China has become the second-largest source of tourists for Cambodia, following Vietnam, according to the China National Tourism Administration

Cambodia is a small country with a long history, and it now has become more appealing to Chinese travelers. The country with its world-famous cultural relics draws Chinese traveling in Southeast Asia.

China has become the second-largest source of tourists for Cambodia, following Vietnam, and Chinese travelers account for 16.7 percent of the total foreigners visiting the country, according to the China National Tourism Administration.

For first-timers, the ruins of the Angkor temples are very important - sometimes they are only reason - to visit the country, and Siem Reap, the gateway to Angkor in northern Cambodia, is often the first stage of their journeys.

The temples, built over the 9-14th centuries, and rediscovered by the French, are visually, architecturally and artistically breathtaking.

As the temple ruins, hidden and spread in the forests and farmland, take up an area too large to be covered in a short time, planning a visit to the Angkor temples always involves making choices, especially if the trip is short.

Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat, which was built in the early 12th century as a state temple dedicated to Vishnu, one of the Hindu trinity and the universe preserver, is among the must-visits.

The complex, considered one of the world's largest religious monuments, occupies a rectangular area of 1.5 kilometers by 1.3 kilometers, and the central massif of the grandiose structures of brick and stone is a miniature of the Hindu universe, with a massive three-tiered pyramid crowned by five lotus-like towers rising 65 meters from ground level.

Angkor Wat faces the west, and like other Khmer architecture, the temple has elegant bas-reliefs on the walls, both inside and outside.

There are nearly 2,000 distinctively rendered carvings of apsaras, female divinities in Hindu mythology, and some of the carvings feature the finest and best-preserved examples of such art in the Angkor period.

It is a wonderful experience to see the carvings while listening to a tour guide to understand the bas-reliefs, because they often depict legends and characters from Hindu mythology.