National Library of China

The National Library of China sits in the Zizhuyuan neighborhood of Beijing's Haidian district and is the largest library in China and the seventh-largest in the world by holdings. It traces its origins to the Imperial Library of Peking, founded in 1909 in the final years of the Qing dynasty, and today holds over 30 million items, including the world's largest collection of Chinese-language literature. Treasures include Shang-era oracle bones, Dunhuang manuscripts and surviving volumes of the 15th-century Yongle Encyclopedia. Its distinctive green-tiled pavilion roof over the modern reading hall was completed in 1987, and a massive new reading building was added in 2008. Visitors can see rotating exhibits and, with valid ID, use the public reading rooms.