Beijing plans to apply to have seven more sites listed on UNESCO's World Heritage List, including the Marco Polo Bridge and nearby Wanping County, which was witness to Japanese aggression in China between 1937 and 1945.

The municipal cultural heritage bureau said Beijing had also recommended its ancient imperial city, the city centre imperial garden of Beihai, an ancient observatory and three temples on the city's outskirts to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

The imperial city in central Beijing features ancient city walls, compounds and imperial gardens including the Palace Museum also known as the Forbidden City to foreigners, Beihai Park, Zhongshan Park and the Zhongnanhai leadership compound. The Palace Museum was inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List in 1987.

Beijing is seeking to include Beihai Park on the UNESCO list this year as an extension of the Summer Palace, the country's largest imperial garden that was named a world heritage site in 1998, said a spokesman with the Beijing cultural heritage bureau.

He said the city had stopped all major renovation projects in the imperial city to preserve to the maximum its original look.

Beijing is now home to six of China's 30 world heritage sites, the largest number among all Chinese localities.

(China Daily June 10, 2005)