Renowned for the famous traveller's glowing description of it, Marco Polo Bridge (Lugou Qiao) was first built between 1189 and 1192 for Emperor Shizong. It is an architectural beauty of marble balustrades and almost 500 carved stone lions.
It was the 1937 setting of the Japanese-Chinese war which pulled China into the Second World War. The words of Emperor Kangxi appear on a nearby plaque - 'Morning moonlight over the Lugou Bridge'.