The dream to build a microcosm of this huge country took hold 16 years ago. Now the completed project stands proudly inside the main Olympic complex.

Young women of Jingpo ethnic group demonstrate their traditional lifestyles at the Chinese Ethnic Cultural Park. [China Daily]

Is it possible to walk the length and breadth of China within a single day?

One place you could do just that is at the Chinese Ethnic Culture Park, south of the Bird's Nest and within the Olympic Green.

The huge park has been a labor of love and precisely re-creates life in all 56 of China's ethnic groups.

Performers of the Dai ethnic group dance to celebrate their traditional Water-sprinkling Festival. [China Daily]

From some of the "mountains" or "plateaus", you can see Beijing's main Olympic venues, as well as the Three Towers of Dali in Yunnan province, vivid replicas of the Jokhang Temple and many other ethnically significant buildings.

The park covers 45 hectares of land within the North Fourth Ring Road and a leisurely stroll throughout will take six or seven hours. It is also an anthropological museum, the China Nationalities Museum.

When construction started in 1992, it was part of China's plan to bid for the 2000 Olympics. China lost the bid in 1993, only to win it eight years later for the 2008 Games.

"It is actually a good thing for us, for we had eight more years to do research work for the museum and collect cultural relics from various ethnic groups," says museum curator Wang Ping.

It took three to five years for the park and museum to prepare the construction of each ethnic group's area. Although the first phase of the park opened back in 1994, work has been going on non-stop ever since.

"I have done fieldwork in all the ethnic minority regions in China - I have never been to some tourist attractions like the Huangshan Mountain or Taishan Mountain but I have been to many villages around the Himalayan Mountains," Wang says.

Every ethnic group has a "village" in the park to display its architecture, religion, lifestyle and cultural relics.