Within the Inner City, the moats and walls of the Forbidden City (Imperial Palace Museum) are prominent, with Wu Gate at the southern end. Also within the Inner City are six lakes, including Zhong Hai Lake just west of the Forbidden City.

In the Outer City three parks are visible, of which the middle is the Temple of Heaven. These are the red areas (darker than the agricultural vegetation outside of the city).

In the out zoom, Kunming Hu Lake is visible on the northwest edge of the city. The historically significant Summer Palace is on the shore of this lake.

In the north-central part of the 2013 image, a few bright spots appear that aren't in the other images. This is the Olympic complex that was built for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, and includes the Olympic stadium, which came to be known as the Bird's Nest.

An image from 1967 was acquired by the U.S. Gambit high-resolution space reconnaissance program. Part of a large collection of imagery declassified in the 1990s, the Gambit image shows fine detail, 2-4-foot resolution, of the Inner City area.