming and ten Qing, lived and ruled here.
Did you know? The legend of 9,999 rooms is not borne out by surveys, which count about 8,886 bays of rooms.
02 Potala Palace
People's Republic of China · 2.2 km from Lhasa29.658° N 91.117° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Image by nrxfly from Pixabay The hill the palace stands on has been sacred longer than the palace itself. Tradition holds that in 637, Songtsen Gampo — the Tibetan king credited with unifying the plateau — built the first palace on this outcrop, known as Marpo Ri, or the Red Hill, to mark his marriage to the Chinese princess Wencheng.
Did you know? Copper was poured into the foundations to help the palace withstand earthquakes, and its sloping walls are about 5 metres thick at the base.
03 Pagoda of Fogong Temple (Yingxian Wooden Pagoda)
People's Republic of China39.565° N 113.182° E
Charlie fong · CC BY-SA 4.0 The Pagoda of Fogong Temple in Ying County, Shanxi, is the oldest fully wooden pagoda still standing in China — which is why the whole country simply calls it the Muta, the Timber Pagoda. It was built in 1056 under Emperor Daozong of the Liao dynasty, and it has stood for almost a thousand years, riding out earthquakes that shook the region repeatedly in its first decades.
Did you know? Local records note seven earthquakes between 1056 and 1103, yet before the twentieth century the pagoda needed only about ten minor repairs.
More about Pagoda of Fogong Temple (Yingxian Wooden Pagoda) →
04 Leshan Giant Buddha
People's Republic of China · 4.4 km from Leshan29.547° N 103.769° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Image by christels from Pixabay The Leshan Giant Buddha is carved directly into a sandstone cliff at the point where the Min, Dadu and Qingyi rivers meet below the city of Leshan in southern Sichuan. At 71 metres high it is the tallest stone Buddha in the world and by far the largest pre-modern statue anywhere. It depicts Maitreya, the Buddha of the future, seated with hands resting on his knees and gazing across the water towards Mount Emei.
Did you know? Each finger of the Buddha is about 8.3 metres long, and his nose and eyebrows each measure some 5.6 metres.
05 Western Xia Imperial Tombs
People's Republic of China · 25.1 km from Yinchuan38.435° N 105.987° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Thebrainchamber1 · CC BY-SA 4.0 At the foot of the Helan Mountains, on the dry plain west of Yinchuan, a line of great earthen mounds rises from the steppe like weathered beehives. They are the tombs of the emperors of Western Xia, a state founded by the Tangut people that ruled much of northwest China from 1038 until its destruction by Genghis Khan's Mongols in 1227.
Did you know? Dozens of kilns stretching some 7 to 8 km along a nearby canal are thought to have been built solely to fire bricks, tiles and glazed ornaments for the cemetery.
How this list is ranked
Places are chosen for how they look, not for how famous they are: each one has its own description and a photograph credited to its author. The order is a single world ranking that weighs the beauty of the place in curated photography together with how widely it is documented — the number of language editions of its encyclopedia article and how often that article is read in a year. The list is rebuilt as places are added, so the order and the counts on this page are always current.
Questions people ask
- What are the most beautiful medieval places in the People's Republic of China?
- On our list, Forbidden City ranks first, followed by Potala Palace and Pagoda of Fogong Temple (Yingxian Wooden Pagoda).
- How old is the Yingxian Wooden Pagoda?
- It was built in 1056 during the Liao dynasty and has survived nearly a thousand years of earthquakes. It is about 67 metres tall and built entirely of wood.
- How long did it take to carve the Leshan Giant Buddha?
- Work started in 713 under the monk Haitong and was completed in 803, about 90 years later. At 71 metres it is the largest stone Buddha in the world.
- How many medieval places are on this list in the People's Republic of China?
- The list covers 5 medieval places.