China

Today we head to World Heritage to visit some of China's temples, like the temple of Confucius in Qufu, an area south and inland of Beijing. Confucius was born and lived in Qufu; his house was turned into the current temple after he died. So many additions to the temple have been made over the years that Confucius' old home is now the second-largest historical building complex in China, after the Forbidden City.

The Temple of Heaven, situated in urban Beijing, dates back from 1420 and represents another of China's religions: Taoism.

Explore China's Buddhist temples via, BuddhaNet, which provides images and an explanation of why China's Buddhist temples are different from those in other countries.

In addition to being places of worship, temples make for interesting architectural studies. To learn from a more academic perspective, visit the University of Hong Kong Multimedia Temple Project. You can view photographs of four different temples and look at sketches of their architectural layout and structural elements of the temple broken down into 3-D images. A cool feature is the "Rain Simulation," where you see can simulated rain fall on roofs of temples from different dynasties.

If Chinese architecture interests you, you may want to check out the Web site of the Peabody Essex Museum. It's located in Massachusetts, but it hosts the Yin Yu Tang exhibit. Yin Yu Tang is a 200-year-old Chinese home that was brought over from China and reconstructed at the museum. On the museum's site, you can take a full audio/visual tour of the house and exhibit.