Beijing has prepared a list of seven new historic sites to apply for World Heritage status.

The list includes the imperial city of Beijing during the Ming and Qing dynasties, Beihai Park, the Ancient Observatory, Marco Polo Bridge and Wanping City, Tanzhe Temple as well as the Jietai and Yuju temples.

Among them, Beihai Park will apply as an extension of the Yuanmingyuan or Old Summer Palace imperial gardens.

According to Xu Pingfang, a researcher with the Archaeology Research Institute at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the surroundings of the seven sites need to be controlled and improved if they apply for World Heritage Site status.

(CRIENGLISH.com June 1, 2005)