A few iconic structures are all that remain of America’s first outdoor shopping mall.

Pay your respects to a folk-punk legend.

An L.A. traffic island where the faces of locals have been carved into massive granite eggs.

This symbol of peace is appropriately positioned overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

This “living museum” at UCLA exhibits thousands of plant species from all over the world.

This hilltop park offers magnificent views and a Frank Lloyd Wright masterpiece.

The L.A. Zoo has a secret garden of rare bootleg cycads, a palm specimen dating back 280 million years.

The final resting place of a space program monolith, soon to be unveiled again to the public.

In a city filled with Frank Gehry buildings, one stands out as one of the architect's weirder works.

Historic funicular railway, believed to be the shortest railroad in the world.

After starting as a whimsical tourist attraction that eventually found its way to ruin, these renovated canals offer a lush and exotic locale on the Pacific Coast.

Remants of foundations, streets, and streetcar tracks inhabit the cliffs where a landslide occurred in 1929.

High on a hill overlooking Los Angeles lives a world famous, high-power conical Tesla Coil.

A shop full of natural curiosities, carnivorous plants, and costumed taxidermied mice.

An historic and oft-filmed spot for musclebound iron pumpers on the Pacific coast.

Hollywood's most famous landmark, the "temporary" sign that has stood for decades longer than intended.

These delicate buggers are some of the rarest fossils that have bubbled up from the Tar Pits.

This iconic L.A. bookshop is housed in an abandoned bank—both symbolic and chic.

The biggest museum dedicated to insects in North America, one of the largest in the world.

A massive Montreal stadium that has seen nothing but trouble since its inception.

This psychedelic tourist trap is a leisurely descent into madness.

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

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

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