This former textile district now is now a thriving center for contemporary Chinese art.

An out-of-place slice of France, smack in the middle of Shanghai.

The once highest point in China blends symbolic design with a kick of adrenaline.

This psychedelic tourist trap is a leisurely descent into madness.

The world's longest outdoor covered escalator system transports commuters through Hong Kong's hilly terrain.

Teeming with illegal goods and services, this towering maze of vice is also a popular tourist accommodation.

This hulking behemoth is actually five interconnected towers built in the 1960s.

The embalmed remains of the communist leader lie within a custom crystal coffin.

This probably wasn't what Mao had in mind.

The most famous location in China was home to whole dynasties worth of imperial rulers.

A fifth-century temple improbably built into the side of a cliff.

Enormous statue of the Emperor of the Mongols.

Thanks to a spelling mistake this bizarre beaver-tiger hybrid became the symbol of a Siberian town.

Intricate wood carvings on an island in Siberia.

Church built on the site where the last tsar of Russia and his family were killed.

Gargantuan home of Russian science.

The tallest hotel in Europe.

Dozens of padlock-trees along the Moscow River.

World's largest bell sits on the grounds of the Kremlin in Moscow.

This building holds the embalmed remains of the leader of the Bolshevik Revolution.

This Russian locomotive museum was once devoted just to Lenin's funeral before expanding to encompass Moscow's entire train history.

Stalinist skyscraper built with help of cryotechnology.

Moscow's imposing monument to the Space Age.

The gorgeous entrances into the city's underbelly look more like grand halls than subway stops.