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

The municipal cultural heritage bureau said Beijing has also recommended its ancient imperial city, the downtown imperial garden Beihai, an ancient observatory and three temples on the city's outskirts to the United Nation's 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 Forbidden City to foreigners, the 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 has stopped all major renovation projects in the imperial city to preserve to the maximum its original outlook.

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

(Xinhua News Agency June 6, 2005)