The Most Beautiful Squares, Streets and Monuments in the People's Republic of China
5 places · updated 13 October 2026
In short: By our ranking, the most beautiful squares, streets and monuments in the People's Republic of China are Terracotta Army, Canton Tower and Leshan Giant Buddha. The list covers 5 squares, streets and monuments. Last updated 13 October 2026.
China's great monuments often answer to an emperor or a faith on a superhuman scale: an army of clay soldiers for a single tomb, a Buddha carved out of a riverside cliff, caves of sculpture along the Silk Road. Modern Chinese cities have kept up the ambition with towers and viewpoints built to be seen across whole skylines.
The Terracotta Army near Xi'an guards the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of a unified China, with thousands of life-size warriors, each with an individual face. The Canton Tower in Guangzhou twists its lattice of steel tubes to a height of 600 metres. The Leshan Giant Buddha, carved during the Tang dynasty, sits at the meeting of three rivers in Sichuan. Victoria Peak looks down over the towers of Hong Kong Island to the harbour, and the Bingling Temple grottoes line a canyon on the Yellow River in Gansu with Buddhist carvings begun more than fifteen centuries ago.
In this list
| # | Place | Type | UNESCO |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Terracotta Army | Archaeological site | ✓ |
| 2 | Canton Tower | Observation tower | |
| 3 | Leshan Giant Buddha | Sculpture | ✓ |
| 4 | Victoria Peak | Scenic viewpoint | |
| 5 | Bingling Temple | Archaeological site | ✓ |
01 Terracotta Army
People's Republic of China · 24.5 km from Weinan34.385° N 109.273° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Image by artemtation from Pixabay What makes the find keep giving up new detail is that no two soldiers are alike. Heads were sculpted separately from the mass-produced bodies, which let craftsmen vary hairstyle, facial features, ear shape and expression figure by figure across a workforce of thousands — more than 8,000 figures are believed to exist in total, of which just over 2,000 have been excavated from three pits so far, leaving an estimated 6,000 still underground.
Did you know? Legs were built much like terracotta drainage pipes, and heads, arms and torsos were made separately before assembly.
02 Canton Tower
People's Republic of China · 6.1 km from Guangzhou23.109° N 113.319° E
Image by AndyLeungHK from Pixabay It is the second-tallest tower in China and one of the tallest free-standing structures in the world. The main body is 450 m high and the antenna adds another 150; inside are TV and radio facilities, restaurants including a two-storey revolving one, gardens, cinemas and exhibition spaces.
Did you know? The tower weighs about 100,000 tonnes, of which the antenna mast accounts for roughly 1,550 tonnes.
03 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 statue was begun in the early eighth century by a monk named Hai Tong, who hoped the Buddha's presence would calm the currents that wrecked boats at the confluence. Tradition says that when funding for the work was threatened, he gouged out his own eyes to prove his sincerity.
Did you know? Seen from the river, the hills around the statue are said to form the outline of a reclining Buddha more than a kilometre long.
04 Victoria Peak
People's Republic of China · 5.3 km from Hong Kong22.275° N 114.144° E
Image by fabSB17 from Pixabay The hill was known in the colonial era as Mount Austin, and in Chinese as Tai Ping Shan. In the nineteenth century its cooler air drew wealthy Europeans, and from 1904 to 1930 the Peak Reservation Ordinance set it apart as a residential district barred to Chinese residents — a restriction that lasted in practice until 1947.
Did you know? Before the tram, residents of the Peak were carried up and down the steep slopes in sedan chairs.
05 Bingling Temple
People's Republic of China · 26.8 km from Linxia City35.806° N 103.044° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Thebrainchamber1 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Work here began in the early 5th century under the Western Qin dynasty. Cave 169 preserves an ink inscription dated to 420 CE, the earliest dated record at the site. Carving went on for more than a thousand years, through the Northern Wei, Sui, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, and each period left work in its own recognisable style.
Did you know? Only the upper half of the great Maitreya Buddha is carved from the living rock; its lower half was built up from a mud-based mixture.
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 squares, streets and monuments in the People's Republic of China?
- On our list, Terracotta Army ranks first, followed by Canton Tower and Leshan Giant Buddha.
- Who built the Terracotta Army?
- It was made for the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of unified China, who died in 210 BC. Farmers digging a well rediscovered it in 1974.
- How tall is the Leshan Giant Buddha?
- The seated figure is about 71 metres tall, the largest stone Buddha in the world. It was carved into a cliff over roughly 90 years during the Tang dynasty, finishing in 803.
- How tall is the Canton Tower?
- It reaches 600 metres including its antenna mast. It was completed in 2010 in Guangzhou.
- How many squares, streets and monuments are on this list in the People's Republic of China?
- The list covers 5 squares, streets and monuments.