the Tiananmen Square at its west central point. It is a stone-paved pedestrian area with the Monument to the People's Heroes and Zhengyang Gate bracketing its one building, the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong. To the square's immediate north the Forbidden City complex also has many vast courtyards. At the east end, the Workers' Gymnasium has some large paved areas and open lawns in its vicinity. There is also a large open plaza in front of the Beijing railway station. Architecture in the district varies greatly. It ranges in form from the small one and two-story ancient stone houses in the siheyuan plan, that line the district's many hutongs, the narrow, winding lanes that make up many neighborhoods on the side streets, to taller modern office buildings and hotels. Styles include the traditional Chinese architecture of the 15th-century imperial buildings in the Forbidden City and the various temples, the fin-de-siècle European revival styles in the Legation Quarter to the modern styles of today's newest buildings. The district has over a quarter of Beijing's Major National Historical and Cultural Sites, and a similar portion of its municipal-level heritage listings. Two of those, the Forbidden City and Temple of Heaven, are further inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. History Dongcheng's history dates back over a millennium, long predating the city's current boundaries. Settlement of the area between the city's inner and outer walls began during the Liao dynasty in the 10th century C.E. when small hamlets began to form outside the northeastern corner of what was then the city (now the Forbidden City). Growth continued through the Jin dynasty which succeeded the Liaos in the 12th century. Under the Jins, the area first became known as the northeastern part of the capital, then known as Zhongdu. When Kublai Khan established the Yuan dynasty later in the century, he rebuilt the city and renamed it Dadu. As part of that project, the future Dongcheng district's boundaries were first officially drawn, although they were different from today's. The Yongle emperor, Zhu Di, third of the Ming dynasty, took the throne at the beginning of the 15th century. He built the present-day Forbidden City, now part of Dongcheng, as his palace inside the walls of the original city. Outside it, Dongcheng had 15 lanes at that time, the beginnings of its many hutongs. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the area began to become a desirable